The editorial office of Social and Legal Studios adheres to the principles of academic integrity, publication ethics and proper scholarly citation. Only original manuscripts that have not been previously published in any language and are not under consideration by other publications are accepted for consideration.
Authors bear full responsibility for the originality of the submitted material, the reliability of the results, the correctness of borrowed content, compliance with copyright requirements and the proper formatting of references to the sources used. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data are unacceptable and are regarded as breaches of publication ethics.
The journal uses specialised software, including iThenticate, to detect textual similarities in submitted manuscripts. The similarity report is analysed by the Editorial Board, taking into account not only the overall originality percentage, but also the nature of the matches, the presence of proper references, the correctness of citation and the specific nature of scientific terminology.
The editorial office uses the following indicators as guidance:
- originality above 85% – the manuscript may be admitted for further consideration;
- originality from 75% to 85% – the manuscript may be returned to the authors for revision;
- originality below 75% – the manuscript is generally not admitted to peer review;
- matches with a single source must not exceed 3%, except for properly formatted quotations, bibliographic descriptions, titles of legal acts, established terms and standard wording.
The final decision is made by the editorial office, taking into account the content of the report, the nature of the identified matches and the manuscript’s compliance with the principles of academic integrity.
If signs of plagiarism or improper borrowing are identified before publication, the manuscript may be returned to the authors for revision, not admitted to peer review or rejected. If a breach is identified after publication, the editorial office conducts a review in accordance with COPE recommendations and may publish a correction, an expression of concern or a retraction notice.
