Aussiger Beiträge is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all necessary measures against any form of malpractice. The journal strictly adheres to the Core Practices and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and meets the rigorous ethical requirements of major international databases, including Web of Science (Clarivate).
Authors are equally bound to uphold these ethical standards. Through the submission of their manuscript to the Aussiger Beiträge editorial board, the writer(s) formally declare their awareness of and comprehensive agreement with this statement on publication ethics.
The following principles outline the responsibilities and ethical duties of authors, editors, reviewers, and the editorial board.
1. Peer Review Process
Aussiger Beiträge consistently applies a double-blind peer-review process. The review is conducted by at least two independent and anonymous peer experts. In this process, the identity of the authors remains concealed from the reviewers, just as the identity of the reviewers remains concealed from the authors. This ensures an objective and unbiased evaluation based solely on the scholarly merit and relevance of the submission.
2. Plagiarism Policy and Research Misconduct
- Zero-Tolerance Policy: Aussiger Beiträge pursues a policy of zero tolerance toward plagiarism, data falsification, and data manipulation. Plagiarism in any form (including the unauthorized use of others' ideas, unacknowledged text adaptation/copying, or self-plagiarism/text recycling) constitutes gross unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
- Screening: All submitted manuscripts may be checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software (e.g., Turnitin) before being forwarded to reviewers.
- Consequences: If plagiarism or other research misconduct is detected at any stage, the manuscript will be rejected immediately. If misconduct is proven only after publication, the article will be retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
3. Duties of Authors
- Originality and Authorship: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works. Authorship must be strictly limited to inpiduals who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. The corresponding author ensures that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper.
- Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial Intelligence cannot be listed as an author. If AI tools were used in writing the manuscript, collecting data, or creating figures, authors must transparently disclose this in the "Methodology" or "Acknowledgements" section. The use of these tools within the publishing institution is fully governed by the Rector's Directive No. 7/2026 (Rules for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence at UJEP).
- Simultaneous Submission: Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously. Parallel submission to multiple journals is considered unethical publishing behavior.
- Data Access and Integrity: By submitting the article, the authors confirm that all presented data are truthful and accurately represented. Authors may be requested to provide the raw data associated with their manuscript for editorial review. The journal also supports Open Science; where relevant to the nature of the research (e.g., in empirical linguistic or educational studies), authors are encouraged to deposit their anonymized research data in a recognized public repository (e.g., Zenodo, Figshare). For literary and theoretical studies, separate data sharing is not required.
- Citation Requirements and Source Acknowledgement: All publications and sources relevant to the argumentation and results of the manuscript must be properly cited in accordance with scholarly standards.
- Funding and Acknowledgements: All sources of financial support (e.g., third-party funding, project grants, or fellowships) that enabled the preparation of the manuscript must be disclosed within the text (typically in a footnote).
- Notification of Errors: If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they are obligated to promptly notify the journal's editorial office and cooperate in retracting the article or publishing an erratum/correction.
- Data Protection / Ethical Principles: If the research involves surveys or the collection of personal data, authors must confirm that the study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the respective institution and that informed consent was obtained from participants where applicable.
4. Declaration of Conflicts of Interest (Competing Interests)
Transparency regarding potential conflicts of interest is mandatory for all parties involved:
- Authors: Must disclose all financial, personal, or professional relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.
- Reviewers: Must decline to review a manuscript if a conflict of interest arises. This applies in particular if, despite anonymization, a competitive, collaborative, or other relationship to the presumed authors, their institutions, or involved companies is apparent or recognizable.
- Editors: Will recuse themselves from handling a manuscript if a conflict of interest exists. In such cases, another member of the editorial board will take over the editing process.
5. Duties of Editors and the Editorial Board
- Publication Decisions: The editorial team of the respective issue is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles will be published. The decision is based on the importance, originality, clarity, and relevance of the submission to the journal's profile.
- Equal Treatment and Objectivity: Editors evaluate manuscripts exclusively on the basis of their intellectual content, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
- Confidentiality: The editorial board must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors of the submitted articles, academics approached with a request to conduct a review, and the reviewers.
- Handling Misconduct and Article Retraction: In cases of suspected or proven serious publication misconduct, the editorial board will take appropriate measures in accordance with COPE guidelines. If misconduct is proven regarding an already published text, the journal will proceed with a formal retraction of the article by publishing a Retraction Notice. The retracted article will not be permanently removed from the journal's website; instead, it will be clearly marked as retracted (with a "RETRACTED" watermark) and permanently linked to the editorial board's public statement. In less severe cases (e.g., correcting a factual error), the editorial staff will ensure the prompt publication of a correction (erratum/corrigendum).
6. Duties of Reviewers
- Contribution to Editorial Decisions: The peer-review process assists editors in making decisions and, through editorial communication, may help authors improve their papers.
- Punctuality: Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that a timely review will be impossible should notify the editorial office and decline the review process.
- Confidentiality: Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editorial office.
- Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
- Acknowledgment of Sources: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper must be reported to the editorial office.
7. Basic Principles of the Journal
- No Publication Fees / Funding: The journal does not charge any publication fees. It is funded by the Faculty of Arts at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. No commercial advertising is accepted.
- Right of Appeal: Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions. Complaints must be submitted in writing to the editorial office and will be reviewed by the editorial board in accordance with COPE guidelines (https://publicationethics.org/guidance).
- Post-Publication Discussions: The journal supports open scholarly debate and allows the academic community and readers to respond to published texts. Relevant statements regarding published articles may be submitted in writing. Provided they meet the standards of academic discourse, they will be published in any of the subsequent issues as regular, citable contributions following evaluation by the editorial board (or a peer-review process) – typically alongside a reply from the author of the original article.
- Sustainability and Long-Term Archiving: Issues of the journal Aussiger Beiträge are permanently available via the website https://ab.ff.ujep.cz/de/. To guarantee digital long-term archiving and constant availability of the published contributions, all articles are archived as green open access in the specialized repository GiNDok (Fachinformationsdienst Germanistik, Frankfurt am Main University Library) and within the National Library of the Czech Republic. Since 2022, a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) has been assigned to every paper.
- Copyright Ownership: Articles are published under the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. Authors retain copyright without restrictions and grant the journal the right of first publication.
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement (pdf)