CODE OF ETHICS
In compliance with the principles of ethics recommended to publishers and journal editors by the Committee on Publication Ethics' Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, available at https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf) as well as with regard to academic good practice and social responsibility, "Zoophilologica: Polish Journal of Animal Studies" hereby undertakes to observe the following rules and requires all persons involved in the publishing process (authors, reviewers, and editors) to do so.

1. General duties and responsibilities of Journal Editors:
   a) Editors of the journal are responsible for the high quality of articles published in the journal, ensuring a transparent and impartial review process and taking all possible measures to prevent undesirable practices such as ghost-writing, guest-authorship, and plagiarism (including the use of a professional plagiarism checker). In case of a discovered plagiarism, guest-authorship, ghost-writing, or other form of malpractice, the Editorial Team of „Zoophilologica” demand explanations from the authors and undertake adequate steps according to the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK).
   b) Moreover, Editors should decide to refer articles for review and to select reviewers solely on the grounds of merit. This decision should be based on their assessment of the significance, originality, and clarity of Author's argumentation, as well as the value of his or her text for the development of those scientific fields and disciplines that are associated with the thematic profile of the journal. In particular, the aforementioned decision to submit the text for review and subsequent publication cannot be influenced by issues of race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, denomination, citizenship, social position and worldview of the Author.
   c) Articles pre-qualified for publication are subject to double-blind review (independent evaluation by two reviewers who do not know the identity of the authors of the texts). The identity of the reviewers must not be disclosed by the editors to the authors. Editors also ensure that there is no conflict of interest between Reviewers and Authors.
   d) The Editors are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the personal data of the authors of the submitted texts; they are also obliged not to disclose any information concerning the articles to third parties (except for those directly involved in the publishing process).

2. Duties and responsibilities of Reviewers:
   a) The assessment of the text received by the Reviewer should be fully impartial, based on solid and in-depth reasoning and delivered within the deadline agreed with the Editorial Board of the journal. In particular, the assessment of the text should not be affected by differences in world views between the Reviewer and the Author.
   b) The Reviewer should respect the principle of confidentiality of received documents, in particular, he or she cannot use the content of the reviewed article in a way that violates copyright.
   c) The review should contain detailed guidelines for the Author to improve the quality and scientific value of his or her article. In particular, it is the Reviewer's duty to indicate the deficiencies in the argumentation and the scope of necessary corrections as well as the suspicion that the Author is using unfair practices, if such a situation occurs.
  d) The reviewer is obliged to inform the Editorial Board about the possibility of a conflict of interest, which prevents him/her from making a reliable assessment of the submitted text.

3. Duties and responsibilities of the Authors:
   a) By submitting their articles to the journal, the Authors simultaneously declare that the submitted texts are the fruit of their original research, they have not been published anywhere before, and - in the case of multi-author publications - that the contribution of each of the Authors has been clearly defined. The authors' conduct should exclude the possibility of unfair practices such as ghost writing or guest authorship.
   b) The works submitted by the Authors should be based on an impartial and reliable argumentation, supported by a methodology appropriate to the discipline and a discussion of the current state of research. In particular, articles must meet the requirements of reliable citation and documentation of source materials. Authors are not allowed to send works that are plagiarized or forged. The Editorial Board considers any undocumented quotation, undocumented use of the work of other researchers, and lack of reference to the sources used, including unpublished works of other people, as plagiarism.
   c) The Authors undertake not to send the same material to other journals until they receive a review and a decision to publish or reject the text.
   d) The Authors retain the copyrights to the submitted materials and, at the time of publication in the journal, grant permission to use their texts to third parties under a Creative Commons license.
   e) The Authors are required to disclose any situations of conflict of interest that may affect the process of publishing the text.
   f) The Authors are obliged to present to the Editorial Board all information about the sources of financing of research presented in the article and possible contribution of research institutions and other entities (in accordance with the principle of financial disclosure).
   g) Disclosed cases of scientific unreliability of the Authors shall be made public and stigmatized.