Code of Ethics

Code of Ethics

The journal *Theology and Morality* takes the issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism and breaches of good publishing practice extremely seriously. We protect authors’ rights. We thoroughly investigate reports of plagiarism or the unlawful use of published articles.

In seeking sound solutions regarding publication ethics, “Teologia i Moralność” bases its approach on the following standards:

The journal reserves the right to intervene immediately upon discovery of authors’ use of poor publishing practices:

  • the submitted article contains plagiarism from another work,
  • the submitted article uses third-party copyrighted material without the third party’s consent or without sufficient acknowledgement of this fact,
  • the authorship of the article is called into question.

In such cases, the journal’s editorial board may take the following actions:

  • publishing an erratum or corrigendum,
  • withdrawing the article, even after its publication,
  • referring the matter to the authorities of the faculty or other institution with which the author is affiliated,
  • taking appropriate legal action.

The editorial board of the journal “Theology and Morality” prohibits ghostwriting and guest authorship:

  • ghostwriting refers to a situation where someone has made a substantial contribution to the creation of a publication without disclosing their involvement as one of the authors or without their role being acknowledged in the acknowledgements section of the publication;
  • guestauthorship occurs when an author’s contribution is negligible or non-existent, yet they are listed as an author or co-author of the publication.

To counteract the abuses described above, the journal’s editorial board is introducing the following measures:

  • authors are required to disclose the contributions of each individual who contributed to the article submitted for publication (stating their affiliations and specifying their involvement), as well as to provide information on the sources of funding for the research conducted in connection with its preparation by signing a declaration.
  • In the declaration, authors state that the article submitted for publication has not been previously published and that it is free from legal defects.


Authors are required to adhere to ethical standards:

  • the principle of scientific integrity,
  • the principle of originality of work,
  • the principle of data sharing,
  • the principle of preventing conflicts of interest,
  • the principle of authorship,
  • the principle of reliability of sources,
  • the principle of correcting errors in published works,
  • the principle of excluding redundant, duplicate or parallel publications.

Members of the editorial board adhere to ethical standards in their publishing work, upholding:

  • the principles of preventing conflicts of interest,
  • the principles of confidentiality,
  • the principles of timeliness,
  • the principles of objectivity,
  • the principles of source reliability.

The editorial board adheres to ethical standards in its publishing work, upholding the following principles:

  1. Manuscripts preliminarily selected by the editorial team for the peer-review process are sent for review to two independent reviewers who hold at least a postdoctoral degree and have no conflict of interest with the author(s) of the manuscript, such as working at the same academic institution, close academic collaboration, a professional dependency, or close personal relationships (kinship up to the second degree, marriage). If such a conflict of interest arises, reviewers should inform the journal’s editorial board. The principle of mutual anonymity between reviewers and the authors of the submitted text is maintained (double-blind peer review). In cases where the pool of specialists in a given scientific field is very limited, an exception to the above rules may be made.
  2. A reviewer should decline to assess a submitted manuscript if it significantly exceeds the scope of their scientific experience and expertise.
  3. The review must contain the reviewer’s unequivocal conclusion regarding whether the text should be accepted for publication, rejected, or accepted for publication subject to necessary amendments, which must be communicated to the editorial board and the author.
  4. Reviewers should notify the editorial board of any similarities between the text under review and any previously published material not cited in the text’s references.
  5. Reviewers are bound to confidentiality regarding all information provided to them by the editorial board. Reviewers may not, without the authors’ written consent, use data or concepts contained in the texts provided to them prior to publication, even if the reviewed text has not been accepted for publication.
  6. Reviews are carried out free of charge.

Authors’ responsibilities and rights

  1. Authorship or co-authorship of a scientific publication must be based on a creative and substantial contribution to the research, and thus on significant involvement in the initiation of the scientific idea, the formulation of the concept and the design of the research, on substantial involvement in the collection of data, the analysis and interpretation of the results obtained, and on a substantial contribution to the intellectual design and writing of the article. All persons who have made a substantial contribution to the creation of the article should be listed as co-authors. The intellectual contribution of other persons who have had a substantial influence on the published research should be appropriately acknowledged. Any financial support received, as well as other forms of assistance, should also be appropriately acknowledged. The order of the co-authors’ names is determined by the co-authors themselves.
  2. The use of other authors’ publications, as well as the authors’ own publications, should be properly documented in footnotes and the bibliography. All forms of plagiarism or self-plagiarism, i.e. the use of other sources without adequate citation in the scholarly apparatus, are unacceptable. Hidden or fictitious authorship is also unacceptable. In such cases, the journal’s editorial board reserves the right to refuse to publish the article, to retract an article that has already been published, to demand the publication of an explanation and an apology, and to take appropriate disciplinary and legal action.
  3. In accordance with the provisions of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights of 4 February 1994, the author transfers the economic copyright in the submitted work to the publisher of the journal ‘Teologia i Moralność’. The transfer of copyright to the submitted work applies to all fields of exploitation, in particular those listed in Article 50 of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights: 1. With regard to the fixation and reproduction of the work – the production of copies of the work using a specific technique, including printing, reprography, magnetic recording and digital techniques. 2. With regard to the marketing of the original or copies on which the work has been fixed – the placing on the market, lending or hiring out of the original or copies. 3. With regard to the distribution of a work in a manner other than that specified in point 2 – public performance, exhibition, display, reproduction, broadcasting and rebroadcasting, as well as making the work publicly available so that anyone may have access to it at a place and time of their choosing.
  4. To prevent copyright infringements, the editorial team uses the Crossref Similarity Check anti-plagiarism system, utilising iThenticate software.
  5. With the consent of the journal’s editorial team, articles and reviews published in “Theology and Morality” may be reprinted in other publications.
  6. The author may, for non-commercial purposes, distribute their text in electronic form in any manner without the editorial team’s consent.
  7. The editorial team publishes texts online under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)

  1. Only natural persons may be authors of academic papers.
  2. AI-based tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors of publications. Nor may such tools be cited as authors.
  3. Authors must disclose all instances of the use of artificial intelligence-based tools employed during the preparation of the text, specifying which tool was used, for what purpose and in what manner. All sections created with the aid of artificial intelligence must be clearly marked in the text and described in the cover letter.
  4. The editorial board permits the use of AI tools to prepare figures, diagrams, charts, etc., of a purely illustrative nature, and similar materials, provided they are appropriately marked.
  5. The author’s use of AI tools for data collection, analysis or processing must also be disclosed and clearly indicated in the text.
  6. Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, including any sections generated using artificial intelligence, and are therefore fully liable for any breaches of the journal’s ethical guidelines. Particular attention should be paid to the limitations of tools such as ChatGPT, including ‘hallucinations’, i.e. the generation of false but credible and linguistically correct information. Other risks include plagiarism, direct quotation or appropriation of ideas without citing the source, and the generation of false bibliographic descriptions or even entire bibliographies.
  7. The policy on generative AI tools does not apply to standard text-checking functions, such as spell-checking and grammar checking, etc.
  8. The editorial board reserves the right to decide whether to accept or reject a manuscript based on information regarding the scope and manner of AI use.

Responsibilities and rights of reviewers

  1. Manuscripts that have been provisionally selected by the editorial board for the peer-review process are sent for review to two independent reviewers who hold at least a postdoctoral degree and have no conflict of interest with the author(s) of the manuscript, such as working at the same academic institution, close academic collaboration, a professional dependency, or close personal relationships (kinship up to the second degree, marriage). If such a conflict of interest arises, reviewers should inform the journal’s editorial board. The principle of mutual anonymity between reviewers and the authors of the submitted manuscript is maintained (double-blind peer review). In cases where the pool of specialists in a given scientific field is very limited, an exception to the above rules may be made.
  2. A reviewer should decline to assess a submitted manuscript if it significantly exceeds the scope of their scientific experience and expertise.
  3. The review must contain the reviewer’s unequivocal conclusion regarding whether the text should be accepted for publication, rejected, or accepted for publication subject to necessary amendments, which must be communicated to the editorial board and the author.
  4. The reviewer should notify the editorial board of any possible similarity between the reviewed text and any previously published content not cited in the text’s references.
  5. Reviewers are bound by a duty of confidentiality regarding all information provided to them by the editorial team. Reviewers may not use any data or ideas contained in the texts submitted to them prior to publication without the authors’ express written consent, even if the text under review is not accepted for publication.
  6. Reviews are carried out on a voluntary basis.