Publication Ethics & Malpractice

Arkheologiia Evraziiskikh Stepei (Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes) is strongly against any form of unethical behavior or plagiarism. To prevent any such malpractices is one of our most important responsibilities.
The editors and the board of the international reviewed journal “Arkheologiia Evraziiskikh Stepei (Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes)” follow internationally accepted principles of publication ethics, particularly reflected in the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) of Elsevier.

The editors and the board strictly adhere to the ethic norms in their own activities and in relations with all stakeholders: authors, reviewers, editors, publisher, distributors and readers. Below please find the list of ethical norms to be followed by the authors, reviewers and editors who are involved in publication of research findings.

Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes does not charge for submission, processing and publication of articles. Publication of articles in our journal is free of charge.

We recommend our potential authors to study the Ethical Code, the Principles of good practice for editors and the Ethical Code for the publishers of journals.

Please pay attention to the main principles of professional ethics:

Ethics in Scientific Publication

  • The editors accept for consideration only previously unpublished manuscripts that correspond to the focus of the journal and the criteria of scientific quality;
  • To reasonably react and prevent publication of papers relating to some unethical behavior of the authors. Members of the editorial board should not provoke such unethical actions or consciously permit such sort of violations.
  • Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes does not publish information about material which is suspected to be looted;
  • When deciding whether to accept/reject a manuscript, the editor questions authenticity and importance of the received manuscript, its compliance with the topic of the journal, its uniqueness, clarity and relevance of research;
  • the editorial office guarantees that the decision-making process is free of any racial, gender, sexual or religious prejudices and is not biased by the origin, nationality, social status or political preferences of the authors;
  • the editorial office guarantees full confidentiality in the process of submission, processing and reviewing of manuscripts. Non-published manuscripts cannot be used for personal purposes or transferred to any third party;
  • the editorial office shall coordinate any amendments, changes and/or cuts of the text;
  • the editor and the publisher shall answer every petition regarding the reviewed or published manuscripts. Also, in case of any conflict, they will take every necessary step to remedy the infringed rights;
  • the editors and the publisher shall admit faults and, if necessary, shall publish corrections, clarifications, disclaimers and apologies (Instructions for revoking or correcting articles);
  • the editors’ opinion may not always be consistent with the opinion of the authors.

Reviewing Ethics

  • The editors shall ensure confidentiality of the review process and inform the reviewers on strict ethical principles to be observed in reviewing process;
  • Reviewing is anonymous. Reviewers receive anonymous manuscripts. Negative reviews are sent to the authors without signature and name of the reviewer, his/her function or place of work. Any breach of anonymity is only possible if the reviewer reports on falsification or fabrication of matters addressed in the manuscript, or in case of plagiarism;
  • The reviewer shall provide objective and well-grounded evaluation of the research findings. No personal criticism is acceptable;
  • The reviewer who does not have, in his own judgment, sufficient qualifications to do the evaluation, or cannot be objective (for instance, when there is a conflict of interests with the author or his/her organization), shall inform the editor thereof and request not to assign him/her with reviewing of this manuscript;
  • Positive reviews are not a sufficient ground for publication. The final decision on feasibility of a publication shall be upon the editorial board.

Authors’ Ethics

  • The authors shall guarantee authenticity of research. All borrowed fragments or statements shall have the required references to the author and the source. Too many borrowings and plagiarism of any form, including hidden quotes, paraphrases or appropriation of rights on others’ research shall be unethical and unacceptable;
  • The authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions for publication of the materials they use in their papers. The rights to use materials in publication shall be confirmed in the agreement with author;
  • The authors shall inform the editors in case they have submitted their manuscripts for consideration in other periodicals, or a different version of the same article is in print elsewhere, as well as which periodicals earlier published the same materials. A confirmation of the fact that the materials have not been published elsewhere shall be set in the agreement with author;
  • The authors shall report sources of funding of their research(agreement with author), to prevent any possible conflicts;
  • The authors shall guarantee that the list of co-authors includes just the ones who made a substantial contribution to the research. The final version of the article and its submission for publication shall be approved by all co-authors;
  • Should the author identify substantial errors or uncertainties in the article at the time of its review or after its publication, he/she shall immediately inform the editors and take joint steps to either eliminate them or withdraw the article.
  • We call all the authors to proceed correctly while criticizing their colleagues. Otherwise, the editors shall reserve the right to reject the manuscript or improve its style.

ADVERTISING POLICIES

The editorial board adheres to ethical standards in its work and, above all, defending the right to editorial independence. Placement of promotional materials and sponsorship can not influence in any way on editorial decisions and editorial content. The journal does not publish materials to accompany the advertising and does not sell advertising for specific articles. Advertising and information materials is not mixed with the editorial content.

All decisions on advertising placement are only accepted by the publisher. The editors reserve the right not to accept advertising materials, placement does not meet the publication policy.