COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE FOR VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

Restoring the violated interests and rights of authors regarding published materials and addressing violations of ethical standards through timely responses to appeals (complaints, claims, comments) is one of the priority areas of activity of the editorial board of the collection of scientific papers: Theory and Practice of Forensic Science and Criminalistics (hereinafter referred to as the Collection). Each complaint is examined according to its nature and complexity; applicants receive prompt and constructive responses, and the final decision necessarily takes into account the recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Persons who may submit a complaint including: author (or a group of authors); reviewer; member of the editorial board; reader or any other person who has identified a potential ethical violation.

Complaints will be considered regarding: plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of data; authorship violations (unjustified inclusion or exclusion of authors); undeclared conflicts of interest; unethical peer review; unauthorized use of another author’s content; violations and non-compliance with requirements for formatting content for publication, etc.

Suggestions or complaints are sent to the e-mail address of the Collection zbirnyk_nscfsi@hniise.gov.ua.

The complaint review procedure is as follows.

• The complaint is forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief (Co-editor-in-Chief) or the managing editor for preliminary review.
• If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief (Co-editor-in Chief), it is forwarded to the designated representative by the members of the editorial board.
• The Commission on Ethics and Academic Integrity of NSC «Hon. Prof. M. S. Bokarius FSI» analyzes the case circumstances.
• If necessary, authors, reviewers, and editors may be asked to provide explanations, particularly if the inquiry concerns ethical violations (such as plagiarism or data fabrication).

First and foremost, validity and constructive nature of the submission regarding scientific content presented in the article are revised.

Anonymous complaints and inquiries will not be considered.

Requests and complaints are reviewed within 30 days of receipt, after which the results are communicated to the applicant in writing. However, depending on the complexity of the complaint, additional time can be required to complete the investigation.

All complaint materials are treated confidentially. Information is not disclosed unless it is necessary for objective investigation.

Upon completion of the review, the commission issues a decision, that can include:

• dismissal of the complaint as unfounded;
• making corrections or clarifications to the publication;
• publication of a retraction or review of the article;
• prohibition on further submissions by the violator;
• notifying the institution where the author works of a breach of academic integrity.

Procedure for addressing identified errors and comments from authors: if the comments confirm seriousness of the errors,  editorial board may publish a correction (erratum)) for the electronic version of the article related to the technical process, or, in case of confirmed substantial errors in the article (inaccurate data and conclusions, plagiarism, duplication of articles, etc.); its retraction, based on the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics ( COPE).

The editorial board considers this to be a fundamental aspect of academic ethics: acknowledging mistakes and engaging in dialog with scientific community to advance science.