Ethical and legal issues: Counteracting ghostwriting, guest authorship or honorary authorship as well as irregularities regarding citations: plagiarism, and the Matthew effect

By submitting a manuscript for publication in the journal, the author declares that he or she is the author of the text and that he or she has the (exclusive) personal and property copyright to this text. Should the manuscript for publication be prepared by several authors, the person submitting it will (a) declare that the persons listed as authors are entitled to moral as well as economic rights to the text, and (b) specify the contribution of each author to the text (the person submitting the text is responsible for accuracy of the information).

The Editorial Committee will strongly oppose any attempts at ghostwriting, guest authorship and honorary authorship as well as concealing real sources used for the preparation of one’s manuscript, as such actions violate the elementary ethical principles of the academic community.

Ghostwriting is understood as a situation when a person made a significant contribution to the publication but their role remains concealed, i.e. they are not named either among (a) the authors or (b) in the acknowledgments section of the said publication.

Guest authorship or honorary authorship is understood as a situation when a person is named as an author or a co-author of the publication, but their actual contribution to the publication was next to none or none at all.

Concealing actual sources used to prepare the texts for publication is understood either as (a) all types of plagiarism (both explicit and implicit – see Zenderowski 2008), or as (b) failing to quote the correct publications and quoting instead authors who are more likely to draw attention (according to the Matthew effect – see Merton 1968; 1988; 1995; Strevens 2006).

Should such practices be revealed (and cannot be amended in editing), the Editorial Committee of the journal:

a) will deny publishing such manuscript in the journal and will inform about the misconduct the scientific institution(s) employing the author, as well as other scientific centers, journals and – in case of Polish authors – the Ethics in Science Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences;

b) if the manuscript has been published in the journal, will make an appropriate announcement in the next volume of the journal and will inform about the misconduct the scientific institution(s) employing the author, as well as other scientific centers, journals and – in case of Polish authors – the Ethics in Science Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences;

Moreover, in order to promote high ethical standards in science, the Editors of the journal refer to three studies: Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego 2011; Komisja do spraw etyki w nauce PAN 2012; Committee on Publication Ethics 2015.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION ETHICS
2015: COPE flowcharts. Available online: http://publicationethics.org/files/Full%20set%20of%20flowcharts_0.pdf (retrieved: 19.10.2016).

ETHICS IN SCIENCE COMMISSION, PAN
2012: Kodeks etyki pracownika naukowego [The code of ethics for scientific researchers]. Warsaw: Komisja do spraw etyki w nauce PAN. Available online (in Polish): http://www.instytucja.pan.pl/images/stories/pliki/Komisja_ds_Etyki_Nauce/dokumenty/Kodeks_etyki_pracownika_naukowego_31.12._2012.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).

MERTON Robert K.
1968: The Matthew Effect in Science, Science 159 (3810), pp. 56–63; Robert K. Merton 1910-2003, Garfield Library. Available online: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/merton/matthew1.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).
1988: The Matthew Effect in Science, II. Cumulative Advantage and the Symbolism of Intellectual Property, ISIS 79, pp. 606–623; Robert K. Merton 1910–2003, Garfield Library. Available online: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/merton/matthewii.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).
1995: The Thomas Theorem and The Matthew Effect, Social Forces 74(2), pp. 379–424; Robert K. Merton 1910-2003, Garfield Library. Available online: http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/merton/thomastheorem.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).

MINISTERSTWO NAUKI I SZKOLNICTWA WYŻSZEGO
2011: Rzetelność w badaniach naukowych oraz poszanowanie własności intelektualnej. Warsaw: Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego. Available online (in Polish): http://bbn.uksw.edu.pl/sites/default/files/rzetelnosc_broszura_fin_low.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).

STREVENS Michael
2006: The Role of the Matthew Effect in Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 37(2), pp. 159–170; Michael Strevens — strona domowa. Available online: http://www.strevens.org/research/scistruc/Matthew.pdf (retrieved: 29.11.2014).

ZENDEROWSKI Radosław
2008: Plagiat. Istota – rodzaje – skutki (w odniesieniu do prac pisemnych na studiach wyższych) [Plagiarism: its nature, typology and consequences in written assignments at university studies]; Warsaw: Instytut Politologii Uniwersytet Kard. Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie. Available online (in Polish): http://www.zenderowski.republika.pl/plagiat.pdf‎ (retrieved: 29.11.2014).