It is very important for a journal to be scrupulous and always adhere to the best publishing practices and principles of publication ethics (COPE). Therefore, all processes related to the review and publication of articles should be as clear and transparent as possible.
The editorial board, journal staff, authors, editors and reviewers constantly interact at different stages of writing, processing, peer review, editing and publishing the article, and their relationship is not always easy and during which various situations may arise (that is, when a person has competing interests or loyalty caused by his obligations to several persons or organizations/university), when a person cannot give proper respect to the actual or potentially conflicting interests of both parties. A conflict of interests can be based on financial relations (such direct conflicts of interest are usually easy to identify), ideological, religious, and intellectual differences, academic gain, competition, and rivalry.
When submitting the manuscript, authors must exclude a possible conflict of interest or attest it to the journal by filling out the appropriate form when sending the manuscript to the journal, which excludes the possible data manipulation. The authors are fully responsible for disclosing all relationships, facts, actions, and influence of third parties that may affect their research.
Before reviewing the manuscript, reviewers should familiarize themselves with the peer review process of the journal and with the journal itself; after that, they decide about the article review, following and applying the COPE principles A Short Guide to Ethical Editing for New Editors.
If there are circumstances, facts or actions that may affect the transparency of the article assessment, the reviewer should refuse to review the manuscript. If there is a potential conflict of interest, the reviewer should report this to a Managing Editor or a Handling Editor and consult with them.
Reviewers should not use the article for their personal purposes and should not attract third parties without prior consultation with journals. After reviewing the article, the paper version of the manuscript must be destroyed, and the electronic version removed from the electronic media.
Founders are not prohibited from publishing their work in any journal published by BUP. The Managing Editor can publish his/her own manuscripts in the journal he/she manages. If the editor or the editorial board member is the author of the manuscript submitted to the journal, which he/she serves, then he/she cannot participate in peer review process and the decision making procedure regarding his/her own work.
Editorial Board Members, Editors, and Managing Editor should act only in the interests of the journal, make decisions based on the work reliability and its importance for the reader; they should also protect the confidentiality of the author and reviewers (keep manuscripts and related materials and information in strict confidentiality). Editorial Board Members, Editors, and Managing Editor should not discuss and use the materials and ideas of the manuscript before publication.
Editors who make final decisions on manuscripts should not make editorial and publication decisions if they have a conflict of interest related to manuscripts under consideration. Editorial staff should not use information obtained when working with manuscripts for private gain.
The web CRM System “Manuscript Administration System” (manuscript and peer review management system) absolutely excludes the possibility of involving editors, editorial board members, and reviewers in the peer review if they are authors of the manuscript under consideration.
If there is a conflict of interest before the article publication, whether it has been attested by an author, a reviewer, Editorial Board members, editors, or the Managing Editor or the staff of the journal, or if there has been an information leak, then a conflict of interests statement should be published in the article; in addition, the editor may request and publish related documents so that the reader has complete information and can judge for himself the possibility and nature of the impact of the conflict of interest on the published results.
