Academic integrity standarts

Within the framework of its editorial policy, the scientific journal «Actual Problems of Law» strictly adheres to the legislation of Ukraine, primarily the Law of Ukraine «On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity», the Law of Ukraine «On Academic Integrity», the Law of Ukraine «On Higher Education», and the provisions of Order No. 56 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 19 January 2026 “On Amendments to the Procedure for Compiling the List of Scientific and Professional Publications of Ukraine», international regulatory legal acts, recommendations of leading international organizations in the field of publication ethics, primarily, COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics, https://publicationethics.org/), WAME (World Association of Medical Editors, https://www.wame.org/).

The editorial policy of the journal is based on the principle of non-discrimination on any grounds. Each researcher:

  • deserves fair, sensitive and dignified treatment
  • must feel respect for himself and his work;
  • must be free from prejudice on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, family or parental status, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, cultural identity, partnership status, religion, belief, disability, health status, political beliefs, socio-economic status or any other identifiable difference.

In its activities, the editorial board of the journal has the following obligations:

  • make decisions objectively, impartially and fairly;
  • consider all materials submitted for publication, regardless of the race, religion, nationality, gender, position or place of employment of the author(s);
  • maintain the confidentiality of the review process and the identity of the reviewer;
  • not to disclose information related to the content of the manuscript under review to persons other than those participating in the professional evaluation of this manuscript;
  • comply with all rules and requirements for both members of the editorial board and authors or reviewers;
  • be guided by the current Ukrainian and international legislative framework regarding copyright and plagiarism;
  • in case of receiving a complaint, conduct editorial negotiations with the author; consider facts of violation of ethical norms regardless of the date of publication; make appropriate refutations, changes or disclosures if the complaints were duly substantiated;
  • to publish journal issues in a timely manner in accordance with the specified deadlines

The editorial board is responsible for the publication. The editorial board may reject a manuscript without review if it believes that the work does not meet the journal profile or the appropriate level of technical design of the text .

The editorial team makes every effort to detect any signs of plagiarism, unethical practices, or facts of falsification and fraudulent activity.

The editorial board also has the right to withdraw even a published article if violations of the rights of an individual or individuals or generally accepted standards of scientific ethics are detected. The editorial board of the journal notifies the author of the withdrawal of the article, and if necessary, the organization where the author (co-authors) performed the work.

Procedure for retracting published articles

The retraction of an article is a mechanism for correcting published information and notifying readers that the publication contains shortcomings or errors. The editorial board has the right to retract even a published article if violations of the rights of a person or persons, or generally accepted standards of scientific ethics, are identified. The journal’s editorial board notifies the author of the article’s retraction and, where necessary, the organisation where the author (co-authors) carried out their work. The grounds for retracting an article are a statement by the author (co-authors) or the editorial board’s own decision.

An article may be retructed under the following circumstances :

  • the article was previously published in other publications;
  • facts of plagiarism were discovered;
  • forgery and falsification of data were detected;
  • Intentional concealment of a conflict of interest has been confirmed;
  • there are other violations of the publication's ethical principles.

If the authors deem it necessary to retruct the article, they should submit a reasoned request to the editorial board. If the editorial board agrees to the retruction, it will then handle the retraction of the text itself.

If a decision to rertuct an article is made on the basis of the editorial board’s own assessment or information received by the editorial board, the authors are informed of this decision. The corresponding author must be provided with a detailed explanation of the reasons for the retruction.

A notice of the article’s retraction is published in the next issue of the journal with a hyperlink to the page of the original publication (in the electronic version of the publication) (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/case/retracting-just-accepted-article).

Following the decision to retract the article, it remains on the journal’s website in the relevant issue, but the electronic version of the text is marked with the words «RETRACTED» and the date of retraction. The same note is included in the table of contents of the relevant issue.

The authors are obliged:

  • to submit the original for consideration;
  • not to submit the same manuscript simultaneously to the journal editorial office and to editors of other journals;
  • to provide proper references to all publications and sources of information used during the research and preparation of the manuscript of the article;
  • to submit exclusively scientific research for consideration;
  • to avoid any unethical behavior and remain tactful towards other authors regarding religious, political, ethnic, racial and other orientations;
  • to inform the editor of any potential conflict of interest that may affect the publication of the results contained in this manuscript;
  • to distinguish as co-authors of the article only those persons who have made a significant scientific contribution to the submitted work and bear joint responsibility for the results obtained;
  • all authors (co-authors) of the article must read and agree on its final version for publication;
  • if inaccuracies are discovered after the publication of the article, notify the journal's editorial office and facilitate their further correction.

The primary responsibility of the author is to provide an accurate account of the research conducted and an objective discussion of its significance. Authors should present their results clearly and unambiguously so that their conclusions can be confirmed by other scientists, without falsifying or manipulating the data.
The editorial board may not share the author's opinion.

Reviewers are obliged:

  • to prepare the review professionally, adhering to the principle of objectivity and in accordance with generally accepted scientific standards;
  • to adhere to established deadlines;
  • to justify sufficiently convincingly their conclusions and respect the intellectual independence of the authors;
  • to ensure the confidentiality of the verification process;
  • not to use or disclose unpublished information contained in the submitted manuscript without the consent of the co-author(s), to inform the editor of any potential and current conflicts of interest;
  • to help identify violations of scientific ethics.

 

The editorial office implements all procedures aimed at ensuring, guaranteeing and adhering to all ethical standards and principles of academic integrity (see the subsection «Anti-Plagiarism Policy»).

Procedure for handling complaints regarding breaches of academic integrity and publication ethics

Recognizing and resolving any concerns about the conduct of research and the publication of its results is a fundamental aspect of editorial policy. Complaints provide the editorial board with an opportunity to constructively improve the quality of the journal, its publishing policies, and procedures. The complaint can be sent to the editorial office, clearly indicating the nature of the complaint, its subject, and the name of the complainant (zbirnykapp@wunu.edu.ua).

The editorial board considers complaints related to the following circumstances:

  • disputes regarding authorship;
  • the presence of plagiarism in the texts of published research materials;
  • misappropriation of research results and fabrication of data;
  • duplicate publication of articles that have already been published or submitted for consideration to several journals simultaneously;
  • the presence of errors or fraudulent actions in the research process;
  • violation of research standards;
  • undisclosed conflict of interest;
  • in the premarital or harmful actions of reviewers;
  • and administrative policies for the article publication process or recommendations for improving publication policies.

The editorial board considers complaints in a timely and effective manner. Complaints can be submitted to the journal's e-mail (zbirnykapp@wunu.edu.ua) and in printed form as a regular letter to the legal address of the West Ukrainian National University (with the note «Editorial Office of the Journal «Actual Problems of Law») . The complainant is sent a letter confirming receipt of the complaint and a period of no more than 7 days is set for considering the complaint on its merits and responding to the complainant. The decision with the appropriate justification is sent to the complainant by e-mail or in printed form as a regular letter signed by the editor-in-chief of the journal.

The editorial board acts in accordance with the procedure and recommendations for handling complaints provided by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/flowchart/handling-post-publication-critiques).

 

Journal Policy on Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest may arise from employment, sources of funding, personal financial interests, membership of relevant organisations, or other circumstances that could lead to bias and influence the decision-making of those responsible.

Authors and reviewers are required to disclose any facts that may affect the objectivity or impartiality of decision-making. The author designated by the co-authors as responsible for correspondence with the editorial board (corresponding author) must declare any conflicts of interest on behalf of all authors.

Information regarding the presence or absence of a conflict of interest must be stated (declared) by the author in a cover letter when submitting the article for consideration to the editorial board. Incomplete or inaccurate disclosure of relevant information may constitute grounds for revising the editorial decision or applying post-publication procedures.

Reviewers are obliged to inform the editorial board of any potential conflict of interest prior to commencing the evaluation of the manuscript and to refrain from reviewing it if such a conflict exists.

 

The editorial board does not permit the peer review of materials prepared by a member of the editorial board, another member of the editorial board or their relative, or an employee of the same institution. Individuals who are the author’s academic supervisors or colleagues within the same department may not act as reviewers for the article. In the event of a conflict of interest, the reviewer is obliged to recuse themselves and promptly notify the editorial board, which will then appoint a replacement reviewer. Should the editorial board discover evidence of misconduct or a conflict of interest in a reviewer’s work after the article has been published, that person shall be permanently removed from the list of potential reviewers (by decision of the editor-in-chief or one of the deputy editors acting on his or her behalf).

 

Where a manuscript is submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, a member of the editorial board, or a representative of the founding institution, the manuscript is forwarded to an independent managing editor selected from among specialists who are not on the staff of the founding institution. The independent managing editor organises the peer review process, involving independent reviewers. The executive secretary of the journal is responsible for organising the peer review and evaluation of manuscripts by members of the editorial board.

Any instances of the editor-in-chief or their deputies concealing a conflict of interest are considered at a meeting of the editorial board, recorded in the relevant minutes, and may constitute grounds for their replacement by other academics. In the event of misconduct by a member of the editorial board, the editor-in-chief (or one of the deputies acting on his behalf) has the right to decide to remove that person from the editorial board.

 

An individual who is both the author of a manuscript and a member of the editorial board shall not participate in the decision-making process (shall not have a vote) regarding their own article and shall not have access to information about the reviewers. The application of this special procedure is recorded in the editorial office’s internal documentation.

 

The journal publishes information regarding any conflicts of interest relating to a specific publication, so that readers may independently assess the objectivity of the material.

 

Policy on obtaining a mandatory conclusion in research conducted involving humans, animals or their biological materials, personal or confidential data

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submission complies with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – the ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Authors should obtain ethics committee documents, participant consents, and other documents required for the study if living subjects are involved. Research involving human participants must guarantee the autonomy, confidentiality, and privacy of participants or patients.

Ethical oversight includes, but is not limited to, policies regarding consent for publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research on humans, ethical conduct of animal research, handling of confidential data, and ethical business/marketing practices.

For non-interventional research (e.g., surveys, questionnaires, social media), all participants should be fully informed about ensuring anonymity, the purpose of the study, the use of their data, and possible risks.

All manuscripts submitted for review must be prepared in accordance with Directive 2010/63/EU or relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations, and must take into account the requirements for the welfare, care and use of animals.

 

Possibility of making corrections to the text of the article after publication

The journal follows the COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/case/correction-retraction-or-expression-concern) guidelines in its policy on corrections and retractions. The published version of the article is final and cannot be updated. or changed. However, if important information is omitted or a serious error is made during publication, a correction is made that significantly affects the scientific understanding of the article or distorts the results of the research, it is possible to eliminate this problem through additions, corrections, and retractions.

A correction is a significant error made during printing. Failure to make corrections requested by authors within the specified deadline before publication is also considered a correction. A significant error is one that affects the scientific record, the scientific integrity of the article, the reputation of the authors or the journal. All corrections are approved by the journal editors. Information about corrections is published in the current issue of the journal with a hyperlink on the original publication page.

 

Literary and technical editing procedure

After receiving positive feedback from reviewers, the manuscript must undergo literary and technical editing. Interaction between the author and the literary (technical) editor can take place in any form: in person, by email, Viber, WhatsApp, phone, etc. Minor stylistic or formal corrections that do not affect the content of the article are made by the literary (technical) editor without agreement with the author.

The final decision on the possibility of publication is made by the editor-in-chief in accordance with the recommendations of the journal's executive secretary. After making a decision on the admission of the article to publication, the executive secretary (for the issue) of the journal informs the author about this and indicates the expected publication date.

The issue of recommending each subsequent issue of the journal (with an indication of the content) is submitted to a meeting of the editorial board and , subject to approval, is formalized in the form of a submission to the Chairman of the Academic Board of the West Ukrainian National University, drawn up on behalf of the editor-in-chief. The decision to approve the next issue of the journal for publication is made by the Academic Board of the West Ukrainian National University by public vote by a simple majority of votes.