About the Journal

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Fair Play
Elimination of Libel and Copyright Infringement
Elimination of the Plagiarism
Editors Responsibilities
Authors Responsibilities
Reviewers Responsibilities

The Journal publishes articles in all fields of modern biology, including biochemistry and genetics, zoology and botany, animal and plant physiology, mycology, microbiology, soil science, ecology, cryobiology, etc., as well as materials about events in scientific life and descriptions of original methods and devices in the field of biology.

The goal of the Journal is to cover research results in different fields of biology, to review and analyze the experience of setting and solving theoretical and practical problems in Ukrainian and foreign biological studies, and to display methodological searches within modern biology.

The mission of the Journal is to contribute to the development of a wide range of modern research approaches in the field of biological disciplines, to present results of theoretical and experimental studies within the Ukrainian academic space, as well as in the international arena. The Journal seeks to promote the development of biological research in the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, to support the integration of university scientists into the Ukrainian and international scientific community.

The Journal is recommended for teachers, researchers, graduate students and students specializing in biology or adjacent fields of science.

The articles in Ukrainian and English, positively estimated by reviewers are published.

The Journal has been registered by the order of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine No. 1643 of 28.12.2019, and included in the list of scientific specialized editions of Ukraine (category “B”, specialty: 091).

ISSN 2075-5457 (print), ISSN 2220-9697 (online)

Publisher: V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI): DOI: 10.26565/2075-5457

Peer Review Process

Basic Rules

Articles are published after receiving positive reviews from two reviewers.
Correspondence of the papers with the scientific specialization of the journal shall be determined by the Editor-in-chief (or Deputy Chief Editor) who appoints two reviewers for each article. Reviewers estimate the possibility of the paper publication and recommend to make corrections if necessary. Members of the editorial board of the journal – specialists in the subject to which the submitted manuscript belongs are involved in the review, as well as researchers of corresponding departments and laboratories of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, and also researchers from other institutions whose interests coincide with the topic of the work. Duration of review – up to two months.
Editor-in-chief, Deputy Chief Editor and Executive Secretary have the right to add the own comments to the expert remarks. If the reviewers' evaluation of a certain article differ, the Editorial board makes a special decision: to accept/reject those articles or to assign new reviewers.
Rejected papers may not be considered again, except in the case of their radical processing and resubmission.
The Editorial board does not discuss the reasons of manuscript rejection with authors.

Review procedure

After receiving the manuscript, the editorial board within two days informs the author about acceptance of the article for consideration.
The Editorial office sends manuscripts to reviewers and receives text reviews from them.
The Editorial office makes a list of reviewers’ remarks and sends it to the author.
The revised paper shall be submitted for consideration of the previous experts. Along with the revised version of the manuscript, the author should send a response letter – a list of comments and questions of the reviewers and all changes made to the manuscript. Reconsideration of the paper lasts up to two months.
If the conclusions of the reviewers are positive, this is one of the key reasons to accept the paper for publication.
If the paper is rejected, the editorial office informs the author by e-mail about the reasons for the refusal.

Publication Frequency

The journal is semi-annual.

Open Access Policy

This Journal practices a policy of immediate open access to published content, supporting the principles of the free dissemination of scientific information (Open Access) and the global exchange of knowledge for the sake of general social progress.

Authorship and AI tools

Authors should not list AI-assisted technologies, such as LLMs, chatbots, or image creators, as authors or co-authors. AI tools used in research or manuscript preparation must be transparently disclosed in the cover letter, acknowledgments, and methods section. Authors are responsible for accuracy, avoiding plagiarism, and guarding against AI-induced bias. Editors may reject manuscripts for inappropriate AI use, and reviewers must refrain from AI-generated reviews to maintain confidentiality.

AI-generated images and other multimedia are not allowed in our journal without explicit permission from the editors. Exceptions may be considered for content in manuscript directly related to AI or machine learning, subject to evaluation on an individual basis.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Relationships between authors, editors and reviewers in our journal are based on academic benevolence, objectivity of ratings and priority of scientific quality. We are following the principles of Code of Conduct for Editors as defined by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), in particular

Fair Play

Manuscripts shall be evaluated for their scientific quality, regardless of author’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality or political opinions.

Elimination of Libel and Copyright Infringement

Our Journal rejects any material that breaks legal requirements regarding libel and copyright infringement.

Elimination of the Plagiarism

We check all submitted materials for the plagairism with the help of Unicheck.com.

If plagiarism is detected, the manuscript is rejected.

Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission for reproducing illustrations, tables, figures taken from other authors and/or source. Permission must be placed at the foot of each figure.

Editors Responsibilities

The Editor-in-chief shall be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and consults with other editors or reviewers about the decision to publish.

Editors

have full authority to reject or accept the article, guided by objective scientific criteria and the conclusions of reviewers;
guarantee the quality of materials that they publish or approve for publication;
contribute to the correction of errors found or reject materials in the event that such correction is impossible for one reason or another;
should identify any conflicts of interest;
should ensure the confidentiality of information relating to submitted manuscripts;
undertake to defend the freedom of scientific expression

If editors have suspicions about the authenticity, originality or ethical correctness of submitted paper, its publication is postponed until all doubts are eliminated. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in editors' own research without the express written consent of the author.

Authors Responsibilities

Authors must:

ensure that they have written truly original works;
have significant contribution to the research (if a paper has several authors);
guarantee obtained permission for use of copyrighted materials;
certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere;
identify all sources used in the creation of their manuscript;
disclose in their manuscript any substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the assessment of their manuscript.

Information obtained by authors privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. By submitting an article to the editorial board, the authors agree that (in the case of publication in the paper version of the Journal) their text will be automatically published in the online version of the Journal (under open access).

Reviewers Responsibilities

Reviewers must:

notify Editorial staff of any conflicts of interests that may determine their findings;
protect the confidentiality of information relating to the manuscript;
be objective and constructive in their reviews.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in reviewers' own research without the express written consent of the author.

Archiving

Open Journal Systems supports the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to ensure a secure and permanent archive for journal content. The LOCKSS Program is an open-source, based at Stanford University Libraries. It provides libraries and publishers open source digital preservation tools to preserve and provide access to persistent and authoritative digital content.

See LOCKSS Publisher Manifest page.

We also use Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine to store the archive of our journal.

Indexing

1. WorldCat

2. Google Scholar

3. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory

4. Web of Science (Zoological Record)

5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

6. DOAJ