Ethical Standards

The editorial board of the journal "Precious and Decorative Stones" follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) of Elsevier publishing house, as well as the experience of foreign and domestic scientific publications.
Adhering to ethical standards for scientific publications, the editorial board of the journal "Precious and Decorative Stones" implements a policy of objective and impartial selection of articles, their review, strict adherence to copyright and related rights, maintains high standards for the quality of scientific research, condemns plagiarism, and follows the publication schedule.
The editorial board of the journal adheres to the principles of academic integrity, strengthening a cohesive scientific and informational space in geological sciences in Ukraine and its integration into the global scientific and informational space, traditional ethical principles of scientific periodicals, academic integrity, and the Code of Ethics for Scientific Publications.
The editorial board of the journal consists of leading domestic and international scientists who are experts in the fields of science corresponding to the thematic focus of the journal.
The journal's editorial board regularly informs its members about key issues in the preparation of the publication, consults with them, and involves them in the peer review process.
To ensure the scientific quality of publications in the journal "Precious and Decorative Stones," a single-blind review process has been implemented – reviewers know the names and affiliations of the authors, but the authors do not know the names of the reviewers. Reviewers adhere to the ethical principles outlined in the section "Ethical Obligations of Reviewers".
The editor-in-chief, when making decisions regarding the publication of scientific articles, takes into account the opinions of the journal's editorial board members and reviewers regarding these works.
Articles whose authors have violated accepted norms of scientific publication ethics or failed to comply with the editorial requirements are not allowed to be published.

Ethical Standards in the Work of the Editorial Board:

- The editorial board, when making decisions regarding the publication of submitted materials, is guided by the accuracy of their content, the scientific significance of the presented work, and ensures a fair review assessment of the submitted materials.
- The editorial board objectively evaluates submitted materials solely based on their scientific content, regardless of the race, gender, religious beliefs, nationality, citizenship, origin, social status, or political views of the author or authors;
- The editorial board does not support the simultaneous submission of the same work by an author to multiple journals or the redundant duplication of article content in different works;
- The editorial board, guided by the journal's policy and adhering to legal principles, does not allow the publication of materials if there are reasons to believe they are plagiarized or falsified;
- The editorial board does not disclose to third parties any information related to the content of submitted materials under consideration for publication, except to those involved in their professional evaluation;
- The editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board, and editorial staff must ensure the confidentiality of the names and other information regarding the reviewers. If a new reviewer is involved, they may be informed of the names of previous reviewers;
- Unpublished materials in the journal are not allowed to be used for personal purposes by the editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board, or editorial staff, nor to be shared with others without written consent;
- The editorial board, together with the journal's editorial staff, must not ignore claims related to reviewed manuscripts or published materials. In case of a conflict, they are obliged to take all necessary measures to restore violated rights;
- The editorial board, in case of detecting errors in articles, facilitates the publication of corrections or retractions;
- The editorial board ensures the thorough selection of submitted materials for publication and anonymous peer review;
- The editorial board may reject a manuscript without review if the work does not align with the journal's scope.

Authors Ethical Obligations:

- Authors must provide accurate results of their scientific research, present their results clearly and unambiguously so that their conclusions can be verified by other scientists, without fabricating data or improperly manipulating it;
- Authors are responsible for the content of the article, the novelty, and the accuracy of the scientific research;
- Authors must ensure that the research results presented in the article are entirely original, and borrowed fragments or statements must be properly cited with references to the author and original sources;
- Authors are obliged to cite publications that have influenced the essence of their work and that can quickly familiarize the reader with earlier works important for understanding this research;
- Presenting plagiarism as original work and submitting previously published articles for publication is unacceptable (in case these facts are discovered, the authors of the submitted materials bear full responsibility);
- Co-authors should be only those persons who made a significant contribution to the research on the topic of the presented article, its preparation and who share responsibility for the results obtained;
- Authors should not submit manuscripts of articles that have been sent to other journals and are under consideration there, or of articles that have already been published in other journals;
- authors must notify the editors of any possible conflict of interest that may arise after publication of the results contained in the submitted manuscript;
- if the authors discovered significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its review or after publication, they must immediately notify the editorial office of the journal;
- authors, in the case of returning an article for revision, are obliged to revise it in accordance with the comments of reviewers or the editorial board.

Reviewers Ethical obligations:

- peer review is carried out in order to improve the quality of scientific articles published in the journal "Precious and Decorative Stones";
- reviewers are members of the editorial board, however, if necessary, third-party reviewers of the appropriate scientific profile may be involved;
- the reviewer carries out a scientific examination of the author's materials, his actions are impartial, and personal criticism of the authors is inadmissible;
- reviewers must adhere to the best international review practices, including the Guidelines for Reviewers from the European Association of Scientific Editors (EASE);
- the author or co-author of the article submitted for review cannot be a reviewer
- the manuscript sent for review is a confidential document that cannot be transferred for review or discussion to other persons who do not have the authority to do so from the editorial office;
- based on the results of the review, the reviewer must provide an objective and reasoned assessment of the research results presented in the manuscript materials and determine whether they meet scientific and literary standards;
- the reviewer must draw the editor's attention to any significant similarity between the submitted manuscript and any other previously published article or manuscript;
- in case of suspicion of plagiarism, authorship or falsification of data, the reviewer must contact the editorial board with a proposal for a collective review of the author's article;
- the reviewer must not use or disclose unpublished information contained in the submitted manuscript without the consent of the author or authors;
- a reviewer who, in his opinion, does not have sufficient qualifications to evaluate the manuscript or cannot be objective, for example, in the case of a conflict of interests with the author or one of the co-authors, should inform the editorial office about this with a request to exclude him from the process of reviewing a certain manuscript;
- the reviewer should not use unpublished data obtained from manuscripts submitted for review for personal purposes.