The Foresight and STI Governance journal (Foresight-Russia till no 3, 2015) is committed to upholding the standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractices. Editors of the journal reserve the right to reject the work from publication in case of revealing any such malpractices. We act in accordance with the principles outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and support the development, and practical application, of consistent ethical standards throughout the scholarly publishing community.
Copyright
Articles submitted to the journal should not have been published before in their current or substantially similar form, or be under consideration for publication with another journal. All authors submitting their works acknowledge that they have disclosed all and any actual or potential conflicts of interest regarding authorship and publication of the work and will indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranty. For ease of dissemination and to ensure proper policing of use, papers and contributions become the legal copyright of the publisher unless otherwise agreed.
Permissions
Prior to article submission, authors should clear permission to use any content that has not been created by them. Failure to do so may lead to lengthy delays in publication. Foresight editors are unable to publish any article which has permissions pending. The rights we require are:
1. Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter.
2. Print and electronic rights.
3. To use the material for the life of the work (i.e. there should be no time restrictions on the re-use of material e.g. a one-year licence).
When reproducing tables, figures or excerpts (of more than 400 words) from another source, it is expected that:
1. Authors obtain the necessary written permission in advance from any third party owners of copyright for the use in print and electronic formats of any of their text, illustrations, graphics, or other material, in their manuscript. Permission must also be cleared for any minor adaptations of any work not created by them.
2. If an author adapts significantly any material, the author must inform the copyright holder of the original work.
3. Authors obtain any proof of consent statements.
4. Authors must always acknowledge the source in figure captions and refer to the source in the reference list.
5. Authors should not assume that any content which is freely available on the web is free to use. Authors should check the website for details of the copyright holder to seek permission for re-use.
Verbatim copying
Verbatim copying of more than 10 per cent of another person's work without acknowledgement, references or the use of quotation marks.
Paraphrasing
Improper paraphrasing of another person's work is where more than one sentence within a paragraph or section of text has been changed or sentences have been rearranged without appropriate attribution. Significant improper paraphrasing (more than 10 per cent of a work) without appropriate attribution is treated as seriously as verbatim copying.
Re-using parts of a work without attribution
Re-use of elements of another person's work, for example a figure, table or paragraph without acknowledgement, references or the use of quotation marks. It is incumbent on the author to obtain the necessary permission to reuse elements of another person's work from the copyright holder.
Self plagiarism
Our requirement is that all authors sign a copyright form that clearly states that their submitted work has not been published before. If elements of a work have been previously published in another publication, including an earlier Foresight and STI Governance publication, the author is required to acknowledge the earlier work and indicate how the subsequent work differs and builds upon the research and conclusions contained in the previous work. Verbatim copying of an author's own work and paraphrasing is not acceptable and we recommend that research should only be reused to support new conclusions.
We recommend that authors cite all previous stages of publication and presentation of their ideas that have culminated in the final work, including conference papers, workshop presentations and listserv communications.
Handling allegations of plagiarism
Editors of Foresight and STI Governance seek to uphold academic integrity and to protect authors' moral rights. We take all cases of plagiarism very seriously being aware of the potential impact an allegation of plagiarism can have on a researcher's career. Therefore, we have procedures in place to deal with alleged cases of plagiarism.
In order for us to take an unbiased approach, we investigate each case thoroughly, seeking clarification from all affected parties.
If we are approached by a third party with an allegation of plagiarism, we would always seek a response from the original author(s) or copyright holder(s) before we decide on a course of action. We will not be influenced by other parties and will form our decisions in an unbiased and objective manner.
Editors are not obliged to discuss individual cases of alleged plagiarism with third parties. We reserve the right not to proceed with a case if the complainant presents a false name or affiliation or acts in an inappropriate or threatening manner towards editorial staff.