As ghostwriting are qualified cases in which someone has made a substantial contribution to publication, without revealing his participation as one of the authors, or without being mentioned in the acknowledgments enclosed to the publication. Guest authorship (honorary authorship) are considered situations in which the authors contribution is insignificant, despite of declaration.
In order to prevent cases of scientific misconduct the Editorial Board introduced a procedure protecting against cases of ghostwriting and guest authorship:
- Authors are required to submit their publications with a declaration specifying contribution of individual authors to publications (with their affiliations and contributions, ie the information who is the author of concepts, principles, methods, etc. used in the publications). The main responsibility lies with the author submitting the publication (declaration template is available on the website of the Quarterly).
- Authors are required to provide information about funding sources of the publication and contribution of research institutions, associations and other entities (financial disclosure).
- All detected cases of ghostwriting and guest authorship will be exposed, including notifying the appropriate entities (institutions employing the authors, science societies and associations, etc.).
- All detected cases of scientific misconduct are documented.
