PROCEDURE FOR HANDLING COMPLAINTS AND APPEALS REGARDING VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PUBLICATION ETHICS

During the consideration of complaints and appeals, the Editorial Board of the “Bulletin of Postgraduate Education: Collection of Scientific Papers. Educational Sciences Series'” adheres to the relevant rules of COPE (https://publicationethics.org/appeals).

The procedure for considering complaints regarding the violation of ethical principles by authors, reviewers, or members of the Editorial Board of the Collection of Scientific Papers applies to issues related to plagiarism, unlawful borrowing of materials, dishonest use of AI, conflict of interest, data manipulation, and other violations of academic integrity.

Principles for considering complaints and/or appeals:

‒ mutual respect for all participants in the editorial process, presumption of their proper and bona fide (honest) conduct;

‒ respect for the opinions of the participants in the consideration of a complaint or appeal, granting all interested parties the right to present their arguments in support of or in opposition to the stated claims;

‒ access to information, timely informing of participants in the editorial process regarding the receipt and consideration of an appeal that may affect their rights and/or interests;

‒ confidentiality, non-disclosure of the content of the materials of the consideration of complaints and appeals to third parties;

‒ search for a compromise, directing the process of settling any dispute towards mutual understanding.

Consideration procedure. In case of submission of complaints and/or appeals against the decisions of the Editorial Board, the following consideration procedure is applied.

1. The complaint must be submitted in electronic form to the official e-mail of the Editorial Board (visnyk-umo@uem.edu.ua). It must clearly state the applicant's contact details, a link to the publication or material being appealed, and a detailed description of the violation with reference to evidence.
2. The complaint or appeal is considered by the Editor-in-Chief; in their absence, by the Executive Secretary. For the preliminary analysis of the complaint, an authorized person is appointed from among the members of the Editorial Board, who checks the presence of sufficient grounds for consideration and the compliance of the complaint with the editorial policy of the Collection of Scientific Papers. Within 5 working days, the applicant receives a notification about the registration of the complaint or the refusal to consider it.
3. The Editor-in-Chief appoints a commission of three experts from among the Editorial Board, who have the right to request additional materials and explanations, involve independent experts, and conduct consultations with all interested parties for no more than 30 calendar days.
4. The commission may make decisions such as rejecting the complaint due to groundlessness; recognizing the violation as minor and proposing corrections; recognizing the violation as significant and taking appropriate measures. In case of significant violations on the part of the author, a decision is made to refuse the publication of the material, or retract an already published article (retraction), or ban the submission of materials for a certain period or notify the author's affiliated institution about the violation.
5. All parties to the conflict have the right to receive full information about the consideration process, present their explanations and evidence, and appeal the commission's decision.

The decision of the commission may be appealed within 14 calendar days by contacting the Editor-in-Chief via e-mail at the official address of the Editorial Board (visnyk-umo@uem.edu.ua). The Editor-in-Chief considers the appeal within 10 working days and decides, which is final. The confidentiality of the process is guaranteed to all participants.

The consideration of complaints and appeals regarding the refusal of publication and the article review procedure is carried out by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decisions are final.