Publication ethics

Ethical Standards of the Editorial Board
Scientific and Technical Journal “Science News of Kazakhstan”
(ISSN 1560-5655)

1. Ethical Standards of the Editorial Board

1.1 The ethical principles of the scientific and technical journal Science News of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as the Journal) must be observed by all participants in the publication process, including reviewers the Chairperson and members of the Editorial Board, the Editorial Council, the editorial team, and any other individuals involved in the publication of materials submitted to the Journal.

1.2 The Chairperson and members of the Editorial Board, the Editorial Council, and the editorial staff collectively work to ensure the publication of relevant in alignment with the aims and scope of the Journal.

1.3 The Editorial Board reserves the right to make edictal amendments to the manuscripts. It may also partially or fully submit the scientific articles to domestic and international organization responsible for indexing scientific publications, and publish them on the official website of JSC “National Center of Scientific and Technical Evaluation” and the Science News of Kazakhstan Journal (vestnik.nauka.kz).

1.4 The copyright for each issue of the Journal is held by its founding organization—JSC “National Center of Scientific and Technical Evaluation.” Unauthorized reproduction of the Journal’s content without written permission from the Editorial Board is expressly forbidden. Proper citation of the Journal is mandatory when quoting from its content.

1.5 The Editorial Board strictly prohibits any form of plagiarism, including textual, conceptual, and data plagiarism. Articles demonstrating signs of plagiarism or self-plagiarism—those previously published in the form of journal articles, monographs, dissertations, abstracts, patents, research reports, etc.—are not accepted for publication.

1.6 Editors and all members of the editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts. Information regarding a manuscript many only be share with the authors, assigned reviewers, and other editorial consultants. Any data of identifiers obtained during the editorial process are considered confidential.

1.7 The Editorial Board adheres to the ethical principles outlined in the COPE’s (Committee on Publication Ethics) Code of Conduct, which include:

impartiality;
transparency;
adherence to scientific ethical standards during peer review;
promotion of scholarly dialogue between authors and reviewers;
protection of intellectual property and copyright;
rejection of manuscripts found to contain plagiarism, including unreferenced use of other’ previously published papers;
confidentiality (non-disclosure of personal data of authors, reviewer, and other information acquired during professional collaboration);
making editorial revisions in consultation with the authors.

1.8 The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject submissions before external peer review if the content is deemed to be of insufficient quality, inpatriate for the journal’s audiences, or in violation of the Journal’s ethical guidelines.

1.9 Manuscripts submitted simultaneously to tother journals will not be accepted. Articles that substantially overlap with previously published works by the same authors or constitute portions of materials already published or submitted elsewhere in print or electronic form will also be rejected.

1.10 The Editorial Board evaluates manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their scientific merit, in accordance with the current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, without regard to author’s personal data, political beliefs, or religious affiliations.

1.11 The Editorial Board submits articles for plagiarism check without notifying the author in advance and useless licensed plagiarism detection systems, including those based on international citation bases.

1.12 Unethical behavior on part of the Publisher, authors, or reviewers includes, but not limited to: self-reviewing of articles, contractual or fabricated peer review, using third-party agencies for manuscript publication, false authorship, falsification or fabrication of research result, dissemination of unreliable or pseudoscientific information, unauthorized sharing of author’s materials with third parties, misrepresentation of authorship, citation manipulation, plagiarism, and any other forms of fabrication or falsification.

1.13 The editorial staff actively fosters collaboration with academic associations and professional communities in relevant scientific fields to ensure timely publication and to keep the readership informed about recent scientific achievements, inventions, and developments, thereby prompting interest in scientific research.

1.14 The Editorial Board is committed to identifying and addressing ethical violation by authors, reviewers, of other involved in the scientific publication process, as guided by the COPE Code of Conduct and the Journals internal Statuary Documents.

1.15 The Editorial Board reserves the right to revoke or reject articles that violate scientific or publication ethics, based on recommendations from the Editorial Council. An article maybe withdrawn or rejected under the following circumstances:

confirmation of unlawful conduct, such as data falsification;
discovery of plagiarism, including unauthorized use of figures, graphs, tables, or other previously published materials;
submission of content that may harm research activities of other scientists;
receipt of copyright claims by third parties concerning the article of its components;
inclusion of content that contravenes publication or scientific ethics.

1.16 The Editorial Board must take all necessary measures to avoid conflicts of interest involving all participants in the publication process. A conflict of interest arises when an author, reviewer, or editorial board member has financial, academic, or personal interests that could compromise objectivity.

1.17 Upon submission of a manuscript, authors are required to disclose all sources of funding within the manuscript content. This includes any commercial, financial, personal, or professional affiliations that might constitute a potential conflict of interest regarding the submitted work. If such a conflict exists, the author(s) may identify, in the cover letter, any experts whom they believe may not be able to objectively assess their manuscript.

1.18 To Prevent conflicts of interest and in line with the ethical standards of the Journal, each party involved has clearly defined responsivities:

The Editor must:

forward the article for review to another Editorial Board member of reviewer in cases where a declared conflict of interest exists between the editor and the author of the submitted manuscript;
ensure the publication of the correction? Clarification, apologies, or rebuttals, if applicable, following the article’s publication;
encourage authors to disclose any affiliations with industrial or financial entities that may lead to conflicts of interests. All sources of funding must be disclosed in the article. the editor shall determine whether the disclosure in the author’s cover letter regarding a scientific and/or financial conflict of interest, if not confidential, may influence the scholarly evaluation of the publication.

The author must:

declare all known or potential sources of conflict of interests in the cover letter;
if no conflict of interests exists, explicitly state this in the cover letter.

The reviewer must:

- inform the editor-in-chief of any conflict of interests (dual obligations, competing interests) and decline to review the manuscript.

“Ghostwriting” and “Guest Authorship”

“Ghostwriting” refers toa situation where a person has made a substantial contribution to the preparation of a publication, yet their authorship or role in not acknowledge.

“Guest Authorship” occurs when an individual is listed as an author or co-author despite having made little or no contribution to the work.

To prevent and address such conflicts, the editorial staff applies the following policy:

1. The Editorial Board requires authors to submit a statement clearly indicating the condition of each author (including place of employment and authorship share, specifying responsibilities for concepts, methodology, procedures, etc. used in preparing the manuscript). The primary responsibility lies with the submitting author (a template for the declaration is available on the journal’s website).

2. Author must provide information on their affiliation with scientific research associations, academic societies, or other institutions if such associations are mentioned in the article. Any false or disputed claims regrading such affiliations must be addressed and refuted.

3. The Editorial Board affirms that all identified violations of scientific ethics will be formally documented.

2. Responsibilities of the author(s)

2.1 An author is defined as a researcher who has made a significant intellectual contribution to the published work, played a major role in developing its concept, and contributed to its scientific design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Each author must be responsible for at least one component of the work and be aware of the overall contribution of co-authors. All authors must consent to the manuscript’s submission and publication. All co-authors must comply with internationally accepted ethical standards for co-authorship. Anyone who has made a substantial contribution should be acknowledged as a co-author. Contributors who were involved only in specific aspects of the research should be credited in a footnote as having made a significant contribution to the study.

2.2 The author bears responsibility for ensuring that all individuals who have made significant contributions to the research are listed as co-authors, and that individuals who did not participate in the study are not included among the authors.

2.3 If the author identifies significant errors or inaccuracies in the article prior to its publication, they must notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate in ensuring the article is promptly withdrawn or corrected. If the editor or publisher receive s such information from a third party, the author is obliged to withdraw the work or make the necessary correction without delay.

2.4 The Editorial Board requires authors to strictly observe ethical standards, which include:

the originality and scientific novelty of the research;
the reliability of the results obtained;
a clear and precise description of the research methodology to enable reproduction of the results by other researchers;
proper acknowledgements of contributions by others, including mandatory bibliographic references to cited works;
accurate identification of individuals who made intellectual contributions as co-authors;
prompt communication of any discovered errors or inaccuracies in the published work and cooperation with the editorial staff in correcting them;
the absence of any borrowings from other sources without appropriate citation (i.e., plagiarism).

2.5 Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of the submitted information, as well as for compliance with legal, ethical, and moral standards. Any form of plagiarism—including text, figures, data—is deemed unethical and is strictly prohibited.

2.6 Simultaneous submission of an article to more than one journal is considered unethical and is not permitted. Verbatim repetition or paraphrasing of one’s own previously published works is also unacceptable unless it forms the foundation for new conclusions.

2.7 Should the author endeavor to supplement a duplicative or superfluous publication without prior notification, this will result in, at minimum, the manuscript’s rejection. The article may also be removed from the journal’s website and any indexing platform.

2.8 Authors must not cite references from other sources unless they have personally reviewed those works. All citations and references must be accurate and verifiable.

2.9 Authors agree that their manuscript will undergo a peer review (the review is anonymous), and they commit to working with the editors to revise, shorten, or expand the article in accordance with the reviewer’s comments.

2.10 By submitting an article and receiving a registration number, the author automatically confirms agreement with the editorial policy and ethical standards of the journal.

2.11 Listing individuals as co-authors who have not made an intellectual contribution to the research is considered unethical and constitutes a breach of both copyright and professional ethics. This misleads readers and is regarded as a form of academic misconduct.

3. Duties of the Reviewer

3.1 The Editorial Board ensures that reviewers’ rights to confidentiality are respected, including the confidentiality of content under review prior to publication. The Board also responds promptly to complaints or concerns.

3.2 The Editorial Board guarantees, when deemed necessary, an additional double-blind review of submissions, thereby upholding the integrity and objectivity of determinations concerning the scholarly contribution of the prospective publication. Manuscript reviews are conducted by specialists holding the appropriate scientific qualifications and academic degrees in the relevant field.

3.3 The Editorial Board dispatches the article to the designated reviewer subsequent to system verification.

3.4 Confidentiality regrading reviewer identities is strictly maintained during manuscript evaluations. Breaches of this confidentiality are permissible solely in instances where there is substantiated suspicion of fraud or falsification by either the authors or the reviewers. Reviewers are obligated to abstain from public discourse concerning submitted papers prior to their official publication.

3.5 Reviewers are expressly prohibited from reproducing received manuscripts or disclosing them to third parties without explicit authorization from the editorial staff. Reviewers’ commentaries shall not be disseminated or otherwise publicized without the reviewer’s consent.

3.6 Reviewers must adhere to the following ethical principles:

Evaluate only those manuscripts for which they possess adequate expertise.
Complete reviews in a timely fashion.
Uphold strict confidentiality.
Maintain objectivity during the review process.
Alert the Editorial Board to any instances of previously published content, whether in this or other publications.
Refrain from utilizing information acquired during the review for personal gain or the benefit of others.

3.7 The substance of the review shall remain uninfluenced by the authors’ ethnic group, gender, religious, or political affiliations.

3.8 Reviewers are expected to provide an honest and objective appraisal of the manuscript, articulating their comments clearly and with sound rationale, focusing exclusively on the article’s scientific content. Personal criticism directed at the author is deemed unacceptable.

4. Rights and Responsibilities of the Founder

4.1 The Founder is obligated to observe principles and procedures that facilitate the fulfillment of ethical duties by editors, reviewers, and authors, in strict accordance with established ethical standards and regulations.

4.2 The Founder reserves the right to support the journal’s editors in addressing claims pertaining to the ethical aspects of published content and to facilitate collaboration with other journals or publishers when such collaboration contributes to the editors’ discharge of their responsibilities.

The Founder shall contribute to sustaining best practices in article publication and uphold the Journal’s standing to ensure compliance with ethical recommendations, procedures for article retraction, and error correction. The Founder is entitled to feature advertisements within the journal, provided this does not compromise subsequent editorial content.

27.09.2024