The Editorial Board of the scientific journal Social and Legal Studios adheres to international standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency of editorial procedures, confidentiality, impartial peer review and the proper management of conflicts of interest.
In its activities, the journal is guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the principles of transparency and good practice in scholarly publishing, as well as generally recognised international approaches to publishing ethics, including Elsevier’s recommendations on the ethical conduct of authors, editors, reviewers and publishers.
The editorial policy of the journal is based on the following principles:
- impartial treatment of all participants in the editorial process;
- ensuring double-blind peer review;
- involving competent and independent reviewers;
- maintaining the confidentiality of manuscripts at all stages of consideration;
- preventing, identifying and managing conflicts of interest;
- preventing plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification, fabrication of data and improper authorship;
- transparent handling of ethical complaints, errors, corrections and retractions of publications;
- advising authors on the journal’s requirements, academic integrity, manuscript preparation and international standards of scholarly publication.
DECISION-MAKING ON PUBLICATION
Decisions on the acceptance, revision or rejection of a manuscript are made on the basis of its scientific quality, relevance, novelty, correspondence to the journal’s subject area, the results of independent peer review and compliance with the requirements of publication ethics.
The editor evaluates manuscripts regardless of the authors’ race, gender, age, citizenship, ethnic origin, religious views, political beliefs, institutional affiliation or other personal characteristics.
The editor may not use unpublished materials, ideas, data or conclusions from a submitted manuscript in his or her own research without the written consent of the author. In the event of ethical complaints or reports of possible violations, the editorial office undertakes to consider them in accordance with COPE principles and the journal’s editorial policy.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All manuscripts submitted to the journal are treated as confidential documents. The editor, members of the Editorial Board, reviewers and other persons involved in the editorial process may not disclose information about the manuscript, its authors, content, peer review results or editorial decisions to third parties, except for those directly involved in the consideration of the material.
Confidentiality is maintained both during peer review and after the completion of the editorial process.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Editors, members of the Editorial Board, reviewers and scientific advisers are required to disclose any actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest that may affect the impartiality of manuscript consideration.
Conflicts of interest may include personal, family, professional, academic, financial, institutional or other connections with authors, institutions, organisations or projects related to the submitted material.
A person who has a conflict of interest must recuse himself or herself from considering the manuscript. In such a case, the editorial office appoints another editor, reviewer or adviser who has no interest in the outcome of the consideration.
Unpublished manuscript materials may not be used by editors, reviewers or other persons without the written consent of the author.
In the event of claims, complaints or suspicions of misconduct related to submitted or already published materials, the editorial office conducts a review in accordance with the principles of publication ethics. Where necessary, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern or retraction of the article.
ETHICS OF RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS
Research involving human participants must be approved by the relevant ethics committees associated with the institution or institutions in which the research is conducted. A manuscript presenting the results of surveys or interviews must include confirmation that the authors ensured the voluntary participation of respondents, obtained their written informed consent, including consent to the publication of the results, and guaranteed confidentiality, anonymity and the prevention of any form of discrimination or pressure. The ethical nature of the research conducted must be properly substantiated and, where possible, supported by references to international professional standards and codes, including the Code of Ethics of the American Sociological Association (1997), the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics (2025), and the European Commission guidance on ethics and data protection (2021).
When reporting research involving human participants, authors must state that the research was conducted in accordance with the standards listed below. Before conducting the research, approval must be obtained from a local institutional review board (IRB) or another appropriate ethics committee to confirm that the study complies with national and international guidelines. All participants must be fully informed as to whether anonymity is guaranteed, why the research is being conducted, how their data will be used and whether there are any associated risks. Ethical approval must be obtained from the relevant ethics committee before the research is conducted. If ethical approval is not required, authors must either provide an exemption from the ethics committee or cite local or national legislation indicating that ethical approval is not required for this type of research.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The Editorial Board undertakes to:
- ensure the objective, transparent and impartial consideration of manuscripts;
- maintain the confidentiality of the editorial process;
- prevent misconduct in relation to submitted materials;
- involve competent and independent experts in peer review;
- prevent the publication of materials that have no scientific value, do not correspond to the journal’s subject area, contain plagiarism, infringe copyright or have been previously published without proper disclosure of this fact;
- agree with authors any editorial changes that may affect the content, structure or interpretation of the research results;
- respond appropriately to ethical complaints, reports of errors, authorship violations, conflicts of interest or other forms of misconduct.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Reviewers are required to:
- evaluate manuscripts objectively, with proper justification and without bias;
- comply with the review deadlines set by the editorial office;
- treat the manuscript received as a confidential document;
- not transfer the manuscript to third parties or discuss its content without the permission of the editorial office;
- not use data, ideas or conclusions from the manuscript in their own research before its publication;
- inform the editorial office of any conflict of interest;
- decline to review the manuscript if its subject matter falls outside their area of competence;
- inform the editorial office of any suspicion of plagiarism, duplicate publication, falsification, fabrication of data or other breaches of publication ethics.
The review must be appropriate, substantive and aimed at assessing the scientific quality of the manuscript. Personal criticism of the author is not permitted.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
Authors are required to:
- submit original, reliable and scientifically substantiated materials to the journal;
- avoid plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data;
- properly cite all sources, data, tables, figures, ideas and results of other researchers used in the manuscript;
- not submit the same manuscript to several publications at the same time;
- inform the editorial office of all sources of research funding;
- declare potential conflicts of interest;
- ensure the consent of all co-authors to the submission of the manuscript;
- list as co-authors only those persons who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the research;
- inform the editorial office of significant errors or inaccuracies identified after submission or publication of the article.
If a significant error is identified after publication, the authors must cooperate with the editorial office to correct, clarify, retract the article or publish another appropriate editorial notice as soon as possible.
AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT
The Editorial Board of Social and Legal Studios proceeds from the assumption that all authors listed in the manuscript have read its content, agree to the submission of the article to the journal and are responsible for the relevant parts of the research.
An author may be a person who:
- has made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, collection, analysis or interpretation of data;
- has participated in writing the manuscript or critically revising it;
- has approved the final version of the article for publication;
- accepts responsibility for the accuracy, integrity and ethical conduct of the work performed.
Persons who contributed to the conduct of the research but do not meet the authorship criteria may be mentioned in the “Acknowledgements” section.
SUBMISSION DECLARATION
Submission of a manuscript to the journal means that the article has not been previously published, is not under consideration by another publication, and that its submission has been approved by all authors and, where necessary, by the institution in which the research was conducted.
If the article is accepted for publication, the authors agree that it will not be published in another publication in the same form, in any language, without proper reference to the first publication in Social and Legal Studios.
DATA SHARING POLICY
The journal supports the principles of transparency, verifiability and openness of scientific research, while observing ethical, legal and confidentiality restrictions.
Authors are encouraged to provide information on the availability of the data underlying the research results. If the data can be made openly available, authors may deposit them in an appropriate repository or provide a link to the source of access. If open access to the data is impossible for ethical, legal, confidentiality or other justified reasons, authors must state this in the manuscript.
Data may be provided upon official request through the editorial office of the journal, subject to the consent of the author or group of authors and compliance with the requirements of confidentiality, personal data protection and the ethical use of information.
A request for access to data must state the purpose for which the data will be used. The editorial office forwards such a request to the author for consideration. If the author gives consent, additional access conditions may be established, including the signing of a confidentiality agreement.
POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSION POLICY
The journal supports open, appropriate and professional discussion of published materials. Readers, authors and other interested persons may submit substantiated comments, remarks or reports of possible errors or breaches of publication ethics to the editorial office.
The editorial office considers substantive submissions relating to scientific reliability, ethics, authorship, conflicts of interest, data reliability or other aspects of a published article. Where necessary, the editorial office may contact authors, reviewers or independent experts to clarify the circumstances further.
The journal also recognises the importance of open post-publication platforms, including PubPeer, as spaces for scholarly discussion. Substantiated comments published on such platforms may be considered by the editorial office in accordance with the journal’s policy on corrections, clarifications and retractions.
RESEARCH FUNDING POLICY
Social and Legal Studios adheres to the principle of transparency regarding the sources of funding for scientific research.
Authors are required to declare all sources of financial support related to the preparation of the research, including grants, funds from governmental or non-governmental organisations, commercial support, private funding or internal institutional funding.
If the research received no financial support, the authors must state: “The research received no funding”.
ADVERTISING POLICY
Social and Legal Studios does not publish advertisements and does not accept advertising materials. The absence of advertising is intended to ensure editorial independence, academic integrity and impartial editorial decisions.
