The journal “Forest science issues” is a periodical peer-reviewed scientific edtion. Periodicity of the journal – 4 issues per year. The subject of the journal corresponds to the biological sciences, forestry and forest policy. The editorial board of the journal is guided by the recommendations and standards of the Committee on the Ethics of Scientific Publications (COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors), takes into account the experience of reputable international journals and publishing houses.
1. Head editor’s and Editorial staff rights and duties
Authenticity and scientific significance of a work under review are the main arguments for making a decision about its publishing. Head editor may follow the policy of Editorial staff of “Forest science issues” journal, may counsel with other Editors and Reviewers (or Scientific community officials) to make a decision about publication.
Head editor and Editorial staff of “Forest science issues” journal should not disclose without necessity any information about received manuscripts to anyone, except Authors, Reviewers, possible Reviewers, other scientific advisors and the Publisher.
Any unpublished data from received manuscripts is forbidden to use in personal research, without the prior written consent of the Author. Any information or ideas, gained through reviewing and granting some kind of advantages, should remain confidential and not be used for any personal benefits.
Head editor, in conjunction with Editorial staff, takes appropriate measures in any situations, concerning ethical complaints about reviewed manuscripts or published materials. Such measures, in general, include interaction with Authors and argumentation of corresponding complaints or demands, but can also include interactions with corresponding organizations or research centres.
2. Peer-review process
All manuscripts submitted for publication in journal are thoroughly peer-reviewed.
Reviewing is carried out both by members of the editorial board and by experts in the field who are not part of the editorial board of the journal.
The decision to accept an article for publication is made on the basis of reviews and the decision of the editorial board.
3. Reviewers’ rights and duties
Review helps Head editor to make a decision about publication, and might also help Author to improve quality of his paper even further.
Any Reviewer, who feels himself not qualified enough for a particular manuscript review, or lacking time for adequate completion of his work, can inform Editorial staff and ask them for an exclusion from reviewing process of the manuscript.
Any manuscript received, should be regarded as a confidential document, it shouldn’t be disclosed by any means, or discussed with anyone without a permission of Head editor.
Reviewer must be impartial in his judgement and avoid any criticism of Author’s personality. All Reviewer’s comments should be clear and reasoned.
Reviewers should, if possible, discover all major publications, with similar subject, that are absent in manuscript references. Any statements (observations, conclusions, arguments) in manuscript should have proper references, if they have already been published elsewhere. Reviewer should also inform Head editor about any significant similarities between reviewed manuscript and other publications, if it is within his scientific competence.
Any unpublished data from received manuscripts is forbidden to use in personal research, without the prior written consent of the Author. Any information or ideas, gained through reviewing and granting some kind of advantages, should remain confidential and not be used for any personal benefits.
Reviewers should refrain from reviewing manuscripts, if a conflict of interests is present due to competitive, cooperative or other relations with any Author, company or other organization behind the received manuscript.
4. Authors’ rights and duties
Authors must provide reliable results of their work, as well as reasoned discussion of research significance. Data that underlie their work should be present without mistakes. Manuscript should contain enough details and references for possible reproduction. Erroneous or deliberately false statements within it violate publication ethics and, as such, are unacceptable.
Author can be asked to provide unprocessed data regarding the manuscript, for review needs. Author should be ready to provide complete access to such information (in accordance with ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if it is possible, and also keep this data for an adequate period of time after the manuscript publication.
Authors should make sure their paper is original, and if any paper or statement from any source is used for it, it gets a proper reference. Plagiarism of any kind violates publication ethics and is unacceptable. Private data, received via correspondence or personal talks and discussions with a third party, should not be used without a clear written permission from original source. Information from confidential sources (such as manuscripts reviews or grant administration) should not be used without a clear written permission from original source.
Author should not publish manuscripts, concerning same research, in more than one journal as an original publication. Sending a manuscript to more than one journal at a time violates publication ethics and is unacceptable.
Only a person with a substantial contribution to the development of research or its idea, to its fulfilment or to its interpretation can be named an Author. Every person with a substantial contribution into research should be listed as a Co-author. Any participants who contributed sufficiently into at least one of project stages, should be listed separately as a people, who made a significant contribution into the research.
Author should make sure that any project participants, with a significant contribution into the research are listed as Co-authors, and that any Co-author listed actually took part in the research. They should also make sure that all the Co-authors approve the final version of manuscript and agree with its publication.
If the work implies use of any substances, equipment or procedures, that involve any special risks, it must be clearly stated in the manuscript.
Any financial or other conflicts of interests, regarding the research, should be revealed in the manuscript, if they could be considered influencing the results or conclusions. Examples of such conflicts of interest are: work for hire, consulting, being a shareholder, receiving honorarium, providing expertize, patent application or registration, grant or other kinds of financial support. Potential conflicts of interests should be revealed as soon as possible.
In case of any substantial mistakes or inaccuracies in the publication are found by Author, they may and should contact Editorial staff of “Issues of forest science” journal and cooperate with Editors for the most immediate publication withdrawal or correction. If Head Editor or Publisher received reliable information from the third party about any substantial mistakes in publication, Author must withdraw the paper or correct the mistakes as soon as possible.
5. Copyright and Licensing
Authors retain copyright to the work and grant the journal the right to first publish the work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY 4.0., which allows other users to distribute this work with the obligatory preservation of links to the authors of the original work and the original publication in this journal.
The authors reserve the right to conclude separate contractual arrangements regarding the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work in the form published here (for example, posting it on the institute’s website, publishing in a book), with reference to its original publication in this journal.
6. Author fees
Publication in the journal “Forest Science Issues” is free. There are no additional fees.
7. Publisher’s rights and duties
Publisher should follow the principles and procedures, that motivate Editors, Reviewers and Authors of “Forest science issues” journal to comply with their ethical duties in accordance with present Rules.
Publisher should provide Editors of “Forest science issues”journal with all necessary support in considering any ethical complaints regarding publications, they should also help to cooperate with other journals and/or Publishers, if it furthers the fulfilment of Editors’ duties.
Publisher should contribute to the proper examination of research conducting and introduce departmental standards to help improving ethical guidelines and the procedures of publications withdrawal and mistakes correction.
Publisher has the rights to receive dedicated legal assistance (opinion or advice) if needed.
8. Declaration of privacy
The rights of authors cannot be violated when disclosing confidential information during the review of their manuscript. The editors do not provide information, with the exception of authors and reviewers, about scientific articles prior to their publication in the journal (including their receipt, content, status in the review process, criticism of reviewers and final decisions). The use of all the personal data of the authors entered on the website of this journal is governed by the copyright agreement concluded between the author and the publisher and will be used exclusively for the purposes indicated by this journal and will not be used for any other purposes or made available to other persons and organizations. The affiliation (belonging to the country and / or organization) of the authors is indicated by the editorial office strictly in accordance with the information provided by the authors, and is not entitled to change it without notifying the authors about it.
9. Conflict of interest declaration
In order to prevent a conflict of interest (if the author, reviewer or member of the editorial board has financial, scientific or personal relationships that may affect their actions), the editorial board is guided by the following procedure:
– request from authors and reviewers in a cover letter existing and possible sources of conflict of interest;
– transfer the text of the article for examination to another member of the editorial board if the originally selected reviewer has a conflict of interest with the author of the article considered for publication in the journal;
– make a decision on the publication of information indicated in the author’s letter regarding a conflict of scientific and / or financial interests, if it is not confidential and may affect the assessment of the published work by the reader or the scientific community;
– ensure the publication of amendments if information on a conflict of interest was obtained after the publication of the article.
10. Process for identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct and retraction of articles
The retraction of a published article is applied in case of revealing facts that were not known during the review: detection of violations of the law, detection of plagiarism, erroneous, inaccurate or unreliable data. Authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and publishers can initiate a retraction of article by writing to the editors of the journal. The Conflict Resolution Commission is created from the members of the editorial board to resolve conflicts of the journal, which considers the received appeal and decides to retraction the published article if there are sufficient facts in favor of the retraction. The Conflict Resolution Commission notifies the initiator of the retraction article on the results of consideration of the appeal in writing. If the commission decides to retraction the article, the journal publishes information that the article has been retracted, indicating the metadata of the article. A notice of retraction of an article, indicating the reasons for the retraction, is sent to the authors of the article and to the databases in which this article is indexed.
11. Access and Archiving
All issues of the journal are placed open access on this site. All articles are available free of charge to readers. The full content of the journal is also hosted by the national libraries: CYBERLENINKA and eLIBRARY.
12. Publishing schedule:
first issue before 30 March
second issue before 30 June
third issue before 30 September
fourth issue before 30 December
The issue was prepared, based on materials of Elsevier publishing company and on materials of international Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE)
