Publication Ethics

The journal is committed to maintaining the highest integrity level in the published content.

Content published in this journal is peer-reviewed.

The journal has adopted clear and rigorous ethical guidelines for best working practices. It follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and abides by its Code of Conduct in dealing with potential misconduct cases. It adheres to the principles outlined below, which have been devised to ensure accurate, trustworthy, transparent and efficient publication of scientific papers.

Introduction to Publication Ethics (COPE) - https://publicationethics.org/resources/elearning/introduction-publication-ethics-0

COPE Resources

Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office

A short guide to ethical editing

COPE Core Practices

Guidelines for retracting articles

Request for removal of author after publication

What to do if you suspect plagiarism in a submitted article

What to do if you suspect plagiarism in a published article

How should editors respond to plagiarism? COPE discussion document

Sample letters

Requirements for Statement on Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

The editorial board and the publisher of the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics (JSDTL) implement the publication ethics and malpractice guidelines based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.

The editorial board and publisher of the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics (JSDTL) follow the publication ethics and malpractice guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE is a respected international organization that provides guidance on best practices in scholarly publishing, including issues related to authorship, peer review, data integrity, and ethical considerations in research. Adhering to COPE guidelines helps ensure that the JSDTL maintains high standards of ethical conduct and integrity in publishing.

The basics of ethical policy are presented.

More details can be found on the relevant pages of the site. If the information is specialized, then it can be found on the web pages of the respective developers.

Centre of Sociological Research (CSR) (Poland) is a publisher of the JSDTL.

The CSR is committed to promoting interdisciplinary research that contributes to the development of knowledge in the social sciences, and JSDTL is one of the many academic journals published by the organization.

Open Access

JSDTL offers open access to its contents under the Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0) principles, providing free access to the articles for anyone to read and download without any subscription fees or paywalls.

Similarity check

Using specialized software, the JSDTL checks all articles for plagiarism, falsification, and manipulation. Including Crossref Similarity Check, AntiPlagiarism.Net, iThenticate

Editorial Duties and Responsibilities

Editorial Board

The JSDTL's Editorial Board comprises respected professionals who are recognized experts in their respective fields. You can find their complete names and affiliations listed in the Editorial Board section on the journal's website. If you need to get in touch with the editorial office, you can find the contact information in the Contact section on the journal's website.

Publication decisions

The editors are responsible for determining which articles are fit for publication in the JSDTL based on the validation of the research and its significance to the scientific community and readership. The editors adhere to the policies set forth by the journal's editorial board and are bound by legal requirements regarding copyright and plagiarism. In some cases, the editors may consult with other editors or reviewers to determine the suitability of the submitted article for publication.

Fair play

Editors are required to evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of their intellectual merit and without taking into account the author's gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, citizenship, or political beliefs. The decision to accept or reject a manuscript should be made based exclusively on the originality, clarity, and significance of the research, as well as its relevance to the scope and objectives of the JSDTL.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Editors are prohibited from using unpublished material from a submitted manuscript for their research without obtaining the author's written consent. They must also maintain confidentiality regarding any privileged information or ideas acquired during the peer review process and must not use them for personal gain. Suppose an editor has a conflict of interest due to a competitive, collaborative, or other relationship or connection with an author, company, or institution associated with a manuscript. In that case, they must recuse themselves from the review process and ask another editor or member of the editorial board to handle the submission. Editors must also ensure that all contributors disclose any relevant competing interests and publish corrections if such interests come to light after publication.

Confidentiality

The editors and other editorial staff members are required to maintain the confidentiality of all information related to a submitted manuscript. This includes not disclosing details about the manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher. The editors are responsible for ensuring that the material submitted for review remains confidential throughout the review process.

Peer review process

The JSDTL has a strict policy that all its content must undergo peer review, which consists of a double-blind review process in line with the recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Poland). A detailed review process description can be found on the JSDTL website under the Peer Review section. The review process involves two stages. In the first stage, the editors review the articles and may reject them if they do not align with the journal's scope or are of low quality. In the second stage, relevant articles are sent to two independent reviewers who are experts in the field of the paper. The reviewers are unknown to each other, and they classify the paper as publishable, publishable with amendments and improvements, or not publishable. The referees' evaluations usually recommend what to do with the manuscript. The author receives the referees' comments, and the editors should not reverse publication decisions unless they identify serious problems. After the peer review process, the article undergoes evaluation by a statistical editor and a language editor to ensure that it meets the required quality and clarity standards. The website provides guidelines for authors and reviewers, which are located in the Instructions to Authors and Reviewing sections, respectively. The editors recommend that authors review the guidelines for reviewers to ensure their manuscript meets the requirements.

Similarity check and anti-plagiarism policy

It is the responsibility of the editors to review all submitted papers for any instances of plagiarism carefully. If plagiarism is detected in a submitted paper, the editors will reject it for publication. To prevent plagiarism, the journal's content is indexed in Similarity Check, an initiative of CrossRef aimed at preventing plagiarism in scholarly and professional publishing.

Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior

The editors are responsible for taking appropriate action when ethical complaints are raised regarding a submitted manuscript or published paper. They should work with the publisher to investigate the complaint and take the necessary steps to address the issue. This may involve contacting the author of the manuscript or article and relevant institutions and research bodies to consider the complaint and determine the appropriate course of action. If the complaint is valid, the editors may issue a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or another relevant statement. It's important to note that all reports of unethical behavior, even those that are discovered years after publication, should be thoroughly investigated.

Retraction policy

The editors are dedicated to maintaining the credibility of published literature and will publish necessary corrections based on the situation. In all cases, the original articles will be taken down and replaced with a note explaining the reason for retraction, along with a corrected version. If plagiarism is detected, the entire article will be removed from the journal, and a note will be published disclosing the authors' names and the nature of the plagiarism. The authors and their affiliated institutions will be informed of the retraction.

Correction Policy

The JSDTL publisher is dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the published literature and will publish editorial corrections as necessary. Any original articles that require correction will be replaced with a corrected version.

Publishing schedule

The editors are responsible for the JSDTL being published half-yearly.

Name of Journal

The Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics has a distinctive name that sets it apart from other journals and avoids confusion about its identity or affiliation with other publications, ensuring that potential authors and readers are not misled.

Web site

The editors are responsible for guaranteeing that the journal's website reflects that ethical and professional standards have been implemented with great care.

Archiving

JSDTL allows authors to self-archive their papers, retaining copyright and without requiring permission from the journal. Authors can deposit their accepted manuscript or published paper in institutional and/or centrally organized repositories, attributing the journal and SciView.Net as the original place of publication. The journal is committed to digital archiving and preservation, submitting content to Zenodo and PKP Preservation Network. The journal is also archived at DOAJ.

Details: Section Archiving

Reviewer Duties and Responsibilities

Contribution to editorial decisions

Peer review plays a crucial role in the editorial decision-making process by helping editors assess the quality of a paper. It also provides authors with feedback on how they can improve their work. Peer review is a critical part of scholarly communication, and authors are expected to contribute by participating in the peer review process.

Promptness

If a chosen peer reviewer lacks the expertise or availability to conduct a timely review of a manuscript, they should inform the editor and recuse themselves from the peer review process.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts submitted for review should be considered confidential and not shared with unauthorized individuals. Only individuals authorized by the editors may be shown or discuss the contents of these manuscripts.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews must be conducted objectively, and the author's personal criticisms are not appropriate. Referees should present their opinions clearly, accompanied by justifications. In addition, independent external reviewers who are experts in the relevant academic field and have no affiliation with the author's research center should be selected.

Acknowledgment of sources

It is the responsibility of reviewers to point out any previously published works that the authors have not cited. If a reviewer is aware of any previous reports of the observation, derivation, or argument presented in the manuscript, they should provide the appropriate reference. Additionally, if a reviewer becomes aware of any significant overlap or similarity between the manuscript being reviewed and another published work with which they are familiar, they should bring it to the editor's attention. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable, and reviewers should present their opinions clearly and well-supportedly. It is also essential that independent external reviewers are experts in the relevant academic field and not affiliated with the author's research center.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Reviewers have a duty to ensure that they maintain the confidentiality of any unpublished materials contained in a submitted manuscript, and they should not use such materials in their research unless they have obtained written permission from the author. They are also responsible for keeping confidential any privileged information or ideas that they acquire during the peer review process and should not use them for personal benefit. If there are any conflicts of interest, such as competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with authors, companies, or institutions associated with the manuscripts, reviewers should refrain from reviewing such manuscripts.

Author Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting standards

Authors are expected to provide a truthful and impartial account of their research and honestly discuss its significance. The data underlying the research must be accurately represented in the manuscript, and there should be sufficient details and references for others to replicate the work. Deliberately falsified or inaccurate statements are considered unethical and not acceptable. Reviewers and published articles must also be accurate and impartial, while editorial opinions must be clearly labeled as such.

Data access and retention

During the editorial review process, authors may be requested to provide the original data related to their manuscript. They should be willing to make this data publicly accessible, if feasible, and keep it for a reasonable period after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work is original and that they properly cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Plagiarism can take many forms, including presenting someone else's work as one's own, copying or paraphrasing significant portions of someone else's work without proper attribution, or claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in any form is considered unethical and is not acceptable in publishing.

Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publications

Publishing manuscripts describing the same research in multiple journals or primary publications are commonly viewed as unethical. Therefore, simultaneously submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is considered unethical and unacceptable. Authors should avoid submitting a published paper for consideration in another journal.

Acknowledgment of sources

Giving proper credit and recognition to the work of others is crucial. It is the responsibility of authors to acknowledge and reference publications that have influenced their research. Any information obtained through private conversations or correspondence with third parties must not be used or reported without explicit written consent from the source. Similarly, information obtained through confidential services, such as reviewing manuscripts or grant applications, should not be used without the author's explicit written permission for the work involved in these services.

Authorship of the paper

To qualify for authorship, an individual should have made a significant and substantial contribution to the research study, which may include its conception, design, implementation, or interpretation. Individuals who have contributed significantly should be recognized as co-authors. In cases where an individual has only participated in certain aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as a contributor. The corresponding author holds the responsibility of ensuring that all appropriate co-authors are included in the manuscript and that no inappropriate co-authors are listed. Before submitting the final version of the manuscript, all co-authors must review and approve it and provide their consent for publication.

Authorship and AI Tools (2023)

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has released a new position statement regarding the use of AI tools, including ChatGPT, in authorship of academic papers. The statement asserts that AI tools should not be considered as authors of a paper, as they cannot take responsibility for the content submitted, and their usage must be fully disclosed to ensure transparency.

COPE Position Statement (2023) - (https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author)

"AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements.

Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics."

COPE | Artificial Intelligence in the News (2023)

https://publicationethics.org/news/artificial-intelligence-news

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

The Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest section is an important part of the manuscript submission process that helps ensure transparency and integrity in research publications. Here are the steps that authors can follow to complete this section:

Identify all potential conflicts of interest related to the research study. This includes any financial or non-financial interests that could influence the research results or interpretation of the findings.

Disclose all sources of financial support for the research project, including grants, contracts, or other forms of funding. Be sure to include the names of funding agencies and the grant numbers, if applicable.

Provide details on any financial relationships with companies or organizations that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. This includes employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony. If you have any patents or patent applications related to the research, these should also be disclosed.

Disclose any personal or professional relationships with individuals or organizations that could be perceived as a conflict of interest, including family relationships, collaborations, or other connections.

If there are no conflicts of interest, state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest."

Be sure to include this information in the manuscript's Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest section, which is typically located near the end of the manuscript. Some journals may require this information to be provided in a separate document, so be sure to check the journal's author guidelines.

Review and update the Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest section as needed throughout the manuscript submission and publication process. Be sure to inform the journal editor of any changes or updates to this information.

Remember that failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest can damage the integrity and credibility of your research, so it is important to be transparent and thorough in your disclosure.

Fundamental errors in published works

If an author or a group of authors discovers fundamental errors in their published works, they should take the following steps:

Notify the publisher or editor of the journal where the article was published as soon as possible. The notification should include a detailed description of the error and its potential impact on the article's conclusions or interpretation.

Cooperate with the publisher or editor to investigate the error and identify its source. This may involve providing additional data or information to support the investigation.

Work with the publisher or editor to correct the error, either by publishing a correction or retraction, as appropriate. The correction should be published as soon as possible to minimize any potential impact on readers and the scientific community.

Inform any individuals or institutions that may have been affected by the error, including funding agencies, collaborators, and other researchers who may have cited the article. The authors should provide them with the correct information and any necessary explanations.

Take steps to prevent similar errors from occurring in future publications, such as implementing improved quality control measures and reviewing data and conclusions more carefully before submitting manuscripts for publication.

If the editors or publisher become aware from a third party that the published work has a significant error, it is the author's responsibility to promptly correct or retract the paper or provide proof to the editor that the original paper is correct.

Open access and copyright policy

The journal allows open access to its content under the Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) license.

Authors retain copyright to their work and are asked to grant SciView.Net the right to publish the article as the final, definitive, and citable Version of Scholarly Record. In turn, we will make the article freely available on our online platform with no subscription fee, article pay-to-view fee, or any other form of access fee and with no publication embargo. We use the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license on articles published in the SciView Series. Authors retain copyright and allow anyone else to distribute, remix and build upon their work; commercial re-use is allowed. Anyone doing so must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that the authors endorse them or their use of the work).

Publication Fee

Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics is a self-funded gold open-access journal.

In May 2022, the editorial board introduced an APC. This is due to the Ukraine war unleashed by the russian federation.

All articles published in the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics (ISSN 2520-2979) are published in full open access (GOA). In order to provide free access to readers and to cover the costs of peer review, copyediting, typesetting, long-term archiving, and journal management, an article processing charge applies to papers accepted after peer review.

Discounts or cancellations of APCs are also available to authors from low-income countries. To do this, contact the Editor-in-Chief (editor.jsdtl@sciview.net).

For authors from low- and middle-income countries, financial assistance may be granted case-by-case basis. The Editor-in-Chief assesses applications submitted before article submission based on the quality of the research article and the authors' ability to pay.

Details: Publication Fee and Waiver Policy

Publisher’s Confirmation

In cases where scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism is suspected or confirmed, the publisher and editors will collaborate to take necessary actions to resolve the issue and rectify the relevant publication. This may entail publishing an erratum promptly or, in more serious instances, retracting the impacted work altogether.

Protection of Personal Data (GDPR)

According to Art. 13, paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (GDPR) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016) the journal's editorial office informs that:

The administrator of authors’/reviewers' personal data is the editorial office of the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics.
The controller responsible for the protection of personal data is the editorial board of the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics (e-mail).
Authors’/reviewers' personal data are processed for the purpose of executing the process of publishing/reviewing the work of which one is the author/co-author/reviewer, i.e., where one has acted as an author/reviewer, making the data available to other subjects involved in the publishing process and to abstracting and indexing services, published on the JSDTL website as the original source of these data in line with Art. 6, paragraph 1, point 1a of GDPR.
The recipients of authors’/reviewers' personal data will be readers of the journal, users of the SciView.Net, other subjects connected with the publishing process, users of the abstracting and indexing services published on the journal’s website as the original source of these data.
Authors’/reviewers' personal data will be stored for the period of active life of the Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics editorial office and subsequent five years.
Authors/reviewers have the right to access your data as well as the right to rectification, erasure, termination of processing, transfer of data, raise an objection, withdraw the consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before its withdrawal.
Authors/reviewers have the right to lodge a complaint to the Office for Personal Data Protection whenever you conclude that the processing of your data constitutes an infringement of provisions of the GDPR of 27 April 2016.
Providing personal data is a condition for having the submitted article of which one is an author/co-author or a reviewer published. Authors are obliged to provide the requested personal data, and a consequence of refraining from this obligation will be the refusal of publishing your article or accepting your review by the editorial board of the journal Journal of Sustainable Development of Transport and Logistics.