According to Article 135, paragraph (3), item d) of the Law on Higher Education ("Official Gazzette of Sarajevo Canton "no. 33/17, 35/20 and 40/20), and Article 104, paragraph (2), item f) of the University of Sarajevo Statute, at the proposal of the editorial board of the journal "Criminal Justice Issues", at the 3rd electronic session held on November 10, 2020, the Council of the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies adopts

CODE OF ETHICS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE JOURNAL "CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES"

The journal "Criminal Justice Issues – Journal for Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies "(from now on: the Journal) is dedicated to maintaining high standards of ethical behaviour of all participants in the process of editing and publishing of manuscripts – publisher, editorial board, authors and reviewers.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Duties of the publisher

The Journal publisher is the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies of the University of Sarajevo (from now on: the Publisher).

The Publisher ensures that good practice examples are followed in its publishing activity and that the editorial board of the Journal (from now on: the Editorial Board) is not subject to commercial, political or other influence in its activity.

The Publisher supports the Editorial Board, the authors of the manuscripts and the reviewers in fulfilling their obligations.

Duties of the editor-in-chief and members of the Editorial Board

In performing their duties, the editor-in-chief and the Editorial Board members must be free from racial, gender, gender, religious, ethnic, political and other prejudices, and make decisions solely based on the scientific and professional value of the manuscript. When deciding on publishing, the Editorial Board is guided by the opinion of reviewers and editorial policy, taking into account legal regulations relating to protection against defamation, protection of copyright and related rights, and unethical behaviour in scientific research and professional work.

The Editorial Board may not have any conflict of interest regarding the manuscripts it is considering. If such a conflict of interest exists, the editor-in-chief decides on selecting reviewers and handling the manuscript. If the editor-in-chief has any conflict of interest concerning the submitted manuscript, the Editorial Board members decide on selecting reviewers and handling the manuscript. The editor-in-chief and members of the Editorial Board have a conflict of interest due to a competitive, collaborative or other relationship or connection with any of the authors or funders of the research, companies or institutions related to the manuscript, are required to report a conflict of interest.

Manuscripts are kept confidential. The information and ideas may not be used for personal purposes without the author expressing written permission.

The editor-in-chief and members of the Editorial Board are obliged to take all reasonable measures to ensure that authors and reviewers remain anonymous during and after the review process.

The Editorial Board must provide a double anonymous review of all papers and one anonymous review of book reviews and translations published in the Journal, and take care that professional reviews of received manuscripts are carried out impartially and within an acceptable time frame.

Authors’ responsibilities

The authors guarantee that the manuscript represents their original contribution, has not been published before and is not considered for publication elsewhere or in any other language. Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript in several journals is a violation of ethical standards. Such a manuscript will be excluded from further consideration immediately.

Each author should submit a statement that the manuscript is an author's work, that it has not been previously published, that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and that it has been approved by all co-authors; with the consent that the manuscript may be freely available in open access and in international databases in which the Journal is indexed.

The manuscript is accompanied by a statement from all authors declaring that they have no conflict of interest. Otherwise, the authors are obliged to indicate financial or any other conflicts of interest that could affect the presented results and interpretations.

In case the submitted manuscript is the result of a scientific research project or, in the original version, under the same or similar title it was presented at a particular meeting in the form of an oral presentation, more detailed information about the project, conference, etc. are stated in the first note. A manuscript that has already been published in a journal cannot be republished.

Authors are required to adhere to ethical standards relating to scientific research and professional work. The authors also guarantee that the manuscript does not contain unfounded or illegal claims and does not violate others' rights. The publisher will not be liable in the case of any claims for damages.

Authors should provide a credible, accurate and complete report on their research in their scientific papers. The description of the methodology and the presentation of the results should be clear and detailed enough for other researchers to replicate the research. The discussion of the results and the explanation of their importance should be thorough and objective. The new results should be considered in the context of previous research.

Fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate manipulation data (e.g., omitting inadequate, inconsistent, or unexplained results) as well as making knowingly inaccurate statements are not ethical and acceptable.

If the research is conducted with participants, appropriate consents and permits must be obtained before starting the research. The authors should incorporate into the paper a statement that the research with the participants was conducted under the relevant legal regulations and institutional guidelines. The privacy of research participants should be respected during and after the research process.

Authors who wish to include tables, graphs, illustrations or other materials that have already been published somewhere, are obliged to obtain the copyright holders' consent. Work for which such evidence has not been submitted will be considered the original work of the author.

Authors should respect relevant legal regulations and international conventions and copyright and related rights treaties. If they have used someone else's work (text or ideas, data, tables and illustrations from work), they must state it appropriately. The words of other authors taken from their publications should be cited appropriately.

The Journal is not responsible for violations of the right to cite the author. Any violation of copyright and related rights laws will result in the rejection of the submitted manuscript or its withdrawal after publication. Furthermore, the submitted manuscript must not contain any defamatory, derogatory or unlawful material.

If necessary, the editor-in-chief may request research data from the author to conduct an editorial review and/or make such data publicly available. Therefore, authors should be prepared to retain such data for a while and after the publication of the paper.

Authors should respond to comments and suggestions from reviewers and editors professionally and within an appropriate time frame. If the authors do not want to respond to the reviewer's comments and suggestions after being notified of the conditional acceptance for publication or want to withdraw the manuscript from the review process, they should inform the Editorial Board.

Authorship is limited to those individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, methodological design, implementation, and interpretation of research results. Such individuals should be listed as (co)authors of the paper.

The author who communicates with the Editorial Board guarantees that the author's data of all individuals who participated in the creation of the manuscript are accurately stated and that all co-authors saw the latest version of the manuscript and gave their consent for its publication. The authors take collective responsibility for their joint work.

If any forms of non-compliance with the principles of research integrity and ethical conduct are discovered after the publication of the manuscript in the Journal, the editor-in-chief will withdraw such published manuscripts. The author is responsible for (self)plagiarism, regardless of whether it was discovered before or after the publication of the manuscript.

If the author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his own published manuscript, he is obliged to immediately inform the Editorial Board and cooperate in publishing the erratum, appendix or correction, or to withdraw the manuscript from the publication in cases when necessary.

Reviewers assist the Editorial Board in deciding on the admissibility of submitted manuscripts for publication, and through communication, the Editorial Board can help the author improve the manuscript's content.

Reviewers are obliged to professionally, argumentatively, impartially, and submit to the Editorial Board an assessment of the manuscript's scientific and professional value within the given deadline. When performing their duties, reviewers must be free from racial, sexual, gender, religious, ethnic, political and other prejudices, and decide solely based on the manuscript's scientific and professional value. He will describe his grade in the submitted review form. If the reviewer knows that this will not be possible, he should inform the Editorial Board and exclude himself from the review process. Also, a reviewer who considers himself incompetent for the topic or area in which the manuscript deals, is obliged to inform the Editorial Board.

The reviewer has to critically analyze the submitted manuscript, express an opinion on its overall scientific and professional value, point out the advantages and disadvantages in each part of the manuscript, and suggest ways to improve it.

Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly and argumentatively so that authors can use them to correct manuscripts. Comments concerning the author's personality are considered inappropriate.

Any manuscript received for review is a confidential document, and may not be shown or discussed with other persons unless permitted by the editor-in-chief in exceptional and specific situations. This also applies to invited reviewers who have declined a review invitation.

A reviewer who has reasonable suspicions or knowledge of a violation of ethical standards by the author is obliged to inform the Editorial Board. The reviewer should recognize published works that the authors have not cited. The reviewer should inform the Editorial Board of any form of unethical behaviour in scientific research and professional work, especially in the fabrication of results, falsification of results, and plagiarism of papers and ideas. He should also warn the Editorial Board of significant similarities and similarities between the manuscript under consideration, and any other published work or manuscript in the process of review in another journal, if he has personal knowledge about it. If there is information that the same manuscript is being considered in several journals simultaneously, the reviewer is obliged to inform the Editorial Board.

An invited reviewer who has the conflict of interest due to a competitive, collaborative, or other relationship or relationship with any of the authors or research funders, companies or institutions associated with the manuscript should immediately notify the editor-in-chief about the conflict of interest and decline the invitation to review the manuscript so that the Editorial Board can contact other reviewers.

Unpublished materials included in the received manuscript may not be used in the reviewer's research without the author's written consent. Privileged information or ideas obtained in the review process must remain confidential and must not be used to the reviewer's advantage. This also applies to invited reviewers who have declined a review invitation.

Reviewers should avoid referring authors to citing their work (or the work of their collaborators) unless there are real and honest scientific reasons for doing so.

Reviewers may not contact the authors directly but through the Editorial Board.

PUBLISHING ETHICS

Addressing unethical practices

Any person or institution may file a report of a suspected breach of ethical standards at any time. The application is submitted to the editor-in-chief and/or the Editorial Board, submitting the necessary information/evidence. The procedure for checking the merits of the application is as follows:

• The Editor-in-Chief, in agreement with the members of the Editorial Board, will decide on initiating a procedure aimed at verifying the allegations and evidence presented;
• during that procedure, all the evidence presented will be considered confidential material and will be presented only to those persons who are directly involved in the procedure;
• Persons suspected of violating ethical standards will be allowed to state their views on the charges against them;
• If irregularities are found to have occurred, it will be assessed whether they should be characterized as a minor breach or a gross violation of ethical standards.

Minor violations, without consequences for the credibility of the Journal, are resolved in direct communication with the authors and reviewers, without the involvement of third parties, in any of the following ways:

• notifying the author or reviewer that there has been a minor violation resulting from a misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards;
• contacting the author or reviewer in writing to indicate unauthorized conduct and issue a reprimand;
• an erratum is published, for example, if it turns out that a failure of the Editorial Board caused the error.

The editor-in-chief makes decisions regarding gross violations of ethical standards in cooperation with the Editorial Board members. The measures to be taken may be as follows (and may be applied individually or simultaneously):

• a formal letter to the author, co-authors and other legal and natural persons who directly or indirectly participated in the creation of the manuscript;
• withdrawal of a published manuscript following the procedure described under Withdrawal of already published manuscripts;
• the introduction of a ban on the publication of the manuscript of the individual in question for a certain period;
• Informing the relevant professional organizations or competent authorities of the case so that they can take appropriate measures.

In resolving the case, relevant expert organizations, bodies or individuals are consulted as necessary.

Prevention of fabrication of results, falsification of results, and plagiarism of works and ideas

The Journal does not publish papers that contain fabricated and/or forged research results, as well as plagiarized papers. The Editorial Board starts from the position that fabricating research results, falsifying research results and plagiarizing works and ideas are a gross violation of scientific and publishing ethics.

Fabrication means any intentional presentation, dissemination and publication of alleged scientific research results and professional work, despite the knowledge that the scientific work and research referred to has not been conducted in reality.

Falsifying includes any action that, contrary to the principles of scientific honesty, reliability and responsibility in conducting research, manipulates the object, equipment, documentation or procedure of research to adjust intentionally or unarguably and tendentiously present and interpret the results of scientific research.

Plagiarism includes:

• unauthorized taking over of other people's ideas, images, data, most or all of the text by another author without proper indication;
• paraphrasing the text of another author without an appropriate indication;
• unauthorized translation of manuscripts from a foreign language without citing an appropriate source.

In resolving disputes, the Editorial Board is guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and recommendations: http://publicationethics.org/resources/.

 Withdrawal of already published manuscripts

In case of infringement of the rights of publishers, copyright holders or authors, violation of professional codes of ethics, i.e. in case of sending the same manuscript to several journals at the same time, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, data manipulation to deceive, fabricate or falsify research results, as in all other cases of gross violation of ethical standards, the published manuscript must be withdrawn. In some cases, an already published manuscript may also be withdrawn to correct subsequently observed errors.

The revocation is a separate paper presented in the content of a specific issue of the Journal and is editorially classified as Revocation or Retraction. In the electronic version of the original manuscript (the one being withdrawn), a link to the paper's full text (Hyper Text Markup Language-HTML link) is established with the withdrawal notice. The withdrawn manuscript is kept in its original form, but with a watermark on the PDF document, on each page, indicating that the manuscript has been withdrawn (RETRACTED).