Ethical rules

In the interest of the high quality of the published articles the Editorial Team of the scientific journal "Issues in Early Education" follows ethical rules and requires this from all parties involved in the publication process: the authors of the publications, editors of the journal, reviewers, and publishers. 

The editorial staff of the "Issues in Early Education " declare that any detected cases of violation of ethical rules constitute a prerequisite for the rejection of the article and notification of the relevant entities (institutions employing authors, scientific societies, associations of scientific editors, etc.).

The following guidelines have been developed on the basis of:

  1. The recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) contained in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
  2. COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. The Polish version of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is available in the translation of E. Rozkosz and S. Ufnalskie).
  3. Studies of Good Practices in Review Procedures in Science. 

AUTHORS' DUTIES
Authorship of the work

The authorship should be limited to persons who have significantly contributed to the research project, its implementation, and the interpretation of the results.

  1. The author is obliged to identify all co-authors contributing to the publication and obtain from them acceptance of the final version of the text and consent for its publication.
  2. Each of the authors is obliged to determine their contribution to the creation of the text in qualitative terms and the corresponding percentage. To this end, the authors shall make a joint statement, a current model of which is available on the 'IEE' website.
  3. Ghost-writing and guest authorship are considered to be violations of ethical rules, which are manifestations of scientific unreliability.
  4. Contributions from persons who formally are not co-authors may be disclosed in the form of acknowledgments in a footnote to the article.

Originality and plagiarism

  1. Articles submitted to the journal may only be original works which do not infringe on the copyrights of any third parties.
  2. Plagiarism shall be treated as unethical and unacceptable behaviour.
  3. The author should confirm that the article submitted for publication is his or her own work, not yet published (in full or in significant parts), and not being considered at the same time by any other editors. Submitting the same work to more than one editorial office at the same time is unethical and is not permitted. It is also considered unethical to submit a scientific article which is a translation of a published text.
  4. The author is obliged to indicate correctly the works used by other authors through careful citation and bibliography.
  5. In order to ensure the originality of scientific publications, the editors of the IEE journal use the anti-plagiarism system Crossref Similarity Check.

Disclosure of information and conflict of interest
The author should disclose in the declaration (link) submitted, information on the sources of financing of the projects presented in his or her publication, the contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations, and other entities, and declare any potential cases of conflict of interest.

Access to and storage of data
The author should keep reliable records of unprocessed data related to his or her publication and keep them for at least one year after the publication of the article. The author may be asked by the editors to provide access to these data.

Major errors in the published works

  1. The author should immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief if he or she finds any significant errors in his or her publication.
  2. In cooperation with the Editor-in-Chief and the publisher, errata, an annex, rectification or withdrawal of the publication shall be published.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND THE EDITORIAL OFFICE

Decision to publish

  1. The decision to publish an article is based on the reviews and opinions of the editorial board.
  2. The decision to publish is also influenced by the risk of infringement of copyright and other intellectual property rights, plagiarism or autoplagiarism ,and doubts as to the authorship or co-authorship of the article.
  3. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles should be published in the journal "Issues in Early Education".

Impartiality
In the process of evaluating articles, originality, scientific quality, and compliance with the profile of the journal are important. The origin of the author of the paper, his or her nationality, ethnicity, political views, gender, race, or religion are not taken into account.

Confidentiality
The editors keep the correspondence with authors and reviewers confidential. The content of the correspondence will not be made available to any third parties.
Information obtained during the process of publication evaluation, as well as rejected articles, or their fragments, may not be used by the members of the editorial office or reviewers in their own research without the express written consent of the author. 

Conflicts of interest
The editorial staff does not designate as reviewers persons who are in a relationship of direct service with the authors of the texts or in other direct personal relationships.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS

Timeliness

  1. The reviewer should prepare a review within the deadline set with the editorial team. If he or she cannot meet the deadline or review the work at all, he or she should immediately inform the Secretary of the Editorial Office.
  2. The reviewer should consent to the reviewing of only those works on which he or she has the appropriate knowledge to issue an appropriate opinion within the specified time.

Confidentiality

  1. All the reviewed articles are treated as confidential documents. The reviewer is obliged not to disclose any details of the work or the review he or she is preparing.
  2. The information obtained in the process of reviewing scientific work may not be used by the reviewer for his or her own benefit.

Anonymity
All reviews are made anonymously. The editors do not provide the reviewers with the authors' data, nor do they provide the authors with information about the reviewers.

Originality

  1. The reviewer should identify any significant similarity or partial overlap between the content of the reviewed work and any other published work known to him or her.
  2. The reviewer should immediately report any, even the least suspicion of plagiarism to the Editor-in-Chief of IEE.

Conflict of interests
The reviewers may not review papers in relation to which they have a conflict of interest arising from a relationship with the author (business relationship, personal relationship), company or institution related to the work. The reviewers are required to inform the editor-in-chief of all possible conflicts of interests.

Objectivity
Reviews should include an impartial and constructive assessment of the reviewed work. Personal comments to the author of the work will be considered unacceptable.

THE PUBLISHER'S OBLIGATIONS
In a situation of alleged or proved scientific unreliability, unfair publication, or plagiarism, the publisher, in direct cooperation with the editor-in-chief of the journal, shall take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and amend the article concerned.

These measures may take the form of a swift publication of an erratum or a full withdrawal from the journal in justified cases.