MEĐUNARODNI PROBLEMI

DEALING WITH UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

The Editor-in-Chief of International Problems/Međunarodni problemi has a duty to initiate adequate procedure when she/he has a reasonable doubt or determines that a breach of ethical standards has occurred – in published articles or submitted manuscripts. Anyone may inform the Editor-in- Chief at any time of suspected unethical behaviour by giving the necessary evidence.

The Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with the Editorial Board will decide on starting an investigation aimed at examining the reported information and evidences. During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating procedure. The authors suspected of misconduct will always be given the chance to respond to any evidences brought up against them and to present their arguments.

The Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with the Editorial Board – and, if necessary, with a group of experts – concludes the investigation by making decision whether a breach of ethical standards has occurred or has not. In the case of determined breach of ethical standards, it will be classified as either minor or serious. Serious breaches of ethical standards are plagiarism, false authorship, misreported or falsified data or fabricated or falsified research results, and substantial text recycling (over 50% of a manuscript/article body text).

Along with the rejection of manuscript or retraction of published article from the journal (in accordance with the Retraction Policy), the following actions can be pursued, either individually or cumulatively:

• A ban on submissions for a two-year period in the case of a minor breach of ethical standards.
• A ban on submissions for a period 5–10 years in the case of a serious breach of ethical standards or repetitive minor breaches.
• Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the case of breach of ethical standards.
• Informing the wrongdoer’s head of department and/or employer of the breach of ethical standards by means of a formal letter.
• Referring a case to a professional organisation or legal authority for further investigation and action.

When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (available at http://publicationethics.org/resources/).