The aims and scope of the journal
The journal encompasses public law issues, mainly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law (general law, constitutional law, substantive law), administrative procedural law (general and specific proceedings), proceedings before administrative courts, public finances and financial law (including tax law), public business law, and international law, labour and social security law, agricultural law, environmental law, food law, criminal law and civil law. Each is dealt with in its public law aspect and with regard to the history of the political system, public law, science and administrative policy. This formula is broadened (where applicable to the research topic) by research on solutions from European Union law (primary and secondary legislation) and international documents.
The editors welcome submissions from other countries and states in Polish and English.
Publisher, Copyright and Open Access Policy
Publisher: Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Law and Administration (https://prawo.amu.edu.pl/en/publications/), al. Niepodległości 53, 61-714 Poznań, uamprawo@amu.edu.pl
Publication schedule: Studia Prawa Publicznego is a quarterly journal and is published at the end of every quarter. The online version is published first.
The editor may decide to publish a thematic issue as part of the regular publishing schedule.
There are no fees for submitting an article to the journal, for the editorial process, or for final publication.
Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions. All publications are published under an open licence.
The journal provides immediate, open access (CC BY-ND 4.0 International License) to all its content, in accordance with the principle that freely available research increases and accelerates global scientific development and the exchange of knowledge. The editors encourage authors to deposit their articles that are published in the journal in open repositories (the publisher’s final version), provided that a link to the journal’s webpage and the DOI number of the article are included.
2023- : CC-BY-ND 4.0 International
2016-2022: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
The journal is financed by Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Law and Administration.
Editorial Office:
Wydział Prawa i Administracji UAM, Al. Niepodległości 53, 61-714 Poznań
Collegium Iuridicum Novum, budynek Dziekanatu, p. I, pok. 25
tel. +48 61 829 31 60, e-mail: spp@amu.edu.pl, adres strony internetowej: http://spp.amu.edu.pl
The Reviewing Process
Publication of original, previously unpublished manuscripts that are in line with the magazine's profile is preceded by submission:
1) initial verification. Any comments entered into the manuscript or in the comments are forwarded to the author by the editors with a request to prepare, if necessary, a revised version of the text, in accordance with the guidelines laid out in the Information for Authors on the SPL website;
2) assessing the submitted text's compliance with the journal's profile and the requirement of its originality. If such compliance is not evident, the editor-in-chief may reject the text without further verification;
3) reviewer's evaluation. For the evaluation of submitted manuscripts (with the exception of reviews of other legal scientific publications, reviews of Polish and foreign literature, reports from scientific conferences), the editor-in-chief, in respect of supervising the review process, appoints at least two reviewers (from Poland or abroad) in consultation with a member of the Editorial Board qualified in a given research area. Reviewers are appointed from among persons cooperating with SPL on a permanent or ad hoc basis, holding an academic title or academic degree in the field to which the publication pertains; reviewers are not members of the editorial board and are not in a conflict of interests with the manuscript's author.
The papers are reviewed on the basis of a double-blind peer review. The editorial board does not appoint as reviewers any persons who are in a direct employment relation with the authors of the manuscript (affiliated to the same institution as the author of the article) or in other direct personal or professional relations that may generate a conflict of interest. In the case of manuscripts by authors from outside Poland, one of the reviewers is an affiliate of a foreign institution other than that of the author submitting the article for publication.
The review is produced in a written form and ends with an unequivocal proposal regarding the suitability of the article (comment, polemical article, gloss) for publication or its rejection. The basis for accepting an article for publication is a high level of writing found by reviewers, fully compliant with the standards of scientific studies. The basis for rejecting the article is, in particular, the manuscript's lack of originality and its low scientific and cognitive value.
The reviewer assesses the submitted manuscript in accordance with the criteria adopted in the review form published on the journal's website (how the title conforms to the substantive content of the study, correct formulation and implementation of the research objective, clarity and coherence in the text's structure, scientific value and research method used, transparency and logic in the argumentation, the degree of to which it enriches the state of research, the author's contribution to science and practice, and the scope of literature used) and proposes to qualify the study by selecting one of the following decisions (accepting the manuscript for publication without changes; accepting the text on condition that changes suggested by the reviewer - with or without his or her additional assessment - are introduced; proposing to refuse to accept the text for publication). In a situation where the reviewer requires the author to include the comments contained in the review in the manuscript with the right to further assessment, the editors send the reviewer for approval. However, should the text receive two conflicting reviews (one of the reviewers does not recommend publication), the editor-in-chief appoints a third reviewer (super-reviewer), whose opinion is decisive.
By electronic means, the editors provide the author with an anonymized review form in order to prepare the final version of the manuscript. After the manuscript is recieved, it is reviewed by the publishing house editor and, following approval by the author, it is sent for publication in the next issue of "Studies in Public Law". Reviews are archived by the editors together with the final version of the article and the author's detailed response to the reviewer's questions.
The editors disclose the names of the reviewers cooperating with the journal in the printed version and on the journal's website in the fourth (and final) edition of the quarterly for a particular calendar year, and do so without indicating the reviewer of a given publication.
Should the scope of scientific research of the submitted manuscript so require, the editor-in-chief also sends the article to the statistical editor for their assessment of the quality of the research described within it.
Ethical principles
Having regard to the high quality of scientific studies published in "Studies in Public Law", the editors of the journal ensure the following: the substantive and formal reliability of scientific content submitted for publication, compliance with intellectual property law and the ethical standards recommended by the COPE Committee on Publication Ethics, contained in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, and COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. For the purposes of the journal "Studies in Public Law", and with full acceptance of these recommendations, the principles of publishing ethics were implemented for each of the parties involved in the publication process, namely the editors, reviewers and authors.
Furthermore, the editorial board uses the Crossref Similarity Check anti-plagiarism system to ensure the originality of scientific publications.
EDITORS' DUTIES:
Decisions related to publication - determining whether to accept a submitted manuscript. The decision in this respect is made by the journal's editor-in-chief, after consultation with the relevant member of the Editorial Board for the particular research area. In making the decision, the editor-in-chief is guided solely by the originality and transparency of the scientific value of the submitted manuscript and its congruity with the magazine's profile, taking into account the special role of reviewers. An assessment of any potential copyright infringement also influences the decision to publish.
The Editorial Board accepts only original unpublished manuscripts and texts submitted for publication, in whole or in part, in other journals. Duplications of previous articles are not accepted. Authors are expected to make an explicit statement that they have not consented and nor consent to their manuscript submitted to SPL being published by another journal. Should a false statement be made, the editor-in-chief reserves the right to refuse to publish the manuscript, and where possible, informs the journal receiving the same manuscript about this situation, as well as the organizational unit employing the author or with which they are associated.
Manuscript submission form and Declaration (PL)
Manuscript submission form and Declaration (EN)
Applying the fair play principle - based on an assessment of the submitted manuscript's value and scientific credibility, as well as its compliance with the profile of "Studies in Public Law", irrespective of the origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, citizenship and worldview of the author.
Confidentiality – imposing an obligation on all journal employees involved in the editorial process to maintain the confidentiality of the information obtained at each stage of the publication process for submitted manuscripts (excluding information disclosed by SPL), including infomation attained in the process of reviewing scientific manuscripts.
Disclosure of information and conflict of interests – information obtained during the evaluation process may not be disclosed by the Editorial Board to any person not party to the publication process (author, reviewer, including potential reviewer), without the expressed written consent of the author. Moreover, without explicit written consent, no submitted manuscripts, fragments of them or rejected texts may be used by reviewers nor by members of the Editorial Board for their own research (for personal gain).
In every situation where a conflict of interest exists with the author, the editors shall withdraw the submitted manuscript from the editorial process.
Involvement and cooperation in investigations - the SPL Editorial Office takes appropriate action (explanatory, sanctioning) in the event of any suspicion or allegation of inappropriate behaviour, whether in relation to published and unpublished manuscripts, and articles submitted to the editors.
REVIEWERS' RESPONSIBILITIES:
Participation in editorial decision-making - of two-fold value. By assessing the reviewed text and qualifying it appropriately, the reviewer supports the editor-in-chief in making editorial decisions at subsequent stages of the publication process. To a great extent, this also helps authors refine and improve the scientific value of the papers they submit.
The reviewer should refrain from preparing a review for a paper that concerns scientific content beyond their scientific competence, and also when there is a conflict of interest between the author and the reviewer.
Timeliness - A reviewer with knowledge relevant to the subject matter of the submitted manuscript should agree to review it within a specified period. The review deadline (from 2 to 4 weeks) is set by the editor-in-chief. Where the selected reviewer is unable to review the paper, or knows that preparing a review within the proposed period is not possible, the editor-in-chief should be informed of this without undue delay.
Confidentiality - maintaining confidentiality is the responsibility of every reviewer. In this respect, the reviewer is not released from the obligation to keep both the review assessment and the manuscript secret, and especially not to use it for personal gain. The knowledge acquired may not be used as a basis for discussion with any third party other than the editor-in-chief as "Studies in Public Law" does not permit such a practice.
Objectivity standards - reviews should constitute an objective, clearly expressed assessment of the manuscript supported by factual arguments and excludes all forms of unscientific criticism. Resorting to offensive or degrading comments about authors is deemed unacceptable behaviour. The editor also considers personal criticism of an author to be inappropriate.
Confirmation of sources - Reviewers should not refrain from indicating publications which the author has not cited if they notice such a gap. Likewise, reviewers are also not exempt from informing the editor-in-chief about any significant similarities to other publications known to them, nor from informing the journal about suspected plagiarism and self-plagiarism.
Disclosure of information and conflict of interest – it is the responsibility of the reviewers to disclose to the editor-in-chief information that does not require anonymity and inform about any potential conflict of interest between the reviewer and author due to kinship or proximity, business relationships, personal relationships or a conflict of professional interests. In each case of a potential breach of this standard, the reviewer is obliged to inform the editor-in-chief of "Studies in Public Law".
AUTHORS' RESPONSIBILITIES – these set out ethical standards governing the following:
Access and data storage - "Studies in Public Law" is addressed to academic staff of universities and scientific institutes who hold an academic title or degree, as well as to doctoral students, practitioners and university graduates. It is good practice for authors to retain a record of the source data for studies submitted to SPL.
Originality and plagiarism - An author submitting a manuscript for publication in SPL provides a written statement confirming that the study is original, previously unpublished and not evaluated. Any content quoting another author should be cited in the appropriate way. Other parts of the article (e.g. tables, charts) subject to copyright require permission to be acquired. The editors do not verify citations, bibliographic data, etc. It is also inappropriate for the author to reproduce their own previously published content. The journal rejects manuscripts containing another author's content that are not properly cited or plagiarized, or which are self-plagiarized.
Repeated, unnecessary or parallel publications - to ensure that authors do not duplicate the same content sent to SPL, the editors require each author to confirm by means of the Declaration contained in the submission form and the publishing agreement that the manuscript submitted for publication has not been published nor subjected to the publication process in another journal or publishing house. Submitting the same publication to more than one journal, as well as copying and pasting the primary text of one article into a subsequent manuscript with only minor changes constitutes is unethical behaviour and is not accepted by SPL.
Confirmation of sources - the editors expect the author to cite any published content that contributed to the writing of a manuscript submitted to SPL for publication, to source each quote and to compile a summary bibliography. The author's use of internet sources is permissible where up-to-date content along with the date of access is indicated. Any information obtained privately by the author cannot be used without the expressed written consent of the author.
Authorship of the work - the rule is that SPL's editorial staff accept manuscripts written by a single author. An exception to this rule can be made, provided that the authorship of the text in the version submitted is limited to those persons who made a significant contribution to the creation of the manuscript. The author is required to indicate in the Application Form and Declaration these contributions to the publication, expressed as a percentage and by indicating the number of pages or subheadings. The editors expect this information from each co-author of the same manuscript. This means that SPL does not accept a situation where one author submits a manuscript with the purported acceptance of co-authors without explicit consent being given by said co-authors, confirmed by their submitting a written Declaration regarding joint authorship. Any other persons who are not the co-authors of the final manuscript can only be mentioned in an acknowledgement in the Introduction or footnote.
SPP also does not accept the co-authorship of a person whose contribution to the creation of a manuscript did not take place or is insignificant (honorary authorship), or of a person making a significant contribution to the creation of a paper and not disclosing his participation as one of the co-authors (ghostwriting). In each of these cases, authorship is considered to be scientific misconduct, and when it is noticed, the editors notify the relevant entities, including the institution employing the author.
Each of the authors is responsible for the originality and current legal validity of the content of the manuscript submitted, the provisions cited, case law and doctrine, excluding the editorial office's responsibility in this respect.
Each of the authors is obliged to cooperate with the SPL's editorial office in exchanging information, from the stage of verifying the submitted text, receiving the review through to editorial correction.
The submitted manuscript is published on the basis of the author's publishing agreement, which is available on the Adam Mickiewicz University Press website.
Disclosure of information and conflict of interest - The SPL's editors expect authorship of a submitted manuscript and details of its previous publication to be disclosed, regardless of whether the work is a reprint in whole or in part.
The author should disclose the source of funding for the paper (national and international grants, subsidies, etc., along with the reference number of the source of funding).
Authors are expected to disclose information regarding any potential conflict of interest arising during the process of reviewing and editing the submitted manuscript.
Fundamental errors in published papers - Authors should notify the editor-in-chief immediately of any significant errors they notice in their publication. In cooperation with the editor-in-chief and the publisher, an errata, annex or correction should be published, or the publication withdrawn.
History of the Journal
The founder of the scientific journal "Studies in Public Law" and its editor-in-chief and scientific editor is Prof. Krystyna Wojtczak, PhD (hab.). At the end of 2012, the Board of Publishers of Adam Mickiewicz University Press in Poznań included this journal in its publishing plan and registered it as a scientific journal of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. In 2013, the journal was registered at the District Court in Poznań by the First Civil Division by virtue of the decision to enter the journal titled "Studies in Public Law" into the Register of Journals and Magazines of the District Court in Poznań under the number 3129. Since that year SPL has been published on a quarterly basis. Between 2015 and 2018, "Studies in Public Law" was placed in part "B" of the list of scientific journals of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education with a 7-digit score for a scientific publication. Due to the wide range of issues and the cross-border dimension of public law issues, the journal has accepted publications from various and Polish and foreign academic centres, institutes and practitioners since its inception. This mission continues to be implemented nationally and internationally.