TZB-info Code of Ethics

This Code of Ethics for the TZB-info portal governs the duties and professional relationships among authors, editors, reviewers, and users of this portal.

All users of the TZB-info portal, i.e. authors, reviewers, editors, discussion contributors, readers, and other users, are obliged in connection with any portal-related activity, to comply with Czech law and, as the case may be, legislation of their own countries, and act in accordance with ethical behaviour, and without prejudice to ideas or individuals.

All users of the TZB-info portal are required to comply with its terms and conditions of use, which are published here.

Contributors to the TZB-info portal discussion forum are obliged to adhere to the terms and conditions governing submission of comments, which can be found here.

Authors

Authors shall submit only their own work. Manuscripts must be free of plagiarism. They must be accurate, objective and reflect current scientific and technical knowledge in the authors’ fields.

If several authors have contributed to the text, all of them must be mentioned in it.

Authors must not submit a manuscript for publication to another periodical/other media during the review process at TZB-info.

Authors consent to manuscripts undergoing an independent review process which results into an opinion containing comments. The author is obliged to respond to such comments by amending the manuscript or by providing an explanation.

Authors shall hold copyright to all parts of the work (images, photographs, graphs, etc.), or hold a licence or express consent to use them.

Should the authors quote other work from another author, or their own work, they are obliged to indicate this accordingly and to mention the work in the references.

Authors shall not use publication of the text to pursue hidden interests, which could harm the reputation of the portal and would be in violation of the law. This rule particularly applies to interests of a commercial and personal nature.

Authors are obliged to respond to comments on the manuscript, including after publication. If any errors are discovered, the authors are required to correct the texts, or to permit the editorial board to carry out the correction.

Authors shall act in accordance with all valid Czech legislation when submitting an article. Authors shall comply with the rules for authors, outlined on the TZB-info website.

Reviewers

Reviewers shall evaluate each article in terms of technical aspects, form and language in a completely impartial, objective and honest manner.

Reviewers shall inform the editorial board of any circumstance that would be in violation of Czech law, this code of ethics or the instructions for authors.

Reviewers shall not use their roles and the wording of the opinion to pursue hidden interests, which could harm the reputation of the portal and would be in violation of the law. This rule particularly applies to interests of a commercial and personal nature.

Reviewers shall not accept a manuscript for review if doing so could lead in any way to a conflict of interest. Reviewers shall inform the editorial board of all information that could lead to the rejection of a manuscript.

Reviewers shall inform the editorial board if they do not believe themselves to be sufficiently qualified to carry out a professional assessment of the manuscript.

Reviewers shall respect the confidentiality of the review process. Submitted manuscripts must not be provided to third parties, and in connection with the review process, reviewers will communicate exclusively with the editor responsible for the review.

Reviewers shall comply with the instructions for authors, which can be found on the TZB-info website.

Editors

TZB-info portal editors shall act independently. They shall evaluate manuscripts on the basis of professional merits, and not on their preferences for ideas or individuals.

Editors shall make every effort to ensure that each text, and the entire TZB-info portal, is of the highest professional quality, and shall carry out their activities with this objective in mind.

Editors shall be responsible for the primary assessment of the submitted manuscript, especially adherence to the instructions for authors, the professional quality of the portal, and the professional knowledge of those submitting the manuscript.

Editors shall select reviewers anonymously and impartially, and on the basis of previously published works, professional, academic and research work, and not according to their preferences for ideas or individuals.

Editors shall ensure that the review process is smooth and impartial.

Editors are fully entitled to accept or reject the manuscript, or edit the text in conjunction with the authors, and to request alterations of or corrections to the manuscripts.

Editors are obliged to take this code of ethics into consideration and to comply with it. Should a breach occur, they must take action against the person responsible for the violation. If a serious violation of this code of ethics occurs and it cannot be rectified, the editors are obliged to reject completely the manuscript or withdraw already published texts.