Principles of ethics applied by the editors of the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” („Apparatus of Repression in People's Poland 1944-1989”), published by the Institute of National Remembrance.

The principles of publication ethics applied by the editors of the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” („Apparatus of Repression in People's Poland 1944-1989”) are based directly on the recommendations of best practices developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – see COPE Core Practices and their detailed explanations available on the COPE website.

Scientific integrity and impartiality

1. The editors make every effort to ensure that the studies published in the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” meet the highest scientific standards and are of significant importance for the development of fields and disciplines corresponding to the subject of the periodical.
2. The editors of the yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” and the independent reviewers appointed by them base their work on the principles of: objectivity, impartiality, independence from external influences, openness in discussion, and scientific reliability.
3. The decision to accept material for publication depends on the scientific level of the study, its importance for science and the field, as well as the originality of the work and consistency with the topics discussed in the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989”.
4. A scientific publication is reliable and credible only when it is created using impartially and objectively applied research methods and when it faithfully and scrupulously presents the results of the research conducted.
5. Authors are obliged to indicate sources of financing for scientific research and other work resulting in a study submitted for publication in the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989”.
6. Scientific integrity requires that all borrowings, citations, and references fully and adequately cite their sources. Actions that do not respect the above principles constitute a violation of the intellectual rights of the relevant authors.
7. At the request of the editors, the authors should provide source data and provide comprehensive explanations regarding the research methods used in the scientific work resulting in the study submitted for publication. If errors are detected in a study already accepted for publication, or in relation to the data on which the study was based, the authors are obliged to make corrections. If errors are detected in a study that has already been published, the editors allow the authors to publish a correction or explanation in the next volume and on the website of the yearbook.

 Editors’ obligations

The editors of the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” are responsible for the efficient organisation of individual stages of the publishing process: initial assessment of the submitted article by members of the editorial team, submission of the text for external reviews, supervision of linguistic and technical editing, and placement in scientific repositories (see: repository policy of the periodical).

1. The editors decide on the need for possible modification, rejection or acceptance of the work for publication, taking into account only its originality, clarity and logic of the argument presented and compliance with the profile of the yearbook.
2. The editors take the necessary actions to immediately correct the publication if misleading statements or significant inaccuracies appear in the publication.
3. The editors react in the event of unethical behaviour and, if necessary, rejects an article that has been created in violation of ethical principles.
4. The editors provide appropriate information to authors and reviewers via the regularly updated Open Journal Systems website or individual e-mail correspondence (treated as confidential documentation), acting on the basis of legal provisions under the conditions specified in the GDPR - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.
5. The editors are obliged to avoid conflicts of interest in relation to accepted texts, i.e. situations in which certain relationships (professional, personal or other) may influence the assessment of the article or the decision to publish it.

Authors’ obligations

1. The authors are responsible for the content of the published texts and the reliability of the data used in them, as well as any possible violation of the personal rights of third parties.
2. Articles sent to the editors must be original texts – publishing works that are plagiarised (self-plagiarised) or co-authored works without indicating their co-authors, or the result of unreliable practices such as ghost authorship, guest writing or gift authorship, is excluded.
3. The authors certify the originality of the text in the appropriate declaration published on the website of the yearbook, declaring that the work has not been published anywhere before and has not been simultaneously submitted to another publishing house and is solely their own work, does not bear the characteristics of a derivative work and does not infringe the copyrights or personal rights of third parties.
4. The authors consent to the publication of their work in the so-called open access for scientific, non-commercial purposes on the website of the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” and in scientific repositories and full-text databases in which the periodical is registered.
5. The authors undertake to obtain consent, in accordance with the principles of copyright law, from the authors, other owners of copyrights or heirs of iconographic materials used in the work and other source materials to use these sources.
6. The order in which names are given in a multi-authored publication should be consistent with the custom in a given scientific discipline and should be approved by all co-authors at an early stage of preparing the publication.
7. The texts sent by the authors should be consistent with the profile of the periodical and be prepared in accordance with the technical guidelines and rules specified in the IPN’s editorial instructions. In the case of texts intended for printing and submitted in English, the Chicago Manual of Style standard applies.

Counteracting discriminatory practices

1. Materials submitted for publication in the yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” are assessed based on their scientific level, importance for the field of scientific disciplines and topics covered by the periodical, regardless of the author’s origin, national or ethnic affiliation, political views, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Confidentiality

1. The editors of the yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” protect data, documents and information obtained at every stage of the publishing process, which – due to their nature – should remain confidential (e.g. reviews, correspondence between the editors and authors).
2. Reviewers and authors are also obliged to maintain confidentiality in this respect.

Anti-plagiarism policy

1. The editors of the yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” declare the possibility of using anti-plagiarism software used by the IPN Publishing House, intended to verify the originality of the text and the scope of possible borrowings from third-party publications. Reviewers also ensure that the originality of the studies is maintained.
2. If the author of the material submitted for publication in the scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” uses the work of third parties – in the form of borrowings, citations and references – the author is obliged to cite their source in an exhaustive and adequate manner. This means the obligation to correctly cite all sources on which the author relied when preparing the study.
3. In the case of a literal quotation of fragments of other people’s works (sentence, paragraph), the appropriate fragment should be placed in quotation marks and provided with an appropriate citation.
4. Activities that do not respect the above principles constitute a violation of the copyrights of the relevant authors (plagiarism) and constitute the most blatant type of violation of the principles of scientific integrity.
5. If there is a suspicion that the author has committed this type of practice, the editors take steps in accordance with the procedure specified by COPE. Any cases identified by the editors will be disclosed, including notifying relevant entities (institutions employing authors, scientific societies, associations of scientific editors, etc.), as well as law enforcement authorities.

Anti-duplication policy

1. A manifestation of scientific dishonesty are cases of sending for publication texts that constitute duplicate publications, i.e. containing, to a significant extent, repetition of research results, analysis and theses formulated in the author’s previous publications (self-plagiarism).
2. If there is a suspicion that the author has committed this type of practice, the editors take steps in accordance with the procedure specified by the COPE principles. Any cases identified by the editors will be disclosed, including notifying relevant entities (institutions employing authors, scientific societies, associations of scientific editors, etc.).

Ghost authorship, guest writing, gift authorship

1. Authorship and co-authorship of a study submitted for publication in a scientific yearbook „Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989” should be limited to people who significantly contributed to its creation; the participation of research assistants, people conducting queries, and possibly other people contributing to the concept or methodological basis of the text should be indicated.
2. The periodical does not publish texts in which the actual author/co-author of the study is someone other than the person indicated as its author/co-author, and therefore prepared by the so-called ghost author who made a significant contribution to the creation of the publication, without disclosing their participation as one of the authors.
3. The editors also do not accept texts for printing where the participation of the person indicated as the author or co-author is negligible (guest writing) or does not take place at all (gift authorship).
4. If there are suspicions that the author/authors have committed this type of practice, the editors take steps in accordance with the procedure specified by COPE. Any cases identified by the editors will be disclosed, including notifying relevant entities (institutions employing authors, scientific societies, associations of scientific editors, etc.).

Withdrawal of an already published study

1. In cases of alleged or proven scientific dishonesty, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the periodical publisher, in close cooperation with the periodical’s editorial team, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and make corrections to the specific article. This includes the prompt publication of erratum or, in justified cases, full withdrawal of the work from the periodicals.
2. The editors decide to withdraw a work that has already been published if they notice an obvious violation of the principles of publishing ethics applicable to the “Communism: system - people - documentation” yearbook. The work will then be removed from the periodical’s website run in the OJS system and cooperating repositories, in accordance with the provisions of agreements with the entities maintaining them and the rules of publication in these repositories.
3. If copies of a given volume were printed on paper, an explanation and/or apology will be published in the next volume of the periodical.
4. Obvious violations of publishing ethics include in particular: plagiarism, unjustified and undisclosed duplication, as well as cases of significant violations of the rules on conflicts of interest and the rules on authorship and guest writing; before making a decision to withdraw a given publication, the editors ask the author for a comment, enabling them to respond to the allegations presented.
5. In the event of a violation of the principles of publishing ethics by the authors of published works, we reserve the right to take appropriate legal measures.