The Editorial Board of Ekonomika APK adheres to the principles of integrity, objectivity, editorial independence, confidentiality, accountability, and transparency throughout all stages of the assessment and publication of scholarly materials.

In its work, the editorial team follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Elsevier’s Publishing Ethics Resource K it is used as an additional reference resource.

The ethical requirements apply to authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, editorial staff, the publisher, and other individuals involved in preparing scholarly publications.

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly merit, originality, relevance, and methodological soundness of the manuscript, its compliance with the journal’s scope, and adherence to publication ethics requirements. The authors’ origin, citizenship, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religious beliefs, political views, institutional affiliation, or academic status do not influence the consideration of a manuscript.

The journal operates a double-anonymised peer review process. Detailed procedures for initial editorial assessment, reviewer selection, manuscript revision, and editorial decision-making are set out in the journal’s separate peer review policy.

Editorial independence and decision-making

The decision to accept, request revisions to, or reject a manuscript is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an authorised editor on the basis of the reports provided by independent reviewers, the authors’ responses, the journal’s editorial policy, and the results of checks for compliance with ethical requirements.

The owner, founder, publisher, sponsors, or other individuals or organisations must not influence editorial decisions for commercial, administrative, political, or personal reasons.

An editor must not use unpublished information, data, concepts, or methods contained in a submitted manuscript in their own work without the authors’ prior written consent.

Confidentiality

All submitted manuscripts are confidential documents until publication. Information about a manuscript may be disclosed only to the authors, editors, reviewers, editorial staff, publisher, or invited experts to the extent necessary for editorial assessment.

Editors, reviewers, and other individuals who have access to a manuscript must not:

• disclose it to third parties without the permission of the editorial team;
• use unpublished materials for their own benefit;
• contact the authors directly regarding matters related to the peer review;
• disclose the content of peer-review reports or editorial correspondence;
• upload the manuscript or any part of it to publicly accessible or third-party generative artificial intelligence systems.

The confidentiality requirement remains in force after a manuscript has been rejected or withdrawn.

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest is understood as any financial, personal, professional, academic, institutional, or other circumstance that may influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the objectivity of an author, reviewer, or editor.

Authors must disclose all potential conflict of interest when submitting a manuscript. Where no such circumstances exist, the article must contain the following statement: “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”

A reviewer must decline to assess a manuscript where they:

• are employed by the same institution as the author;
• have a close personal or professional relationship with the author;
• have recently collaborated or co-authored a publication with the author;
• have a supervisory or subordinate relationship with the author;
• have a financial or other interest in the findings of the research.

Editors and members of the Editorial Board must disclose any conflict of interest and withdraw completely from the consideration of the relevant manuscript.

Where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, they must not participate in the initial assessment, selection of reviewers, editorial discussion, or decision-making. In such cases, the peer-review process is organised and the final decision is made by the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, provided that the Deputy Editor-in-Chief has no conflict of interest.

Where the Deputy Editor-in-Chief also has a conflict of interest, the Editorial Board appoints, without the participation of the individuals concerned, an independent member of the Editorial Board or a guest editor, who is granted full authority to manage the manuscript and make the final decision.

Manuscripts authored by editors, members of the Editorial Board, or journal staff undergo the standard independent external peer-review process, without the relevant authors participating in any part of the editorial procedure.

Post-publication discussion

The journal supports scholarly discussion following publication. Comments may be submitted to the editorial team in the form of a letter, commentary, or substantiated report of a possible error or breach.

Authors and readers may also use independent moderated platforms for post-publication discussion, including PubPeer. The availability of a DOI facilitates the unambiguous identification of an article on such platforms.

The editorial team assesses substantiated comments irrespective of the channel through which they are received. Participants in the discussion must maintain a professional tone, focus on the content of the research, and refrain from personal attacks, discrimination, or disclosure of confidential information.

Data-sharing policy

The journal supports the principles of transparency and openness in scholarly research while protecting authors’ rights and complying with ethical requirements.

The journal stipulates that data underlying published findings may be made available only in response to a formal request submitted through the editorial team. Data may be provided exclusively with the consent of the author or authors of the study.

To request access to data, an interested party must contact the journal’s editorial team and specify the intended purpose for which the data will be used. The editorial team forwards the request to the author or authors for consideration. Where the author or authors agree to provide access, the editorial team informs the applicant of the subsequent steps, including the possible requirement to sign a confidentiality agreement and undertake to comply with the ethical principles governing data use.

The editorial team does not require authors to provide access to their data and takes into account restrictions relating to confidentiality and legal or ethical considerations. Where the author or authors decline the request, the editorial team informs the applicant accordingly.

All requests for access to data must be submitted through the journal’s official email address. This approach ensures a fair and regulated process while protecting authors’ rights and supporting the ethical use of research data.

Research involving human participants

Research involving human participants, surveys, interviews, or experiments, as well as the use of personal, medical, or other potentially identifiable data, must comply with applicable legislation, institutional requirements, and the professional ethical standards of the relevant field.

Medical research involving human participants must comply with the principles of the current 2024 version of the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki.

Before commencing the research, authors must obtain approval from a competent ethics committee or institutional review board where such approval is required by law or institutional rules.

The manuscript must specify:

• the full name of the ethics committee;
• the reference number and date of the decision;
• the ethical standards applied;
• the procedure used to obtain informed consent;
• the measures taken to ensure confidentiality and data protection.

Where ethical approval was not required, the authors must provide a decision from an authorised body granting an exemption from ethical review or justify the absence of such approval by reference to the applicable legislation or institutional rules.

Informed consent may be obtained in written, electronic, or, in duly justified cases, oral form, depending on the decision of the ethics committee and the nature of the research.

Separate consent for publication must be obtained where the manuscript contains photographs, detailed descriptions, quotations, or other information through which a participant could be identified.

Research involving children, individuals with a limited capacity to provide consent, or other groups in vulnerable circumstances must include additional protective measures.

Social, economic, and market research may be conducted in accordance with relevant professional standards, including the American Sociological Association’s 2018 Code of Ethics, the European Commission’s guidance on ethics and data protection, and the 2025 ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market, Opinion and Social Research and Data Analytics.

Research involving animals

Where the journal accepts research involving live animals, authors must confirm that the work received prior approval from the relevant ethics or institutional body and was conducted in accordance with applicable legislation and animal welfare requirements.

The manuscript must specify the name of the approving body, the permit or protocol number, the housing conditions, the methods used to minimise pain and suffering, and the justification for the use of animals.

Articles must comply with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines. The editorial team reserves the right to request a completed ARRIVE checklist or additional documentation, or to reject the manuscript where the ethical justification of the procedures has not been demonstrated.

Compliance with ARRIVE does not replace the requirement to obtain prior ethical approval.

Research involving plants

Research involving cultivated or wild plants, including the collection of plant material, must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international requirements.

Authors must specify the origin of the material, the method used to identify the plants, the availability of any necessary permits, and compliance with the rules governing the protection of rare or endangered species.

Where applicable, the provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity, CITES, and other relevant international instruments must be taken into account.

For an economics-focused journal, sections concerning experiments involving animals and plants should be retained only where such manuscripts genuinely fall within the journal’s stated scope.

Responsibilities of editors

Editors must:

• ensure the independent, timely, and impartial consideration of manuscripts;
• maintain confidentiality;
• engage competent reviewers who have no conflict of interest;
• prevent discrimination, pressure, or misuse of editorial authority;
• refrain from altering the content of a manuscript without the authors’ consent;
• refrain from accepting materials that do not comply with the journal’s scope or scholarly and ethical requirements;
• respond to substantiated reports of errors or breaches irrespective of the date of publication;
• apply the same rules to manuscripts submitted by members of the Editorial Board and by other authors;
• document editorial decisions and actions taken in cases involving suspected breaches.

Language and technical editing must not distort the author’s position, the content of the findings, or the conclusions. Substantial changes must be agreed with the author before publication.

Responsibilities of reviewers

Reviewers must:

• assess manuscripts objectively, provide reasoned comments, and use appropriate professional language;
• accept for review only manuscripts that fall within their area of expertise;
• notify the editorial team if they are unable to meet the established deadline;
• maintain confidentiality;
• refrain from disclosing a manuscript to other individuals without the permission of the editorial team;
• refrain from using unpublished data or ideas;
• disclose any potential conflict of interest;
• alert the editorial team to possible plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, falsification, or other breaches;
• refrain from requiring citation of their own publications or other sources without proper scholarly justification;
• refrain from uploading the manuscript to third-party generative artificial intelligence systems.

Personal criticism of the author and the use of offensive, discriminatory, or unprofessional language are unacceptable.

Responsibilities of authors

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the materials they submit.

Authors must:

• provide an accurate account of the research conducted;
• refrain from fabricating or falsifying data;
• cite all sources appropriately;
• avoid plagiarism, undisclosed textual reuse, and duplicate publication;
• refrain from submitting the same manuscript to another publication simultaneously;
• retain the original research materials for a reasonable period;
• provide data to the editorial team where necessary for verification;
• disclose all sources of funding and the role of funding organisations;
• disclose any conflict of interest;
• obtain all necessary ethical approvals and consents;
• ensure that all authors approve the submission and the final version of the article;
• notify the editorial team immediately of any significant errors identified;
• cooperate with the editorial team in correcting or retracting a publication.

Where information about a significant error is received from a third party, the authors must provide an explanation and the necessary supporting materials. The decision to issue a correction or retract the publication is made by the editorial team in accordance with the established procedure.

Authorship and contributor roles

An individual may be identified as an author only where they:

1. have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the study, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
2. have drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important scholarly content;
3. have approved the final version;
4. have agreed to be accountable for ensuring that questions relating to the accuracy and integrity of the work are properly investigated and resolved.

All four conditions must be met.

Individuals who have provided technical, administrative, linguistic, financial, or other assistance but do not meet the authorship criteria must be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgements” section, subject to their consent.

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be identified as authors or co-authors.

Declaration upon manuscript submission

Submission of a manuscript confirms that:

• the work is not under consideration by another publication;
• its principal content has not previously been published;
• all authors have approved the submission;
• all necessary permissions have been obtained from institutions, data owners, and rights holders;
• if accepted, the work will not be republished in the same form without appropriate permission and notification.

The availability of a thesis or dissertation, preprint, conference proceedings paper, or brief conference abstract does not necessarily constitute prior publication, but authors must disclose this information to the editorial team and provide a reference or link to the relevant material.

A translation or secondary publication is permitted only with the permission of the rights holder, the agreement of the editorial teams of both publications, and a clear reference to the primary publication.

Research funding

Authors must disclose all sources of financial and material support, including:

• grants awarded by research institutions and foundations;
• public funding;
• support provided by non-governmental organisations;
• commercial or private funding;
• internal funding provided by universities, research institutions, or other organisations.

Authors must provide the full name of the funding organisation, the grant or project number, and a description of the funder’s role in the design of the study, collection and analysis of data, preparation of the manuscript, and decision to submit the work for publication.

Where no funding was received, the following statement must be included: “This research received no specific funding.”

Advertising policy and sources of revenue

The journal does not publish advertising. Advertising, sponsorship, or commercial interests do not influence editorial decisions.