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EDITORIAL POLICIES

PUBLISHING ETHICS POLICY

The Journal of Business Sectors strictly observes the principles of ethical and professional conduct in relation to all parties involved in the process of publishing scientific articles, including authors, the journal’s Editorial Board, reviewers and readers. The author(s) must ensure that submitted scientific studies comply with all established ethical requirements for manuscript submission. If these requirements are not met, the editorial office will proceed in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and may adopt one of the following decisions: request an appropriate revision of the submitted manuscript, reject the submitted manuscript, or retract an already published article.

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The Editorial Board of the journal pays particular attention to the following issues: plagiarism, citation manipulation, duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification and manipulation, authorship, the use of artificial intelligence tools, conflicts of interest, ethical aspects of research and confidentiality.

PLAGIARISM

The journal accepts only scientific articles that are based on the author’s/authors’ own research and constitute the original work of the authorial team. Any use of another person’s/persons’ ideas, words or work without proper citation of the original source will be considered plagiarism.

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Common forms of plagiarism include:

  • Direct plagiarism, which involves the exact use of another person’s ideas in the submitted manuscript, or their minor modification with the intention of presenting them as one’s own, without proper acknowledgement of the original source;

  • Paraphrasing another person’s ideas without citing the original source;

  • Self-plagiarism, which involves the reuse of parts of one’s own previously published work without proper citation. In some cases, it may be necessary to use an author’s/authors’ previously published work in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of a new scientific study. Self-citation will be accepted only if it serves to enrich the research and provides a basis for reaching new conclusions. In such cases, the author(s) must properly cite the original work;

  • Copying images, graphs and tables without citing the original source or without permission from the original copyright holders.

 

Each manuscript submitted to the Journal of Business Sectors will be checked using the Crossref Similarity Check software. A certain degree of similarity identified in a scientific article may be acceptable, provided that it is not substantial or critical, with a maximum threshold of 10%. The author may also be asked to rephrase certain passages where similarity has been detected.

Any form of plagiarism is considered unethical conduct by the author(s). All cases of plagiarism will be investigated by the editorial office in accordance with COPE guidelines.

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The editorial office reserves the right to use its own method for informing the author of identified similarities, usually by providing a copy of the relevant page of the similarity report. The full similarity report will not be provided to the author(s), as this would be contrary to established international practice.

COMPLAINTS CONCERNING PLAGIARISM IN PUBLISHED RESEARCH

The editorial office pays close attention to every complaint concerning plagiarism in already published research and carefully investigates each case before taking any further action.

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The editorial office will not discuss potential cases of plagiarism with third parties and reserves the right not to consider a case if the complaint has been submitted anonymously or if the complainant behaves unprofessionally or acts aggressively towards the journal’s editorial office.

CITATION MANIPULATION

The editorial office regards any form of citation manipulation as unethical conduct, which may result in rejection of the manuscript.

Unethical citation practices include:

  • Excessive self-citation, which is intended to increase the number of citations for the personal benefit of the author(s). Self-citation is permitted only in cases where it enhances the scientific quality of the submitted manuscript, for example by helping to formulate new conclusions and findings;

  • Coercive citation, which may occur at any stage of manuscript processing. If the author(s) are asked to cite or refer to the work of other authors which an editor or reviewer believes would increase the scientific value of the manuscript, but the author(s) of the submitted manuscript consider such suggestions to be unjustified, this will be regarded as unethical conduct. If you feel pressured to include references to the work of other authors, please contact the Editor-in-Chief immediately at editor@jobsjournal.eu; 

  • Unnecessary citations, meaning citations included by the author(s) that are unnecessary or irrelevant to the scientific value of the article, usually with the aim of increasing the impact factor of a journal or the h-index of an author. If the editorial office identifies such practices, it will proceed in accordance with COPE guidelines.

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Duplicate Publication

A scientific study submitted to the Journal of Business Sectors must be original and must not have been previously published in another journal. In addition, the manuscript must not be submitted to another scientific journal while it is under consideration by the editorial office of our journal.

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Data Fabrication, Falsification and Manipulation

Data fabrication and manipulation have a serious negative impact on the integrity of scientific research and constitute a serious and unacceptable form of research misconduct. The data presented in the submitted manuscript must not be modified in a way that could lead to their incorrect interpretation or to misleading scientific conclusions.

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If there is a suspicion that the data presented in the manuscript are inaccurate, falsified or deliberately modified in order to increase the scientific value of the submitted manuscript, the editorial office reserves the right to investigate the matter and to request the submission of data from the original source. If our investigation does not provide sufficient relevant evidence of the integrity and proper use of the data, we reserve the right to reject the manuscript and to take the necessary steps in accordance with COPE guidelines.

 

Authorship

An author of a scientific article is a person who is listed in the article and who:

  • has made a substantial contribution to the conception of the research or the design of the scientific work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work;

  • has drafted the article or critically revised it for important intellectual content and high scientific quality;

  • has given final approval of the version to be published;

  • agrees to be accountable for all aspects of the article and to ensure that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

 

Artificial intelligence tools may not be listed as authors or co-authors of an article. The editorial office’s position on AI authorship is consistent with the COPE statement.

 

The primary affiliation of each author should reflect the scientific institution at which the majority of their work was carried out. Authors are encouraged to designate a corresponding author and to confirm the order of authors before submitting the manuscript. If an author has changed their name for any reason, they may request correction of their name in previously published articles.

When preparing the manuscript, authors are strongly encouraged to use an ORCID iD. 

 

In the case of multiple authors, the corresponding author, who communicates with the editorial office, must specify the individual contribution of each author. The description of each author’s specific contribution is included in the journal template. If other persons have contributed to less significant activities, this should be appropriately acknowledged in the article. The corresponding author should ensure that all relevant co-authors are included, that the order of authors and their contribution to the preparation of the article have been agreed, and that inappropriate co-authors are excluded.

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The editorial office considers the following forms of authorship to be unethical:

  • Gift authorship means that a researcher is listed as a co-author without having contributed to the preparation of the article.

  • Ghost authorship means that a person who meets the criteria for authorship of the article is not listed as an author, either in order to conceal a potential conflict of interest or because the person requests that their articles be cited instead of being listed as an author, with the aim of increasing their scientific reputation.

  • Unauthorised manipulation of the author list refers to situations in which authors are included in the authorial team without their knowledge in order to increase the credibility of the study, or where co-authors are unfairly excluded from the list of authors.

 

In resolving any disputed issues concerning authorship, the editorial office will proceed in accordance with COPE guidelines. In justified cases, the editorial office may request cooperation from the institution at which the author is employed.

Unethical forms of authorship may lead to corrective measures by the editorial office, including rejection of the manuscript, retraction of the article, and possible reputational consequences for the authors concerned.

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Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Any use of artificial intelligence tools must take place under human supervision and control. When preparing articles, authors are permitted to use the following AI-assisted activities:

  • proofreading of the manuscript;•

  • assistance with collecting references and formatting them in accordance with the journal’s submission requirements;

  • creating, improving, correcting, editing or formatting visualisations of existing research data or results;

  • disclosure of each use of AI in the article template, including the manner in which it was used and the relevant AI tool, including its name and version;

  • translation of the manuscript for publication purposes.

 

The STM Recommendations for the Classification of Artificial Intelligence Use in the Preparation of Academic Manuscripts define the rules for the use of AI in the preparation of scientific articles. Other forms of AI use in the preparation of scientific articles are not permitted and will be considered unethical conduct by the author(s). The editorial office reserves the right to decide whether the use of an artificial intelligence tool is acceptable and reserves the right to reject a manuscript or take post-publication action in the case of an article that proves to be fabricated or fraudulent as a result of AI-generated content.

 

Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers and editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Authors must disclose all circumstances that may have influenced their own research, could influence the peer review process, or may have affected the publication of the article. If the author(s) are unsure whether a particular situation may constitute a conflict of interest, they are required to contact the Editor-in-Chief of the journal and request an opinion.

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In the article template, the author(s) must provide information on any third-party financial support for the research and on any other circumstances that may give rise to a potential conflict of interest. If you believe that the Editor-in-Chief of the journal may have a conflict of interest, please inform the publisher by email at ceo@ecesr.eu in order to ensure a transparent and fair review process for your article.

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Exceptionally, a member of the Editorial Board may submit a manuscript to the journal as an author or co-author. In such cases, the member will be excluded from the editorial process. The maximum number of such articles must not exceed 10%. In handling cases involving conflicts of interest, the journal will proceed in accordance with COPE guidelines.

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Ethical Aspects of Research

Research submitted to JOBS must be conducted in accordance with the relevant protocols on biosafety and biosecurity, data protection, the right to privacy, and all national or international recommendations applicable to the relevant field of research. Authors are required to take appropriate measures to minimise the misuse of their work.

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Articles involving research with human participants must include a statement on informed consent to participate in the research. Where identifying information is used, the authors must obtain informed consent. Such information should be anonymised or excluded from the article if it is not essential to the research.

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The editorial office reserves the right to request documentary evidence of informed consent, including any other supporting materials relevant to the study conducted. The editorial office reserves the right to seek expert advice in cases where it considers that problems may arise in this area, and may request that the manuscript undergo peer review specifically to assess dual-use risk. In the event of problems in this area, the Editorial Board will act in accordance with COPE guidelines.

 

Confidentiality

The Journal of Business Sectors uses a double-anonymous peer review process. The Editorial Board therefore emphasises that all parties must maintain full confidentiality and must not disclose the identity of the author and/or reviewer. It is particularly important that the responsible editor removes from the manuscript, before sending it for review, all information that could identify the author(s). The author is also required to ensure that the text of the article does not contain information that could identify them. In this context, the author(s) should pay attention to self-citations, the names of research projects from which the scientific article was prepared, and any other circumstances that could enable the reviewer to identify the author. The editorial office will check and remove all personally identifiable information before the manuscript is sent for peer review and before reviewers’ comments are forwarded to the author(s).

RETRACTION AND CORRECTION POLICY

After an article has been published, circumstances may arise that require a correction to be made. The form of correction or the retraction of an article depends on the seriousness of the issue concerned and must be supported by justified grounds. The procedures used by the journal’s Editorial Board to update or retract a published article are described below.

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CORRECTIONS

Errors may occur at any stage of the editorial process. The error may originate from the author(s) or from the journal’s editorial office.

An author may request a correction to an article if the proposed corrections do not substantially alter the conclusions reached in the research, if the errors affect the understanding of the meaning of the article, and if the proposed amendments are not contrary to ethical standards.

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The author shall prepare the correction, which will be incorporated into the online version of the article either in the form of an addendum, where the author has unintentionally omitted important information, or in the form of a correction notice intended to correct errors made by the author.

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If the error was caused by the editorial office during the publication process, the author(s) must inform the Editor-in-Chief of the journal by e-mail and provide information enabling the error to be identified, such as the type of correction, the reason for the correction and the intended manner of correction.

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AUTHOR'S NAME CHANGE

If an author requests a change of name in a published article for relevant reasons, such as marriage, religious reasons or gender transition, the journal’s editorial office will make the necessary update without publishing a correction notice and without informing the co-authors of such changes. The author may inform the co-authors at their own discretion.​

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RETRACTION

According to the COPE Guidelines, “retraction is a mechanism for correcting the literature and alerting readers to articles that contain such seriously flawed or erroneous content or data that their findings and conclusions cannot be relied upon”. The following grounds may justify the retraction of a published article:

  • there is clear evidence that the scientific findings of the published article are unreliable, either as a result of a serious honest error, such as an incorrect calculation or an error in the conducted experiment, or as a result of intentional misconduct by the author(s), such as fabricated or falsified research;

  • plagiarism is identified in any of its forms;

  • the research findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper acknowledgement of the previous sources or notification to the editor, without permission for republication or without adequate justification, i.e. cases of redundant publication;

  • the article contains material or data used without permission;

  • copyright has been infringed or another serious legal issue has arisen, such as defamation or breach of privacy;

  • the article reports unethical research;

  • the article was published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process;

  • the author(s) failed to disclose a serious competing interest, i.e. a conflict of interest, which, in the editor’s view, would have unduly influenced the interpretation of the work or the recommendations of the editors and reviewers.

 

The journal’s editorial office carefully investigates potential retractions before a final decision is made, as retraction represents a serious intervention in the journal’s editorial record. Where necessary, the editorial office will consult the institutions with which the authors are affiliated.

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A retraction notice for each article will be published on the journal’s public website. Retraction notices will be bidirectionally linked to the original article. The original article will be watermarked as retracted, and its title will be supplemented with the phrase “Retracted article”. In exceptional cases, the journal reserves the right to remove an article from the online platform. Such action may be taken if the journal has been informed that the content of the article is defamatory or unlawful, if a court order has been issued requiring the removal of such content, or if its use would pose an immediate and serious risk to health.

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In such cases, the removal of the article may be temporary or permanent. However, the bibliographic metadata, such as the title of the article and the names of the authors, will be retained and accompanied by a statement from the journal explaining the reasons for removing the article content.

 

Readers may report to the editorial office any articles which, in their view, should be retracted by sending an e-mail to editor@jobsjournal.eu and providing sufficient evidence.

EDITORIAL BOARD GUIDELINES

Editorial Board Responsibilities and Duties 

The members of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Sectors are recognised experts in their respective fields of research. Their full names, academic titles, institutional affiliations and countries are listed on the journal’s website in the section entitled Editorial Board. All members of the Editorial Board have given their consent to serve on the Board. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the work of the Editorial Board. The contact details of the editorial office are available on the journal’s website in the Contact section.

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In their decision-making, members of the Editorial Board are independent of the journal’s publisher. However, they are required to comply with the guidelines and rules of the journal’s Editorial Board, as well as with the legal standards relevant to scholarly publishing, including those concerning potential defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Members of the Editorial Board do not pursue commercial interests, but act solely in the interests of scientific integrity and publication ethics. Where necessary, they are required to publish explanations, information concerning retracted articles, or apologies to authors and other parties involved.

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Responsibility for Publication Decisions

Decisions on which manuscripts submitted to the journal should be published are made by the Editorial Board on the basis of a recommendation submitted by the Editor-in-Chief. Such decisions are always guided by the validation of the work concerned and its perceived significance for researchers and readers. The guidelines of the journal’s Editorial Board provide the principles governing the Board’s activities. Limitations arise from legal requirements, including copyright infringement and plagiarism. When making such decisions, the responsible Scientific Editor may consult other editors or reviewers on disputed issues.​

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Non-Discriminatory Approach

Each manuscript should be evaluated on the basis of its scientific content, regardless of the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy. The decision to accept or reject a manuscript for publication should be based solely on the significance, originality and clarity of the article, as well as the relevance of the study to the aims and scope of the journal.

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The Editorial Board reviews these principles regularly, once a year, in order to ensure that they do not create an exclusionary environment and that they actively support broad participation in the content of the journal.

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Confidentiality of Information

No information concerning a submitted manuscript may be disclosed by an editor or any member of the editorial team to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and, where necessary, the journal’s publisher. Editors must ensure that submitted material remains confidential throughout the review process.

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Disclosure of Authorial Materials and Editors’ Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in the own research of members of the Editorial Board without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through the review process must remain confidential and must not be used for personal advantage.

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The Editorial Board undertakes to ensure that advertising, reprints or any other commercial revenue have no influence on editorial decisions. The Editor-in-Chief and the Scientific Editor should ensure a fair and appropriate review process. Where conflicts of interest arise as a result of competitive, collaborative or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions associated with the submitted manuscripts, the members of the Editorial Board concerned should be excluded from the assessment of such manuscripts. In such cases, another member of the Editorial Board should be asked to assess the manuscript.

 

Archive of Published Articles

The Editorial Board ensures the digital archiving of the journal’s content on the journal’s website. The journal is indexed in important databases, such as Index Copernicus, ERIH+ and others, which serve as permanent electronic archives of scholarly journals. The journal is also a member of Crossref, whose purpose is to facilitate the discovery, citation and evaluation of manuscripts. Crossref is an official registration agency for Digital Object Identifiers.

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Journal Website

The Editorial Board is responsible for ensuring that the journal’s website is regularly maintained. The persons responsible for the website pay attention to security aspects and apply ethical procedures when updating the website. The information published on the website should be accurate. The journal’s website must not contain information that could mislead readers or authors, and it must not copy the website, design or logo of another journal. Text copied from other websites should be clearly identified.

 

Duties of the Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief is a leading expert in the field of research covered by the journal. The Editor-in-Chief is appointed and may be dismissed by the Scientific Council of the publisher. The Editor-in-Chief’s main duty is to manage the work of the Editorial Board and to submit recommendations to the Editorial Board concerning the publication or rejection of reviewed manuscripts. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that all participants in the editorial process comply with the core practices of COPE.

 

The Editor-in-Chief’s further duties include:

  • preparing, obtaining approval from the Editorial Board for, and implementing the journal’s development strategy;

  • developing editorial policy and rules governing editorial work and procedures;

  • conducting the initial assessment of the suitability of submitted manuscripts for the journal, including the desk review based on defined criteria;

  • appointing the Scientific Editor responsible for organising the peer review process;

  • taking responsibility for the publication of high-quality scientific articles;

  • analysing published articles in order to define and maintain the strategic direction of the journal;

  • representing the journal at all levels in order to maintain its good reputation;

  • communicating and consulting with authors and other parties on editorial policies, COPE requirements and any issues relating to non-compliance;

  • attracting new authors and reviewers to the journal;

  • taking responsibility for the indexing of the journal in major scientific databases;

  • appointing and dismissing members of the Editorial Board;

  • regularly reviewing the composition of the Editorial Board in order to ensure that it remains relevant and appropriate in relation to the journal’s publication strategy, while continuously inviting leading researchers in the relevant field to join the journal’s Editorial Board.

 

Duties of Scientific Editors

For each manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief appoints a Scientific Editor from among the members of the journal’s Editorial Board. The Scientific Editor is responsible for ensuring a proper, transparent and ethically sound peer review process, including the selection of reviewers. After the completion of the peer review process, the Scientific Editor submits a recommendation concerning the publication or rejection of the relevant manuscript to the Editorial Board through the Editor-in-Chief.

REVIEWER GUIDELINES

Once a manuscript has passed the desk review, it is assigned to two independent experts for double-blind peer review.

Reviewers are selected by the Scientific Editor from the journal’s internal reviewer database. The Scientific Editor is appointed by the Editor-in-Chief. The Scientific Editor contacts the reviewer by e-mail with a request to prepare a review. The review request e-mail includes an anonymised version of the manuscript, without the names of the authors or any other identifying elements that could clearly identify the authors of the article, such as ORCID iDs. A member of the Editorial Board or a member of the editorial team may not act as a reviewer.

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The review process is described in detail on the journal’s website in the For Authors section. All manuscripts submitted for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to, or discussed with, other persons unless this has been approved by the responsible Scientific Editor. Unpublished materials disclosed in the submitted manuscript must not be used in the reviewer’s own research without the written consent of the author. Confidential information or ideas obtained through the review process must remain confidential and must not be used for the reviewer’s personal advantage. Reviewers must not assess manuscripts in relation to which they have a conflict of interest.

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Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly and support them with scholarly arguments. Review reports should be objective, reviewers should have no conflict of interest, and they should identify relevant published work that has not yet been cited. Reviewed manuscripts must be handled confidentially.

 

Decisions on the acceptance or rejection of a scientific article are substantially supported by review reports, which assess the scientific quality of the manuscript and may also, through editorial communication with the author, help to improve the article. Peer review is regarded as an essential part of the Editorial Board’s decision-making process. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that the authors have not cited in their manuscript. Any statement suggesting that part of the manuscript has previously been published should be accompanied by the relevant citation. The reviewer should also notify the responsible Scientific Editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and any other published work of which the reviewer is aware.

 

Any selected reviewer who does not feel qualified to review the manuscript, or who knows that a timely review will not be possible, should promptly inform the Scientific Editor and withdraw from the review process so that other suitable reviewers can be contacted without delay.

 

The manuscript review is submitted through the OJS system, which guides the reviewer through the complete review structure. The reviewer is required to comment on the manuscript in each section of the review form. Independent external reviewers who are experts in the relevant academic field must not be affiliated with the research centre represented by the author. Review reports are not published together with the articles. They are signed, but the identity of the reviewer is known only to the Scientific Editor and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

PRIVACY STATEMENT & PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION

In accordance with Article 13(1) and Article 13(2) of 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, repealing Directive 95/46/EC, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016), the editorial office of the journal hereby informs authors and reviewers that:

  • The controller of the personal data of authors and reviewers is the editorial office of the Journal of Business Sectors.

  • The body responsible for the protection of personal data is the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Sectors.

  • The personal data of authors and reviewers are processed for the purposes of carrying out the publication and peer review process in relation to the work of which the person concerned is an author, co-author or reviewer. Where a person acts as an author or reviewer, the relevant data may be made available to other entities involved in the publication process, to abstracting and indexing services, and may be published on the journal’s website as the original source of such data, in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR.

  • The recipients of the personal data of authors and reviewers may include readers of the journal, users of the European Centre for Economic & Social Research, other entities involved in the publication process, and users of abstracting and indexing services, where such data are published on the journal’s website as the original source.

  • The personal data of authors and reviewers will be retained for the duration of the active operation of the editorial office of the Journal of Business Sectors and for a subsequent period of five years.

  • The Editorial Board and the editorial team may not use any personal data provided by authors and/or reviewers for their own personal purposes, including purposes of a purely research or academic nature.

  • The Editorial Board and/or the editorial team may share personal data concerning authors only in cases where plagiarism or other improper conduct has been identified and an investigation is underway. In such cases, the Editorial Board and the editorial team are expected to cooperate fully and contribute to the investigation.

  • The current institutional affiliation of authors and their contact e-mail addresses are published on the first page of each article and are considered part of the open access information relating to the article. If an author does not wish their e-mail address to be published in the text of the article, they must inform the Editor-in-Chief of the journal of this decision at least 10 days before the date of publication of the article.

  • The institutional affiliation of the author is an integral part of article indexing in international databases. This information is therefore considered publicly available, and all authors are strongly encouraged to provide it when submitting their manuscripts.

  • Authors and reviewers have the right to access their personal data, as well as the right to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, objection and withdrawal of consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

  • Authors and reviewers have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority if they consider that the processing of their personal data infringes the provisions of the GDPR.

  • The provision of personal data is a condition for the publication of a submitted article of which the person concerned is an author or co-author, or for the acceptance of a review prepared by a reviewer. Authors and reviewers are required to provide the requested personal data. Failure to do so may result in the refusal to publish the article or to accept the review by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Sectors.

  • If you have a specific query concerning the manner in which we collect or store data, or if you request that your personal data be erased from the journal’s internal database, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

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