1. Peer Review Process

• Type: Double-blind peer review (authors and reviewers are anonymous).

• Stages:

  • Internal: Initial screening by the Managing/Responsible Editor for compliance with the journal's scope and technical requirements, as well as a plagiarism check (StrikePlagiarism/iThenticate).

  • External: Evaluation by at least two independent experts.

• Timeline: The review process takes up to 3 months. A maximum of 2 rounds of revision is allowed.

• Decisions: Accept; Minor revisions required (author is given 5 days); Major revisions required (2 weeks); Reject with the option to resubmit; Reject.

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2. Publication Ethics and Integrity The journal adheres to COPE and EASE standards, as well as FAIR principles.

• Plagiarism: Any form of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or data fabrication results in immediate rejection without the right of resubmission.

• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) may be used solely for language improvement; AI cannot be listed as a co-author. The use of AI must be clearly declared in the manuscript (in the Methods or Acknowledgments section).

• Conflict of Interest: Authors are required to declare any financial or personal interests that may influence the research results.

• Political Neutrality: The journal does not publish research affiliated with institutions in aggressor countries or state sponsors of terrorism.

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3. Author Guidelines (Manuscript)

• Structure: The article must follow the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion).

• Language: High-quality scientific English and Ukrainian.

• Originality: The manuscript must not have been previously published or be currently under consideration by other journals.

• Authorship: Each co-author must have made a substantial intellectual contribution (according to ICMJE criteria or CRediT taxonomy). Changing the author list after submission is prohibited (except in exceptional cases decided by the editorial board).

• Sources and Data: Mandatory citation of all used materials and funding sources. It is recommended to deposit raw datasets in repositories (e.g., Zenodo) and provide a DOI.

• Preprints: Submission of articles previously posted on preprint servers is permitted, provided this information is disclosed.

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4. Open Access and Copyright

• Access: The journal practices immediate Open Access in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

• License: All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which allows free distribution with mandatory attribution.

• Copyright: Authors retain copyright to their work without restrictions.

• Article Processing Charges (APC): There is no fee for peer review. The publication fee is payable only after the article is accepted for publication; the amount is determined by the publisher based on layout and printing costs.

• Archiving: The journal ensures long-term content preservation in the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv repository, as well as in the electronic catalogs of the M. Maksymovych Scientific Library and the V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine.

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5. Post-Publication Policy

• Corrections: Minor technical errors are corrected via an Erratum notice; significant scientific errors are addressed through a separate correction publication with a new DOI.

• Retraction: An article is retracted via an official editorial statement in cases of unreliable data, plagiarism, or serious ethical violations.

• Appeals: Authors have the right to appeal a rejection decision by submitting a formal request to the Editor-in-Chief with a detailed scientific justification.