Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine

These ethics guidelines serve as a foundation for the Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine to promote integrity, high quality, and ethical conduct in scientific research and publication. They have been created by our editorial team according to the best standards based on COPE, WAME, the Declaration of Helsinki and good practices developed and followed by CEJSSM at all stages of publication process.

Please be advised that by order No. 96/2023 of the Rector of the University of Szczecin of July 6, 2023, the Bioethics Committee at the University of Szczecin was established. The Committee's tasks include issuing, at the request of an employee or doctoral student of the University of Szczecin, an opinion on a medical experiment and issuing opinions on scientific research, to the extent specified in the laws.

The Editor-in-Chief (Scientific Editor) of Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the CEJSSM will be published. The Scientific Editor follows the editorial policies of the Journal and the legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor cooperates with the members of the Editorial Board, Topic Editors and reviewers in making this decision. Once the peer review process is finished, the Scientific Editor makes the final decision.

In concern of high quality of journal’s content, we are obliged to comply with ethical principles and follow procedures recommended by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

The procedures recommended by COPE concern the following cases: suspicion of redundant publication; suspicion of plagiarism; suspicion of fabricated data; request for addition/removal of an extra author; suspicion of ghost, guest or gift authorship; when a reviewer suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a submitted manuscript; when a reader suspects undisclosed conflict of interest in a published article; when an editor suspects an ethical problem with the submitted manuscript; and when an editor suspects that the reviewer has appropriated the author’s ideas or data.

The procedures recommended by WAME concern the pursuit of the  goals such as: ensuring the highest level of ethical medical journalism, publishing original, recent and well-documented articles on clinical and laboratory research; promotion of self-audit and scientifically supported improvement in the editing process, promoting a social responsibility of the journal to improve the human condition and safeguard the integrity of sciences.

We strongly suggest that potential authors, reviewers and readers dully follow this guidance in order to avoid misconceptions in academic writing. Editors will blind referee all manuscripts as will reviewers, to the guidelines explicitly highlighted by COPE.

Download:

Cope English

Cope Polish

Once an article is accepted by the Scientific Editor, the author (represented by the Scientific Editor of CEJSSM) is asked to sign an agreement with the publisher under which the royalty free license is granted with regard to the work, allowing further sub-licenses under the CC-BY-SA. This means that the work can be used by other scholars only when they provide information about the author of publication and distribute contributions under the same license as the original one.

Szczecin University Press allows authors to archive their articles in preprint, postprint and the final version. The final version is also available without grace period in Open Access on wnus.usz.edu.pl.

The Scientific Editor and the reviewers evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. The Scientific Editor, members of the Editorial Board, and editorial team are required to maintain strict confidentiality regarding submitted manuscripts. We do not share any information about a manuscript with anyone other than the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. The Scientific Editor, Editorial Board’s members, editorial team and reviewers are prohibited from using any unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript in their own research unless they have obtained explicit written consent from the authors. We are responsible for providing clear instructions on the double-blind peer-review process to both authors and reviewers. For more information, please refer to the Reviewing Process subpage.

Fair Play: Scholars should adhere to fair and unbiased practices, without any form of misconduct and ensure their work’s integrity.
 
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that may potentially influence the interpretation or presentation of their research. This includes financial, personal, or professional relationships that may affect objectivity.

Conflict of interest statement

Reporting standards: Authors should follow established reporting standards and guidelines specific to their field of research, ensuring transparency and reproducibility of their research.
 
Accuracy and Objectivity: Authors are obliged to present an accurate account of their research and provide an objective discussion of its significance. The underlying data has to be represented accurately in the paper. Sufficient detail and references must be included to allow for replication of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements will be considered unethical and therefore unacceptable.
 
Data Access and Retention: We invite the contributors to provide access to the underlying data supporting their research to ensure verification and replication. They should also retain the data for a reasonable period of time after the article is published.
 
Originality, Plagiarism and Anti-Plagiarism Software: Authors must ensure that their work is original and properly attributed to the original sources. In case the work/words of other authors are used, appropriate citation must be provided: CEJSSM’s official referencing style is APA 7. Our editorial team uses the anti-plagiarism software to check every submitted manuscript. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, and all forms of scientific misconduct by authors submitting manuscripts to the journal are strictly prohibited.
Any suspicion of plagiarism is always investigated in detail. In cases of evident plagiarism, the paper will not only be rejected, but the event will be also reported to the corresponding scientific institutions.
 
Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors shall not submit the same research to multiple scientific journals or conferences simultaneously or publish redundant or overlapping work. Each submission should be unique and contribute to the scientific knowledge base. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple venues is considered unethical publishing behavior and will not be accepted.
 
Acknowledgement of Sources: Scholars should appropriately acknowledge and cite the sources that have influenced their research, including previous research, data, and ideas. CEJSSM’s official referencing style is APA 7 and shall be used for in-text citations and references.
 
Authorship of the Paper: Authorship is limited to those who significantly contributed to the study's conception, design, execution, or interpretation. All listed authors must have participated and they take responsibility for the final content. Others who contributed to specific aspects of the research should also be properly acknowledged. The corresponding author is responsible for the inclusion of appropriate co-authors and exclusion of inappropriate ones from the research. All the co-authors must review, approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its publication. All the required authors’ statement are available here.

Ghostwriting: Authors should not engage in ghostwriting, where someone else is credited as the author without any substantial contributions to the conducted research. Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine strictly opposes ghostwriting and guest authorship, and considers them unethical and unacceptable. Any incident of ghostwriting will be reported to the corresponding scientific institutions.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works: If authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their already published work, they are obliged to promptly notify the journal’s editorial office and cooperate in correcting or retracting the paper, to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the published research.

Manuscript withdrawal: Authors may withdraw the article before publication by submitting a statement via e-mail or the journal’s electronic system.

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers should assist the editors in making editorial decisions by providing their objective, constructive, and well-reasoned feedback. Their evaluations are meant to help authors improve their work and assist the editor in deciding whether to accept, revise, or reject a manuscript.

Promptness: Referees should promptly respond to the review invitation and complete their reviews within the agreed-upon timeframe. Timely reviews are crucial to maintain efficient publication processes. A referee who feels unqualified to review the manuscript or knows that a timely review will be impossible should notify the editor and decline to review the manuscript so that the editorial team can contact alternative reviewer.

Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents. They should not discuss or share any information from the unpublished manuscript with others without explicit permission from the editor.

Standards of Objectivity: Reviewers should provide unbiased and objective assessments of manuscripts, focus on the scientific content and methodology and not personal biases or preferences. They should avoid making derogatory or unprofessional comments, and always express their views clearly, providing supporting arguments.

Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should identify and alert the editorial office to any cases of plagiarism, improper citation, or the use of someone else's work without proper attribution. They should attempt to identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that a result or argument has been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. APA-7 format is required for the citations.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Referees should disclose any potential conflicts of interest that might affect their impartial review. If they feel they cannot evaluate a manuscript objectively due to personal or professional connections, they should decline the review invitation so that the editorial team can contact alternative reviewer.

Reviews: The journal's editorial process involves double-blind peer review by at least two independent peer reviewers, where reviewers are unaware of the authors' identities. This ensures the process is fair, impartial, and free from any conflicts of interest, following the guidelines explicitly highlighted by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). Reviewers are selected based on their expertise.

Please see the Reviewing Process subpage

Once the peer review process is finished, the Scientific Editor makes the final decision. These ethics guidelines help ensure the quality, integrity, and fairness of the peer-review process.

The copyright for publications appearing in CEJSSM belongs to the University of Szczecin located in Szczecin, Poland. Reproduction of the publication in any form or by any means requires the permission of the editorial office. The authors may reproduce their own work for non-commercial purposes with clear indication of the original publisher.
Content of the electronic version of CEJSSM is available on-line free of any charge. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in the journal without asking prior permission from the publisher, editor or the authors.

The Journal provides open access to all published papers. The following license will apply to the articles: CC BY SA

CC-BY-SA Polish
CC-BY-SA English

Central European Journal of Sport Sciences and Medicine upholds these ethical policies to maintain the highest standards of research integrity and to foster a trustworthy academic environment.