Academic Integrity Violations Policy

Academic integrity is extremely important for the development of science, scholarly publications, and universities. Authors’ compliance with the principles of academic integrity is a guarantee of the successful development of the journal, increased citation rates, and the expansion of its readership.

According to subparagraph 31 of paragraph 1 of Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”, academic, research, and teaching staff are obliged to “adhere to academic integrity in the educational process and in scientific (creative) activity and to ensure its observance by higher education students.”

In accordance with Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education” and subparagraph 2 of Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Academic Integrity”, academic integrity is defined as “a set of ethical principles and legally established rules that participants in the educational process must follow during learning, teaching, and conducting scientific (creative) activities in order to ensure trust in learning outcomes and/or scientific (creative) achievements.”

Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On Academic Integrity” defines academic integrity in the creation and publication of academic works:

  1. When creating an academic work, the author must adhere to the values, principles, and rules of academic integrity.
    If an academic work uses the results of another person’s intellectual creative activity (text, image, idea, development, statement, information, opinion, etc.), this must be indicated in the academic work with reference to the relevant source of information and/or the relevant author.
    References must be made in a manner that allows the author’s contribution to be distinguished from the intellectual creative results of others.

  2. An academic work must contain reliable information and must not include fabricated or falsified information created by the author.
    If assumptions or unproven statements are presented, this must be clearly indicated in the academic work.

  3. All authors of the academic work must be indicated in the published version.

  4. If an object generated by artificial intelligence is used in an academic work, the author must disclose this in the work, specifying the method of generation and/or providing a reference to the relevant computer program or its description in accordance with the requirements for formatting and/or publication established by the relevant academic entity.

  5. In the published academic work, in addition to the authors, other persons who contributed to its preparation (providing recommendations, consulting, editing, formatting, conducting experiments, calculations, translation, etc.) must be acknowledged, specifying the nature of each person’s contribution.
    Information about the reviewer(s) of an academic work may remain undisclosed in accordance with the publisher’s editorial policy.

  6. If an author uses their own previously published scientific results (in whole or in part) in a new academic work, this must be explicitly indicated in the new work.

The following violations of academic integrity may be identified during the editorial and publishing process:

  1. Misappropriation of authorship – transfer by an author (or authors), whether commissioned or not, paid or unpaid, of an academic work (or part thereof) created by them to another person, followed by the publication of such work (or part thereof) indicating as author a person who is not its actual author;

  2. Academic plagiarism – publication (in whole or in part) of a scientific (creative) result obtained by another person (or persons) as one’s own academic activity result, and/or reproduction in an academic work (in whole or in part) of a previously published work of another author (or authors) without reference to the relevant source of information and/or its author(s) (if information about the author(s) is available), and/or publication in an academic work of a translation of a foreign-language work (or part thereof) without indicating the author(s) of the translated work;

  3. Attribution of authorship – publication of a work listing as an author a person who did not participate in its creation;

  4. Self-plagiarism – publication (in whole or in part) of one’s own previously published scientific results without indicating the source of the prior publication;

  5. Fabrication – invention of data or facts concerning the results of one’s academic activity;

  6. Falsification – deliberate alteration or modification of existing data leading to the creation of knowingly false information about the results of academic activity;

  7. Dishonest use of artificial intelligence–generated results – deliberate violation of assessment requirements established by this Law, other legislation, internal regulations, or competition conditions, resulting in overestimation or underestimation of academic activity results.

According to the Ethical Code of the University Community, members of the university community are obliged to:

  • uphold the values of academic integrity and comply with its rules in all types of activities within and beyond the university space (clause 2.15);

  • safeguard their personal and the university’s scientific reputation in organizing and conducting scientific and technical activities (clause 2.18);

  • consider it unacceptable to provide false information regarding their own educational, scientific, or creative activities and their results, or to misappropriate authorship of texts, including academic works, created by others (clause 2.19).

All statements regarding violations of academic integrity must be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief. In case of suspected violations, the Editors-in-Chief will act in accordance with relevant COPE guidelines and the internal documents of the journal’s founder — the Ethical Code of the University Community and the Regulations on Ensuring Academic Integrity at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

If reviewers or editors comment on a potential violation of academic integrity, authors will be invited to provide an explanation. If the explanation is satisfactory and the issue results from an error or misunderstanding, the problem may be easily resolved. Otherwise, the manuscript will be rejected or withdrawn, and the editorial board may impose a temporary ban on publication in the journal for the author(s).

In cases of published plagiarism or duplicate publication in multiple journals, an announcement explaining the situation will be issued.

If allegations concern authors, the review and publication process of their submission will be suspended until the investigation is completed. An investigation will be conducted even if the authors withdraw the manuscript.

If allegations concern reviewers or editors, they will be replaced in the review process during the ongoing investigation.

For violations of academic integrity, authors, reviewers, and/or editors may be subject to the following academic sanctions:

  • refusal of publication with notification to the institution of the author’s or reviewer’s primary affiliation regarding the violation identified during the editorial process;

  • deprivation of the right of an editor or reviewer to participate in the journal’s editorial work.

The procedure for reviewing violations of academic integrity by authors, editors, and reviewers of the scientific journal who are University employees, in accordance with clause the Ethical Code of the University Community, provides for the participation of the head of the relevant University unit where the accused person or group works, as well as the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor of the journal, and staff of the Coordination Center.

Any person against whom allegations of violation of academic integrity have been raised has the following rights:

  • to review all materials related to the verification of the alleged violation and submit comments on them;

  • to provide oral and written explanations personally or through a representative, or to refuse to provide any explanations, and to participate in the examination of evidence;

  • to be informed of the date, time, and place of the consideration of the issue and to be present during the review of the alleged violation and the imposition of academic responsibility;

  • to appeal the decision on academic responsibility to the body authorized to consider appeals or to a court (paragraph 8 of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Education”).

An “honest mistake” or differences of opinion do not constitute violations of academic integrity.