Publishing Ethics

The Editorial Boards of Multiphase Systems adhere to:

• The Core Practices developed in 2017 by the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE)(https://publicationethics.org/core-practices),;
• Ethical Principles of Scientific Publications introduced by the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (Russia) (https://rassep.ru/sovet-po-etike/manifesty/deklaratsiya/).

The Publishing Ethics section was developed to prevent any malpractices in publications (plagiarism, misrepresentation etc.) and maintain the high quality of published researches.

Every step of the editorial process implies complying with the ethical standards, rules and regulations and undertaking to prevent their violations. This applies to all participants of the process, such as the editorial board (the entire board and each particular member), authors, reviewers, publishers and other parties involved in the publishing process.

Publishing Ethics for Editorial Board and Editors

The Editorial Board undertakes to:

• facilitate development of the journal in every way possible;
• improve the journal with regards to the readership;
• pay attention to the need of the journal's authors;
• make sure that the editorial process is transparent at every step;
• accept articles for publishing maintaining an unbiased attitude and freedom of expression for the sake of scholarly knowledge;
• make a decision on accepting materials for publishing based on the foundational criteria (the manuscript should match the theme and the mission of the journal; the research should be relevant and contribute to the contemporary associated field; the research should be properly structured);
• curb any attempts to influence the decision on publishing the materials; be guided by principles of justice considering the research content;
• keep confidentiality of all information obtained in the course of the editorial process; vundertake to protect personal data of all editorial process participants in every way possible;
• create conditions for maintaining the high quality of the published researches through following recommendations of experts (reviewers), allowing authors to reason their stand, editing texts to correct mistakes in grammar, style and content;
• make the final decision on accepting materials for publishing with regards to the conclusion of the peer review;
• give exhaustive explanations, if the article is declined;
• allow opponents to publish their opinions and support the scientific discussion practice in every way possible.

Ethical Standards for Submitting Authors

When submitting articles to ”Multiphase Systems“ authors are obliged to:

• ensure that they submit their original work; any statements, claims, arguments, results and conclusions that have been previously published by other researchers must be accompanied by a relevant citation;
• undertake not to use excessive citation and plagiarism in any form (using another person’s work as the author’s own, paraphrasing substantial parts of someone’s articles without proper citation, presenting results from research conducted by others without acknowledgement);
• bear personal responsibility for obtaining informed consents from colleagues, participants etc. required for inclusion of their personal data in the submitted manuscript. This responsibility must be confirmed in the Author Agreement;
• notify the Editorial Board through the Author Agreement, if the submitted manuscript or its alternative version has already been published or is considered for publication in another journal;
• declare all sources of funding used to conduct the submitted research and potential conflicts of interests associated with this funding in the Author Agreement;
• comply with the basic authorship principles: authorship of the manuscript should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception or design of the research or to the collection, analysis and interpretation of the research data. All people who have made a substantial contribution to preparing the manuscript should be listed as co-authors;
• have the final (submitted) version of the manuscript approved by all co-authors;
• if the author discovers a serious error or inaccuracy in their published article or the manuscript under consideration for publication, they will be obliged to promptly notify the editorial board about the problem and cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief or the publisher in the course of correction or retraction process;
• if the editorial board receives convincing evidence from a third party that a published article contains significant errors or inaccuracies, the board should promptly notify the author about the problem. The author’s duty is to retract or correct the article as quickly as possible;
• exercise sound judgment and avoid personal criticism in discussing other people’s research work in their manuscripts. The editorial board reserves the right to decline the manuscripts violating this requirement or to make changes to the style of the manuscript.

Ethical Standards for Peer-Review Process

A reviewer is an expert competent enough to assess researches submitted for publication to ”Multiphase Systems“ a reviewer is obliged:

• to adhere to principles of fair judgement, when assessing significance of materials submitted for publication;
• to guarantee privacy and never allow discussing of the paper with anybody other then the editorial board members authorized by the Editor-in-Chief to work with the author's manuscript;
• to never use the information disclosed in the course of review for personal purposes;
• if the reviewer find outs that they do not have the level of expertise required to provide a high-quality review of the manuscript or if the reviewer discovers any conflicting interest with the author of the manuscript, they shall promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief about the problem and abstain from the reviewing process;
• to conclude on validity and scientific significance based on particular facts and provide reasoning for their conclusions;
• to make a statement in their review, if they notice substantial or partial similarities between the manuscript under review and any other published or unpublished article; to make a statement in their review, if they notice missing references to statements, conclusions or evidence previously published in other articles of this or other authors;
• to support the author in improving the submitted research;
• to never use materials of the manuscript to be published in the reviewer's own researches under any circumstances.

In the course of review the editorial board is obliged:

• to keep the review process confidential using a double-blind peer review procedure (reviewers receive blinded manuscripts without any signs of the authorship; authors receive anonymized review reports);
• to ensure strict adherence to the ethical guidelines in the course of the peer-review process; to inform reviewers that they have an obligation to express their views clearly with supporting arguments and to avoid any derogatory comments or personal criticism of the authors.

Conflict of Interest

To maintain all principles of the publication ethics it is important to prevent conflict of interest for all parties engaged in the manuscript publication process. A conflict of interest may arise, if the author, a reviewer or an editorial board member have financial, research or personal relations compromising their actions. These relations can be called dual commitments, competing interests or competing loyalties.

In order to prevent conflict of interest and adhere to the established ethics of the journal each party bears the following obligations.

The Editor's obligations:

• If the editor reveals a conflict of interest between the originally appointed reviewer and the author of the submitted manuscript, they will immediately reassign the manuscript for consideration to another member of the editorial board.
• The editor will request information on possible conflict of interest from all participants of the manuscript publishing process.
• The editor will decide on publishing the information provided by the author in the letter concerning all conflicts of research and/or financial interests unless this information is confidential and can compromise the evaluation of the published article by the readership or the scientific community.
• The editor will facilitate publication of corrections, if the information about the conflict of interest is obtained after the article is published.

The Author's obligations:

• The author will list all possible and available sources of conflict of interest in the cover letter.
• The author will provide their affiliation and the research funding source.
• If there is no conflict of interest, the author will indicate it in the cover letter under a separate clause.

The Reviewer's obligations:

• The reviewer will always immediately inform the editorial board of the conflict of interest (dual commitments or competing interests) and abstain from the manuscript review.

Publication Ethics on Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools

If authors use generative artificial intelligence (hereinafter referred to as AI) tools to generate new knowledge, it is considered unethical; the author should be aware of all the risks of violating the privacy principles when working with AI tools. AI tools are allowed for:

• collecting and analyzing data (make sure to list it in your Methods);
• improving the manuscript language (make sure to list it in your Acknowledgments).

AI tools are not allowed for generating new knowledge.

Under no circumstances AI can be listed as an author, a co-author or a contributor to the article.

For editors and reviewers it is unethical to use generative AI tools because the data processing algorithm itself prevents adherence to the privacy principles binding all participants of the editorial process.

Publication Ethics Violations

If there is a situation that demonstrates any participant of the editorial process (author, reviewer or editorial board) violating ethical requirements, the situation should be immediately investigated. Investigation can be applied to either a published or an unpublished research. Such violations list:

• improper citation;
• plagiarism (using another person's work without citing it word for word);
• republishing your own research;
• misrepresentation of data or using falsified data;
• improper acknowledgement of author's contribution.

Actions in Case of Ethics Violation Discovery

If you suspect that an author, editor or reviewer has violated the ethics norms, please notify the editorial board about your suspicions in writing. Reports and complaints could be sent by e-mail to the journal’s official address: multiphase.systems@mail.ru or by post to the journal’s legal address: Russia, 450054, Ufa, Pr. Oktyabrya, 71, Mavlyutov Institute of Mechanics UFRC RAS, – to the Editor-in-Chief of the ”Multiphase Systems“. A complaint shall contain concise and clear statements describing the suspected violation and factual proof of the violation of the ethics.

Each report containing complaints against the author, reviewer or editor is registered by the executive secretary in the incoming mail journal. The editorial board will thoroughly review the complaint and draw a report establishing all evidence of the case.

Throughout the entire investigation the editorial board will strictly adhere to the principles of confidentiality, fairness and impartiality. All investigation aspects will remain confidential.

Complaints against the Author (plagiarism and / or improper citation, misrepresentation of data, falsified data, improper acknowledgment of authorship (in case of co-authorship)

If the editorial board receives a complaint against the author, the editorial board will request a comment from the author in writing. Based on the comment the editorial board will hold a meeting and adopt one of the decisions below:

• decline the complaint (if the research author(s) provide(s) reasonable response);
• allow the complaint (if the author(s) refuse to provide a response or if the response lacks reasoning).

If the violations pointed out in the complaint are severe violations of the journal's publication ethics, the editorial board will impose sanctions against the author(s) and the research.  

Duplicate Publication

If the editorial board receives a complaint about a duplicate publication, the complaint will be considered by the journal's editorial board to determine differences and additions in the duplicate article. If the differences are not substantial, the article will be declared a duplicate one and shall be subject to corrections.

If the authors use their own previously published research or submit a research previously submitted to other publishers, the editorial board will request a written response from the authors to explain differences in the submitted research and the previously published research or the research submitted to another publisher.

An article is allowed for publication in a different language only subject to the following conditions:

• There is a consent from the editorial board of the journal and / or the publisher that published the original article.
• There is a compulsory notice that the article is republished.
• The editorial board confirms significance of the research: if published in a different language, it will gain the new readership or will be designed for a different readership.

Response to Publication Ethics Violations

If the investigation reveals to the editorial board of the ”Multiphase Systems“ proven facts of the journal's declared publication ethics violated, the editorial board will undertake:

• to decline the author's particular manuscript for publication;
• to publish a notice on behalf of the Editor-in-Chief about mending the detected violation in the next issue of the journal;
• to mend the published research in a way that will mend the said nonconformity in the journal indexing systems and in a way that will be reached by the readership;
• to ban publications of this author in the journal for the term established for every particular case;
• to terminate further cooperation with this editorial board member or reviewer;
• to delete the research from the journal (to delete the article from the journal's web-site).

Any of the above-mentioned response is adopted by the editorial board after thorough consideration of the complaint and impartial and fair resolution. In case of especially severe publication ethics violations the editorial board reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beside the sanctions listed above.

The party the complaint was filed against has the right to appeal to the resolution. The resolution is subject to appeal in writing either by email or by regular mail at the journal's correspondence address within 30 days since the notification of the resolution. The wording of the appeal should reasonably refute the resolution.