PUBLICATION ETHICS GUIDELINES AND STATEMENT ON MISCONDUCT AND AUTHORIAL INTEGRITY:

"BIBLIOTEKARZ PODLASKI" publishes original scientific articles and reports. Founded in 2000, co-edited and developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Philology at the University of Białystok, the journal aims to address key issues in contemporary library science, librarianship, literary studies, history, and other humanities and social sciences, creating a space for interdisciplinary, modern, open scholarly dialogue. The journal is peer-reviewed and edited by an international Editorial Committee, with input from an international Scientific Committee. It publishes texts reflecting the broad research interests of authors from various academic centers in Poland and abroad.

The Editorial Team of "Bibliotekarz Podlaski" prioritizes upholding the highest ethical standards in publishing practice and employs all possible means to prevent misconduct and authorial unreliability.

In our journal, we apply the principles outlined below. These have been implemented to ensure the proper (meaning reliable, honest, transparent) functioning of the entire publishing process in "Bibliotekarz Podlaski". The publisher regularly reviews the journal's publishing policy. The Editorial Team of "Bibliotekarz Podlaski" has adopted and adheres to transparent, modern principles regarding best practices in publishing scientific works, in collaboration with our academic partners from Poland and abroad. The applied publishing policy aims to serve both authors submitting scientific articles to our journal, as well as publishers and readers. The article review principles adopted by the journal also align with the recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education regarding the observance of ethics and good practices in science, aiming to ensure the integrity of the publishing process and prevent misconduct and authorial unreliability.

The accepted conduct guidelines for the editorial team, authors, reviewers, and publishers fully conform to the guidelines provided by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and align with the content of the Code of Ethics for Scientific Employees.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

The Authors must present the results of their research in agreement with scholarly standards. The papers must be original; the findings and words of other researchers must be appropriately acknowledged. Plagiarism is not accepted. The Authors must obtain written permission to reproduce any previously published materials.

The same manuscript should not be submitted to several journals at the same time.

All the co-authors of an article are equally responsible for compliance with the journal’s publication ethics.

The Authors (Contributors) are obliged to observe the standards of scientific integrity and the universally applicable rules of publication ethics. The Contributors are obliged to cooperate with the editorial team during the review and, if applicable, publication process. They are also obliged at all times to provide access to the data they refer to in their manuscripts. The Contributors should disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect the results of the study or their interpretation, e.g. grants, royalties, other forms of funding, membership in organisations and associations, employment relationships, consulting work, ownership of shares or other equity interests, patents, licensing agreements, and personal or professional relations. All sources of financial support for the manuscript must be disclosed, including the subsidy number or another reference to the source of funding. If a manuscript has been written by several contributors, the contributors have the duty to disclose their contributions, indicating exactly what the contribution of a given author was.

The Contributors may submit only their own original manuscripts for publication. Any references to works and studies of other authors should be clearly indicated, accompanied by appropriate commentary and notes, and should be mentioned in the bibliography. Failure to comply with the above rules is a manifestation of scientific dishonesty. Ghostwriting, ghost authorship, guest authorship and gift authorship are considered manifestations of authorship and scientific dishonesty.

The Authors are obliged to notify “Bibliotekarz Podlaski” of discovering any significant inaccuracies or errors in the published manuscript they have written as authors or co-authors. They are responsible for the rectification of such inaccuracies or errors by way of an explanatory note, correction or any other appropriate measure in respect of the next issue or printout.

The Contributors may submit only manuscripts that have not been submitted and provided to other publishers for publication. Submitting manuscripts to several publishers at the same time is unethical. Authors have the right to present the articles published in “Bibliotekarz Podlaski” on conferences and on symposia.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR THE EDITORS AND THE PUBLISHER

The role of the Publisher is to ensure the scholarly independence of the Editorial Team, the Reviewers and the Authors. It is also ultimately responsible for the maintenance of good editorial practices and publishing ethics by the journal.

The Editor-in-chief is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal are to be published. Before making his/her final decision, the Editor-in-chief consults the opinion of at least two independent external Reviewers. The Editor may also consult his/her decision with the members of the Advisory Board and Editorial Team. In making his/her decision, the Editor-in-chief does not take into account the ethnic origin, gender, religious beliefs or political views of the Author.

It is the Editor-in-chief’s duty to ensure that all research articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by at least two external Reviewers in the process of double-blind peer review. The Editor-in-chief makes sure that the review process, the revision process, and the publication process are timely. The Editor-in-chief ensures that there is no conflict of interests between the Reviewers and the Authors.

Members of the Editorial Team assist the Editor-in-chief in the process of making final decisions concerning the publication of articles submitted to the journal, as well as in the process of preparing articles for publication (revision, communication with Reviewers and with Authors).

The Publisher will consider any reported publication misconduct, even if detected long after the date of publication. If ethical misconduct is proven, the publisher will publish a correction or a comment or will withdraw the manuscript from publication or take any other appropriate action. If the Editorial Team decides to withdraw the manuscript, the material cannot be used in any way without written permission from the Author. Information regarding manuscripts submitted for publication can be disclosed exclusively to the Authors, Reviewers, Publisher or selected members of the Editorial Team.

With regard to all its publications, the Publisher safeguards the observance of publishing standards and rules of publication ethics (the Code of Ethics and Conduct ) and prevents any practices contrary to the accepted norms.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWERS:

A review must be fair, unbiased and objective; reviewers should refrain from any personal criticism and provide reasonable arguments in support of their opinions.

There should be no conflict of interest between the reviewer and the contributing author(s). If such a conflict occurs, the reviewer must immediately report it to the editorial team and return the manuscript under review.

Rejected manuscripts cannot be used by reviewers for any purposes without the express prior written consent of the editorial team. This shall also mean that the Reviewers must not use any unpublished data obtained from the papers under review in their own research.

Reviewers and editors are obliged to inform the Publisher of any fraudulent use of the intellectual property or duplicate publication. They are also obliged to inform the publisher if they suspect that an ethical violation has occurred.

Review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed to persons involved in the editorial and publishing process.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE PUBLISHING PROCESS :

All versions of manuscripts submitted for publication remain accessible to the Editors and the Publisher. In the case of multiple versions of the same article, it is the Publisher’s responsibility to provide appropriate numbering and date of publication.

The journal accepts translations of the articles previously published elsewhere. This rule applies also to extended versions of conference papers. In such cases the Author is obliged to furnish all data regarding previous publication to ensure academic clarity. In some cases it is necessary to obtain written permission from the first publisher.

Anti-plagiarism policy:

Contributors may submit only their own original manuscripts for publication. Any references to works and studies of other authors should be clearly indicated, accompanied by appropriate commentary and notes, and should be mentioned in the bibliography. Contributors should disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect the results of the study or their interpretation. All sources of financial support for the manuscript must be disclosed, including the subsidy number or another reference to the source of funding. If a manuscript has been written by several contributors, the contributors have the duty to disclose their contributions, indicating exactly what the contribution of a given author was. Any other individuals who made less substantive contributions to the study or the writing of the manuscript should be listed in the acknowledgement section. By submitting your manuscript to the journal it is understood that this it is an original manuscript and is unpublished work and is not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal. All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by the Editorial team. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal.

Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors’ judgment a decision is given on the manuscript.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software (Similarity Check). The Publisher collects full evidence and takes further action depending on the probability and extent of the suspected violation in the following cases: suspected plagiarism, a minor reproduction of someone else’s work, suspected dual publication understood as a copy of the contributor’s own work, suspected fabrication of data or in the event of an accusation that the reviewer has improperly used the contributor’s work in a submitted or published manuscript. The Publisher will bring such cases to the attention of relevant entities, depending on circumstances. The Publisher will take immediate action if there is a suspicion that the contributor who has submitted a manuscript or whose manuscript has been published does not comply with the rules of publication ethics. The Publisher will consider any reported publication misconduct, even if detected long after the date of publication. If ethical misconduct is proven, the publisher will publish a correction or a comment or will withdraw the manuscript from publication or take any other appropriate action.

Texts submitted for publication in sections „Reports”, and „Memories and Tributes” are not checked for plagiarism. With regard to all its publications, the Publisher safeguards the observance of publishing standards and rules of publication ethics (the Code of Ethics and Conduct ) and prevents any practices contrary to the accepted norms. The Publisher treats the standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as a point of reference for the purposes of this Code of Ethics and Conduct.