The Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement of the journal “Experimental and Clinical Urology” are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines, requirements for peer-reviewed medical journals, elaborated by the "Elsevier" Publishing House and Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals developed by ICMJE.

1 General duties and responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology

1.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor are accountable for everything published in the Experimental and Clinical Urology.

1.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology strive to meet the needs of readers and authors, strive to constantly improve their journal and maintain the integrity of the academic record;

1.3. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology have processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish, champion freedom of expression and preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;

1.4. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed;

1.5. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology seek the views of authors, readers and reviewers improving their journal’s processes, encourage and are aware of research into peer review and publishing and reassessing the Experimental and Clinical Urology processes in the light of new findings and work to provide appropriate resources, guidance from experts and high-quality specialists;

1.6. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology use the best practices to define the role of authors and contributors as well as to determine ghost, guest or gift authorship;

1.7. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology encourage responsible behaviour and discourage misconduct and insist on recusing those members from editorial decisions who have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related to articles under consideration.

2 Relations with readers

2.1. Readers of the Experimental and Clinical Urology are informed about who has funded research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication, provided with a transparency policy to encourage maximum disclosure about the provenance of non-research articles and informed about steps taken to ensure that submissions from members of the journal’s staff or editorial board receive an objective and unbiased evaluation;

2.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology ensure that all published reports and reviews of research have been reviewed by suitably qualified reviewers (including statistical review where appropriate) and ensure that non-peer- reviewed sections of their journal are clearly identified

3 Relations with authors

3.1. The decisions of the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology to accept or reject a paper for publication is based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal;

3.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology do not reverse decisions to accept submissions unless serious problems are identified with the submission;

3.3. The Experimental and Clinical Urology has a declared mechanism for authors to appeal against editorial decisions;

3.4. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology regularly publish guidance to authors on everything that is expected of them and regularly update it;

3.5. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology provide the guidance about criteria for authorship and/or who should be listed as a contributor following the standards set by ICMJE in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

4 Relations with reviewers

4.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions and follow the COPE flowchart in cases of suspected reviewer misconduct;

4.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology insist on reviewers disclosing any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission;

4.3. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology acknowledge the contribution of reviewers to the journal and encourage academic institutions to recognise peer review activities as part of the scholarly process;

4.4. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology are guided by the COPE flowcharts in cases of suspected misconduct, monitor the performance of peer reviewers and take steps to ensure this is of high standard;

4.5. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors, Publishing Editor and Editorial Board of the Experimental and Clinical Urology ensure that the reviewer database reflects the community for the journal, add new reviewers and update it regularly.

5 Relations with editorial board members

5.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology provide new editorial board members with guidelines on everything that is expected of them and should keep existing members updated on new policies and developments;

5.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology have policies in place for handling submissions from editorial board members to ensure unbiased review;

5.3. The Editor-in-Chief of the Experimental and Clinical Urology regularly reviews the composition of the editorial board.

6 Relations with journal owners and publishers

6.1. The relationship of the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology to the owner are based firmly on the principle of editorial independence;

6.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology make decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability for the journal and without interference from the journal owner.

7 Editorial and peer review processes

7.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor ensure that peer review at the Experimental and Clinical Urology is fair, unbiased and timely;

7.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology ensuring that people involved with the editorial process receive adequate training and keep abreast of the latest guidelines, recommendations and evidence about peer review and journal management, are kept informed about research into peer review and technological advances and adopt peer review methods best suited for the biomedical community;

7.3. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology will refer troubling cases to COPE, especially when questions arise that are not addressed by the COPE flowcharts, or new types of publication misconduct are suspected.

8 Quality assurance

8.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the published material, recognize that the Experimental and Clinical Urology has specific Aim and Goals and, therefore, use several systems to detect falsified data either for routine use or when suspicions are raised.

9 Protecting individual data

9.1 The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology obey the Federal Law No 149-FL issued on 27.07.2006 (revised in 29.06.2018) “On Information, Information Technologies and the Protection of Information”.

10 Encouraging ethical research involving humans or animals

10.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology endeavour to ensure that the research under consideration was carried out according to the relevant internationally accepted guidelines and seek assurances that it has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board);

10.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology may request evidence of ethical research approval and to question authors about ethical aspects if concerns are raised or clarifications are needed;

10.3. The Editor-in-Chief of the Experimental and Clinical Urology appoints a journal ethics advisor to advise on specific cases and regularly review journal policies.

11 Dealing with possible misconduct

11.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology follow the COPE flowcharts if they suspect misconduct or if an allegation of misconduct is brought to them;

11.2. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology first seek a response from those suspected of misconduct and if they are not satisfied with the response, the relevant employers, or institution, or some appropriate body will be requested to investigate.

12 Ensuring the integrity of the academic record

12.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology taking steps to reduce covert redundant publication, ensure that published material is securely archived and any errors, inaccurate or misleading statements can be corrected promptly and with due prominence.

13 Intellectual property

13.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology work to handle potential breaches of intellectual property laws and conventions, adopt systems for detecting plagiarism in submitted items and strongly support authors whose copyright has been breached or who have been the victims of plagiarism.

14 Encouraging debate

14.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor encourage and are willing to consider cogent criticisms of work published in the Experimental and Clinical Urology.

15 Complaints

15.1. The Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor of the Experimental and Clinical Urology respond promptly to complaints and ensure there is a way for dissatisfied omplainants to take complaints further as set out in the COPE flowchart on complaints.

16 Conflicts of interest

16.1. The Experimental and Clinical Urology has specific system for managing the Editor-in- Chief, Deputy Editors and Publishing Editor own conflicts of interest as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers and editorial board members.

16.2. The Experimental and Clinical Urology has a declared process for handling submissions from the editors, employees or members of the editorial board to ensure unbiased review.