PUBLICATION ETHICS, AND EDITORIAL POLICY OF THE JOURNAL

The publication ethics and editorial policy of the journal Irpin Law Journal have been developed in accordance with the Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The Editorial Board of the journal monitors the compliance of materials with international ethical standards and undertakes to exercise strict preliminary scholarly and editorial control, including mandatory plagiarism screening (using specialized software) and checking for data fabrication/falsification, and guarantees a prompt response to any signals of ethical misconduct at the pre- and post-publication stages.
The Editorial Board assumes full institutional responsibility for the quality of selection, objectivity of peer review, and the methodological, professional, and substantive validity of the materials accepted for publication. The Editorial Office guarantees that no article can be published if reasonable doubts regarding its scientific novelty, methodological correctness, or quality of argumentation arise during the double-blind peer review process.
Any changes to the editorial policy shall be adopted exclusively by decision of the Editorial Board and published on the website in advance, indicating the effective date.
Changes are not retroactive and do not apply to manuscripts that are already undergoing peer review or typesetting at the time the rules are updated.
The Editorial Board of the journal aims to promote the development of legal science, ensure the high quality of legal research, and integrate Ukrainian legal science into the global scholarly space.
The Editorial Office reserves the right to make stylistic and literary edits to the manuscript while preserving the author's style. Edits that, in the opinion of the Editorial Office, may alter the meaning of the text shall be coordinated with the author.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD, PUBLISHER, AND REVIEWERS OF THE JOURNAL

In its activities, the Editorial Board of the journal is guided by the recommendations of international organizations in the field of publication ethics, in particular the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the principles of responsible research assessment set forth in the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
COPE principles are used to ensure an appropriate response to cases of potential academic integrity violations, including issues of plagiarism, conflicts of interest, corrections, and retractions of publications. The approaches enshrined in DORA are supported by the journal in terms of the responsible use of scientometric metrics and preventing the formal evaluation of research quality based solely on quantitative indicators.
Members of the journal's Editorial Board and/or external independent experts review articles in accordance with the principle of objectivity and from the standpoint of international academic standards.
The Editorial Board of the scholarly publication reserves the right to reject articles that do not meet the requirements and scope of the journal.
The opinions and proposals expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board. The authors bear responsibility for the reliability of the information in the articles, the accuracy of names, statistical data, surnames, and citations.
In its activities, the Editorial Board follows the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and requires compliance with ethical obligations from all participants in the process.
The Editorial Board of the journal adheres to and implements:
The recommendations and approaches set forth in the DORA Declaration (San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment), which aim to ensure a responsible, objective, and fair approach to research assessment (not using the journal impact factor as a decisive or sole criterion for evaluating articles; avoiding manipulation of citation indicators; evaluating manuscripts based on scientific novelty, practical value, methodological transparency, and quality of argumentation; evaluating manuscripts by their content rather than by the authors' affiliations or funding levels; promoting the practice of responsible authorship, etc.);
WAME principles (World Association of Medical Editors), namely regarding: editorial independence (the editor's decisions are made without any pressure from institutions, sponsors, or commercial interests); conflict of interest (all authors, reviewers, and editors are required to declare it); peer review (ensuring objective, fair, and timely expert evaluation), and transparency of funding (disclosure of information about sponsors, grants, and research funding sources); supporting young scholars (promoting publications of researchers at the beginning of their careers);
DOAJ principles of transparency and best practice (Directory of Open Access Journals) (full and open access to publications; use of Creative Commons licenses; transparent editorial policy and peer review process; indicating dates of submission, review, and publication; adherence to publication ethics standards; open information about the publisher and the editorial board; absence of hidden fees);
OASPA principles (Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association), which are aimed at the development of open science.
The Editorial Board is responsible for the publication of the author's scholarly manuscript and is guided in its work by the following fundamental principles of professional ethics:
The reliability of the submitted data and the scientific significance of the submitted work form the basis for making a decision on the publication of the author's scholarly manuscript. The Editorial Board does not allow materials to be published if they lack scientific value, do not correspond to the scope of the journal, or contradict the journal's editorial policy. Furthermore, scholarly works that contain plagiarism or have already been published in other editions are not accepted for publication;
The Editorial Board of the journal does not disclose any information regarding the submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, and other editorial staff, ensuring the confidentiality of the received information and preventing its use, including for personal benefit or for transfer to third parties;
The Editorial Board evaluates the intellectual content of authors' manuscripts regardless of race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, origin, social status, and their previous merits. The Editorial Board of the journal maintains a correct and respectful attitude toward authors and their scholarly activities, while preventing any unfairness in processing the submitted materials;
Engaging objective and competent reviewers and applying the practice of double-blind peer review, etc.
All manuscripts undergo mandatory screening for textual overlaps. The Editorial Board practices an individual and qualitative approach to the analysis of uniqueness reports. When evaluating the material, the specifics of legal science are taken into account; therefore, correctly formatted citations from normative legal acts, judicial practice, and official documents are excluded from the aggregate index of borrowings. The decision to send an article for peer review is made based on an analysis of the essence and nature of the detected overlaps.
The Editorial Board provides authors with the opportunity to give a reasoned response to any comments.
The reviewer performs a scholarly expertise of the author's materials in order to objectively evaluate the quality of the submitted article and determine its level of compliance with scientific, literary, and ethical standards. When evaluating an article, the reviewer must be unbiased and adhere to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
An article received for review is treated as a confidential document that cannot be transferred to third parties for review or discussion.
The reviewer conducts the scholarly expertise of the author's materials impartially. Comments must be clearly formulated with supporting arguments so that authors can use them to improve the article. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.
The reviewer is obliged to give an objective and reasoned assessment of the presented research results, determine the compliance of the manuscript with scientific standards, and alert the editor to any published or submitted material that is substantially similar to the one under consideration.
Unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for consideration may not be used by the reviewer for personal purposes.
The reviewer cannot be the author (co-author) of the manuscript submitted for review, or act as the scientific supervisor of the degree candidate. The reviewer should not accept manuscripts for consideration if there is a conflict of interest with any author(s) of such a manuscript.
A reviewer who believes they lack sufficient qualifications to evaluate an article or cannot be objective, for instance, in the event of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, must notify the Editorial Office and request to be excluded from the peer review process for that specific article.
The reviewer is obliged to notify the Editorial Board of the journal of any reasonable suspicion of plagiarism, authorship disputes, or data falsification in the scholarly work, as well as any other violations of ethical principles of publication.
Completed reviews are confidential, and disclosing the details of the manuscript review violates the author's rights. Breach of such confidentiality is permissible only in the event of a statement regarding the falsification or unreliability of the materials.
The publisher provides support to the Editorial Board of the journal when considering claims regarding the ethical aspects of published materials and assists in interacting with other journals and/or publishers if this contributes to the fulfillment of the duties of the Editorial Board members.
The publisher adheres to the provision that the journal's activity is not a commercial project and does not aim to make a profit.
The publisher facilitates the process of making amendments to a publication or retracting a publication if such a decision has been made by the Editorial Board of the journal.
The publisher is responsible for the publication of authors' works.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS

Authors bear personal responsibility for the accuracy of the facts, statistical data, proper names, and citations presented, as well as for the originality of the expressed scientific hypotheses or concepts.
Authors must guarantee the originality of the research results presented in the submitted manuscripts. Borrowed fragments or statements must be appropriately formatted with citations, mandatory attribution of the author, and the primary source. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, is unethical and unacceptable. Authors should refrain from excessive and unjustified self-citation of their own publications, which may be grounds for rejection of publication.
Authors must acknowledge the contributions of all individuals who influenced the course of the research in any way. In particular, the article must include references to works that were significant in conducting the research.
All individuals who made a significant contribution to the research must be listed as co-authors of the article. It is unacceptable to include individuals among the co-authors who did not participate in the research.
The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors are included in the list of authors of the manuscript, and that there is full agreement among the co-authors regarding the approval of the final version of the article and its submission for publication.
Authors must not submit articles that are under consideration or peer review in other publications, as well as articles that have already been published previously.
In the event that an author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in their article, they must notify the Editorial Office of the journal as soon as possible.
Manuscript authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the project, grants, and other types of funding (if any), and provide information about the employer, etc.
By submitting their materials for publication in the journal, authors agree that they may be placed in electronic databases with attribution of authorship and the mandatory preservation of copyright in full.