Publication ethics

The editorial policy of the scientific collected papers “Optoelectronics and Semiconductor Technology” is based on the principles of academic integrity, objective scientific peer review, transparency of editorial procedures, respect for copyright, and the prevention of any forms of scientific misconduct. The journal follows generally recognized international approaches to publication ethics, including the principles formulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the requirements of the national legislation of Ukraine in the field of scientific and scientific-technical activity and academic integrity.

The purpose of the publication ethics policy is to ensure the high quality of published scientific materials, the reliability of the presented results, the responsibility of all participants in the editorial and publishing process, and the prevention of violations that may distort the content of scientific communication.

1. General Principles of Publication Ethics

The Editorial Board ensures that manuscripts are considered regardless of the authors’ citizenship, place of work, academic degree, position, gender, age, political, religious, or other beliefs. The main criteria for accepting a manuscript for consideration are its scientific novelty, relevance, compliance with the journal’s scope, methodological correctness, reliability of results, originality of the text, and compliance with formatting requirements.

Only original scientific works that have not been previously published and are not under simultaneous consideration by other publications are accepted for publication. Authors bear full responsibility for the reliability of the submitted materials, the correctness of the methods used, the validity of conclusions, the accuracy of citation, and compliance with the rights of third parties.

The Editorial Board does not allow the publication of materials containing plagiarism, self-plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of results, manipulative citation, improper attribution of authorship, concealment of conflicts of interest, or other violations of academic integrity.

2. Responsibilities of Authors

By submitting a manuscript to “Optoelectronics and Semiconductor Technology”, authors confirm that the submitted work is original, has been prepared in compliance with the principles of academic integrity, and does not infringe copyright, related rights, or other rights of third parties.

Authors are obliged to:

– submit only their own original research results to the Editorial Board;

– ensure the reliability of the experimental, computational, analytical, and other data presented in the manuscript;

– properly cite all sources, methods, software tools, databases, standards, patents, and results of previous studies used in the work;

– avoid any forms of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, or artificial fragmentation of the results of a single study into several low-content publications;

– indicate all persons who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the concept, methodology, conduct of the research, analysis of results, or preparation of the manuscript;

– not include as authors persons who did not actually participate in conducting the research or preparing the scientific work;

– inform the Editorial Board of any potential or actual conflict of interest;

– provide, where necessary, explanations, primary data, supplementary materials, or information required to verify the reliability of the results;

– promptly inform the Editorial Board of any errors or inaccuracies identified in a submitted or already published material.

All co-authors must be familiar with the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission to the journal. The corresponding author guarantees that all co-authors have given their consent to the publication of the material.

3. Authorship and Contribution of Co-authors

Authorship of a scientific article must be based on the actual scientific contribution of each author. Only those persons who participated in formulating the scientific idea, planning or conducting the research, obtaining, processing, or interpreting the results, writing, or critically revising the manuscript may be included as authors.

Persons who provided only organizational, technical, advisory, financial, or administrative assistance but did not make a substantial intellectual contribution to the content of the work may be acknowledged in the acknowledgements section, provided that they have given their consent.

The Editorial Board does not support the practice of “honorary”, “guest”, or “coercive” authorship, nor the exclusion from the list of authors of persons who made a substantial contribution to the research.

4. Prevention of Plagiarism and Other Violations of Academic Integrity

All manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board may be checked for textual similarities, improper borrowing, duplication of previously published materials, and other signs of violations of academic integrity.

Plagiarism is understood as the use of text, ideas, results, graphical materials, tables, formulas, methods, software code, or other intellectual property objects without proper reference to the source. Self-plagiarism is understood as the reuse by an author of substantial fragments of their own previously published materials without appropriate citation or without scientifically justified necessity.

Violations of publication ethics also include:

– data fabrication, namely the invention of research results;

– data falsification, namely deliberate distortion of results, images, graphs, tables, or experimental conditions;

– manipulative or excessive self-citation;

– simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to several publications;

– concealment of significant limitations of the study;

– improper use of materials created by other authors;

– falsification of reviews, recommendations, or information about authors;

– interference with the independent peer review procedure.

If signs of academic misconduct are detected, the Editorial Board has the right to reject the manuscript, request explanations from the authors, inform the institution where the research was conducted, or take other measures according to the nature of the violation.

5. Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board is responsible for organizing an objective, impartial, and transparent editorial and publishing process. The decision to accept, revise, or reject a manuscript is made on the basis of its scientific quality, compliance with the journal’s scope, the results of peer review, and adherence to publication ethics requirements.

The Editorial Board undertakes to:

– ensure independent consideration of manuscripts;

– not disclose information about submitted materials to third parties, except for authors, reviewers, members of the Editorial Board, and persons involved in the editorial process;

– prevent conflicts of interest between authors, reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board;

– not use unpublished manuscript materials in their own research without the written consent of the authors;

– ensure appropriate responses to complaints, appeals, reports of errors, or possible violations of publication ethics;

– make editorial decisions without the influence of commercial, administrative, political, or personal interests.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to refuse publication of a manuscript if it does not correspond to the journal’s scope, has an insufficient scientific level, contains unreliable or incorrectly presented results, violates ethical standards, or does not comply with established editorial requirements.

6. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Peer review of manuscripts is an important element in ensuring the scientific quality of the collected papers. Reviewers must conduct expert evaluation objectively, impartially, reasonably, and confidentially.

Reviewers are obliged to:

– evaluate the manuscript according to its scientific content, relevance, novelty, methodological correctness, reliability of results, and logical validity of conclusions;

– provide constructive comments aimed at improving the quality of the article;

– inform the Editorial Board of any possible conflict of interest;

– not use information from the manuscript for their own scientific or other purposes before its official publication;

– inform the Editorial Board of any detected signs of plagiarism, duplicate publication, data falsification, or other violations;

– comply with the established review deadlines or promptly inform the Editorial Board if they are unable to complete the review.

A reviewer should not evaluate a manuscript if they have a personal, professional, financial, organizational, or other interest that may affect the objectivity of their conclusions.

7. Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest arises when personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other circumstances may influence, or be perceived as influencing, the objectivity of an author, reviewer, editor, or other participant in the editorial process.

Authors must inform the Editorial Board of all potential conflicts of interest, including sources of research funding, participation in joint projects, commercial interests, patent applications, contractual obligations, or other circumstances that may be related to the presented results.

The Editorial Board and reviewers are also obliged to report circumstances that may affect the impartiality of manuscript consideration. In the event of a conflict of interest, the relevant editor or reviewer shall be excluded from consideration of the material.

8. Ethical Requirements for Research Results

Authors must guarantee that the research results submitted for publication were obtained in compliance with applicable ethical, legal, technical, metrological, and safety standards. Where experimental setups, measuring equipment, software, databases, materials, or technological processes are used, authors must provide a sufficiently detailed description of the methodology to ensure the possibility of scientific verification and reproducibility of the results.

If the research involves the use of materials, equipment, technologies, or data with restricted access, authors must ensure that publication of the results does not violate legal, contractual, patent, or security restrictions.

9. Corrections, Retractions, and Withdrawal of Publications

If errors, inaccuracies, or violations are detected after publication of an article, the Editorial Board considers the issue of publishing a correction, editorial notice, retraction, or withdrawal of the material.

Corrections may be published if the errors do not change the main scientific conclusions of the work but require clarification for the correct understanding of the results. Retraction or withdrawal of an article may be applied in cases where plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, duplicate publication, a substantial error that makes the results unreliable, or another serious violation of publication ethics has been established.

The decision to withdraw a publication is made by the Editorial Board, taking into account the authors’ explanations, the conclusions of reviewers or experts, and the available evidence of misconduct.

10. Appeals and Complaints

Authors have the right to submit a reasoned appeal against an editorial decision if they believe that the manuscript was rejected without sufficient grounds or with a violation of the review procedure. The appeal must contain a reasoned explanation of the authors’ position and a response to the comments of the Editorial Board or reviewers.

The Editorial Board considers appeals and complaints objectively, involving, where necessary, independent experts or members of the Editorial Board who did not participate in the initial consideration of the manuscript.

Reports of possible violations of publication ethics are considered confidentially. The Editorial Board does not allow persecution or discrimination against persons who report possible violations in good faith.

11. Confidentiality of the Editorial Process

All materials submitted to the Editorial Board are treated as confidential documents until their official publication. Editors, reviewers, and other involved persons may not disclose the content of manuscripts, information about authors, review results, or editorial decisions to persons who are not involved in the editorial process.

Unpublished data, ideas, methods, illustrations, tables, formulas, or other materials contained in the manuscript may not be used by any person without the written consent of the authors.

12. Responsibility for Compliance with Publication Ethics

Responsibility for compliance with the principles of publication ethics rests with all participants in the editorial and publishing process: authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, and the publisher. The Editorial Board of “Optoelectronics and Semiconductor Technology” strives to ensure a high level of scientific communication, protection of authors’ rights, reliability of published results, and compliance of the journal with modern requirements for scientific professional publications.

Compliance with this policy is a mandatory condition for the submission, consideration, peer review, and publication of materials in the collected papers.