The "e-mentor" Journal applies the principles of editorial ethics as defined by the COPE Committee on Publication Ethics and included in the COPE Code of Conduct.

1. Rules for the editorial office

• Control of ethical standards. Members of the Editorial Board shall ensure compliance with applicable standards and ethical principles and prevent practices inconsistent with the adopted standards.
• Fair play. Submitted articles will be judged solely on their merits, regardless of the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic origin or citizenship of the author(s).
• Confidentiality. Members of the editorial staff will not disclose any information about work submitted for publication to unauthorised persons. The persons authorised to receive this information are: the author, designated reviewers, \editors and the publisher.
• Avoiding conflicts of interest.
• Transparency of the criteria for accepting articles for publication. The editorial team decides which material to publish. The criteria taken into account are: adherence to the thematic scope of the journal, originality of the approach to the topic, scientific value of the work, clarity of argumentation, compliance with copyright rules. The editorial decisions are based on the opinions of the reviewers.

2. Rules for Authors

• Authorship. Authors should submit only their own original texts for publication, which have not been previously published or submitted to another publisher.
• Scientific integrity. Authors are required to conduct research and prepare articles with the highest standards and due diligence.
• Reliability of sources. Authors are obliged to list all publications referred to in the article in the bibliography.
• Identification of all the authors of the work and their contribution to the preparation of the article.
• Avoiding conflicts of interest.
• Disclosure of information. Authors are required to disclose the sources of funding for the scientific research whose results are presented in the submitted scientific articles, as well as information about the contribution of scientific and research institutions, associations, and other entities to the preparation of the article.
• Readiness to share data. Authors who are asked to provide raw research data used in the text are required to provide access to these data, even after publication of the work.
• Notification about errors in published work. If the author(s) discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their text, they are obliged to inform the editorial office of the journal immediately in order to correct them (publication of an erratum, an appendix, a correction) or to withdraw the text.

3. Rules for Reviewers

• Objectivity. Reviews should be objective and credible. All reviewer comments should be properly justified. Personal and unscientific criticism of authors is unacceptable.
• Enhance the value and quality of the articles. The reviewer should aim to increase the scientific value of the reviewed articles.
• Punctuality. The reviewer is obliged to submit the review within the agreed deadline. If the reviewer is unable to meet the deadline, he/she should inform the editorial office immediately.
• Competence. The reviewer should undertake to review only those works in the field in which he/she has sufficient knowledge to be able to give an informed opinion.
• Confidentiality. All reviewed papers and their reviews are confidential. It is unacceptable to disclose papers and any information related to the review process to third parties (other than those involved in the publication process).
• Avoiding conflicts of interest.

Authorship

1. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the design, implementation, and interpretation of the work. The author submitting an article is required to identify all co-authors who contributed to the preparation of the publication.
2. If more than one person has been involved in the preparation of the text and the preceding research, information on the nature of the contribution (not the percentage contribution) of each author should be included in the application form.
3. Any change in the authorship of an article submitted for publication requires a separate written statement from each author in the form of an electronic letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. The submitting author is required to provide a clear justification for the proposed change.
4. The studies must not violate the copyrights of third parties - in the sense of the Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights (original text: Journal of Laws of 1994, No 24, item 83, consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2016 r. item 666).
5. The Editorial Board strongly opposes phenomena such as ghostwriting, guest authorship, and plagiarism, which are manifestations of scientific dishonesty. Ghostwriting occurs when someone has made a significant contribution to the preparation of a publication, but their involvement - as one of the authors - has not been disclosed, or their role has not been mentioned in the acknowledgments included in the article. Guest authorship (honorary authorship) can be said to occur when a particular person has not been involved in the preparation of the publication at all, or has had negligible involvement, but has been listed as an author or co-author of the article.

Originality of work

1. Research and/or information from other scientists used in the publication should be marked by the author to indicate that it is a quotation.
2. The author is obliged to obtain permission for the publication of other copyrighted elements of the scientific article (e.g. illustrations, photographs).
3. The reviewer is obliged to inform the editorial office immediately if he/she discovers any violation of ethical standards in the reviewed scientific articles, in particular plagiarism and self-plagiarism. The reviewer should identify and report to the Editorial Office any significant similarities between the reviewed article and other works.
4. All papers accepted for publication in e-mentor are checked using the anti-plagiarism system (plagiat.pl, Similarity Check).
5. Authors retain the copyright to their articles, while economic rights to the published work in all areas of exploitation known at the time of concluding the contract are transferred to the Publishing House.
6. The materials published in the "e-mentor" magazine are protected by copyright and are made available under the CC: BY-NC 4.0 International licence, i.e. Attribution - Non-commercial use. The original version of the magazine "e-mentor" is the online version.

Conflict of interest

1. A conflict of interest occurs when an author (or the organisation he or she represents), reviewer or editor is involved in economic (employment, receipt of remuneration, provision of paid expertise or advice) or personal relationships, or scientific and political competition, which may inappropriately influence his or her actions. All parties involved in the publishing process should ensure that there is no conflict of interest, as such a situation can undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors and even scientific research. Authors, reviewers and editors who have a conflict of interest are obliged to inform the Editorial Office.
2. By submitting a manuscript, the author declares that he/she has no personal or financial relationships (other than those disclosed in the submission form) (e.g., employment, consulting, stock ownership, honoraria) that could influence the interpretation and presentation of the research results.
3. Reviewed papers may not be used for the reviewer's own benefit. Reviewers should not undertake a review in a situation where there is a conflict of interest with the authors (the reviewer must not have a professional, personal or business relationship with the author of the reviewed paper.

Procedures for dealing with the discovery of practices inconsistent with adopted ethical standards

1. The Editorial Office has a policy of openness and encourages the reporting of suspicions of activities inconsistent with the adopted ethical standards.The Editorial Office allows contact by e-mail (address: redakcja@e-mentor.edu.pl) and by commenting on published articles via a public forum on the journal's website.
2. If unethical behaviour on the part of the author is detected (unfair practices such as plagiarism, self-plagiarism, ghostwriting, guest authorship, falsification of research results, biased interpretation of results), the Editorial Office will ask for explanations. Next, the authorities of the author's scientific unit will be informed and the article will be withdrawn.The Editorial Office will inform the appropriate authorities (e.g. institutions employing authors, scientific societies) about cases of ghostwriting, guest authorship and plagiarism in articles submitted for publication in e-mentor.
3. If the reviewer is found to have engaged in unethical behaviour, the editorial office will ask for an explanation. The next steps will be to exclude the reviewer from the review process and to inform the authorities of the reviewer's scientific unit.