Ethical Policy

Our journals are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards in research publication. We attach special importance to ethical values such as honesty, excellence in research practice, transparency, open communication, and respect. We strictly follow the guidelines set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to follow these ethical guidelines.

Authorship: Anyone who has made substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data; draft the work or revise it critically; approve the final version of the work; agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work should be listed as an author of the manuscript. Anyone who has contributed to the work but fail to meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Corresponding author is the person who handles the correspondence during the publication process and has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors in all matters related to the publication of the article. Corresponding author continues to act as the main point of contact for any enquiries after the article is published. 
Conflict of Interest: To ensure that the articles published in our journals are free from inappropriate external influence, authors must declare any potential conflict of interests that may affect the objectivity or integrity of the article. These conflicts may be financial, non-financial, professional, or personal in nature.
Funding: Authors must provide details of source of funding received during the preparation of the manuscript as required by the funding and grant-awarding bodies. 
Studies Involving Human or Animal Subjects: Studies involving human or animal subjects must abide by institutional and national policies for ethical conduct and include proper documentation such as ethical committee approvals, informed consents, and other legal permissions.
Ethical Oversight: Research works that include potentially hazardous chemicals or procedures must clearly state the details. If necessary, the submission must be accompanied by the appropriate ethical documentation.
Data Sharing and Availability: Our journals expect the authors to be open and transparent about the data, code, or other materials related to the published content. To ensure that findings of the study are reproducible and reliable, authors are encouraged to deposit data in a suitable repository and describe where the data may be found. 
Advertising: Our journals allow limited and targeted advertising on their web sites to exclusively promote selected research content published by the publisher.
Complaints and Appeals: Anyone who may be concerned that publication ethics guidelines or principles are not followed should raise their complaints and appeals with details and documents about the case. Complaints and appeals should be directed to info@discimus.rs. All complaints and appeals will be handled rigorously according to the best practices of COPE.
Corrections and Retractions: If an error is found during post publication, our journals will publish a corrigendum or an erratum. Retractions are published if the errors are very significant and results and conclusions are no longer reliable. If serious ethical malpractices such as plagiarism and duplication are discovered in a published article, our journals reserve the right to retract the article and take up the matter to relevant academic bodies or institutions.

Malpractice and Plagiarism Policy

Authors must avoid research misconduct including but not limited to fabrication, falsification, duplication, and plagiarism. Cases of suspected malpractice must be investigated by editors according to best practices of COPE. If a malpractice is documented, even after the article is published, the article may be retracted, and authors may be banned from submitting additional manuscripts for a definite interval.

Using someone else’s ideas, words, or data, in part or in whole, without correctly acknowledging the original source is considered as plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious malpractice and a violation of ethical principles of the journal. In order to ensure that the content published is original, all incoming manuscripts are processed against plagiarism using a similarity checking medium that allows comprehensive text screening. Manuscripts that are highly similar to the existing literature may be immediately rejected.

Responsibility of Authors

• Authorship should be limited to those who have made substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data; draft the work or revise it critically; approve the final version of the work; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. 
• Articles submitted to a journal should be original works of the authors, not previously published elsewhere and not under consideration by any other journal for publication.
• Permission for any copyrighted material should be acquired prior to submission.
• All works of others that are influential to the article must be properly cited.
• All authors must have seen and approve the final version of the article and have agreed to its publication.
• All authors should clearly disclose any financial or other conflict of interest that may bias the results or interpretation of the work. 
• If the authors discover an error or inaccuracy in the article, even post publication, authors must promptly notify the editors and cooperate to correct or retract the article.

Responsibility of Reviewers

• Reviewers should provide objective evaluation and supportive feedback for the submitted work.
• Reviewers must not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript.
• Reviewers should respond within a reasonable timeframe that is suggested by the editors.

Responsibility of Editors

• The editors should provide objective and timely publication decisions based on the review reports.
• The editors should not discriminate any work based on author’s race, gender, origin, etc.
• The editors must keep the information about the submitted manuscript confidential.

If you have questions that are not addressed on this page, please contact: info@discimus.rs