Publication Ethics and Responsibilities of Participants
The editorial policy of the journal Customs Scientific Journal is based on the principles of academic integrity, transparency, accountability, and adherence to internationally recognized standards of publication ethics. Compliance with these principles is mandatory for all participants in the editorial process, including authors, reviewers, and editors.
Authors are responsible for the originality of their submissions, the accuracy of the data and results presented, proper citation practices, and full compliance with ethical standards. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere, except where ethically justified. Authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and, where applicable, sources of research funding.
Reviewers are expected to provide independent, objective, and confidential assessments of manuscripts. They must not use any information obtained during the review process for personal advantage and are required to report any ethical concerns or conflicts of interest to the editorial board.
Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair and unbiased review process and for making publication decisions based solely on the scientific merit of the manuscript and compliance with ethical standards. The editorial board maintains confidentiality of all submitted materials and responds appropriately to any suspected misconduct.
The journal follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adheres to the principles of responsible research assessment outlined in the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
COPE principles are used to guide the journal’s response to potential cases of academic misconduct, including plagiarism, conflicts of interest, corrections, and article retractions. The principles of DORA are upheld in promoting responsible use of research metrics and avoiding the reduction of research quality assessment to purely quantitative indicators.
Ethical Requirements for Research
The journal adheres to ethical principles in research, particularly in studies involving human participants, personal or confidential data, biological materials, or other sensitive research subjects.
Submission of a manuscript implies that the research has been conducted in compliance with applicable legal requirements and recognized ethical standards. Authors are responsible for protecting participants’ rights, ensuring data confidentiality, and obtaining informed consent where required.
Where ethical considerations are relevant, the editorial board may request evidence of approval from an appropriate ethics committee or authorized body. Information on such approval, or a justified explanation of its absence, must be clearly stated in the manuscript.
The journal reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet ethical standards or fail to provide adequate justification regarding ethical aspects.
Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence
The journal acknowledges the role of artificial intelligence in contemporary research but considers it strictly as a supportive tool that cannot replace scholarly work.
AI may be used for language editing, structuring content, or auxiliary data analysis. However, core elements of research – including problem formulation, methodology, analysis, and conclusions – must be developed by the author.
The use of AI for generating substantive content, fabricating data or references, or listing AI as an author is strictly prohibited.
Authors must disclose any use of AI in their manuscripts. The editorial board may use software tools for screening, but all decisions are made by human editors.
Procedure for Handling Allegations of Academic Misconduct
The editorial board ensures a structured and consistent approach to handling allegations of academic misconduct at all stages of the publication process, including post-publication.
Misconduct may include plagiarism, self-plagiarism, redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, improper citation, authorship manipulation, and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Complaints may be submitted by authors, reviewers, editorial members, or other stakeholders.
All allegations are formally registered and subject to preliminary assessment. Investigations may involve the use of plagiarism detection tools and consultation with independent experts. The editorial board may request additional information from authors where necessary.
Based on the findings, appropriate actions are taken, including revision requests, rejection, retraction, or other corrective measures. Decisions are made in accordance with principles of fairness, confidentiality, and transparency.
Retraction and Correction Policy
The journal ensures the integrity of the scholarly record by allowing corrections or retractions where necessary.
Minor errors may be corrected through errata, while serious violations or significant inaccuracies may lead to retraction.
The process involves investigation, communication with authors, and formal decision-making. Retraction notices are published, and retracted articles remain available with clear labeling.
Open Access, Copyright and Licensing
Customs Scientific Journal operates under a Diamond Open Access model: all articles and issues are freely accessible to both authors and readers. All articles published in the journal are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
However, the editorial board particularly encourages submissions from PhD candidates (third-cycle higher education students), who are fully supported under this no-fee policy.
Copyright: Authors retain the copyright for their works published in the journal, in accordance with the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
Permissions: The license allows users to freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, cite, or reference scientific articles, provided the authorship is properly attributed, in compliance with the requirements of the license.
Conditions of use: The use of materials for any commercial or non-commercial purposes is permitted, provided that proper attribution is given, and the content of the articles is not altered unless otherwise stated.
User obligations: When using materials published in the journal, users are required to provide correct attribution to the authors and the source of publication, indicating accurate details of authorship and publication, and not to alter the content of the articles.
Other rights: The license does not restrict authors from publishing their works in other publications or using their materials under different conditions, as long as this does not contradict the requirements of the CC BY 4.0 license.
This policy ensures open access to scientific materials and promotes the dissemination of knowledge while protecting the authors' rights.
Archiving and long-term storage
The journal provides immediate open access to all published content, supporting the principles of open science and unrestricted dissemination of scholarly information. Full-text access to all published articles is provided immediately upon issue release and is available in the Archives section of the journal’s website. This approach helps increase the visibility of research, its citation rate, and its use in scientific and practical activities.
This policy fully complies with the BOAI definition of Open Access and is compatible with most international standards for open access and scholarly material archiving.
Long-term preservation of content is ensured through the use of technical solutions such as regular data backup, reliable digital storage formats, and data protection measures.
The journal supports self-archiving and allows authors to deposit their published articles in institutional, subject-based, or international repositories in accordance with the licensing terms.
Open Research Data (FAIR)
The journal supports openness in research and encourages authors to make the data underlying their articles available or to explain any restrictions on their use. Where possible, such datasets should be deposited in reliable repositories with assigned DOIs.
Data should comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), ensuring their discoverability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.
When datasets are available, authors should provide information about their location in the manuscript and metadata, including a persistent identifier (such as a DOI or another stable link). This contributes to research transparency, verifiability, and integration into the global scientific environment.
