The Editorial Board of the journal “Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication” adheres to the generally accepted international standards on the ethics of editing, reviewing, publishing and authorship of scientific publications, coordinated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and is guided by the experience of leading international scientific journals and publishers. The editorial board’s work is based on the observance of standards of scholarly integrity and responsible publication of scientific research papers. Compliance with these standards by all participants in the publication process (author/authors), reviewers, the editor, the editor-in-chief, the editorial board, the publisher) prevents the spread of unfair practices of using plagiarism, false information, falsification of results, copyright infringement, prohibition of publication in the event of a conflict of interests, illegal use of copyrighted materials in the interests of third parties, etc., which ensures high quality of scientific publications, their promotion on the international science and recognition of the results of scientific research by the international research community, as well as guarantees the rights of authors to intellectual property.

The Code of Conduct for the Journal Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief takes responsibility for the ethical policy of the journal, for all papers published in it, and should be guided in is activities by the following fundamental principles:

1. When making a decision on publication, the editor-in-chief should consider the significance of the article, its originality, clarity of presentation, reliability of the information contained in it and its compliance with the research field of the journal.
2. The decision to reject the publication of an article is possible only if serious problems are found related to its publication, and should not be motivated by the author's race or gender, sexual orientation, religious or political views, origin, citizenship, or social status.
3. If a new Editor-in-chief is appointed, all articles previously accepted for publication must be published in accordance with the established procedure and in compliance with the publication deadlines, unless serious problems are found related to their publication.
4. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the journal has a clear description of the peer review process, an appeal procedure and guidelines for authors. All procedures should be updated with references to relevant guidelines.
5. The editor-in-chief ensures the effective selection of reviewers for articles, taking into account the prevention of possible conflicts of interests, respects the author’s request for a particular person not to review their work, if such a request is justified and feasible.
6. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the use of unpublished data from the submitted manuscripts for personal purposes or in the interests of third parties.
7. If there are suspicions of possible misconduct and disputes about authorship, the COPE schemes should be used (http://publicationethics.org/flowcharts). The Editor-in-chief makes sure that the information about how these issues are resolved (with appropriate links to the COPE schemes) is published on the journal website.
8. The Editor-in-Chief ensures the announcement of the date of submission of articles to the editorial board and making decisions on their publication.
9. The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board ensure the verification of the originality and reliability of data in the manuscripts submitted for publication and are responsible for the publication of plagiarism.
10. The Editor-in-Chief ensures the procedure for protecting the anonymity of reviewers in the system of one-peer blind review accepted by the journal.
11. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the quality of the reviewers’ work. To maintain it at a high level, he/she analyses the quality of the reviewers’ work, refuses to cooperate with reviewers who write ethically incorrect, meager and biased reviews that violate the established review procedure and/or deadlines.
12. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the editorial board promptly informs the authors of the comments made by the reviewers and observes the deadlines set for their elimination.
13. The Editor-in-Chief ensures compliance with the principle of unbiased review of articles by members of the editorial board.
14. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the editorial board is rotated on a regular basis.
15. The Editor-in-chief participates in the meetings of the editorial board, discusses the functioning of the journal with the members of the editorial board, informs them about changes in the journal’s policy, and determines the long-term goals of the journal.
16. The Editor-in-Chief undertakes to:
    • remain faithful to the principles of scientific integrity;
    • constantly improve the journal;
    • ensure the quality of the published materials;
    • protect the freedom of expression;
    • be ready, if necessary, to publish corrections, explanations, refutations (retract articles) and apologies
    • be open to research that challenges previous work published in the journal.
17. The Editor-in-Chief, together with the publisher, reviews claims related to copyright, ensures the resolution of conflict situations, the restoration of violated rights and the protection of intellectual property.
18. Editor should ensure a clear procedure for handling submissions from the Editor-in-chief, journal staff, and members of the editorial board to ensure unbiased review, as well as the procedures for resolving their own conflicts of interest, conflicts of interests of the employees of the journal, the authors, reviewers and editorial Board members.

The Code of Conduct for the reviewers

Reviewers carry out a scientific examination of the articles, thus checking for the objectivity of research and reliable informing about them, as a result of which he/she should be guided by the following principles:

1. Agree to review only those manuscripts for which they have sufficient knowledge, and which they can review in a timely manner.
2. Not to make public the details of the manuscript and the review and not to use the information obtained during the review for their own benefit or the benefit of other persons or organizations, or to harm or discredit other people.
3. Report all possible conflicts of interest to the editorial board, and if there is no certainty that there is a conflict of interest, contact the journal for advice.
4. The content of the review should not be influenced by the author’s race, national or religious affiliation, or political views.
5. The review must be objective, constructive, and conscientious, and must not contain hostile, derogatory, or demeaning statements or comments.
6. The reviewer should provide the journal with reliable information about their personal and professional knowledge and experience.
7. In their activities, the reviewer should be guided by the principles of proper behavior, strictly observe the rules and deadlines for reviewing adopted in the journal.
8. The reviewer should follow the journal’s policy in situations that, in their opinion, may interfere with objective peer review.
9. If any questions arise, the reviewer is obliged to contact the journal for the missing information necessary to compile a high-quality review.
10. The reviewer is obliged to immediately notify the journal if
    • errors are found in the work;
    • there are doubts about the originality of the work: there is a significant or partial similarity of the reviewed manuscript with any other work, there are facts of the absence of references to the provisions, conclusions and arguments previously published in other works of this or other authors;
    • after submitting their review, they learned some important facts that could influence their initial opinion and recommendations.
11. The reviewer does not have the right to address the authors directly without the prior permission of the journal.
12. If possible, the reviewer should comply with the journal's request to re-review the manuscript after the changes made to it or a new version of the manuscript.

Principles of professional ethics for the publisher

In their activities, the publisher is responsible for the publication of copyrighted works, which entails the need to follow the following fundamental principles:

1. Determine the relationship between the publisher, the editor-in-chief and other parties to the contractual relationship.
2. Respect the right to privacy and confidentiality of personal information.
3. Protect intellectual property and copyright.
4. In cooperation with the editor-in-chief, form an effective policy of the journal and mechanisms for its implementation, especially in such aspects as:
   • independence of the editor-in-chief;
   • research ethics;
   • authorship;
   • transparency and integrity;
   • reviewing, the role of the editor-in-chief and the editorial board;
   • appeals and complaints.
5. Disseminate information about the journal's policy.
6. Periodically review the journal's policy, bringing it in line with new recommendations from the COPE.
7. Follow the Code of Conduct for Editors-in-Chief of Journals.
8. Remain true to the principles of scientific integrity.
9. Assist in the investigation of cases of unfair research and publication practices, and, when possible, assist in resolving these issues.
10. Publish corrections, clarifications and retract article which do not comply with the rules and guidelines of journal.
11. To ensure the timely publication of the journal and the placement of articles accepted for publication in the open access sources.

The Code of Conduct for Authors

When submitting materials to the scientific journal «Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication», the author / team of authors is initially responsible for the novelty and reliability of the results of scientific research, which implies compliance with the following international standards of scientific publications:

1. The research should be conducted in accordance with ethical and legal standards.
2. The research should be of high quality, and its results should be presented clearly, honestly, without falsification and unfair manipulation of data.
3. The description of the methodology of scientific research should be clear and unambiguous, allowing for verification and confirmation of the results obtained by the author and providing sufficient information for other researchers to repeat the research.
4. Sources of funding and possible conflicts of interest associated with them should be disclosed.
5. Authors are collectively responsible for their work and the content of the publication, and therefore should
   • carefully check their submissions at all stages to ensure the accuracy of the presentation of methods and results;
   • carefully check all calculations, data representations, documentation and evidence;
   • discuss all restrictions imposed during the study;
   • recognize the contribution of all people who in one way or another influenced the course and results of the study, with appropriate references to their relevant research work.
6. Authors should immediately notify the Editor-in-Chief if an error is found in any work submitted for publication, accepted for publication, or already published, and cooperate with the editorial board if necessary to edit the work.
7. New results should be presented in the context of previous studies with a proper reflection of the work of other scientists. The review and conclusions from existing studies should be complete, balanced, and include information regardless of whether they support the author's hypotheses and interpretations or not.
8. The work submitted for publication must be original and not previously published in any language, and may not be sent simultaneously to several journals, except in cases where there is an agreement between the publishers for a joint publication, about which the reader is informed accordingly.
9. When using copyrighted materials, authors should comply with the applicable conventions and legislation of a specific field.
10. The authorship of a research paper should accurately reflect the contribution of individuals to its execution and description.
11. All authors of the article submitted for publication should give their agreement to be included in the list of authors and must approve the submitted and edited version of the work. The responsible author acts as a contact person between the publisher and other authors.
12. The authors are jointly responsible for the integrity of the research and the report on it. In cases where the authors accept responsibility for certain aspects of the work and the published material, this should be indicated in the publication.
13. The authors of the article should be only those people who have made a significant contribution to the research and the design of its results. It is unacceptable to include in the team of authors people whose contribution to the study is of a technical nature, and people who did not participate in the research.
14. The authors should answer the reviewer's questions in a reasoned manner and eliminate the noted shortcomings as soon as possible.
15. The manuscript submitted for publication must comply with all the rules accepted in the journal.