Ethical Principles of the Acta Musealia Journal

Acta Musealia Journal follows the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Any disagreements between the Editorial Board, authors, or reviewers will be judged according to these standards

Duties of the Editorial Board:

• The editorial board members maintain objectivity when evaluating submissions. In the decision-making process, they must respect the main criteria for selecting contributions. These criteria include the professional level and relevance of the contribution and the consistency of the topic with the professional focus of the Acta Musealia journal.
• The Editorial Board accepts for consideration all manuscripts whose professional and intellectual content is consistent with the focus of the Acta Musealia journal, regardless of the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political or civic views.
• The Editorial Board must ensure that a paper accepted for editorial review has at least two independent reviewers who have no conflict of interest with the author or the Acta Musealia journal. The Editorial Board is responsible for the reviewers and for a fair editorial process.
• During the review process, editorial board members must not disclose any information to anyone outside the review process (i.e., other than the author and reviewers). They must also maintain the anonymity of the author and reviewers, unless the author and reviewers, if any, waive this requirement after the review process has been completed.
• Editorial Board members are required to avoid any conflict of interest, and if there is a risk of a conflict of interest, they must not participate in the review process of the paper in question or in any other related activities.
• Conflicts of interest arise when a member of the Editorial Board has a different professional opinion on the main topic of the paper being reviewed, has been involved in the preparation of the paper in any way, has a professional or personal relationship with an author or team of authors, or stands to gain (professionally, financially, or personally) from their actions in the review process.
• Editorial Board members may not use information from a peer-reviewed paper for their own research or for any other purpose until the paper has been properly published. However, the author of the paper may grant an exception in this case.
• The decision to reject or accept a paper for publication is made by the Chairman in collaboration with the members of the Editorial Board. This decision is final and cannot be appealed. The Chairman also handles any appeals by authors against comments from the review process and other complaints.
• The Editorial Board strives to consistently enhance the professional and formal aspects of the journal while advocating for freedom of expression and professional discourse. It is committed to publishing any necessary corrections, retractions, or apologies after prior consultation, in accordance with generally respected ethical standards.
• The Editorial Board provides guidelines for all editorial work, including guidelines for authors, the review process, and reviewers.
• The Editorial Board guarantees all the rules mentioned above.

Author's Responsibilities:

• Only individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the submitted paper may be included as authors. This entails active participation in the paper's preparation, such as study planning, data collection, or result interpretation.
• The author or authors (hereafter referred to as the author) must submit the draft paper to the publisher in a timely and appropriate manner. The author is responsible for the scientific and technical quality of the draft paper, the chosen methodology, and the interpretation of the conclusions.
• The responsibility for the originality of the paper proposal lies with the author. Additionally, the author is responsible for ensuring the verifiability, originality, and truthfulness of the data used.
• The author should not submit the main topic of the paper to multiple editorial boards simultaneously for publication.
• The author must adhere to the ethical principles of the Acta Musealia journal, specifically avoiding plagiarism, data manipulation, and redundancy of their own work. Additionally, they must comply with generally applicable standards of research ethics.
• The author should adhere to the guidelines for authors, follow the established citation apparatus, and clearly indicate the sources from which they have drawn.
• The author must participate in the review process, respond to the reviewers' comments, and make suggested revisions based on those comments. In disputable cases, he may address specific suggestions to the editorial board of the journal. If there are multiple authors, the lead author is responsible for communicating with the editorial board and reviewers and conveying information to the co-authors. If there is no consensus, the author may choose not to publish the paper.

Reviewer Responsibilities:

• Papers declared as studies undergo a peer review process, where they are anonymously reviewed by at least two reviewers. The reviewers are chosen based on the thematic focus of the text and their specialisation, and are selected by the Editorial Board at their discretion.
• The primary responsibility of the reviewer is to enhance the quality of the paper. Constructive criticism and the addition of essential literature that may be missing from the reviewed paper are highly appreciated.
• The reviewer must maintain objectivity when writing the review. Personal criticism of the author and sharing the paper with individuals outside the review process is not permitted. Additionally, the reviewer must not use any information from the peer-reviewed paper for their own research or other purposes until the paper is properly published.
• A reviewer may decline to conduct a peer review if they have a conflict of professional interest. If the Editorial Board does not receive the reviewer's refusal to participate in the review process, it will assume that no conflict of interest exists.
• A conflict of interest occurs when the reviewer has a differing professional opinion on the main topic of the paper under review, has participated in the production of the paper in any way, has a professional or personal relationship with the author or team of authors, or may gain any benefit, whether professional, financial or personal, from their actions in the review process.
• If the reviewer identifies any violation of the ethical principles of the Acta Musealia journal by an author, they must promptly report it to the Editorial Board.
• Based on the reviewers' comments, the paper will either be accepted for publication, returned to the author for revision, or rejected outright. In cases where the two opponents have divergent opinions, a third opinion will be commissioned. If doubts persist, the decision to publish the paper will be the responsibility of the journal's editorial board.

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