Ghostwriting firewall

Trustworthiness is one of the qualitative cornerstones of the science. Readers should always have sureness that authors of publications demonstrate the outcomes of their work in a transparent, reliable and just mode, without regard for the fact, if they are the genuine authors of these publications or if they used external support from specialists (natural or legal persons). Clearness of information concerning the share of any entity in the process of publication’s preparation (substantive, material, financial, etc.), constitute not only the evidence of ethical posture of a researcher and high editorial standards, but also social responsibility. Phenomena of “Ghostwriting”, and “guest authorship” stand in opposition to this good practice.

The phenomenon of “Ghostwriting” takes place when someone contributed significantly or essentially to the creation of given manuscript, and his name is not placed among the authors or mentioned in the acknowledgments.

“Guest authorship” (“honorary authorship”) occurs when the author did not put considerable effort in the preparation of publication or did not contribute whatsoever, and still has a status of author/co-author.

In order to counter these practices, the Editorial Board of the „Political Science Annual” has deployed adequate procedures:

1. Authors are required to disclose the actual extent of contribution of respective researchers (affiliations and precise information about authorship of concepts, assumptions, methods, and protocol used in the preparations of manuscript). The primary responsibility rests with the submitting author.
2. All displays of such infringements will be exposed and the Editorial Board shall apprise relevant institutions (employers of authors, scientific societies, scientific editor’s associations, etc.)
3. Authors are required to convey comprehensive information on the sources of financing of the publication, level of financial input from scientific institutions, associations and other entities („financial disclosure”).
4. All symptoms of scientific unreliability, notably the violations of principles of scientific ethic and integrity, shall be documented.