Procedure for Handling Complaints Regarding Academic Integrity Violations

The procedure for resolving disputes and handling statements regarding violations of ethical norms is based on COPE flowcharts:

1.     Submission of a Complaint: A complaint (concerning plagiarism, data fabrication, improper authorship, or conflict of interest) can be submitted by any representative of the scientific community in writing to the official email address of the editorial office. The complaint must contain clear, documented evidence of the violation. Anonymous submissions will not be considered.

2.     Preliminary Analysis: The Executive Secretary of the Editorial Board registers the submission and informs the complainant about the review process within 5 working days. The Editor-in-Chief evaluates the merits of the complaint. If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief personally, the review is transferred to the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or an authorized member of the Editorial Board.

3.     Ethics Committee: To consider the matter on its merits, a temporary independent ethics committee is established (consisting of at least 3 individuals from the Editorial Board and, if necessary, external experts). The committee provides the author of the manuscript with an opportunity to present their explanations and arguments (the presumption of good faith applies until proven otherwise). Mutual respect among all participants in the publishing process is mandatory during the complaint review.

4.     Decision Making: The period for reviewing a complaint shall not exceed 30 working days from the date of registration. Based on the results of the investigation, the Editorial Board may decide to:

o   Dismiss the complaint due to lack of evidence.

o   Introduce official corrections/clarifications to the publication.

o   Publish an official retraction of the article.

o   Inform the institution where the author works about the violation of academic integrity.

o   Refuse the violator further publications in the research collection.

5.     Appeal: In case of disagreement with the decision of the Editorial Board, the parties have the right to submit an appeal within 30 days for consideration by the Academic Council of the Yuriev Plant Production Institute of the NAAS of Ukraine, as the founder and publisher of the research collection.