Publication Ethics

Study Design & Ethical Approval

• The DVT journal does not publish papers based on laboratory or clinical research. The study design is therefore usually guided by historical methodology. 
• Studies based on the 20th century sources, which may contain personal information, are required to comply with rules and regulations related to protection of personal information, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU as implemented by the Czech law (Nařízení Evropského parlamentu a Rady (EU) 2016/679 ze dne 27. dubna 2016 o ochraně fyzických osob v souvislosti se zpracováním osobních údajů a o volném pohybu těchto údajů). And also the national Act on Protection of Personal Information (101/2000 Sb.).
• In the paleopathological studies the use of human tissues and remains should conform to Czech Act on Undertaking (256/2001 Sb.) as well as all the requirements and limitations set by the institution, which is granted stewardship of the tissues/remains used in the study. 

Authorship & Contributorship

• Studies published by the DVT journal are often written by a single author, such author is solely responsible for the study as a whole.
• In case of studies with more than one author, the co-authors are required to inform the Chief Editor of the journal about mutually agreed share of authorship including clarification of seniority and/or responsibility of individual co-authors for particular sections of the paper. 

Conflict of Interest

• Authors and Reviewers are required to reveal any possible conflicts of interest to the Chief Editor upon submitting the manuscript and also later should additional conflicts arise. 
• The conflict of interest in DVT journal is particularly relevant for the review process (see section on Reviewers). 
• The Editors of the journal are required to inform the readership about possible conflicts of interest. In such case the Editorial Board will chose the an editor so that the conflict is avoided.

Editorial Staff & Board

• The Editors and the Editorial Board are responsible for the selection of articles to be published in the journal.
• In evaluating articles, the Editors and Editorial Board are guided only by the content of the article, without regard to the race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship or political views of the authors.
• The Editors and the Editorial Board are subject to the laws governing defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism in the Czech Republic.
• The Editorial Office provides information about submitted manuscripts only to their authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board.
• Unpublished manuscripts may not be used by any member of the Editorial Board or Editorial Office without the express permission of the author.
• All original studies must be peer-reviewed before the publication.
• Editors working with particular paper are required to disclose possible conflict of interest to the Chief Editor. The Chief Editor will disclose their conflict of interest to the Editorial Board. 
• When a published paper is subsequently found to contain major flaws, editors must accept responsibility for correcting the record prominently and promptly.
• Editors are required to act on suspicion of misconduct and investigate such case. In case of misconduct committed by a member of the editorial staff, the Editorial Board is required to investigate and make relevant decision. See COPE guidelines for detailed discussion on misconduct of authors, reviewers and editors.
• If resented with a convincing evidence of serious misconduct the editors should inform the author(s) and notify their employer. 
• The party under suspicion will be given an opportunity to respond to a charge. 
• In case of wrongdoing by author/s, reviewer/s or editor/s, the Editorial Board shall make decision on appropriate sanctions.

Peer Review

• Papers submitted to the DVT journal undergo a double blind review process.
• Reviewers provide an external expert opinion to the Editors and the Editorial Board on the submitted manuscripts.
• The editorial board may forward the reviewers' recommendations to the authors.
• Any reviewer approached by the editors who does not feel competent to review a particular study or who cannot produce a review within a reasonable time is required to notify the editorial board.
• All manuscripts submitted to the editorial office that are undergoing the review process are considered confidential. Disclosure of all or any part of their contents or any other information to third parties is not permitted without the express permission of the author.
• Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the authors is not allowed.
• Reviewers are expected to clearly articulate the errors, shortcomings and mistakes of the manuscripts and support them with appropriate arguments.
• If the Reviewers suspect misconduct, they are should inform the Editors immediately. A statement that any part of the manuscript under review or any of its arguments have already been published should be supported by a relevant citation and reference.
• The reviewer is also obliged to point out the substantial similarity of the text under review to any other text of which they are aware.
• Neither the content of unpublished studies nor any part of it may be used by the reviewer without the express permission of the author. Any information obtained during the review process may not be used by the reviewer.
• In selecting reviewers, the editorial board ensures that the reviewer is not an employee of the same department as the author or one of the co-authors of the manuscript under review, or in any other way in conflict of interest with the author of the manuscript under review.
• Reviewers shall cite relevant publications of which they are aware and which have not been cited by the author. 

Authors

• Authors are responsible for the originality of their work. All use of other authors' works must be accompanied by an exact citation and/or appropriate bibliographical reference.
• Parallel submission of the same manuscript to other journals is considered an ethical breach and as such it is unacceptable. However, see also rules on publishing translated papers.
• In the event that an author discovers one or more serious errors in the argumentation, citations or bibliographic references of his/her manuscript after submission to the editors, he/she is obliged to report this to the editors immediately and to cooperate in making corrections.
• The author is obliged to incorporate corrections to his/her manuscript as suggested by the reviewers within the time limit agreed with the journal editors.

Redundant Publication

• Publication of a paper first issued in another language is allowed if the authors inform the Chief Editor during the submission process. Such publication than has to be clearly labelled as translated work. Consent of the editorial office of the journal where the original version occurred has to be secured by the author. 
• Authors are required to reveal details on related papers (including papers in different language) which are subject of editorial process elsewhere or are in press. Submission of a paper that is already under consideration by another journal is not allowed.

Intellectual Property, Plagiarism & Ethical Use of AI

• All sources, primary as well as secondary have to be properly cited. 
• If the authors use any material written (or otherwise created) by others without proper attribution, this is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious misconduct.
• Authors are also required to disclose to the Editors all the use of generative AI in their work and manuscripts. 
• Some AI tools (like translators to foreign languages) are allowed providing that the authors inform the Editors.
• However, use of the generative AI to formulate ideas, concepts, provide reasoning or additional sources for manuscripts or create figures, charts, graphs etc. is forbidden. Such employment of AI will be considered a serious misconduct.