The Journal of Marketing and Management of Innovations upholds the aims and objectives established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and unequivocally condemns any form of research misconduct. The journal’s foremost priority is to ensure the integrity of the papers it publishes, fostering uniqueness while rigorously avoiding plagiarism. Authors submitting their work to the journal are expected to not only produce valuable research but also adhere to ethical guidelines. It is imperative that authors thoroughly read and understand the Journal’s Instructions for Author and Ethical policies before making their submissions. These guidelines are designed to maintain the highest level of research integrity.

In the pursuit of research excellence, the journal actively addresses and combats various forms of research misconduct, including but not limited to the following:

1. Authorship Claims: The journal’s policy stipulates that every individual who has made a substantial contribution to a paper must be explicitly listed in the submitted Cover Letter form. To qualify as an author, an individual must have played a defined role in the research, such as contributing to the work’s preparation or introducing significant additions to the concept, project, or research explanation. Such contributions should be duly acknowledged in the final version of the work. On the other hand, minor contributions do not warrant authorship status. In such instances, co-authors may opt to recognize these individuals as contributors and acknowledge their contributions in the paper’s acknowledgment section. In adherence to the Journal’s policy, all co-authors of submitted manuscripts are required to complete the Cover Letter, ensuring comprehensive mention of all contributors and confirming their consent for the paper’s publication.
2. Duplicate Submission/Publication: This practice involves submitting or publishing essentially the same paper in two different journals either concurrently or with a significant time gap.
3. Redundant Publication (Commonly Referred to as “Salami Publishing”): This practice involves submitting distinct segments of the same research to multiple journals, or disseminating data that has previously appeared elsewhere without the requisite citations, permissions, or explanations. Additionally, the act of “self-plagiarism” falls under the purview of redundant publishing, where an author reuses or appropriates ideas from their previous works without proper acknowledgment. This may sometimes be unintentional, and the author’s acceptance of such usage typically provides the necessary context to assess their handling of previously published material.
4. Citation Manipulation: Citation manipulation encompasses the following behaviors:
   1. Author Self-Citation: This involves an author excessively citing their own work with the primary intent of artificially inflating the number of citations for their own publications.
   2. Excessive Citation of Articles from the Journal: Authors publishing their research in a journal disproportionately cite other articles from the same journal, often with the sole purpose of increasing the journal’s citation count.
   3. ‘Honorary’ Citations: This behavior entails the excessive citation of another author’s or journal’s paper, sometimes for reasons that lack academic merit, and is occasionally referred to as ‘honorary’ citations.
5. Data Fabrication: Data fabrication entails the deliberate act of creating or falsifying data or research results in papers submitted for publication. This also encompasses the referencing of non-existent publications or the falsification of bibliographic data.
6. Falsification: Falsification involves the alteration of research data by infringing upon equipment parameters employed in the research process, making biased adjustments to data during processing, and manipulating individual data in experiments to obtain desired findings.
7. Academic Plagiarism: Academic plagiarism encompasses a wide range of source materials, including texts, images, excerpts, mathematical expressions and transformations, computer code, and more. Plagiarized sources may encompass both published and unpublished works, such as books, papers, theses, manuscripts, and similar sources.

The primary categories of academic plagiarism include:

• Verbatim Text Borrowing: Using text fragments without proper attribution or quotation marks, even in cases of borrowing a single word when it is used in a unique sense as defined by the source.
• Unreferenced Use of Information: Utilizing information, concepts, numerical calculations, and other content from a specific source without providing appropriate references.
• Paraphrasing or Summarizing Without Attribution: Rephrasing source material in a manner similar to the original work or summarizing thoughts, interpretations, or findings from a specific source without proper citation.
• Appropriation of Others’ Academic Work: This involves the submission of academic work created by others, such as dissertations, monographs, textbooks, articles, theses, reports, assignments, calculations, coursework, diplomas, master’s theses, abstracts, and similar documents. It also includes cases where the original authors have given consent for the use of their work.

Additional forms of research misconduct encompass reprinting significant portions of prior articles, including translations, without proper acknowledgment, suppressing or concealing research findings, permitting undue influence from sponsors in a way that skews research or result dissemination, unwarranted inclusion of specific authors in reference lists, making deliberate false allegations against fellow researchers, distorting research outcomes, overstating the significance and practicality of findings, purposefully impeding or delaying the progress of other researchers, exploiting one’s official position to facilitate violations of research integrity, turning a blind eye to suspected research integrity breaches by others, or shielding institutional misconduct. This also includes the establishment or endorsement of journals that lack stringent quality control for research (often referred to as “predatory journals”).

Procedure for Handling Complaints of Research Misconduct

The process for addressing complaints of research misconduct is provided with sensitivity, tact, and confidentiality, following the steps outlined below:

1. Receipt of Complaint: The journal’s editorial office receives a complaint regarding suspected research misconduct in an article submitted to or published in the journal. If you wish to report misconduct in an article published in our journal, please submit a detailed complaint via email to mmi@fem.sumdu.edu.ua.
2. Detailed Complaint: The complainant should clearly specify the nature of the misconduct, providing specific details. For instance, in cases of plagiarism, the plagiarized portion should be highlighted, and the original and suspected articles should be referenced clearly.
3. Investigation: The editorial office initiates an investigation, during which the editor of the journal and the corresponding author(s) of the suspected article will be contacted.
4. Author’s Explanation: The corresponding author(s) will be requested to provide an explanation with factual statements and any available evidence.
5. Resolution: If the author(s) of the suspected article acknowledge the misconduct complaint, the editorial office will take appropriate action based on the situation:

• • If the article has been published, it may require an erratum or retraction to address the issue. However, there may still be disagreement about the wording of the description.
  • If the misconduct is reported during the review process, the review may continue, with the author(s) making necessary changes.

6. Non-Response or Unsatisfactory Explanation: In cases of non-response within the stipulated time or an unsatisfactory explanation, the article may be permanently retracted or rejected. Prior to a decision, the editor can add experts from the relevant institution or other authorities as required.
7. Complainant Notification: The complainant is informed of the outcome once the matter is resolved.
8. Conclusion of Complaint Case: The complaint case is considered concluded following the resolution of the issue.