CODE OF ETHICS FOR PUBLICATIONS
In compliance with the principles of ethics recommended to publishers and editorial offices of journals by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE, https://publicationethics.org), including the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, as well as with regard to academic good practice and a sense of social responsibility, the Editorial Board of 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:

• Journal’s editors are responsible for the high substantive 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. If unfair practices are detected, the editorial office is obligated to withdraw the text from publication and take explanatory measures in accordance with the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK). Reports of ethical violations can be submitted in writing to the editor-in-chief (e-mail: justyna.tymieniecka-suchanek@us.edu.pl). In the event of abuses detected in a published article, the editors withdraw it from the journal's website, informing about the reasons and notifying the institution to which the author is affiliated, the reviewers, and the injured parties.
• The journal’s editors make decisions about submitting articles for review and selecting 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 decision to submit the text for review and the subsequent publication cannot be influenced by issues of race, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, denomination, citizenship, social position and worldview of the Author.
• Articles pre-qualified for publication are subject to double-blind review (independent evaluation by two reviewers who do not know the identity of the texts’ authors). The editors must not disclose the reviewers’ identity to the authors.
• The journal’s editors also ensure that there is no conflict of interest between reviewers and authors, where a conflict of interest is understood as a direct personal relationship (in particular, first and second degree kinship or marriage), professional subordination or direct academic cooperation during the last two years preceding the year of preparation of the review.
• The journal's editorial staff reserves the right to withdraw a text from an issue or to make corrections to previously published materials. In the event of an author's appeal against a decision not to publish an article, the final decision rests with the editor-in-chief. Unpublished texts submitted to the journal may not be used by members of the editorial staff, publishing houses, or third parties without the written consent of the authors. 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).
• The editors of the journal are obliged to respect the confidentiality of the personal data of the authors of the submitted texts, and not to disclose any information regarding the articles to third parties (except for those directly involved in the publishing process).
• The journal's editors have the right to withdraw a text from publication:
  – if there is evidence of research inaccuracy or lack of credibility;
  – in the event of significant factual errors;
  – if it has already been published elsewhere;
  – if it shows signs of plagiarism/self-plagiarism;
  – if the author violates the principles of publishing ethics.

2. Duties and responsibilities of reviewers:

• Reviewers participate in the editorial process at the review stage and influence the decisions made by editors regarding the publication of the texts.
• The reviewer's evaluation of the text received should be completely impartial, based on solid and thorough argumentation, and delivered within the deadline agreed upon with the journal's editors. The reviewer should immediately notify the editors of the reasons for any delay or cancellation of the review. In particular, the evaluation of the text should not be influenced by ideological differences between the reviewer and the author. 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.
• The review should include detailed instructions for the author to improve the quality and scientific value of their article. In particular, the reviewer is responsible for pointing out any gaps in the argumentation and the scope of necessary corrections, as well as any suspicions of unfair practices by the author (e.g., ghostwriting, guest authorship, plagiarism), if any.
• The reviewer is obligated to inform the Editorial Office of any potential conflict of interest that may prevent them from reliably assessing the submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest is defined as any direct personal relationship between the reviewer and the author (in particular, kinship to the second degree and marriage), professional subordination, or direct scientific collaboration within the last two years preceding the year of the review. In the event of a conflict of interest with the author(s), the reviewer will be excluded from the review process.’

3. Duties and responsibilities of the Authors:

• By submitting their articles to the journal, authors declare that the texts presented are the result of their original research, have not been published anywhere else, either in part or in full, and that in the case of multi-authored publications, the contribution of each author has been clearly identified (information should be provided about the authorship of the concept, methodological assumptions, and other data used in the creation of the publication). If individuals other than the listed co-authors contributed to the text, their names must be disclosed. Authors' conduct should exclude the possibility of unfair practices such as ghostwriting or guest authorship.
• If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, charts, maps, etc.), the author declares that the indicated works are his/her own works, do not infringe anyone's rights (including personal rights, including the right to dispose of one's image), and that he/she holds full property rights to them. The above works are made available as part of the article under the "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International" license.
• Papers submitted by authors should be based on impartial and reliable argumentation, supported by discipline-specific methodology and a discussion of the current state of research. In particular, articles must meet the requirements of accurate citation and documentation of source materials. Authors are prohibited from submitting works that constitute plagiarism or forgery. The editors consider plagiarism to include any instances of undocumented citation, unacknowledged use of other researchers' work, or failure to cite sources, including unpublished works by others.
• Authors agree not to submit the same material to other journals until they have received peer review and a decision to publish or reject the manuscript.
• Authors retain copyright to submitted materials, and upon publication in the journal, they grant permission for third parties to use their texts under a Creative Commons license.
• Authors are obliged to disclose any situations that may constitute a conflict of interest and may affect the publication process of the text. A conflict of interest is considered to be a direct personal relationship between the reviewer and the author (in particular, kinship to the second degree and marriage), a professional subordination relationship or direct scientific cooperation in the last two years preceding the year of preparing the review.
• Authors are required to provide the Editorial Office with all information regarding the sources of funding for the research presented in the article and any possible contributions from research institutions and other entities (in accordance with the principle of financial disclosure).
• Any disclosed cases of scientific misconduct by the authors will be publicly disclosed and stigmatized.