Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review (PGAF LR) is committed to adhere to the Guidelines and Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information published. Any infringements of professional ethical codes, such as cases of plagiarism, the fraudulent use of data, and bogus claims of authorship are taken very seriously by the editors who apply a principle of zero tolerance.

Allegations of misconduct

Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review applies COPE flowcharts to resolve cases of suspected misconduct.

Appeals

Complaints and appeals against the editors, editorial board, or the publisher are taken very seriously and are investigated thoroughly. Investigations may be conducted in two phases. First, there is a preliminary investigation which aims to disclose the facts and circumstances of the case and to establish whether any rules or provisions were breached or otherwise violated. If the investigation determines that no misdemeanor was committed, the investigation is concluded and complainer is informed of the outcome. If the preliminary investigation indicates that some misconduct might be committed, a formal procedure is initiated where the person or persons charged are heard and asked to explain their actions. The formal investigation may result in acquittal or condemnation (notice, suspension, or exclusion). All parties involved are informed of the outcome of the former investigation.

Complaints and appeals against the Editor-in-Chief or the Publisher are investigated by the Rector of Ludovika University of Public Service.

Complaints and appeals against the editors, or editorial board members are investigated by the Editor-in-Chief.

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

1. Have made substantial contributions to research, or acquisition or analysis of data.
2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it and participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for it.
3. Given final approval of the version to be published.
4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Authors are required to agree to and comply with the journal’s policies and instructions, and they are required to provide personal and institutional information, such as: academic positions, affiliations, contact information, funding data (if applicable), ORCID (optional), and to disclose any potential conflict of interest they might have. Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Conflict of interest (Authors)

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest at the time of submission through the online submission platform (OJS). A conflict of interest may be a personal (e.g.: family member, mentor, etc.) or financial association (e.g.: joint grant-holder, etc.) or institutional affiliation with the journal’s Editor(s), or Editor-in-Chief.

Conflict of interest (Editors)

Editors are obliged to report to the Editor-in-Chief anything that may result in having a conflict of interest, such as: one or more of the authors of a submission are personally associated or institutionally affiliated with the Editor; there exists a work relation (such as employment, agency, etc.) between the Editor and the Author(s); they participate in a joint-research, or there is any other financial (e.g.: joint-application for research grant) or personal (e.g.: religious or political) conflict between Editor and Author(s). If the conflict of interest is determined by the Editor-in-Chief, the Editor with conflicting interest is excluded from participating in the submitted article’s entire editorial workflow.

Conflict of interest (Reviewers)

Reviewers are obliged to disclose any potential source of conflict of interest on accepting the review assignment through the online platform (OJS). Reviewers shall not agree to review if the identity of the Author(s) are otherwise known to them (e.g.: through reading an earlier version of the manuscript, personal knowledge, etc.), or they have personal, financial, political, religious, or any other kind of conflict of interest.

Data sharing and reproducibility

Research data refers to units of information collected, observed, generated, or created to validate original research findings. Where applicable and subject to ethical and legal considerations, authors expected to openly share, cite, and link to their research data.

Ethical oversight

In line with the definition given by COPE, ‘ethical oversight should include, but is not limited to, policies on consent to publication, publication on vulnerable populations, ethical conduct of research using animals, ethical conduct of research using human subjects, handling confidential data and ethical business/marketing practices’.

In submissions involving human subjects, authors should explain how informed consent was obtained from all participants. Informed consent should be obtained if there is any reasonable possibility that complete anonymity cannot be maintained. The privacy of human subjects should never be violated without prior informed consent. Identifying information should be excluded from the study data unless the information is essential for the study purposes and the subject (or their legal representative) has given prior written informed consent. However, subject information should never be falsified or modified. When informed consent has been given by the subjects, it should be credited in the submission.

Fees and charges

The journal does not charge any fee or charge for manuscript processing (APC) or publishing materials. There are no Open Access fees or charges charged to authors or readers either.

Funding

Authors are obliged to list all funding sources, including third-party sources and supporting grants, in the acknowledgments. In order to maintain anonymity, at the time of submission, funding details ought to be described in the ‘Title page’ or ‘Author Information Form’. From 2023, funding details are described in the ‘Acknowledgement Section’ of published materials, in prior publications these data were provided in footnotes.

Intellectual property rights

Authors are required to obtain permission to reproduce any proprietary text, illustrations, tables, or other material, including data, audio, video, film stills and screenshots, and any other supplementary material that is submitted to Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review.

Plagiarism

Prior to giving full consideration to submitted manuscripts, all submissions are checked for plagiarism via Plag.

Post-publication discussion

Post-publication discussions are to be conducted via e-mails addressed to the Editor-in-Chief.

Retractions and Corrections

When necessary, the Editorial Team publishes corrections on detecting errors in already published articles. Corrections are published as Editorials. The journal sets no time limit for notifying errors or publishing corrections.

Retractions are considered by the Editor-in-Chief in cases of evidence of unreliable data or findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or on detection of other forms of ethical misdemeanor.

Responsibilities

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for organizing the work of the editors and takes full responsibility for the quality of the final publication. Every manuscript, submitted to PGAF LR, is overseen by the Editor-in-Chief who takes charge of making the initial editorial decision (send for review or desk rejection), assigning it to an editor in charge, taking the final editorial decision (accept, revise & resubmit, decline) based on the external peer reviews. The Editor-in-Chief is supervised by the Rector of Ludovika University of Public Service.

Editors

Editors are expected to assist the Editor-in-Chief in selecting the reviewers and organizing the review process. Every manuscript passing the initial editorial screening (sent for review) are assigned to an Editor (Editor in Charge) who organizes the manuscript’s peer review and corresponds with authors and reviewers. The external referees (peer reviewers) are, after being consulted with the Editor-in-Chief, invited by the Editor in Charge. When both evaluation reports (reviews) are submitted, the Editor in Charge makes a recommendation for editorial decision to the Editor-in-Chief charged with overseeing the manuscript. The final editorial decision is taken by the Editor-in-Chief. Editors are nominated by the Editor-in-Chief and they are appointed by the Rector of Ludovika University of Public Service.

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board is an international body of recognized scholars who make suggestions for the editorial policy by directing the editors’ attention to new research possibilities, by introducing new contributors, and with a general support for conducting reviews.

Reviewers

Reviewers must treat papers submitted to their consideration as confidential information and knowledge gained from reviewing submissions may not be used for their personal gain. They should assess the quality of the manuscript objectively, following the standards of the given discipline. Reviewers are encouraged to report any suspicion of questionable research and writing practices to the editors (Editor in Charge, Editor-in-Chief). To maintain the objectivity of the review process, reviewers must declare any potential conflict of interest. Reviewers are expected to comply with the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Authors

It is the authors’ responsibility to submit manuscripts that fully comply with the journal’s style guide and applicable policies. Authors must declare that their manuscript is an original work, which is not being considered for publication in other academic journals and books. In the case of co-authorship, the corresponding author must confirm that the publication of the manuscript is approved by all authors. If relevant, authors are asked to indicate research funding as well.

Editors as authors

PGAF LR does not encourage its editors to submit their research to PGAF LR for consideration. Should an editor submit a manuscript to the journal, the rules for conflict of interest (editors) would be applied; hence, the editor with conflicting interest would be excluded from participating in the submitted manuscript’s entire editorial workflow.