Ethical norms

The editorial ethics of the Journal of International Legal Communication is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The journal is dedicated to promoting openness, transparency, and reproducibility in research and adheres to the following data sharing policy.

Considering ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

  • Deposit their research data in an appropriate public data repository.
  • Provide a data availability statement that links to their data. If data sharing is not possible, the statement should explain the reasons for this.
  • Cite the shared data in their research.

DUTIES OF EDITORS

Publication decisions. The Editorial Board is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The Editorial Board will be guided by the policies of the journal and constrained by legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Members of the Editorial Board will confer and refer to reviewers recommendations in making this decision.
Equality. An editor, member of the editorial board or reviewer must evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, political philosophy, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, or religious belief of the authors.
Confidentiality. The editorial board guarantees confidentiality, that is, it undertakes not to disclose information about the given manuscript to anyone other than the respective authors, reviewers, other editorial consultants and, if necessary, the publisher.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s, reviewer’s or any other reader’s own research without the expressed written consent of the author.
The editorial ethics of the Journal of International Legal Communication is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

Contribution to Editorial Decisions. Reviewers assist the editorial board in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communication during the open review process with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Qualification of Reviewers. Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process. The editorial board is responsible for ensuring the promptness of responses in the open review process.
Confidentiality. Any manuscripts received for review in the open review process are subjected to the criteria of enhancing their rationality through the mutual rational controls of critical discussion.
Establishing Standards of Objectivity through Critical Discussion. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments in the spirit of enhancing the quality of the paper through the mutual rational controls of critical discussion.
Acknowledgement of Sources. References to the ideas of others should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest. Information or ideas obtained through peer review must only be used with the explicit agreement of the participants in the peer review.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE AUTHORS

All texts sent to the Journal of International Legal Communication should be original and independent works of the Authors. In order to eliminate the possibility of plagiarism, they are checked using the anti-plagiarism program. The Author is obliged to inform the Editorial Board about all entities that have participated in the creation of the work and about the sources of its financing. If the Author detects any errors, they are obliged to immediately report them to the Editorial Board. The Author should respond to reviewers’ comments and may appeal against editorial decisions.
In a situation where they do not agree with the comments contained in the review, they should provide the Editorial Board with important comments and explanations of their opinions.

All authors listed in the article are obliged to have a significant contribution in preparing the manuscript.

  • Made a notable contribution to the manuscript, including e.g. the conception, study design, execution, data acquisition, analysis, and/or interpretation.
  • Drafted, written, significantly revised, or critically reviewed the manuscript.
  • Consented to the journal to which the manuscript is being submitted.
  • Reviewed and approved all versions of the manuscript prior to submission, during revisions, the final version accepted for publication, and any major changes made during the proofing stage.
  • Agreed to take responsibility for the content of the manuscript and to share accountability for resolving any issues related to the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

Plagiarism – rules of conduct

The editors of the Journal of International Legal Communication do not accept any symptoms of plagiarism. The Author is obliged to indicate all data and publications which they used to create the work. Any suspicion of plagiarism is subject to examination by the Editorial Board, and after it is found appropriate procedures are implemented. In the event of confirmation of evident plagiarism, the Editorial Board reserves that it also notifies the Author’s superiors about it.

Only original work can be submitted. All quotations need to be appropriately indicated and referenced. Any unacknowledged copying of large chunks of text, misattributing the original authorship (including ideas, arguments, results) will be treated as plagiarism. According to the Office of Research Integrity such practices include, but are not limited to theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and a substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s work: https://ori.hhs.gov/ori-policy-plagiarism.
When paraphrasing or summarising publications by others, Authors have to proceed with due care. Text recycling is not allowed and will be treated as self-plagiarism (as per COPE guidelines: “sections of the same text appearing in more than one of an author’s own publications”).
Duplicate/redundant publication occurs “when an author intentionally or unintentionally republishes his or her own work without informing the editor of the previous publication (…) and refers to publication of an article’s content, which has substantial overlaps with one΄s paper already published in print or electronically.” without proper references. (F. A. Habibzadeh and M. Winker, “Duplicate Publication and Plagiarism: Causes and Cures.” Notfall Rettungsmed 12, (2009), 415–418. DOI: 10.1007/s10049-009-1229-7).

Already published articles will be retracted or marked as plagiarised.

Author of the text

Co-authorship of the article should be limited only to people who contributed significantly to its creation. In the case of co-authorship, the corresponding Author submits a declaration to the Editorial Board indicating exactly the type and scope of contribution of individual Authors to the development of the article, its assumptions, research methods, and interpretation of the research results. The editors of the Journal of International Legal Communication do not accept any symptoms of such phenomena as guest authorship and courtesy authorship (it is recommended to transfer the name to the thanks section) or ghost authorship (in case of detection, it is recommended to add the Author to the list of the authors). Each researcher mentioned as the author of the work must have real and undeniable contribution to its creation. Requests to change the list of authors are allowed, while the Editors reserve the right to thoroughly investigate each case of this type.

No duplication of publication

The Editorial Board of the Journal of International Legal Communication rejects texts that have already been published in other magazines or books, or which have already been submitted to another editorial board for publication. The editors reserve the right to examine such status of the article at every stage of the publishing process, and in the event of irregularities, they will commence their activities in accordance with COPE’s recommendations.

Prepublication
Any fragment of work which has been already copyrighted to a third party, published, posted or reposited in the form that has been submitted to the Journal will be considered as pre-publication and consequently will not be published.

Data falsification

The reliability of scientific research results is one of the basic values that the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Legal Communication esteems, promotes and protects. All symptoms of unreliability, and even more explicit falsification and fabrication of research results or sources used will be strongly condemned and will result in informing the Author’s employer about them.

Reviewing papers

Each reviewer performs their work anonymously, and their reviews should be objective and in accordance with the principles of scientific reliability. The reviewed text should remain secret and its content should not be used by the reviewer until its publication. Criticism referring directly to the author is inappropriate, author and reviewer should not be in relationships that could affect the shape of the review.

Conflict of interest

An identified or reported conflict of interest results in the suspension of editorial work on a given text until the matter is clarified by the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Legal Communication.

The conflict of interest should be reported to the Editorial Board by the Author, who believes that in their opinion, the roles performed by them may influence or may be considered by third parties as influencing their objectivity when conducting research or presenting its results. A conflict of interest may take place in the case of the Author’s connection with a unit (institution, enterprise or public office) that is directly interested in or benefits from adopting a specific interpretation of the law. It applies to the connection consisting of:- work in a given unit, also on the basis of a specific task contract or a mandate contract, paid representation as a proxy or acting on its behalf or as an expert for the unit (during the work on the text or in the last 3 years), in particular when the text submitted for printing is a repetition or a modified version of a pleading or an opinion prepared for a given unit;

– the Author’s participation in the issuance of a judgment or decision of a court or other authority, which are then analyzed in the submitted scientific publication;

– using the funds of a given unit to conduct research – both being the subject of a published article, as well as other past (conducted within the last 3 years) or currently conducted research, including coverage of publication costs.

Conflict of interest publishing procedure:

1. When submitting texts to the journal, the Author informs the Editorial Board that they believe that in their case there may be a conflict of interest in the sense described above.

2. The occurrence of a conflict of interest does not mean that the prepared text cannot or should not be published, provided, however, that the indicated connection with units does not affect the reliability and correctness of the scientific evidence and the quality of the research presented in the scientific publication.

3. The reviewer should be informed about the fact of reporting a conflict of interest (without revealing its nature). Thanks to this, in the review, they will be able to assess whether – despite the reported conflict – the text has been prepared scientifically and contains objective analyses and research results.

4. The Editors reserve the right to ask the Author to provide a declaration regarding the lack of a conflict of interest.

5. Failure to disclose information about a conflict of interest is a violation of the principles of ethics and good scientific practice.

Other:

Post-publication

  • Discussions

The Journal supports post-publication debates regarding the published articles. Readers can submit their concerns, opinions, criticism, or letters of support. The Journal has the right to peer review the criticism, the response to criticism and to publish the discussion.
As the Journal follows the COPE guidelines, the Editors require that criticism should:
– be reasonable,
– not contain libellous or defamatory content,
– have evidence or data that support the claims.
Readers can express their concern regarding the published material. The concerns should be sent via email at <jilc@uw.edu.pl>.
Depending on the nature of the concern and the outcomes of an investigation, the Journal may publish:
– an addendum (significant information disclosed after the publication that enhances the
readers’ understanding of the article),
– Editor’s note (to inform that an investigation has been started),
– editorial expression of concern (to alert the readers about serious concerns),
– correction,
– retraction,
– corrigendum.
In the above instances, the Journal follows the COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/resources/forum-discussions/expressions-of-concern)

Corrections
If an Author notices a mistake after the article has already been published, they are requested to contact the Editorial Office at <jilc@uw.edu.pl>. Depending on the nature of the error, the Editorial Office will investigate the case and decide whether an erratum or corrigendum needs to be published. Only for substantial errors the procedure of corrections will be taken. Reports on mistakes in punctuation, mistakes not influencing the meaning of the paper or not affecting the scientific integrity of the paper, will not be processed.

Retraction
The Journal follows the COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/node/19896) with regard to the retraction process. An article will be immediately retracted if:
− It constitutes plagiarism,
− The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the Editor, permission to republish, or justification (i.e. cases of redundant publication),
− It contains material or data without authorisation for use,
− Copyrights have been violated or there is some other serious legal issue (e.g., libel, privacy),
− It contains unethical research,
− It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review
process,
− The Author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest that, in the view of the Editors, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.
An appropriate retraction note will be published both as an individual statement, separate from the article’s contents, and within the article on the first page of the online version.

Article removal
The Journal will not remove any published material unless it gravely violates the law. In such case, retraction is not sufficient, since the article may be subject to a court order or pose hazard to human beings.
In such cases the body of the article will be removed and only the metadata (the names of the Authors) retained, followed by a statement that explains the removal due to legal reasons.