In its activity the journal "Hydrosphere. Hazard processes and phenomena” is guided by ethical standards accepted in the scientific community, in particular, the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics and the Ethics Council of Association of science editors and publishers and makes efforts to prevent its violation.

Particular attention is devoted to the responsibility of all editorial process participants.

 

1. Authors responsibility

Submitting articles for publication in the journal authors guarantee that the article is original (was not published previously in either form), is not considering in another editors boarder, and all possible conflicts of interest related to copyrights and article publication are settled. The authors confirm that their publication does not violate any of the existing copyrights and guarantee the publisher compensation for losses in case of such violations.

Article originality

The main property of a scientific article is originality. Particular violations of it are:

• plagiarism - the deliberate appropriation of work authorship or using another person’s work without reference to the author; plagiarism refers to both verbatim reproduction and paraphrase;
• simultaneous article submission in several journal;
• re-publication of article or a significant part of it, including translation. An exception are made for articles based on published conference proceedings.

The author of the article have to sure that an original study is submitted for publication. Using works or statements of other authors, author should provide appropriate references or quotes. Plagiarism in any form is unethical behavior and unacceptable.

Data validity

The articles validity is the responsibility of the author: he is responsible both for the complete and error-free data represent, as well as for their objective discussion. Data falsification and fabrication are gross violations of scientific ethics and unacceptable.

Authorship

The authorship indicated in the article should correspond to the real contribution in scientific research and article preparing. It should be avoided such phenomena as “guest authorship” (indication a person as author while he did not participate in the study and article preparing) and “ghost authorship” (the absence among authors a person who made a significant contribution to the study and article preparing).

All authors should read the final version of the article and be responsible for all its content.

Citation

Citation should be used in all cases when in the article are used previously published data, results or calculations (both article authors or another ones). If it possible, always refer to the primary source, and not to the secondary work.

In accordance with the editorial policy of the journal "Hydrosphere. Hazard processes and phenomena " is unacceptable:

• verbatim copying more than 10 percent of the another author work without indicating authorship, reference to the source and using quotation marks;
• incorrect paraphrasing of the another author work, in which more than one sentence in the framework of one paragraph or section of the text was changed, or the sentences were reordered without a corresponding link to the source. Significant incorrect paraphrasing (more than 10 percent of the original work) without reference to the source is equivalent to verbatim copying;
• use of elements of the another author work (picture, table or paragraph) without acknowledgments, reference to the source, or using quotation marks. Authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder to use such elements in article;
• self-plagiarism. If some elements of the article were previously published in another source, including in the journal "Hydrosphere. Hazard processes and phenomena”, the authors due refer to an earlier work, indicate what is the essential difference between the new work and the previous one, and at the same time, identify relationship with the results and conclusions of the previous work. Verbatim copying of one’s own works and paraphrasing of them is unacceptable, they can be used only as a basis for new conclusions.

The editors recommends to indicate in the list of references the materials that the authors prepared earlier (during study, which based article), including conference proceedings, seminar presentations, etc.

Using citation as a method for “rising indicators” of an author, journal or organization is unethical.

 

2. Editors responsibility

Decision about publication

The editors decides to publish article and is responsible for this decision. Herewith, the editors is guided the scientific significance of the article first of all, as well as the relevance of the article to the themes and requirements of journal. The editors' decision should not be affected by the author’s institutional affiliation, work position, race, gender, sexual orientation, religious views, origin, citizenship or political preferences.

Confidentiality

The editors is responsible for maintaining confidentiality while peer review, in particular:

• Unpublished data obtained from the reviewed article should not be passed to to third persons (besides reviewers and editors involved in the review of this article) and cannot be used for personal gain.

Conflict of interest

The editors should recuse from reviewing article (that is: contact another editor or member of the Editorial Board while reviewing work instead of oneself peer review and decision-making) in case of conflicts of interest due to competitive, mutual and other interactions and relationships with authors, companies and possibly other organizations related to the article. Also, when assigning reviewers, the editor must take into account the opportunity of a conflict of interest.

 

3. Reviewers responsibility

Article assessment

Peer review is based on mutual respect of the author and reviewer, implies their parity as participants in the scientific process.  The main purpose of the peer review is to assess the scientific value of the article and the compliance of the article to the general scientific work requirements. The objective of the comments in the peer review is to improve the quality of the article. Сomments and recommendations in peer review should be clearly reasoned and based on objective data.

Confidentiality

The reviewer is obliged to keep in secret the content of the peer-reviewed article till it publicated, cannot show or pass the article to third persons without the appropriate permission of the editorial board

Conflict of interest

The reviewer should recuse from reviewing article in case of conflict of interest due to competitive, mutual and other interactions and relationships with authors, companies and possibly other organizations related to the article.

 

4. Adjustment of moot issues related to plagiarism

The editors of the journal "Hydrosphere. Hazard processes and phenomena” follow to the standards of academic ethics, protects the authors repute and takes seriously to all cases of plagiarism. Accusations of plagiarism can be reflected the career of a researcher. In the event of such situations a system of procedures is used to respond possible accusations of plagiarism.

In order to ensure objectivity, the editors carefully explores each situation and considers the arguments of all interested parties. Before taking further action, the editors seek to obtain the most accurate information from the article authors or copyright owners and study it. The editors decision should be impartial, objective and not subject to the influence of third persons.

The editors reserves the right not to respond to accusations of plagiarism if the accuser provides false personal information (for example, a fictitious name) or proceeds in an unethical or threatening manner. The editors is not obliged to discuss cases of imaginary plagiarism with persons who are not directly related to it.

5. Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy

The journal adheres to the recommendations of Elsevier  and WAME on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific publications.

Generative AI systems cannot be considered authors or co-authors, as they cannot be legally or ethically responsible for the content of the publication. Authorship implies the ability to participate in paper preparation process, respond to editorial comments, ensure accuracy, and guarantee the absence of plagiarism, to approve the final version of the manuscript, which is possible only if real researchers are involved.

The use of AI in writing the text is allowed only for the purpose of improving language, style or structure. Authors are fully responsible for the entire content of the manuscript, regardless of the source of its creation.

The fact of using AI must be clearly declared. If an AI tool was used to create or edit the text, this should be reported in the Acknowledgements section. If AI was used in the process of data analysis, writing code, creating tables or visualisations, this information should be indicated in the Abstract and Methods sections. The declaration should include the name and version of the tool, the text of the prompt, as well as the date and time of access to the system.

The use of AI or AI-assisted tools to create or edit images, figures, graphs or graphical abstracts is not permitted. The only exception is when such tools were part of a research method. In such cases, this should be described in detail in the Methods section, with an explanation of the process, the name of the instrument, version, manufacturer and technical details of its use.

Editors and reviewers who use AI tools in the evaluation or communication process should indicate the fact of such use. Transferring the content of the manuscript to third-party tools that store the entered information without the consent of the authors is considered a violation of the confidentiality of the editorial process. The Editorial Board reserves the right to use tools to detect texts and images created or modified by AI in order to maintain scientific integrity and credibility of publications.