Prevention of manipulation and falsifications
By manipulation, the editorial understands the following likely events: an attempt to use falsified data (calculated data, experimental materials, figures, tables, etc.) or plagiarism in the manuscript, an attempt to substitute the results of an independent examination of the manuscript, or create conditions that prevent an independent assessment of the manuscript by reviewers.
In cases where the suspicion of data manipulation or falsification arose at the stage of the manuscript review, all necessary actions will be taken to confirm or refute this fact, in the process of which additional scientific justifications may be requested from the authors of the manuscript, additional experts may be involved, contact the authors' institution(s).
In cases where there are suspicions of such actions or doubts about the results of the examination, the editorial office is guided by the following principles:
– the manuscript is accepted for consideration from the corresponding author, which is indicated, among other things, in the License Agreement;
– when choosing a reviewer, the compliance of his scientific competence is assessed the subject of the manuscript, confirmed, among other things, by the presence of relevant publications
– the presence of facts is checked that may indicate an attempt to manipulate the results of the review. This procedure is carried out in accordance with the COPE recommendations «How to recognise potential manipulation of the peer review process».
If the facts of manipulation attempts at the review stage are discovered, the editors are guided in choosing their actions by the COPE recommendations «Peer review manipulation suspected during the peer review process».
