Procedure for reviewing complaints regarding violations of academic integrity and publication ethics

The editorial board of the journal "Sports Games" adheres to a zero-tolerance policy for violations of academic integrity. We review complaints about plagiarism, data falsification, authorship manipulation, and conflicts of interest in accordance with the COPE protocols .
 
Filing a complaint
  • Complaints are accepted from authors, reviewers, readers or third parties in writing to the editorial office's email: pomeshikovaip@ukr.net .
  • The applicant must provide specific evidence of the violation (e.g., references to the source of the plagiarism, comparative data tables, or documents confirming a hidden conflict of interest).
  • Anonymous complaints are considered only if convincing evidence of gross violations is provided.
 
Initial check
  •  The editor-in-chief confirms receipt of the complaint within  5 working days and conducts an initial analysis of its validity.
  • If the complaint concerns an unpublished manuscript, its consideration and publication will be suspended until the investigation is complete.
 
Formation of the Ethics Commission
For a detailed consideration of the complaint, a temporary working group (Commission) is created, consisting of:
  • Editor-in-chief.
  • At least 2 members of the editorial board who have no conflict of interest with any of the parties.
  • If necessary, an independent expert in the research profile is involved.
 
Investigation process
  • The editorial board officially contacts the authors with a request for explanations or source data. The authors must respond within  10 calendar days.
  • The commission compares texts (in case of plagiarism) or analyzes the reliability of statistical calculations.
  • All information regarding the investigation remains confidential until a final decision is made.
 
Decision-making and sanctions
Based on the results of the investigation, the editorial office makes one of the following decisions:
  • Complaint rejected:  if no violations are found (informing the complainant and authors).
  • Correction:  if minor unintentional errors are discovered (publishing  a Corrigendum ).
  • Refusal to publish:  if a violation is discovered in the manuscript during the review stage.
  • Retraction:  if gross violations (plagiarism, falsification) are discovered in an already published article.
 
The editorial office officially informs about the decision:
  1. Applicant and authors.
  2. Management of the institution where the authors work (in case of confirmation of gross violations).
  3. Scientometric databases and repositories (in case of retraction).