Declaration of Ethics

Declaration of Ethics

Öt kontinens is fully committed to upholding the highest standards and principles of ethical scientific publishing, in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Elsevier and the Code of Ethics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Compliance with these codes of conduct is mandatory for all participants in the publication process.

Manuscripts submitted by authors for publication will be subject to a double-blind peer review procedure. The editorial team is responsible for selecting experts relevant to the topics. The identity of the reviewers and the content of the reviews will not be disclosed during or after the publication process. All information and messages between authors and reviewers will be relayed by the editors.

Öt kontinens is an open access journal. It is licensed under Creative Commons License “Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International" (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors retain intellectual property rights and any economic rights to the papers published, while the journal has the right of first publication. Authors who publish in Öt kontinens are not charged any submission, editing or publication fees. Authors are not remunerated under any title.

The personal data provided by authors may only be used for the purposes specified by the journal and will not be made available by the editorial staff for any other purpose or to third parties.

All interested parties should avoid any form of conflict of interest at any stage of the publication process of the submitted manuscript. In the event of any form of conflict of interest, the first person to identify it must immediately inform the Editorial Team. The same applies to violations of generally accepted ethical standards and rules. The Editorial Team of Öt kontinens undertakes to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies as necessary. Depending on the seriousness of the ethical breach, legal action may follow.

Authors:

  • submit only manuscripts based on their own research, which comply with the standards for acknowledging and citing the literature used, and refrain from any form of plagiarism;
  • submit original manuscripts that have not been published in any other publication (digital or printed), and are not peer-reviewed elsewhere;
  • will not submit their manuscript elsewhere once the review process has started;
  • duly acknowledge additional contributors to the research;
  • clearly indicate the source of any financial (or any other kind of) support (grants, research group membership, etc.) used for their research;
  • are responsible for the authenticity and accuracy of the data used in their research;
  • collaborate with the editors and accept that their manuscript will go through a double-blind peer review and other editorial procedures of the journal;
  • inform the editors of any conflict of interest that may in any way affect the fair and anonymous review process;
  • report any mistakes, inaccuracies, omissions or ethical violations in their paper during or after the publication process, allowing the editors to issue a correction or retract the paper;
  • refrain from any form of multiple publication. The resubmission of previously published research results, even in the case of paraphrasing or partial publication, constitutes self-plagiarism.

Editors:

  • are responsible for upholding the highest standards and principles of ethical scientific publishing, ensuring that personal, financial and other non-professional interests are excluded from the procedures applied;
  • undertake that the selection of manuscripts for publication will be based solely on the relevance, originality and quality of the scientific work submitted. In doing so, they will ensure that manuscripts are judged in a fair, professional and equal manner irrespective of the ethnic, religious, national, gender, age or institutional affiliation of the author(s);
  • devise and implement procedures to ensure the quality of the published material and the integrity of the research;
  • clearly define and publish the evaluation criteria and procedures applied by the journal;
  • are responsible for the quality of the peer review process, ensuring that submitted manuscripts are evaluated by qualified reviewers during the double-blind peer review process;
  • assume sole responsibility for the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts;
  • are responsible for ensuring that the procedures applied by the journal, in particular the peer review process, are free from any conflict of interest;
  • guarantee the anonymity of authors and reviewers at all times;
  • will publish corrections or, if necessary, consider retracting the paper (especially in cases where authorship becomes uncertain or plagiarism is suspected);
  • document, investigate and clarify any complaints or disputes and ensure that the parties concerned are fairly represented in the process.

Reviewers:

  • are responsible for accepting the request for review only if they possess the required skills and knowledge for properly and objectively evaluating the manuscript;
  • report to the editor if they are aware of any irregularity or conflict of interest that may affect the objectivity and anonymity of the review process;
  • prepare their review by the agreed deadline in a clear and professional manner, following the journal's procedures and justifying each element of their assessment;
  • prepare an evaluation that contains only professional opinions, and refrains from any personal comments, humiliating, or offensive language;
  • pay special attention to any lack of proper acknowledging or referencing in the manuscript;
  • handle the manuscript received for review in strict confidentiality.