Principles of publication ethics

• contain a precise description of the problem of interest and the method applied towards its solution. In the case of a new method used, an exemplary illustration of its use is requested;
• the paper’s aim and scope should be explicitly and clearly formulated. The same applies to the conclusions and recommendations for further research.

Authors are fully responsible for the article’s content and any supplementary materials submitted to the journal. Should readers report any concerns to any of the authors, the authors are obliged to address them via the Editorial Board.

• duplicate publications, i.e. republishing one’s own work in full or in part,
• plagiarism, i.e. appropriating another author’s or other authors’ complete work or a fragment of it without citing its source,
• fabricated data, i.e. preparing a scientific work based on untrue research results,
• ghost authorship, i.e. not disclosing the co-authors regardless of the significance of their contribution to the article,
• guest authorship, i.e. listing as co-authors persons who made a negligible or no contribution to the article,
• gift authorship, i.e. listing as co-authors persons whose contribution is based on an insignificant or purely formal association with the research.

Authors may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to assist in data analysis, language editing or improving the clarity and presentation of the manuscript. AI tools must not generate substantial scientific content or replace the authors’ intellectual contribution (the authors should be responsible for the majority of the creative input into the article).
The authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and scientific integrity of the manuscript, including any content generated with the assistance of AI tools. Authors are required to disclose the use of AI tools in the preparation of the manuscript. AI tools cannot be listed as authors.
Manuscripts in which the scientific content has been generated primarily by AI tools cannot be considered original scientific work and will not be accepted for publication. These guidelines do not apply to AI tools that are used to improve spelling, grammar, general editing or translation.
The Editor-in-Chief’s makes the final decision regarding the acceptability of the use of AI tools in the submitted manuscript.

Authors must complete a statement declaring that the submitted article is an original, unpublished work (also in a different language), that it does not infringe upon the copyrights of any third parties in whole or in part, and that it is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere.
In case similar materials have been published or presented during a conference, symposium or workshop, authors are obliged to inform the Editorial Team accordingly upon submission.

• the conception and design of the research;
• the collection and compilation of data;
• the analysis and interpretation of data;
• the writing of the article;
• the critical revision of the article;
• the approval of the final version of the article.
• A corresponding author should be the author submitting the article who bears the primary responsibility for the accuracy of the submission and its consequences. Contributions to the article that do not meet the criteria for authorship such as supporting the study, general mentoring, serving as a research coordinator and other related activities, can be indicated in the ‘Acknowledgments’ section of the article.

A bibliographic reference must be provided to all information, data and statements presented in the article that are not the authors’ and exceed common knowledge, regardless of whether they are included in a citation or not quoted verbatim.
The authors are responsible for the correct citation of other authors’ works.

Authors are encouraged to ensure transparency and reproducibility of their research. Whenever possible, the data and statistical code underlying the results presented in the article should be made available to reviewers and readers.
Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets and the analytical code in trusted public repositories.
If data cannot be shared due to legal, ethical or confidentiality restrictions, the authors should clearly state the reason in the manuscript.

Manuscripts submitted for publication in the journal are subject to a double-blind peer review prepared by two independent reviewers. Authors are obliged to respond in writing to the reviewers’ reports and correct their papers accordingly. In case they disagree with any of the recommended corrections and/or amendments, they must formulate a response addressing the rejected suggestions.

The authors are obliged to inform the Editorial Team about any potential conflicts of interest relating to the research presented in the article. The article may be rejected if an existing conflict of interest has not been reported. The disclosure of the authors' conflicts of interest which overly influenced the article or its reviews after its publication will result in the retraction of the article.
The authors are also required to provide relevant information on all funding details and acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the application of their research.

On detecting errors of any kind in published articles, authors should immediately report them to the Editor. All corrections will be included in the journal’s electronic version with an appropriate disclaimer.

The Editorial Team is responsible for the organisation and the efficient execution of the publishing process. As such, it is highly committed to upholding the highest standards of this process which includes ensuring the credibility of the reviews, meeting the deadline from the submission to the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of the article, and the provision of an open access mode to the electronic version of the journal published online. In doing so, it closely collaborates with the Publisher.
The Editorial Team determines the principles to be followed during the publishing process, informs its participants of their obligations, enforcing them at every stage of the publication process and ensures that any information regarding the adopted principles is updated on the journal’s website on a regular basis.

Members of the Editorial Team must not be a party to any conflict of interest with regard to the submitted manuscript or its authors. Conflict of interest refers to any circumstance in which any interest or relationship, either financial or of any other nature, influences the fair evaluation of the submitted work or the decision to accept or reject it.

The Editorial Team is responsible for determining consistent criteria for the evaluation of articles and requires that reviewers sign a statement on complying with the principles of ethical review outlined by COPE and avoiding any conflict of interest (see the Ethical Guidelines for peer reviewers).

The information concerning the submitted manuscripts is treated as confidential. The Editorial Team may provide any information regarding the manuscript only to the authors, reviewers, the Publisher and other advisors to the Editorial Team.

The Editorial Team does not tolerate any signs of scientific misconduct such as: plagiarism, duplication of one’s own publication, fabrication of data, and ghost, guest or gift authorship.
Should any grounds for suspicion of the authors’ scientific misconduct occur at any point of the publishing process, the Editorial Team investigates the matter in accordance with the COPE principles available at https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts.
If any scientific misconduct on the authors’ part is proven, the submitted article is rejected or retracted in the case of an already published article. This decision jointly with its justification is delivered to the authors. The Editorial Team inform any relevant bodies about the authors’ misconduct (the institutions that employ the authors, scientific associations, etc.).

In order to objectively verify the originality of the submitted articles prior to the review process, the Editorial Team uses an antiplagiarism system. If the article shows significant similarities to other papers, or if it is highly probable that AI tools have been used while writing it, the Editor-in-Chief, after discussing the issue with other members of the Editorial Board and the Advisory Board, decides whether to accept or reject the article. Should the article be rejected, the decision and its justification are delivered to the author.

If there are legitimate concerns whether the research presented in the published article is reliable or suspicions of any irregularities (the evidence showing the errors of the research conducted by the authors is inconclusive, but the nature of the doubt justifies notifying the readers; there is reasonable concern that the findings are unreliable or that irregularities may have occurred), the Editorial Team may publish expressions of concern that the results of the presented research should be treated with caution. Such a disclaimer is published only if the investigation of the article is inconclusive. The Editorial Team may also publish expressions of concern when the investigation of a questionable article is underway.

If the author notices any errors in the article, the author should immediately report them to the Editorial Team. This rule applies to all stages of the publishing process and the period following the publication of the article. The Editorial Team, in cooperation with the author, then take appropriate steps: they make the relevant correction, publish a corrigendum or erratum, or withdraw the article (retract it).

The Editorial Team ensures that any editorial changes made in the text do not infringe upon the main idea of the author(s).

Should a final decision to reject the submitted work be made, the Editorial Team must not use it in any way without the written consent of the author.

Reviewers accept articles for review if they are certain of their own expertise in the field of the article and they are able to assess the submitted work fairly, thoroughly and within a pre-specified deadline.

There must be no possibility of a conflict of interest regarding the authors and the institutions financing the research. If there is such a possibility, the reviewers should immediately withdraw from the review process.

Reviewers evaluate the article according to the criteria outlined in the PS review form. They should justify their assessment with relevant arguments and reasoning, refrain from personal criticism and preserve confidentiality. After completing the reports, the reviewers must not save any materials pertaining to the evaluated paper and/or use them for any purpose

• may be published in its present form;
• may be published after the suggested amendments are introduced;
• requires significant modification and re-evaluation (during which a final
• decision is made whether the article is accepted for publication or not);
• should not be published.

When detecting scientific misconduct or any violation of the principles of publication ethics in the submitted work, reviewers must immediately report it to the Editorial Team. Reviewers should also inform the Editorial Team if they identify substantial similarities between the manuscript under review and other published works.

Reviewers should treat the articles sent to them for review as confidential. They must not share or discuss them with anyone except for the Editorial Team, unless the Editorial Team provides them with a consent to do otherwise.

• the Open Data and Re-Use of Public Sector Information Act in the case of articles submitted by 31 Dec 2021;
• the Creative Commons licences in the case of articles submitted following 31 Dec 2021

Other uses of the content of PS articles require the permission of the Publisher.

Materials published in PS are protected by copyright. Starting from 2022, the authors grant the publisher, Statistics Poland, the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-SA 4.0), which is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.pl. A detailed copyright notice is provided with each article, both in electronic and printed form.

The Publisher declares its readiness to publish corrections, explanations and apologies regarding the published work.