Editorial policy
In its activities, the editorial board is guided by the norms of current legislation and the principles recommended by the International Committee on Publishing Ethics.
1. General duties and responsibilities of editors
1.1. Editors are responsible for everything that is published in the scientific journal Bulletin of the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary;
1.2. Editors strive to meet the needs of readers and authors as effectively as possible by implementing procedures to ensure the high quality of published materials, as well as constantly working to improve all aspects of the journal.;
1.3. Editors protect freedom of opinion;
1.4. Editors support the transparency and honesty of scientific publishing activities;
1.5. Editors adhere to scientific and ethical standards that cannot be changed in favor of business and commercial interests.;
1.6. Editors publish corrections, clarifications, refutations and apologies, if necessary.
2. Relationships with readers
2.1. Readers should be informed about which agency funded the research.
2.2. Information about the journal's activities, editorial staff, and plans is published on the journal's official website. Editors should record the necessary changes with sufficient promptness.
3. Relations with authors
3.1. The editors' decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of an article for publication are based solely on the significance, originality and scientific value of the article, as well as the article's compliance with the journal's policy.
3.2. Editors should not revoke an already made decision to publish an article, except in cases where serious problems with scientific reliability are found in the presentation of the material. In case of any changes in the staff of the editors, new editors do not have the right to cancel the decisions already made by previous editors on publication, except in cases where serious problems with scientific reliability are found.
3.3. Editors should be sure that the review procedure in their journal is honest, unbiased and timely. A description of the review process is published on the official website of the journal. Editors should be prepared to justify the need for any significant deviations from the specified process, if such a request is made by a specific author or reader. Editors should keep the description of the specified process in working order. Confidential review issues should not be disclosed, as indicated in paragraph 4.3.
3.4. A description of the article submission process, including standards and requirements for the submitted article, is published on the official website of the journal. Editors should keep the description of the specified process up to date.
3.5. Editors have the opportunity to publish an article in their own journal. However, they should not use their position for this. It is necessary to apply a special control procedure to ensure that the author, who is also the editor, cannot influence the decision to accept/reject the article, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
3.6. The editors are responsible for maintaining communication with the authors, including sending letters with responses within the time allowed for this. In addition, editors should encourage authors to share their opinions on how the journal can be improved.
3.7. Editors should respect the authors' requirements that specific individuals should be excluded from the review process of their articles. The Editorial Board should be informed of such a requirement, and the author should be informed in a timely manner whether his requirement to eliminate specific reviewers from this process has been met.
3.8. The Journal does not charge authors for publication and editorial work.
3.9. The journal allows the authors of the published materials to retain copyrights without restrictions. For the authors of the materials published in the journal, copyright remains without restrictions.
4. Relations with reviewers
4.1. A description of the review process, including the obligation to keep the received material confidential, as well as information about the author and reviewers, is published on the official website of the journal. Editors should keep the description of the specified process up to date. Editors are responsible for taking the necessary measures to ensure the confidential status of peer-reviewed materials during the review process.
4.2. Editors should require reviewers to provide information about possible competition of interests before they agree to review the article.
4.3. The Editor is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality policy regarding the reviewers' identities. If an open review policy is used, it is necessary to notify the authors and reviewers in advance.
4.4. Editors should be interested in the reviewers' opinion on ethical issues regarding the reviewed material (see also paragraph 9.3).
4.5. Editors are responsible for constantly updating the circle of reviewers so that this circle reflects the scientific community as a whole, as well as analyzing the results of peer review. If a reviewer constantly produces unfriendly, low-quality reviews, as well as disrupts the deadline for submitting reviews, the editor has the right to refuse the services of such a reviewer, as well as to inform other editors and the Editorial Board about this.
5. Relations with members of the Editorial Board
5.1. Editors should fully and accurately inform the members of the Editorial Board about all current issues of the journal's activities, both at the request of individual members and during regular meetings of the Board.
5.2. The Editorial Board discusses issues related to the development of the journal and maintaining its quality at the appropriate level at least 3 times a year.
6. Relations with the owner and publisher of the magazine
6.1. The owner and publisher of the journal is the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary of the Yekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter referred to as the "Seminary"), a spiritual educational organization of higher education.
6.2. Relations between the editorial board and the Seminary should be based on the principles of editorial independence.
6.3. Editors should make decisions on the publication of articles based solely on the scientific quality of the material and its compliance with the journal's policy, without any pressure from the Seminary. The position of the Seminary cannot be considered grounds for interference in the functions or responsibilities of the editors and the Editorial Board, either on behalf of the Seminary as a whole or on behalf of individual structures and divisions within the Seminary.
6.4. The status of editors is established by a contract, agreement, or other type of regulatory document that describes their relationship with the Seminary.
7. Quality assurance
7.1. Editors should take all possible measures to ensure the quality of the published material. The basic quality requirements, along with the goals and policies of the journal, should be clearly formulated and accessible to a wide range of interested parties on the journal's website. Since individual sections of the journal may have special goals and objectives, authors and readers should be informed accordingly.
7.2. Errors, inaccurate or incorrect statements should be corrected decisively, openly and promptly.
7.3. The list of necessary elements that must be present when submitting an article to the journal is available on the journal's website. Editors should check the availability of all elements when receiving material from the author. To maintain the quality of the publication, the lack of necessary elements is an argument in case of rejection. Reviewers have the right to refuse to review incomplete material.
8. Protection of individual data
8.1. Editors must comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation governing confidentiality issues, including Federal Law No. 152-FZ "On Personal Data" dated July 27, 2006 and Federal Law No. 149-FZ "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" dated July 27, 2006, subject to all amendments to the data acts. However, regardless of these acts, editors should always protect the confidentiality of personal information obtained in the course of scientific or professional interactions. If necessary, editors have the right to request written consent to inform and consent to publication from persons who are mentioned in the article or may be recognized by others during publication (for example, from incident reports or photographs).
9. Encouraging ethical research and countering scientific dishonesty
9.1. Editors should be sure that the research, the results of which are published in the journal, were conducted in accordance with relevant international guidelines. If necessary, editors have the right to request official confirmation of the ethical status of the research from the relevant body (for example, the committee on scientific ethics or the international reviewing council), if one exists. However, editors should be aware and remember that even such a conclusion does not guarantee the ethical nature of the research and cannot replace compliance with relevant international guidelines.
9.2. Editors are required to take action when scientific dishonesty is suspected, as well as when they become aware of relevant allegations. This obligation arises when receiving materials for publication, regardless of the final result.
9.3. Editors should not simply reject articles that raise doubts about possible scientific dishonesty (including plagiarism, data fabrication, or attribution). They have an ethical obligation to continue investigating the relevant cases. First of all, editors should wait for a response from those (those) who are suspected of scientific dishonesty. If such an answer raises doubts, the editor should contact the relevant employer, institute, or government agency (including regulatory authorities or the national organization for combating scientific dishonesty) and provide the available information. The process of studying these cases should remain confidential, so as not to lead to misinformation and damage to the reputation of the author. Until the end of the study, editors do not have the right to make complete statements defining suspected articles as unscrupulous in scientific terms. Editors should inform the Editorial Board and the Seminary about the results of the investigation and pass all the information collected to the members of the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board and the Seminary must jointly make a final decision based on the current legislation, up to and including the disclosure of the facts of academic dishonesty.
10. Intellectual property
10.1. Intellectual property issues are regulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation and relevant international standards and agreements. Editors should be attentive to intellectual property issues and cooperate with the Seminary's legal department to avoid any violation of laws and conventions governing intellectual property rights.
11. Encouraging debate
11.1. Since the stated purpose of the Bulletin of the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary is to create a space for broad academic debate in relevant fields of knowledge, editors should encourage discussion and be prepared to consider the possibility of publishing critical articles.
11.2. The authors of the criticized materials should be able to respond on the pages of the journal.
11.3. Studies reporting negative results should not be excluded from acceptance.
12. Complaints and appeals
12.1. Editors should respond to complaints and be sure that dissatisfied complainants can contact the Editorial Board directly.
13. Commercial considerations
13.1. The journal "Bulletin of the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary" is not a commercial enterprise. The source of its content is ... to specify the source of funding, therefore any commercial, marketing or advertising issues should be excluded from the policies and practices that editors apply. However, both the editors and the Seminary are required to take appropriate measures to promote the journal in the scientific community and expand the circulation space of published materials.
13.2. If any advertising policy is adopted by the magazine in the future, it is necessary to properly notify the authors and readers about it.
13.3. Reprints should be published in the same form as they appear in the journal, except in cases where it is necessary to make an edit (in which case it should be explicitly and accurately indicated).
14. Conflict of interest
14.1. Editors should have a system for managing conflicts of interest, both their own and the interests of staff, authors, reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board. Every action related to the process of submitting materials, reviewing, and accepting/rejecting should be pre-checked for conflicts of interest. Any unresolved conflict of interest should be considered by a special commission, which should include 2 representatives of the Editorial Board who are not related to the conflicting parties, and 3 independent persons who are not related to the journal.
14.2. The journal should have on its website a description of the process of handling articles submitted by editors, staff or members of the Editorial Board in order to ensure the unbiased nature of the review.
Conclusion
Changes made to this Code of Ethics are considered valid after their approval by the Editorial Board. If more than half of the paragraphs of this Code are subject to changes, it is necessary to approve and put into effect a new Code of Ethics, which should be duly informed to readers, authors and the Seminary.
