Journal Policy

Our periodical is diamond open access journal. All of its content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles published in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. The journal does not charge fees for article processing or submission. Articles published in the journal are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.

Ethics Statement

We follow guidance from the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) in our pursuit to support the ethical publishing principles. Its guidelines are applied to the journal editors, authors, and peer-reviewers. The journal will follow the COPE flowcharts regarding any potential acts of misconduct.

Authorship and contributorship

Authors should observe high standards concerning the Ethical policy for the authors of the journal as set out by the COPE. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and shall be dealt with by adhering to the COPE guidelines.

Authors should present an accurate account of the performed work. Details and references must be sufficient enough to permit others to replicate the work. Research results should be interpreted correctly so that to avoid damage to the trust in the journal.

Authors are responsible for assuring that data, results, quotes, citations, images and/or other materials in the manuscript are cited accordingly, and not fabricated or manipulated. Proper acknowledgement of the work(s) of others must always be given.

The journal publishes only original works which have neither been published elsewhere nor are under review elsewhere. Exceptions are granted only for new works which significantly expand previous publications. Authors are required to provide information on the reuse of the material. Unethical publishing behaviour extends to the cases when a single study is deliberately split up into several parts with the objective to increase the number of published works.

Significant contribution must have been made by each and every researcher included in the list of the authors in preparing the manuscript; authors share collective responsibility and accountability for the results. Anyone who has made a significant contribution must be included in the list of the authors. After the acceptance of a manuscript, changes of authorship or the order of the authors are no longer possible.

We ask authors to provide information about the financial support for the research or paper in the Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. If the funding source(s) had no involvement, then this should be stated.

Authorship and AI tools

Vilnius University Press agrees with COPE’s position on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in research:

“AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. As non-legal entities, they cannot assert the presence or absence of conflicts of interest nor manage copyright and license agreements. Authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.”

COPE position statement, 13 February 2023, https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

As with all content submitted to the journal, the author(s) must ensure that they have permission to use all third-party content included within the submission, including those sourced using AI.

Complaints and appeals, post publication discussion

Appealing the Editorial Decision

Submissions declined without external review with the editor`s statement of the reasons for rejection are not eligible for appeal.

Author may appeal the rejection by providing detailed response to the reviewer’s and/or editor’s comments. The Editor shall analyse the appeal, and, if the initial verdict has been made in line with the editorial criteria, then, the Editor’s decision to decline submission is final.

Should an author feel aggrieved by the Editor regarding the handling of the appeal, the author may contact Vilnius University Press at info@leidykla.vu.lt.

Appealing for Post Publication Correction

If some misconduct is determined in relation with an already published article, the editor will decide whether to retract the article or take other corrective action in accordance with the guidelines of Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE). Vilnius University Press reserves the right to take corrective action in order to maintain the transparent and accurate academic record.

Authors may appeal this corrective decision by contacting the Editor directly or by writing a complaint to info@leidykla.vu.lt. Appeals shall be discussed with the journal editor, the journal editorial board and/or external scientific advisors depending on the particular situation. The decisions on withdrawals and statement of concern appeals are final.

Other Appeals

Please contact via info@leidykla.vu.lt if you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of publishing in Vilnius University Press journal.

Handling Appeals

When dealing with appeals, we adhere to four principles.
First. We will only disclose the information which necessary to resolve the complaint and comply with GDPR rules.
Second. We treat all parties involved in a complaint fairly; we avoid misrepresenting and conflicts of interest.
Third. We make our communications clear, and consider the needs of the people we are communicating with.
Fourth. We seek to resolve complaints as quickly as possible. Yet, we still ask for understanding that some investigations are complex and may require time to be properly resolved because of the multiple parties involved. 

After publication, corrections will be published alongside the original article. Revised manuscripts will be published alongside the original manuscript, so that readers can always find the latest version. All versions will be continuously available and linked to the same DOI.

Vilnius University Press will follow the COPE guidelines when handling corrections, revisions, or updates to articles after publication.

Process

Vilnius University Press will confirm the receipt of the letter sent to info@leidykla.vu.lt within five working days. We conduct analysis of appeals by following the COPE guidelines. This analysis will determine whether the author’s concerns have been resolved fairly. The peer review history and the communication of all the related parties of the paper under consideration will be screened. Additional information may be obtained via direct communication with the related parties in accordance with the GDPR regulations. The author will be notified of the results via the same email address as used for sending the appeal.

We aim to resolve issues as quickly as possible and set ourselves the target time of eight weeks. Sometimes, investigations may take longer depending on the nature of the appeal and the relevant information, and/or the number of parties involved.

In order to ensure the proper conduct, we ask all the concerned parties to allow the process to be completed before commenting publicly on the case. The author can pursue the complaint further directly to COPE if the author believes that our analysis has been done improperly. Information can be found on the COPE website at: Facilitation and Integrity Subcommittee | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics.

Allegations of research misconduct

Vilnius University Press policy for managing claims of research misconduct is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines available at: https://publicationethics.org/misconduct.

Please read our guidelines and ethics rules and adhere to the conditions before submitting. Authors are given the opportunity to propose potential reviewers. All reviewers will be screened for qualifications and potential conflicts of interest before being invited to review.

A research misconduct report can be linked to a published article or a manuscript through peer review. The procedure is as follows:

1. The Editor or Vilnius University Press receives a complaint that an article submitted or published in the journal is suspected of containing research violations.
2. The editorial office shall investigate. The corresponding author will be asked to provide an explanation.
3. In case when the author accepts a complaint of misconduct, the editorial office takes actions according to the situation. If the article has been published, it may require an error correction or retraction. If a violation is reported during the review process, the review process may continue, and the author(s) shall make the appropriate changes.
4. Failure to respond within the specified time or provide satisfactory explanation may result in the paper or submission being permanently rejected or retracted.
5. Once the matter has been resolved, the complainant will be informed of the result via the email used for appeal or during submission.

Complaints and appeals, post publication discussion

Authors must gain all types of necessary consent from the human participants prior to submitting the paper to empower the journal to use any related data as a way to ensure and maintain their right to privacy.

The journal expects authors to implement transparency of any data and any other related materials associated with the submitted paper. Authors must provide records of evidence to ensure that others were within reasonable position to replicate the research or to check its validity. We encourage authors to deposit data in the repository and kindly ask to provide a persistent identifier to the archived data set landing page.

We expect authors to use inclusive language. The content of the paper should not contain anything what could show that some people are superior to others on the grounds of any aspects of culture, race, gender, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, age and/or ethnicity. Writing should be free from any forms of bias; whenever possible, authors should employ gender neutrality in text. In the coding terminology, it is recommended to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms.

Allegations of research misconduct

When issues outside the research could affect the objectivity of the submitted paper or its evaluation, conflicts of interest occur. We ask our authors to declare possible conflict(s) of interest along with the submitted paper so that we could decide whether or not these conflicts may have exerted any influence and could consequently make informed decisions. Conflicts include affiliations (being related in any kind of affiliation with the organisation interested in the particular outcome of the work); financial (benefits or services received or expected to be received by authors in connection with the object of the work or by an organisation interested in the result of the work); personal relationship (close personal ties) and similar.

An author, by virtue of submitting a work, must declare any potential conflict of interests in the section Comments for the Editor. In this statement, all potential interests must be explained by elaborating why a conflict of interest may have been involved. The authors must indicate any former, current and/or potential future benefits as well as any other payments, goods, perks or services that could have affected the work. All the presently listed aspects, whether or not they actually caused a conflict of interest, must be properly and honestly specified in the recognitions section.

On our behalf, we assure that, in most cases, honest declaration of interests will not stop work from being forwarded to review and subsequently published.

If you have any doubts in relation to potential conflicts of interest, you are kindly invited to discuss the issue(s) with the editor-in-chief. If a conflict of interest is revealed during the peer-review stage, the journal may initiate rejection. If the paper has already been published, the retraction/withdrawal process may be initiated.

The journal follows a policy of the editors and reviewers not being involved in any kind of interaction with a submitted paper when they co-authored recently with the author(s), received or are likely to receive possible financial reward related with the subject of the work, are or recently were in some form of relationship such as marriage, parentage, other family/relationship bonds, recent work/cooperation on the same project with the author, when they are close/direct competitors or have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors. The editor-in-chief of the journal is responsible for evaluation whether a certain specific situation is deemed to be recent enough in order to ensure maximum integrity and transparency of the publishing process.

Research ethic

Authors must gain all types of necessary consent from the human participants prior to submitting the paper to empower the journal to use any related data as a way to ensure and maintain their right to privacy.

The journal expects authors to ensure transparency of any data and any other related materials associated with the submitted paper. Authors must provide records of evidence to ensure that others were within reasonable position to replicate the research or to check its validity. We encourage authors to deposit data in the repository and kindly ask to provide a persistent identifier to the archived data set landing page.

We expect authors to use inclusive language. The content of the paper should not contain anything what could show that some people are superior to others on the grounds of any aspects of culture, race, gender, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, age and/or ethnicity. Writing should be free from any forms of bias; whenever possible, authors should employ gender neutrality in text. In the coding terminology, it is recommended to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms.

Conflict of interest policy

When issues outside the research could affect the objectivity of the submitted paper or its evaluation, conflicts of interest occur. We ask our authors to declare possible conflict(s) of interest along with the submitted paper so that we could decide whether or not these conflicts may have exerted any influence and could consequently make informed decisions. Conflicts include affiliations (being related in any kind of affiliation with the organisation interested in the particular outcome of the work); financial (benefits or services received or expected to be received by authors in connection with the object of the work or by an organisation interested in the result of the work); personal relationship (close personal ties) and similar.

An author, by virtue of submitting a work, must declare any potential conflict of interests in the section Comments for the Editor. In this statement, all potential interests must be explained by elaborating why a conflict of interest may have been involved. The authors must indicate any former, current and/or potential future benefits as well as any other payments, goods, perks or services that could have affected the work. All the presently listed aspects, whether or not they actually caused a conflict of interest, must be properly and honestly specified in the recognitions section.

On our behalf, we assure that, in most cases, honest declaration of interests will not stop work from being forwarded to review and subsequently published.

If you have any doubts in relation to potential conflicts of interest, you are kindly invited to discuss the issue(s) with the editor-in-chief. If a conflict of interest is revealed during the peer-review stage, the journal may initiate rejection. If the paper has already been published, the retraction/withdrawal process may be initiated.

The journal follows a policy of the editors and reviewers not being involved in any kind of interaction with a submitted paper when they co-authored recently with the author(s), received or are likely to receive possible financial reward related with the subject of the work, are or recently were in some form of relationship such as marriage, parentage, other family/relationship bonds, recent work/cooperation on the same project with the author, when they are close/direct competitors or have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors. The editor-in-chief of the journal is responsible for evaluation whether a certain specific situation is deemed to be recent enough in order to ensure maximum integrity and transparency of the publishing process.

Privacy statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose(s) or to any other party.

Copyright notice

By submitting the manuscript of a research paper to a journal published by Vilnius University Press, the corresponding author inherently certifies that he/she has been fully and explicitly authorised by his/her co-authors to enter into these arrangements and he/she guarantees and warrants, on behalf of himself/herself and all of his/her co-authors that:

1. He/she has the full power to enter into this Agreement and to make the grants contained herein. He/she/they is/are the sole author(s) of the paper and has/have full authority to enter into this agreement and to grant the appropriate rights to Vilnius University Press without breach of any other obligation.
2. The paper is original and does not infringe any copyright, nor does it violate any other right(s) of any third parties.
3. The paper contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or confidence or commitment given to secrecy.
4. The authors agree to the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 agreement under which the paper in the Journal is licensed, and grant Vilnius University Press their permission to publish the previously unpublished and original manuscript, the abstract forming part thereof, all associated supplemental material, and the subsequent errata (if necessary) in the Journal under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-4.0). The author keeps the copyright and the publishing rights.
5. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published paper’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
6. Anyone is free to share (copy and redistribute the material published in the paper in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material published in the paper) for any purposes, even commercially.

Preprint Posting

The journal accepts the submission of manuscripts that have previously been posted on a non-profit preprint server. The author(s) should notify the journal of any preprint related to manuscript submission. A preprint archive is not seen as overlap between publications when the version of record is recognisable.

Data sharing and reproducibility

Vilnius University Press believes that, wherever possible, all data associated with the research in a manuscript should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), thereby enabling other researchers to replicate and build on that research.

We strongly encourage authors to deposit the data underpinning their research in appropriate repositories. For all submissions, any data required to understand and verify the research in an article must be made available on submission. We suggest that authors should deposit their data in an appropriate repository and provide a link in the submission file.

Publishing malpractice policy

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, shall take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the paper in question. It includes the prompt publication of an erratum or, in most severe cases, complete retraction of the affected work.

We explicitly do not support substantial overlap between publications or ‘self-plagiarism’. Exceptions can be made by the editor-in-chief if s/he sees that the submitted paper can contribute to the academic discourse, that there is no restriction from other publishers in relation with the publication, and that proper reference to the original source is provided.

We expect that the papers we have received have not been submitted in any other journal or book, with exceptions being given only for preprints.

Our editors work in line with COPE’s Retraction Guidelines while considering retraction or correction of the published paper.

We provide a corrigendum when there is an error made by the author. The erratum will be issued if the journal is found to have made an error. Retraction is not initiated for minor corrections such as language or minor spelling issues. Retraction is initiated when the journal has obtained information that certain article findings or conclusions are false or that the content is/has been plagiarised. Any related actions will be carried out in line with the COPE’s Retraction Guidelines.

When any suspicions of overlap between publications or ‘self-plagiarism’ have been raised, we expect our stakeholders to contact us via email info@leidykla.vu.lt.

Similarity check procedure

The editorial board actively engages in efforts to prevent scholarly as well as professional plagiarism, and the journal undertakes the Similarity Check procedure before the peer-review process. The journal uses Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate to check for duplication and attribution in the submitted manuscripts. Submissions containing suspected plagiarism shall be rejected.

If plagiarism is discovered after publication, we will follow our guidance outlined in the Publishing malpractice policy.

We expect our readers, reviewers and editors to raise and share any suspicions of plagiarism by emailing info@leidykla.vu.lt.

Archiving

As a publisher in scholarly research, Vilnius University Press recognizes the roles of both librarian and publisher as custodian of scholarly content, and is committed to the preservation of the scholarship in its research for generations to come. We see digital preservation as the set of processes and activities that ensure information which now exists in digital formats is backed up and distributed to guarantee continued access for the long term.

Our preservation policy includes the following measures:

• All of our electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored on several different servers. The content on one server which is owned by Vilnius University, and is physically located in Vilnius, is online and accessible to the readers. The copy of the same content is kept as a backup on other separate hardware. In case of a failure of one server, a copy from another server can be made online, and the website is expected to be accessible again within less than 24 hours.
• The electronic versions of all articles are also stored at the Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library (eLABa), as a national aggregated open access (OA) repository (https://www.elaba.lt).
• As electronic backup and archival preservation, we are using an archival arrangement with PKP Preservation Network.
• Authors may archive all versions of the manuscript and the final published version of their articles in personal, institutional or other repositories without embargo.
• We intend and expect to continue to publish our journals for a long time. If, due to some rare, unfortunate circumstances, we are forced to stop publishing the journal, the manuscripts published in the journal will be kept online and accessible to the readers for at least 10 more years. When required under specific conditions, such as discontinuation of the collection or a catastrophic failure of the website, the content will be accessible through the PKP Preservation Network or the Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library eLABa.