The editorial board of the scientific journal adheres to the adopted by the international community principles of publication ethics reflected in the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and takes into account the valuable experience of reputable international journals and publishers.

Principles of Professional Ethics for Editors and Publishers

In in whatever a publisher does, he / she is responsible for the publication of copyrighted works. This entails the need to follow the fundamental principles and procedures, as indicated below:

• 1. To promote the execution of ethical duties by an editorial board, a publishing group, an editorial staff, reviewers and authors in accordance with the requirements.
• 2. To provide support to the journal editorial board in reviewing complaints against ethical improprieties in respect of research letters and interact with other journals and / or publishers, if this promotes performing the duties of editors.
• 3. To ensure the confidentiality of the publishing information received from the authors and any other information until it is published.
• 4. To be aware that the journal activity is not a commercial project and is not intended to make a profit.
• 5. To be ready to issue corrections, clarifications, official denials and apologies when it is necessary.
• 6. To post the article on an open source website if it is accepted for publication. The author reserves his / her copyright.
• 7. To post the information about the financial support of the research, if the author gives such information in the article.
• 8. To take every care to eliminate all the subject matter uncertainties, grammatical, stylistic and other errors if they are found.
• 9. To coordinate the editorial proofreading with the author.
• 10. The editor-in-chief should not allow the information to be published if there are sufficient grounds to believe that it is a piece of plagiarism.
• 11. The editor-in-chief enters into an engagement that he /she will make every effort:
• 11.1. To refine the journal on a constant basis;
• 11.2. To follow the principle of freedom of opinion and expression;
• 11.3. To meet the needs of both readers and authors of the journal;
• 11.4. To exclude the influence of business or politics on publishing decisions;
• 11.5. To take a decision on publication of materials according to the following main criteria: compliance of the manuscript with the journal profile; relevance, novelty and scientific significance of the presented research; clarity of presentation; reliability of results and completeness of conclusions. The publication decision is based on the quality of research and its relevance;
• 11.6. To ensure the high quality of published materials and protect the confidentiality of personal information;
• 11.7. To take into account the reviewers’ recommendations when taking the final decision on publication. The editorial board of the journal is completely responsible for the publication decision;
• 11.8. To justify its decision in case of acceptance or rejection of the article;
• 11.9. To provide the author of the peer-reviewed material with an opportunity to substantiate his / her research point of view.
• 11.10. The editor-in-chief together with the publisher should not leave unanswered claims regarding the reviewed manuscripts or published materials, and in case of conflict situation, should take all the necessary measures to redress for violations of rights.
• 12. The editor-in-chief together with the publisher should not delay the journal release.

Ethical Principles to Be Followed by Scientific Publication Author

When submitting materials to a scientific journal, the authors (or a group of authors), realize that they are initially responsible for the novelty and reliability of their research results, which implies the compliance with the following principles:

• 1. The authors of the article shall provide the reliable results of their scientific research. Willful misinterpretation or falsified data are not acceptable.
• 2. The authors shall ensure that the research results presented in a manuscript are completely original. Borrowed fragments or statements are meant to be prepared with the obligatory indication of the author and the original source. Excessive borrowings, as well as plagiarism in any form including non-formalized quotations, paraphrasing, or appropriation of scientific property of other people are unethical and unacceptable. The editorial board shall consider a borrowing without reference as plagiarism.
• 3. The authors shall provide their manuscripts only with real facts and information; give a sufficient amount of information for verifying or re-conducting the experiments by other researchers; not use the information obtained privately without an expressed written permission; prevent fabrication and falsification of data.
• 4. The authors should avoid duplication of publications (in the cover letter the authors are to indicate that the article is being published for the first time). If some parts of a manuscript have been already published, the author is to refer to the earlier paper and indicate the differences between the new piece of work and the previous one.
• 5. The author should not submit to the journal a manuscript that has already been sent to another journal and is under consideration, as well as the article that has already been published by another journal.
• 6. It is necessary to recognize the contribution of all persons who in one way or another have influenced the research progress; it means that the article should contain references to works that were of importance during the research.
• 7. All the persons who have made a significant contribution to research should be indicated as co-authors. Persons who were not engaged in the research cannot be referred to as co-authors.
• 8. The authors should respect the work of the editorial board and reviewers and eliminate the shortcomings specified or argue contrary viewpoints.
• 9. The authors are to submit and execute their papers in accordance with the rules accepted in a journal.
• 10. If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of reviewing or after publication, he / she shall immediately notify the editorial board of the journal.

Principles of Professional Ethics for Reviewer

A reviewer expertizes the copyright materials, so his / her actions should be impartial and committed to the following principles:

• 1. The manuscript received for reviewing should be considered as a confidential document that cannot be transferred for perusal or discussion to third parties being not entitled by the editorial office to do that.
• 2. The reviewers are required to know that manuscripts sent are the intellectual property of authors and refer to the sensitive information. Breach of confidentiality is conditional on the reviewer’s declare the unreliability and falsification of materials presented in the article.
• 3. The reviewer should draw the editor-in-chief's attention to the significant or partial similarity of the evaluated manuscript with any other paper, as well as the lack of references to ideas, conclusions or arguments previously published in other works of this or other authors.
• 4. The reviewer should make a note of the published works that are not cited in the article.
• 5. The reviewer is obliged to give an objective and reasoned assessment of the presented research results and well-reasoned recommendations. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.
• 6. The reviewer must make decisions based on concrete facts and provide evidence of his / her decision.
• 7. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of manuscripts for their own needs.
• 8. A reviewer who, in his opinion, lacks sufficient knowledge to review the manuscript, or cannot be objective, for example in the event of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, must inform the editor about his request to exclude him from the review process of this paper.
• 9. An article review is confidential. Only the executive secretary and the editor-in-chief of the journal know the full name of a reviewer. This information is not disclosed.

Disclosure Policy and Conflict of Interest

To avoid cases of scientific publication misconduct, a conflict of interests of all parties involved in manuscript publishing should be excluded. A conflict of interest arises when an author, a reviewer, or an editorial board member intersect on the strength of their financial, scientific, or personal relationships that could affect their actions. Such relationships are called dual commitments, adverse interests, or competing loyalties.
Editors and reviewers should declare potential conflicts of interest that could influence the editorial board's decision.
If there is a conflict of interest, the author may ask the editor-in-chief to have any particular reviewer suspended from reviewing the article sent be the author.
If there is a conflict of interest between the editor or reviewer and the author of article, the article should be transferred to another editor or reviewer, respectively.

Plagiarism

When reviewing an article, the editorial board of the journal Vestnik of Tver State Technical University. Series «Social Sciences and Humanities» checks the material using the Antiplagiat system. In case of revealing numerous borrowings, the editors act in accordance with the rules of COPE.