EUROPEAN DIMENSIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Academic Ethics and COPE Compliance
The Organizing Committee and Editorial Office of this conference strictly adhere to the rules and regulations recommended for academic and scientific journals by COPE – the Committee on Publication Ethics. We consider these guidelines as crucial for maintaining the integrity of our everyday activities.
Guaranteeing Freedom of Expression and Academic Integrity
All editors, from the Editor-in-Chief to managing and guest editors, are responsible for ensuring authors a reasonable balance between freedom of expression and academic integrity.

Author Rights for Published Articles
Authors of published articles have the right to request retraction, publish an apology, clarification, and/or correction. The Editor is expected to support these intentions and may seek additional explanation before publishing such information.

Scope and Framework Evaluation
Editors are responsible for determining whether a potential submission aligns with the journal’s scope and framework. If the text does not fit, the decision should be communicated directly to the author(s) with an explanation and, optionally, a recommendation for alternative publication opportunities.

Transparency in Review Procedures
Editors are responsible for explaining the peer-review procedures to both authors and independent reviewers. Regular email notifications, at least once a year, should be sent to reviewers to remind them of the related rules and procedures.

Revision of Publishing Rules and Standards
Editors must conduct an annual revision of internal academic publishing rules and peer-review standards.

Non-Reversal of Decisions
New editors do not have the right to reverse the decisions made by previously employed editors unless an external complaint is filed regarding plagiarism or other academic misconduct.

Treatment of Critical Articles
Articles containing criticism of previously published works or presenting negative results should be treated equally to regular articles describing authors’ original results. These articles should also be subject to standard peer-review.

Plagiarism Detection and Reporting
In cases of detected plagiarism with sufficient evidence, editors have the right to contact the author’s employer, the Ministry of Science and/or Education in the related country, or other regulatory authorities to report the case of plagiarism.

External Reporting and Cooperation
If plagiarism is reported externally, editors are expected to fully cooperate and provide all necessary evidence, except for the names of reviewers involved in the case.

Retraction Notification to Databases and Libraries
Editors are responsible for informing international databases and online libraries in case of article retraction. However, they cannot control the timing of updates in the involved databases and libraries.

Advertising Policies
This conference refrains from advertising activities, with the exception of cases directly related to academic research, higher education, and other conferences within the journal’s scope. Published advertisements must adhere to the journal’s guidelines.

Conflict of Interest Resolution
All conflicts of interest should be resolved according to COPE regulations. Editors (or publishers on their behalf) are expected to follow similar cases described on the official COPE website when dealing with such situations.

Authorship Criteria
Authors should have made significant contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the paper.
Authors should have been involved in drafting the paper or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
All authors must have given their final approval of the version of the paper to be published.
Authors must agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work and should actively ensure that any questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the paper are appropriately investigated and resolved.
The above authorship criteria recommended by ICMJE – the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors – should be strictly adhered to when submitting conference papers. It is essential to recognize and acknowledge the significant contributions of all authors involved in the research and preparation of the paper.

Appeals and Complaints
Appeal against Decision
If you wish to appeal the decision of the conference paper review process, please follow these guidelines:
Submit an appeal letter to the conference’s editorial office, clearly stating the basis for your appeal.
Explain the reasons for your disagreement with the decision and provide specific responses to any comments from the reviewers or editor that contributed to the rejection.
Include any new information or data that you believe should be considered in the reevaluation of your paper.
If you suspect technical errors in the reviewer’s assessment, provide evidence to support your claim.
If you believe a reviewer may have a conflict of interest, provide relevant evidence.
The Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor will carefully review your appeal, along with the reviewer reports, and make one of the following decisions:
a. Uphold the original rejection decision.
b. Seek another independent opinion on your paper.
c. Consider the appeal and reconsider the decision.

Outcome Notification
The complainant will be informed of the decision made in response to the appeal, along with an explanation for the decision. Please note that the decision reached through the appeal process is final.

Handling Other Complaints
Organizing committee of the conference takes complaints against the Editorial, its staff, editorial board, publisher, reviewers, and others seriously. If you have concerns or complaints, you can contact the Editor with a detailed written description of the issue and provide supporting information at edsd@nuft.edu.ua

Complaint Investigation
Upon receiving your complaint, the Editor will acknowledge receipt and initiate an investigation. The complaints will be handled following the rules and guidelines set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for fair and transparent decision-making in each case. For more details on COPE’s guidelines, please refer to https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Case?classification=2773.

Conflicts of Interest
Authors are required to disclose any financial or personal interests directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. This includes, but is not limited to, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility
After publication, authors have the freedom to share their work, including on third-party repositories, with the condition that they acknowledge its initial publication in the Selected Papers of EDSD.

Ethical Oversight Policy
The Selected Papers of EDSD follows the ethical oversight policy recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This includes policies on consent to publication, research involving vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals and human subjects, handling confidential data, and ethical business/marketing practices. While the journal is committed to addressing appeals regarding the non-observance of ethical principles by authors, it does not cover research on humans and animals.

Ethics Approval for Studies
Authors must obtain ethics approval for all studies before conducting the research. The editorial office may request additional information, and the Editor, based on reviewer or expert decisions, may require an institutional or another professional ethics board’s conclusion.

Additions, Corrections, and Retractions
The EDSD Conference Papers adheres to the guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when addressing ethical concerns related to published articles, including matters concerning additions, corrections, and retractions.

Additions and Corrections
Additions and Corrections may be requested by the author(s) or initiated by the Editor to address significant issues, errors, or omissions that arise after the publication of an article. All Additions and Corrections must bring new and directly relevant information or correct scientific facts. Minor corrections and additions will not be published. The Editor’s approval is necessary for all Additions and Corrections.

Correction Process
Additions and Corrections must be made in the Design File of the Article, which is saved in the Editorial Office and provided to the responsible author upon request. Details of the correction should be described in a separate file. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining approval from all coauthors before submitting the correction or providing evidence of solicited approval. The final decision on the correction is made by the Editor-in-Chief after analyzing the reasons provided.

Retractions
Articles may be retracted for scientific or ethical reasons, either upon request by the article author(s) or at the discretion of the Editor(s). Retractions are considered when articles contain seriously flawed or erroneous data, making their findings and conclusions unreliable. Retracted articles are done to correct the scientific record. A notice of Retraction, including the reason for the Retraction, will be published. In exceptional circumstances, such as legal requirements or public health risks, the originally published article may be removed from online availability.

Identification and Handling of Allegations of Research Misconduct
The Selected Papers of EDSD takes research misconduct seriously. Research misconduct includes practices such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or any other serious deviation from commonly accepted academic standards for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, as defined by ORI – the Office of Research Integrity.

Preventing and Addressing Research Misconduct
The Editorial Office will take reasonable measures to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, has occurred. Neither the Journal nor its editors encourage or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place.

Dealing with Allegations
If the Editorial Office receives any allegation of research misconduct related to a published article, COPE’s guidelines will be followed in addressing the matter. In the case of suspicion or allegation of scientific misconduct or fraudulent research in manuscripts submitted for review, the Editor reserves the right to refer the manuscripts to the sponsoring or funding institution or other appropriate authority for investigation. The Publisher and Editor recognize their responsibility in considering suspicion of research misconduct but do not make determinations on such matters themselves.

Editorial Privacy Policy and GDPR Compliance:
The Organizing Committee and Editorial Office are dedicated to maintaining trustful relationships with all authors and reviewers. Our internal rules and code of conduct fully comply with the acting General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policies.
The core provisions of our editorial privacy policy are as follows:

Confidentiality of Personal Data:
Editors directly communicating with authors, both current and potential, are responsible for strictly keeping all personal data provided by them confidential.

Non-Use of Personal Data for Private Purposes:
The Editorial Board and Editorial Office shall not use any personal data provided by authors and reviewers for private purposes, including solely research/academic-related activities such as customer surveys or marketing research.

Informed Consent for Surveys:
In case the Board or the editorial office plans to conduct a survey among authors and/or reviewers, individuals participating in it must be informed in advance and requested to provide signed permission.

Sharing Personal Information in Plagiarism Cases:
The Board and/or the editorial office may share personal information on authors solely in cases where plagiarism has been detected, and there is an ongoing formal investigation initiated by a third party.

Publication of Affiliation and Contact Email:
Authors’ work affiliation and contact email will be published on the introductory page of each article and are considered open-access data. If an author objects to having their email published, they should inform the editorial office once their text has been approved for publishing (after review results are available).

Global Consideration of Job Affiliation:
Authors’ job affiliation is considered an integral part of articles’ indexation in international databases, and therefore, it is treated as open-source data. All authors are encouraged to provide their formal affiliation during the text submission process.

Non-Disclosure of Personal Contact Information:
The Editorial Board and Editorial Office will never share personal contact information, including telephone numbers, emails, Skype names, etc., with any third parties, whether private or business entities.

Minimum Data Retention Period:
The minimum term for retaining any personal data is one calendar year from the day of the first contact. The editors reserve the right to delete any personal data on authors and/or reviewers earlier than one year if the text has not been approved for publication or if the reviewer is no longer cooperating with the editorial office.

Handling Technical Errors:
If any individual receives an email from the editorial office due to technical error or human mistake (e.g., typo in an email address), we kindly request them to delete the email as soon as possible and notify the sender immediately.

Request for Data Deletion:
If any individual wishes to have all their personal data deleted from our internal editorial records, they can contact our managing editor via email to request the removal of their data.

Copyright and Open Access License

Copyright and Indemnification
Authors submitting articles for publication affirm that their work does not infringe on any existing copyright. They agree to indemnify the publisher against any breach of this warranty. To facilitate dissemination and ensure proper monitoring of use, papers and contributions become the legal copyright of the publisher unless otherwise agreed.

Open Access License:
The following license will apply to the article: CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License).
Under the CC BY license, others can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the original creator. This license is highly accommodating and recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

Application of CC-BY License:
The publisher will apply the Creative Commons Attribution Works 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY) to the article for publication in the journal on an Open Access basis. Authors retain the rights to their work while allowing broader accessibility and use under the CC BY license. For further details, please refer to the Open access options page for the journal.