Principles of publication ethics

The journal “Agora. Social Sciences Journal” upholds international standards of academic integrity, transparency, and responsible evaluation of scientific results. In its activities, the editorial board is guided by the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), which promote openness, reproducibility, and accessibility of scientific materials.

DORA Principles Compliance Policy

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) establishes standards for a responsible, non-discriminatory, and objective approach to the evaluation of scientific activity.

1. Rejection of the Use of Journal Metrics as the Main Evaluation Criterion

The editorial board does not use the impact factor or other journal-oriented metrics as indicators of the quality of individual articles. 

Decisions regarding the acceptance of a manuscript for publication are based solely on scientific value, originality, methodological transparency and quality of argumentation.

2. Priority of Content Over Metrics

Manuscripts are evaluated based on their content, not on the authors' affiliations, prestige of institutions, or level of funding. 

The editorial board encourages detailed descriptions of the methods, data, and analytical procedures for an objective assessment of the research. 

3. Support for Various Forms of Scientific Results

The journal recognizes the importance of full-text articles, research data, software code, methodological developments, representative materials, negative results, and replication studies. 

All such materials are accepted for publication on equal terms, provided that they meet the editorial requirements. 

4. Transparency of the Review Process

Editorial decisions must be substantiated. 

A double-blind peer review was conducted in accordance with the publication's policy and COPE international standards. 

5. Prevention of Conflicts of Interest

All decisions underwent independent expert evaluations. 

Editorial board members do not participate in decision-making regarding their own manuscripts or those of individuals with whom they have financial, familial or professional relationships.

FAIR Principles Compliance Policy

The FAIR principles aim to ensure the accessibility, reusability, and interoperability of scientific data and related materials.

1. Findability

Authors must provide complete metadata to describe their research.

Data associated with published results should be placed in repositories that assign persistent identifiers (e.g., DOI).

2. Accessibility

Data should be available in an open format or through a clearly described access procedure.

Access to data should not be restricted by artificial barriers such as paywalls. In cases where full disclosure is not possible (e.g., due to ethical or legal restrictions), the authors are required to provide a justified explanation.

3. Interoperability

Data should be presented in standardized formats that are compatible with international storage and analytics systems.

Authors must ensure the use of widely recognized metadata structures.

4. Reusability

Data and materials must be provided with a clear usage license, if applicable.

Authors are required to provide a sufficient description of the research context, methods, and tools so that external researchers can reproduce or reuse the data.

Authors’ Obligations

• All authors must adhere to the principles of DORA and FAIR when submitting materials for publication in this journal.
• The manuscript must include a Data Availability statement.
• The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the submitted data and compliance with ethical and legal requirements.

Obligations of the Editorial Board

 The journal ensures a responsible, objective, and non-discriminatory evaluation of manuscripts. 

• The peer review, decision-making, and publication processes are independent of any commercial or institutional influence. 
• The editorial board provides the technical conditions for the placement and verification of metadata and facilitates the proper implementation of FAIR principles.

Policy Violations

If the authors fail to adhere to the DORA and FAIR principles, the editorial board may request revisions to the materials, reject the manuscript, or publish appropriate corrections in accordance with the international COPE guidelines.

Ways for considering complaints and appeals. 

The detailed procedure for considering complaints is defined (see here flowchart according to COPE), contacts for submitting complaints and appeals are provided. The journal promptly responds to complaints. A confirmation letter is sent to the complainant, which confirms the fact of receiving the complaint and determines the deadline (not exceeding one week), during which the Editorial Board undertakes to review the complaint on the merits and notify the complainant. If the Editorial Office receives any complaints about submitted or printed manuscripts, the Editorial Board must take appropriate and reasonable measures to objectively consider these complaints on the merits and resolve the problem (if the fact of ethical violations is confirmed). During the complaint review process, the author should be given the right to respond to any allegations and provide their own comments on the merits of the complaint.

Retraction and correction after publication. 

The policy of making corrections, additions to already published articles, publication of statements about the removal of articles as well as notifications by the editor to readers about investigation of certain issues regarding the published article by the journal and statements by editors warning readers about serious concerns of the publication integrity are based on COPE instructions (COPE Council. COPE Guidelines: Retraction Guidelines.) and recommendations of the European Association of Scientific Editors. Retractions are made when there is clear evidence that the study results are erroneous and unreliable, due to unethical behaviour, intentional or unintentional error.

Authorship and AI tools

AI tools (big language models, chatbots, image generators) cannot be listed as an author (or co-authors) of a papers. AI tools used in research or manuscript preparation must be disclosed in the cover letter, Acknowledgements, or in the description of the methods used. Authors are responsible for the reliability, accuracy, avoidance of plagiarism, and protection against AI-induced bias. The editorial board reserves the right to reject a manuscript for inappropriate use of AI, and reviewers should refrain from AI-generated reviews to maintain confidentiality. For more information see COPE’s position on authorship and AI tools.

Images and other multimedia generated by AI are not permitted for publication in the journal without the express permission of the editorial board. Subject to evaluation on an individual basis, exceptions may be considered for manuscript content directly related to artificial intelligence or machine learning (e.g., in geographic information systems).

The journal has no article processing charges (APCs).