About the Journal

Peer Review Process

The collection uses the procedure of Double-Blind Peer Review:

– the reviewer does not know the personal data of the author / authors;

– the author (s) do not know the personal data of the reviewer.

Scientific articles submitted to the editorial board are subject to initial consideration regarding compliance with the technical design requirements set out on the website and plagiarism testing.

The initial review of a scientific article is carried out by responsible and technical editors.

 Then, in accordance with the formal requirements and the absence of violations of publishing ethics, the manuscript is submitted for review.

Reviewers are appointed in accordance with the issues of the publication and taking into account the requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and have at least one publication in the last three years in publications included in the List, or foreign publications included in the Web of Science Core Collection and / or Scopus, or  monographs or sections of monographs published by international publishers belonging to categories “A”, “B” or “C” according to the classification of the Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE).

When considering scientific articles, the reviewer determines:

 - correspondence of the article to the subject of the collection;

 - relevance of the subject of the publication;

 - originality and significance of research results;

 - quality of presentation of material;

 - practical significance of the publication;

 - observance by authors of scientific ethics, correctness of registration, citation of sources, etc.

After independent review of the article, the reviewer can:

- recommend the article for publication;

- recommend the article for publication after correction by the author, taking into account the comments and suggestions;

- do not recommend the article for publication.

If the reviewer recommends the article for publication after the author corrects the comments or does not recommend the article for publication, the review provides a reason.

 

The review is expected to be completed within four weeks.  Reviewers are involved from among recognized scientists on a voluntary basis.

Deciding to publish articles

1. The final conclusion on the publication of materials is approved by the editorial board of the collection.
2.  The section of the collection to which the article will be assigned is determined by the editorial board and agreed upon by the editor-in-chief or his deputy.
3.  After the decision to publish is made, the executive secretary informs the authors of the article.
4.  The Executive Secretary forms the content of the next issue of the collection on the basis of the articles that have been reviewed and processed, which is approved by the Editor-in-Chief and recommended for publication by the Decision of the Academic Council of KNUСA.
5.  The responsibility for infringing the copyrights of others rests with the author of the article.
6.  The authors of the articles are responsible for the accuracy of facts, proper names, geographical names, quotations and other information.
7.  The quality of writing or translation (in Ukrainian or English) is reviewed by proofreaders, but the authors of the material are responsible for the quality of the article.  Editorial changes may be made to the article without the consent of the author.
8.  Materials received from the author are not returned by the editors.

 

The procedure for filing an appeal

1. If the author of the article does not agree with the comments of the reviewers, he has the right to send an appeal to the editorial board in the format "comments of reviewers - the author's response."
2.  This document is sent to the reviewers, after which the working group decides on the possibility of publishing the article.  The working group may send the article for further review to another reviewer.  The working group reserves the right to reject the article in case of impossibility or unwillingness of the author to take into account the comments of the reviewer.
3.  The author of the article shall be notified separately about any of the decisions adopted by the working group.

Publication Frequency

Periodicity of the journal: three times  a year.

Open Access Policy

This journal practices a policy of immediate open access to published content, supporting the principles of the free dissemination of scientific information and the global exchange of knowledge for the sake of general social progress.

Ethics of Publications

The publication ensures the observance of academic integrity in accordance with the "Regulations on measures to prevent academic plagiarism at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture" (http://www.knuba.edu.ua/?page id=15305) and “Ethics Code of Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture” (http://www.knuba.edu.ua/ukr/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Етичний-кодекс-КНУБА.pdf).

The regulations and code regulate the prevention of plagiarism in scientific and aimed at the formation of academic integrity and respect for intellectual property and is designed to promote the practice of proper citation by defining the concept and forms of plagiarism, methods of preventing its spread, procedures for considering and recording  its commission within the university.

In accordance with current legislation of Ukraine all responsibility for the accuracy of information in the articles, the accuracy of names, surnames and quotations are the authors of the submitted materials. (Закон України «Про авторське право і суміжні права»).

Article reviews are carried out to support the provisions of academic integrity.

The publication also consistently adheres to the publishing standards for publishing the Code of Conduct and best practice recommendations for magazine editors and the Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers in order to ensure the ethics and quality of publication approved by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). The standards can be found here COPE. 

According to the standards, ethical behavior is expected from all parties involved: authors, editors, reviewers and publishers.

Principles of Academic Integrity

Principles of the editor and publisher ethics

1. All materials submitted for publication are carefully selected and reviewed.  The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject the article or return it for revision.  The author is obliged to finalize the article in accordance with the comments of reviewers or the editorial board.  However, manuscripts may be rejected without review if the editor believes that they do not match the journal's profile.  When deciding on the publication, the editorial board is guided by the reliability of the submitted data and the scientific significance of the considered work, compliance with the scientific direction and requirements of the journal.  The editors do not publish the manuscript if there is reason to believe that it is plagiarism.
2. The intellectual content of the manuscripts is assessed regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status or political views of the authors.
3. Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts are not used for personal purposes and are not passed on to third parties without the written consent of the author.  Information from submitted manuscripts remains confidential and is not used for personal gain.
4. The editor and members of the editorial board must not provide any other information related to the content of the manuscript under consideration to persons other than those involved in the professional evaluation of this manuscript.  After a positive decision of the editor, the article is published in a journal and placed on the relevant electronic resources.
5. In accordance with international law regarding the observance of copyright in electronic information resources, materials of the site, electronic journal or project may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form (electronic or printed) without the prior written consent of the authors and editors of the journal.  When using published materials in the context of other documents, a reference to the original source is required.
6. During the publication process, the Editorial Board provides technical and informational support to the users of the journal, providing the authors with detailed instructions on the editorial and publishing process, informs about the time of receipt of materials and the date of publication.
7. The editors do not leave unanswered claims concerning the considered manuscripts or published materials, and in the event of a conflict take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights.
8. The editorial board responds quickly to any complaints about the work of the journal and guarantees the solution of problematic situations, takes into account the comments and suggestions of readers, authors and reviewers on how to improve the work.
9. The authors are provided with a detailed description of the review process, in case of deviation from the described process, the editors are obliged to provide an explanation to the author.
10. The editorial board determines the criteria for evaluating the materials and selects reviewers for each manuscript.
11. Sends detailed comments to reviewers.
12. Ensures that the qualifications of all reviewers correspond to the level of the professional publication and, if necessary, change their structure.
13. Terminates collaboration with reviewers who provide low quality reviews or are constantly delayed.
14. Ensures fairness, objectivity, impartiality and timeliness of the review process.
15. The editors reserve the right to make minor literary edits and corrections, while maintaining the author's style.  Editors can make minor changes (fixing small errors) and refine the content of articles that improve its content, but do not significantly change its structure as a whole.
16. The confidentiality of materials submitted to the journal during the editorial and publishing process is ensured, taking into account the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Personal Data Protection" and the General Regulations for Information Protection.

Principles of reviewer ethics

1. The manuscript received for review is considered a confidential document that cannot be passed on for review or discussion to third parties who do not have the authority to do so.
2.  The reviewer gives an objective and reasoned assessment of the results of the study.  Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.
3.  Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts are not used by the reviewer for personal purposes.
4. A reviewer who, in his opinion, does not have sufficient qualifications to evaluate the manuscript, or if it cannot be objective, in particular in the event of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, must notify the editors with a request to exclude it from the review process.
5. The reviewer should not evaluate a manuscript with the author or co-author of which he or she has a personal or professional relationship, and if such a relationship may affect judgments about the manuscript.
6. The reviewer should not evaluate a manuscript with the author or co-author of which he or she has a personal or professional relationship, and if such a relationship may affect judgments about the manuscript.
7. The reviewer should note any cases of insufficient citation by the authors of the works of other scientists that are directly related to the peer-reviewed work;  it should be borne in mind that remarks on insufficient citation of the reviewer's own research may seem biased.  The reviewer should draw the editor's attention to any significant similarities between this manuscript and any published article or any manuscript submitted to another journal at the same time.
8. The reviewer must provide a timely response.

Principles of ethics of the author's scientific publication

1. The author (authors) of the article must provide reliable research results.  Deliberate representation of false or falsified data is unacceptable.
2. The author must ensure that the results of the study presented in the submitted manuscript are completely original.  Borrowed data must be submitted with the obligatory indication of the author and the original source.  Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unquoted citations, paraphrasing or assigning rights to the results of other people's research, is unethical and unacceptable.
3. It is necessary to recognize the contribution of all persons who in one way or another influenced the course of the study, in particular, the article should provide references to the work that was relevant to the study.
4. The authors of the articles are fully responsible for the content of the articles and for the very fact of their publication.  The editors of the collection are not liable to the authors and / or third parties and organizations for possible damage caused by the publication of the article.  The editors have the right to withdraw an already published article if it turns out that in the process of publishing the article someone's rights or the generally accepted norms of scientific ethics have been violated.  The editorial board informs the author who submitted the article, the person who recommends it, and the organization where the work was performed about the fact of withdrawal of the article.
5. Authors should not submit for publication a manuscript that has previously been submitted to another publication and is currently under consideration, as well as an article already published in another publication.
6. The co-authors of the article should indicate all persons who have made a significant contribution to the study and who share responsibility for the results.  It is unacceptable to indicate among the co-authors persons who did not participate in the study.
7. If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he must notify the editors of the collection as soon as possible.

Anti-Plagiarism

The journal accepts only original materials and articles that have not been published before.

The journal uses software to detect textual borrowings in the submitted manuscripts.  Manuscripts that contain plagiarism or textual borrowings without reference to the original source are rejected by the editorial board until the article is published in the journal.

The editors define the phenomenon of plagiarism as follows:

Plagiarism is the publication, in whole or in part, of another's work under the name of a person who is not the author of that work.

Self-plagiarism - re-publication by the author of significant in volume and identical in form and content of their own scientific texts without specifying the fact of their previous or simultaneous publication.

Text plagiarism - full or partial borrowing of fragments of text (not modified), which is present in articles, abstracts, reports, monographs, manuscripts of qualifying works, etc.

Academic plagiarism is "the publication (in part or in full) of scientific (creative) results obtained by others as the result of one's own research (creativity) and / or reproduction of published texts (published works of art) by other authors without indication of authorship."  The results of basic scientific research include "hypotheses, theories, new methods of cognition, the discovery of the laws of nature, previously unknown phenomena and properties of matter, the identification of patterns of development of society, etc.".  The results of applied research include "new knowledge designed to create new or improve existing materials, products, devices, methods, systems, technologies, specific proposals for the implementation of current scientific, technical and social tasks."  Thus, academic plagiarism is not limited to textual coincidences, but may also involve incorrect borrowing of facts, hypotheses, numerical data, methods, illustrations, formulas, models, program codes, and so on.

Actions that characterize the process of plagiarism:

• publishing someone else's work as one's own;
•  copying the words or ideas of another person without reference to his work;
•  intentional omission of a link from the list of sources;
•  providing incorrect source data (such as a "broken" link);
•  change of word order with preservation of the general structure of the sentence and without reference to the source;
•  copying a large amount of text or ideas with references to the sources that together make up most of the article.

Authors are also responsible for obtaining copyright permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, drawings taken from other authors and / or sources.  The permission must be placed at the bottom under each element.

The authors takes all responsibility for the accuracy of information in the articles, the accuracy of names, surnames and quotations of the submitted materials in accordance with current legislation of Ukraine (Law of Ukraine "On Copyright and Related Rights"").

In this case, "No information about the absence of plagiarism, provided by the author, including specialized software, can not be an excuse for plagiarism"(from the Decision of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, dated October 29, 2019)

Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished material disclosed in this paper should not be used in any research by the editor, reviewers, or any other informed person without the written consent of the authors.  Privileged information or arguments obtained through peer review should be kept confidential and not used to obtain personal or third party benefits.  The editor and any member of the editorial board should be relieved of the obligation to review the manuscripts in the event of any conflict of interest as a result of joint, competitive or other ties or ties with any of the authors, companies / institutions that  related to manuscripts.  The editor should require all investors to disclose relevant competing interests.  If competing interests are identified, corrections should be published after publication.  A waiver or expression of concern may be published if necessary.