Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Croatica nurtures high academic standards of ethical conduct concerning all the participants in the publication procedure – editors, authors, reviewers and publishers. Starting from the ethical policies of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, Core practices; Ethics toolkit for a successful editorial office) and the Elsevier Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK), the journal's editorial board is guided by the following ethical principles:
Editor Responsibilities
Publication Decisions
Editors are responsible for determining which of the submitted manuscripts will be published in Croatica.
When evaluating the submitted manuscripts, the editors consider only the manuscripts’ scholarly and intellectual qualities, and assess their relevance depending on their originality, importance, clarity and presentation of data with regard to the aims and scope of the journal. The decisions must not be influenced by any racial, gender, religious, ethnic or political prejudices.
In making their publication decisions the editors will reject any material that breaches laws of plagiarism, copyright and libel.
Review Procedure
Editors ensure an impartial double-blind peer review, making sure that the identities of both the authors and reviewers are kept anonymous. When necessary, manuscripts are sent for a third blind review.
Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest
Editors ensure that all information and ideas in submitted manuscripts remain confidential until their publication.
Editors must not use unpublished data or ideas from the submitted manuscripts in their own research without explicit written permission by the author.
The editor must exclude themselves from reviewing a submitted manuscript if there is a conflict of interest stemming from collaborative, financial, institutional or other relationships with the author. The editor must ask another member of the editorial board to review and assess the manuscript.
Complaints and Appeals
In cases of ethical misconduct complaints regarding a submitted or published manuscript the editors will take adequate measures and act in accordance with COPE guidelines.
Free-of-Charge Publication
In accordance with the Croatica journal policies, all submitted manuscripts are considered for publication by the editors free of charge.
Author Responsibilities
Originality
Authors guarantee that the manuscript submitted is their own, original work that has not been previously published in another publication.
The Croatica journal will exceptionally publish Croatian translations of previously published texts. In that case the text will not undergo a review process and the original place of publication will be clearly cited.
Submission Guidelines
In the original research paper the author has to take into account the scholarly contribution of their research and report on it authentically, accurately and objectively. Research methodology and results must be described clearly so that other researchers can replicate the research.
Copyright and Plagiarism
Authors bear full responsibility for the entire text of their manuscripts. In accordance with the Croatian Copyright Law and Related Rights (NN 111/2021), authors guarantee that in the submitted manuscript they respect copyright and quotation rules which state that quoted material must be followed by information on author and source. Plagiarism of any kind is unacceptable.
Submitted manuscript that violates copyright laws will be rejected, and if unethical conduct is uncovered after publication, the manuscript will be withdrawn.
The manuscript cannot contain any insulting, libelous, obscene or unlawful materials.
Authorship
Authors are those persons who significantly contributed to the manuscript regarding its concept, methodology, implementation or interpretation of research represented. All such persons must be listed as (co)authors of the manuscript.
Review Procedure
Authors should respond to the editor and reviewer comments and suggestions within a given timeframe. If the submitted manuscript has been accepted for publication conditionally, but the authors do not intend to accept editor and reviewer comments, or if they wish to withdraw their manuscript from the review process, they must notify the editorial board in a reasonable time-frame.
Errors in Published Articles
If the authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published article, they must immediately inform the journal’s editors so that a correction can be published or the article be withdrawn.
Open Access Policy
Authors should respect the journal's open access policy and, in accordance with it, the rules of the public copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Free-of-Charge Publication
In accordance with the Croatica journal policies, authors are not charged fees for review procedure and publication.
Reviewer Responsibilities
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Reviewers assist the editorial board in assessing the suitability of the submitted manuscript and, by providing their review, can help mediate in the editorial communication with the author. In this way they can contribute to the improvement of the manuscript. The Croatica journal conducts a double-blind peer review of manuscripts, where names of authors and reviewers remain anonymous.
Objectivity Standards
Reviewers should assess manuscripts exclusively on the basis of scholarly criteria, and they should argue their opinion clearly, objectively and constructively. Derogatory personal comments are not acceptable.
An invited reviewer who does not feel fully qualified to provide an objective assessment of a submitted manuscript or cannot review it in a given time-frame, must inform the editor in due course.
Source Confirmation
Reviewers should mention any relevant published articles that the authors failed to cite in their manuscript. Also, reviewers should warn the editors of any potential breach in ethical policies in the manuscript, such as plagiarism, breach of copyright etc.
Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest
Reviewers must treat all submitted manuscripts and other information received in the review procedure as confidential documents: they are not allowed to reveal unpublished data and ideas to others without editor’s permission, nor can they use them for personal advantage without the author’s explicit written permission.
The invited reviewer should not accept to asses a manuscript if there is a conflict of interest due to collaborative, financial or other relationship with the author.
Publisher Responsibility
The publisher adheres to the open aces publishing policies and commits to publish accepted manuscripts on the basis of those policies.
The publisher should ensure that the whole process, from manuscript submission until its publication is fair, impartial and timely.
The publisher ensures that editorial decisions are not subject to commercial or political influences.