Publication ethics

The ”Multiphase Systems“ journal is guided in its work by the ethical principles of scientific publications accepted by the international and Russian scientific and publishing communities and reflected in the following sources:

Core Practices developed by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) in 2017,
Ethical guidelines are available online at the Publication Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) website launched by Elsevier Publishing,
Declaration of ”Ethical Principles of Scientific Publications“ developed by the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP) in 2016.

The editorial of ”Multiphase Systems“ strictly adheres to the code of ethics declared in the cited source and also requires all parties involved in the publication process to comply with it: authors, reviewers, editors and publishers.

The editorial encourage all interested persons to familiarize themselves with the Declaration of the Association of Scientific Editors and Publishers (ANRI) ”Ethical principles of scientific publications“, available at https://rassep.ru/sovet-po-etike/manifesty/deklaratsiya/ and further be guided by the described principles.

Ethical standards for publishing scientific articles

To decide on the publication of an article, the Editorial assesses the credibility of the submitted scientific research, its scientific significance, its conformity with the aims and objectives of the Journal, and the relevance of the research. In addition, the Editorial is guided by current legal requirements regarding defamation, copyright, legality and plagiarism;
Submitted articles must not have been previously published or accepted for publication in other publications;
If there is doubt about the authorship of an article, the Editorial of the journal ”Multiphase Systems“ may refuse to accept the applicant's article for publication;
Journal ”Multiphase Systems“ editors ensure that the decision to accept a manuscript is independent of the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious views, origin, citizenship, social status or political preferences;
The Editorial guarantees full confidentiality during the acceptance and peer review process;
Submitted manuscripts cannot be used by the Editorial Board members for personal purposes or passed on to third parties;
The Editorial undertakes to agree with the author(s) on the possibility of revising, modifying or shortening the text during the review and editing process;
The Editorial and the publisher undertake not to leave unresolved any claim related to the article or publication under review and, in the event of a dispute, to take all necessary measures for the restitution of the rights violated;
In the event that an error is identified, the Editoriald and the Publisher undertake to publish a correction, clarification, retraction or apology;
If a conflict of interest arises due to competition, collaboration, or other interactions or relationships with the authors, companies, or other organizations associated with the manuscript, the editor should withdraw from the review of the manuscript (either by asking an associate editor, associate editor, or working with another editorial board member).

Ethics of peer review of scientific publications

The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board are responsible for ensuring complete confidentiality of the peer review process, using a double-blind method (reviewers receive manuscripts without any trace of authorship and authors are subject to anonymous peer review);
The Editorial strictly adheres to the ethical principles of peer review, does not allow offensive language or personal criticism of authors, and requires reviewers to express their views in a clear and reasonable manner;
If the reviewer perceives insufficient competence to evaluate the manuscript or if there is a conflict of interest (competition, collaboration or other interaction with the author or organization), he/she is obliged to report this to the journal's editorial board and request that this manuscript be removed from the review process;
The referee undertakes to identify all statements, observations and conclusions in the submitted manuscript that have been previously published and for which there is no corresponding bibliographic reference in the present manuscript;
The referee is obliged to notify the Editorial Board promptly and in a reasonable manner if any significant and material agreement with other previously published work appears in the manuscript submitted for peer review.

Ethical standards for authors of submitted manuscripts

Authors of submitted articles guarantee the originality of their research. If the work, statements or results of other authors have been used, these borrowings must be formalized with appropriate bibliographic references;
Excessive borrowing or plagiarism in any form (providing the work of others, paraphrasing significant parts of others' work without attribution, claiming rights over the results of others' research) is unethical behavior and will not be tolerated;
The authors assume full responsibility for obtaining all necessary permissions for publication of the material used in the article and undertake to document the above rights;
The author undertakes to inform the Editorial Board that the submitted article or a revised version of it is under consideration or has already appeared in another publication (guarantee of original work);
To avoid potential conflicts, authors undertake to indicate the source of research funding in the manuscript;
Authors of an article can only be those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conception of the study, formulation of the problem, development, conduct or interpretation of the research presented;
The final version of the manuscript must be approved by all co-authors;
Authors must notify the journal's Editorial Board as soon as possible of any serious errors or inaccuracies discovered during the editing process or after publication and take joint measures to eliminate them;
If the Editorial Board receives information about inaccuracies or errors from third parties, the author undertakes to correct the identified errors as soon as possible;
All authors of manuscripts, expressing criticism of colleagues, are obliged to observe the correctness of the wording, the Editorial Board reserves the right, in case of violation of this requirement, to either reject the material or make changes to its style.

The editorial board of ”Multiphase Systems“ considers that there are unethical

Providing independent reviews of an author's own paper at the author's suggestion; and
Substituting a third party for the writing of scientific articles by the author;
It is a violation of copyright and ethical standards to cite as a co-author a person who did not contribute sufficiently to the writing of the scientific work;
Transferring articles to other publications without the author's permission;
Transferring manuscripts to third parties other than referees and editorial board/editing board members, as this violates copyright and the principle of confidentiality of the editorial and publication process;
Manipulation of citations, including unfair self-citation and ”friendly“ citation;
Plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of submitted manuscripts.

Editors' obligations when ethical violations are detected

In the event of a breach of publication ethics by an editor, author or reviewer, the journal's Editorial Board will conduct a qualified investigation. This applies to published articles and unpublished material (from the moment of receipt by the journal's editorial board). The journal's editorial board will request all necessary disclosures from the parties involved and undertake to avoid conflicts of interest between the parties.

Complaints regarding violations of publication ethics can be made against unauthorized borrowing of texts, graphics and illustrations from others, as well as plagiarism (borrowing content or results without repeating others' texts and related links verbatim), reproduction of one's own publications, display of unreliable or altered data in the texts of published or submitted works, and any other use of copyrighted material. Some of the other infringements include: reproduction of one's own publications, presentation of unreliable or falsified data in the texts of works published or submitted for publication, misrepresentation of the author's contribution to the work as a whole.

Measures to be taken in the event of a breach by a third party

Any party who becomes aware of a violation should submit a complaint in writing to the editorial office (mfs@uimech.org) or by mail to the address:

Russia, 450054, Ufa, Pr. Oktyabrya, 71, Mavlyutov Institute of Mechanics UFRC RAS, the journal "Multiphase Systems“.

Appeals with signs of unethical behavior should have the following:

Clear language describing the offending behavior itself, without offensive formality;
Irrefutable evidence of this fact;
Personal details of the person reporting the offense (full name and contact details);
A text that can be freely read.

When a complaint is received, the responsible secretary must register it. On the initiative of the editor-in-chief, the composition of the expert committee is organized under the chairmanship of the editor-in-chief or deputy editor-in-chief. The review is conducted in accordance with all norms of international practice in publication ethics and ensures that the principles of confidentiality, impartiality and fairness are respected.

Editorial action if unethical practices are identified during the handling of the article

In handling the manuscript, the editors may detect unauthorized borrowing or plagiarism, presentation of unreliable or falsified data, misrepresentation of the author's contribution to the collaborative work, or other indications of unethical behavior. In such cases, the author will be informed in writing of the identified violation and asked to provide an explanation. If it is a technical error, the author may amend the manuscript. If the amount of citation without proper attribution exceeds the permissible limits (if most or all of the text is cited), this is a serious breach of publication ethics and the editors reserve the right to sanction the article and may remove it from the list of articles recommended for publication.

Upon receipt of a final manuscript containing the referees' comments, the Director General will ask the author for clarification. If the author responds to the comments in writing with a clearly formulated and convincing justification, the Editor-in-Chief has the right to reject the allegation against the author. If no response is received from the author of the article, or if the response does not contain a clearly formulated and convincing justification, the Editor-in-Chief will accept the allegation and will also inform the author of the allegation and the author of the article in writing.

Editorial action after publication of the article

In the event of publication of an article containing examples of proven breaches of publication ethics, the editor undertakes to correct the publication so that it is accessible to readers and all citation bases in which the publication is indexed at that time.

If correction is not possible, the publication is withdrawn (retracted). If the editor-in-chief receives a complaint about a serious violation of publication ethics in relation to a published article, the editor in charge will notify the author of the complaint and inform him/her of the terms of the evaluation and decision. The evaluation period cannot exceed two months. The decision to withdraw an article must be taken at a meeting of the editorial board and recorded in the minutes, and the reason and date of withdrawal must also be stated. If a decision is made to withdraw the manuscript, the editorial board will provide the author(s) with a written withdrawal decision referring to the review and its outcome, while maintaining professional anonymity. In the electronic version of the journal, the withdrawal of the article and the date of the withdrawal decision must be indicated on the table of contents of the issue and on the text of the article that will remain.