Ethical standards

Acta Elbingensia is strictly guided by the principles of publishing ethics, which are intended to counteract unfair publishing practices. These rules are consistent with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE, apply to all stages of the publishing process and apply to all its participants, in particular the publisher, authors, editors and reviewers.

PUBLISHER
The publisher declares strict compliance with the COPE guidelines and the established publishing policy, i.e. .
The publisher will not interfere with editorial decision making.
If a violation of the principles of publishing ethics is noticed, the Publisher shall inform the Editor-in-Chief, who will make an appropriate decision.

EDITORIAL BOARD
Editorial Board supports the Editor-in-Chief in order to ensure the smooth and efficient course of the publishing process.

Independence of decision making
Editorial Board is independent and reports only to the Editor-in-Chief, who serves as the highest authority.

Objectiveness
Editorial Board evaluates the submitted manuscripts only in terms of content, regardless of the authors' gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or political beliefs.

Confidentiality
All information regarding the submitted works and decision the assessments performed during publishing process are confidential and may not be disclosed to persons who are not involved in the publishing process of a given manuscript. Confidentiality of information should be maintained at all stages of the publishing process and between its individual participants.
No information or element of submitted manuscripts may be used in the works of the Editorial Team members without the written consent of the Author.

Conflict of interest
If conflict of interest arises at any stage of editorial proces, a member of the Editorial Board is obliged to immediately inform the Editor-in-Chief about the situation, who may exclude that person from further editorial work on a given manuscript.

Publication decision
The final decision on publication is the exclusive competence of the Editor-in-Chief, who makes it taking into account the opinion of the Editorial Board and Reviewers.
Before making the final decision to publish the manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief may seek the opinion of the Scientific Boards or the Bioethics Committee.

Procedure for reporting violations or suspected violations
If a violation of applicable publishing ethics rules is noticed, members of the Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief may change the decision regarding the publication of the manuscript. The decision may be changed or withdrawn at any stage of the publishing process.
If any violation is found after the manuscript has been published, the Editorial Board posts appropriate information on the journal's website.

REVIEWERS
The reviewer supports the Editorial Board in an editorial decision-making.

Independence of decision making
The reviewer evaluates the work in accordance with his or her knowledge and conscience.

Anonymity
In order to ensure objectivity of the assessment, the review is carried out with bilateral anonymity - the Author and the Reviewer do not know each other's identities (double blind review).

Objectivity
Reviewers evaluates the submitted manuscripts only in terms of content, regardless of the authors' gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or political beliefs.
The review should contain clear and legible arguments, free from personal criticism.

Confidentiality
Any information or ideas obtained during the review process are confidential and may not be disclosed to third parties or used in reviewer’s own work.

Conflict of interest
The reviewer should not undertake the assessment of submitted manuscripts when there is a potential risk of conflict of interest.

Punctuality
The reviewer completes the review within the agreed deadline, and if he is unable to meet the deadline, he notifies the Editorial Office to enable the selection of other reviewers.

Review competence
Reviewer is obliged to providing a thoughtful, fair, constructive, and informative critique of the submitted work.
Noting any ethical concerns, such as any violation of accepted norms of ethical treatment of animal or human subjects or substantial similarity between the reviewed manuscript and any published paper or any manuscript concurrently submitted to another journal that may be known to the reviewer
The reviewer should report to the Editorial Board any identified violations of the principles of publishing ethics and significant similarities of the reviewed manuscript to other published works.

AUTHORS

Reliability of information
The authors are obliged to present a reliable description of the research work performed, detailed data, and cited sources enabling other scientists to repeat the research conducted and their significance.
Statements that are false or intentionally imprecise are unethical.
If the Author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, he is obliged to immediately inform the Editorial Board and cooperate with them in order to correct the errors or withdraw the publication.

Originality
Works submitted for publication must be entirely original and the result of the authors' own work.
Multiple publication of the same research results or ideas is considered a violation of the principle of originality.
The work submitted for publication should not have been previously published or submitted for publication with another publisher.

Attribution
Authorship and co-authorship should be attributed only to people who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, implementation or interpretation of the results of the presented research.
The corresponding author submits the work on behalf of himself and co-authors after obtaining their consent to make a declarations of will on their behalf.
Ghostwriting, guest authorship or honorary authorship are considered as highly unethical.

Funding sources
Authors are obliged to disclose all sources of financing for work related to the article.

Conflict of interest
Authors are obliged to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the research results or their interpretation.