Godišnjak applies the highest standards of academic ethics in the process of publishing scientific papers. These ethical norms deal with the issues of authorship and contributorship, editorial process, the peer review process, conflicts of interest, complaints, withdrawal and retraction of papers, corrections, open access to published material and its use, post-publication scientific discussions, etc. Editorial Board and Editor-in-chief guarantee the application of all prescribed ethical norms.
Authorship and Contributorship
The author is a person who created the idea for the paper, conducted scientific research, and presented the results of that research in written form. The author also holds the copyright and gives Godišnjak the right for the first publication of the paper under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. A co-author or contributor is a person who significantly contributed to the process of research or writing and thus deserves to be mentioned as one of the authors of the paper. Co-authors and contributors hold the same rights as the author. Both author and co-authors are required to provide Godišnjak’s Editorial Board with a signed Declaration of Authorship, which contains a detailed description of all ethical requirements of authorship. (See Author Guidelines.)
Editorial Process
Godišnjak’s Editorial Board receives submitted papers and conducts preliminary check (desk-review). Before sending the paper to reviewers, Editorial Board is required to check if the paper follows all technical requirements for publication, if it corresponds with the journal’s aims and scope, if it contains hate speech or any other content that might be considered harmful or insulting to vulnerable populations, etc. During the peer review process, the Editorial Board is required to maintain the imperative of anonymity, i.e. the author should not know the identity of reviewers and reviewers should not know the identity of the author. In the case of conflict of interest that includes members of the Editorial Board, e.g. if a member of the Editorial Board is in any kind of dispute with the author, they will not participate in the process of desk-review, peer review, and publication of author’s paper.
Peer Review Process
Godišnjak sends all submitted papers to a double-blind peer review process. The author does not know the identity of the reviewers, and the reviewers do not know the identity of the author. The reviewers are scholars who are experts in the field and subjects of submitted papers. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the reviewer should not hold positions in the same institution as the author. The reviewers are required to respect the imperative of anonymity and objectivity. They should not insult or belittle the author, contents, or the conclusions of the paper in any way. Also, the reviewers are required to respect prescribed timelines for conducting peer review and to write their evaluation and final decision in the provided Peer Review Template. (See Peer Review Process.)
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of interest occurs in any situation when necessary professional objectivity is endangered by secondary interests. Godišnjak’s Editorial Board strives to prevent any kind of conflict of interest during the processes of peer review and publication, or, if these are inevitable, tries to offer adequate solutions.
In the case of a dispute between authors of the paper, e.g. regarding the leading author or name order, the Editorial Board will mediate between conflicting sides in order to reach a solution. If the authors are unable to compromise, Editorial Board will not publish the paper until a solution is reached.
Members of the Editorial Board can also be included in the conflict of interest. For example, if the Editorial Board member is in any kind of dispute with the author who has submitted the paper to our journal, that member will be excluded from the processes of desk-review, peer review, and publication. Publishing papers authored by members of the Editorial Board is also considered a conflict of interest, which is why Godišnjak avoids such practice.
Conflict of interest during the peer review process occurs if the author finds out the identity of reviewers and vice versa. In these cases, the Editorial Board will send the paper to another reviewer. (See Peer Review Process.)
If the conflict of interest occurs after the publication of a paper, e.g. if it comes to Editorial Board’s attention that the author has committed plagiarism, failed to give proper credit to used sources, has already published the same paper elsewhere, etc., the Editorial Board will consider these allegations and properly inform the author. The author is required to answer the allegations. After the author’s answer is received, the Editorial Board will determine its next steps. If the allegations are proven to be true, the paper will be removed from the journal’s website and the author will be forbidden from publishing in Godišnjak for the next three years.
Complaints
The authors can complain against members of the Editorial Board and the peer review process. If the author suspects that their paper was unjustifiably rejected after desk-review or that its contents were inappropriately changed, they can submit the complaint to the administration (dean) of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Saint Basil of Ostrog”, i.e. to the journal’s publisher. The author can also complain against the peer review process if they suspect that their identity was revealed to the reviewer or if they consider the reviewer’s evaluation to be inappropriate. (See Author Guidelines and Peer Review Process.)
Withdrawal and Correction of Papers
The authors are able to withdraw yet unpublished or already published papers from Godišnjak if they suspect that they have committed serious scientific or methodological errors that might harm their own and the journal’s reputations. In such cases, the authors are required to offer a detailed explanation to the Editorial Board. Corrections of published papers are possible if authors, especially after public scientific discussion regarding their published research, think that they should correct certain parts of the papers, or if they have unintentionally committed scientific and methodological errors. Notifications on withdrawals and corrections of papers will be published on the journal’s website. (See Withdrawal and Correction of Papers.)
Availability and Use of Published Material
Godišnjak applies Open Access policy that entails the public availability of published material without any fees or required registration. All papers are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that enables sharing and adapting of published material while giving proper credit to the original author and publication. (See Open Access Policy and Authorship and Licensing.)
Post-Publication Scientific Discussions
Godišnjak supports and encourages public scientific discussions on published papers. The platform for such discussion is Godišnjak’s website, where authors might publish written responses or critiques to previously published papers.
Православни богословски факултет
