The Editorial Board of the Archaeol. Balt. is committing to ensuring that high ethical publishing standards are maintained in the journal. As a benchmark, the Archaeol. Balt. subscribes to the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
Archaeol. Balt. Ethics Policy is also based on the publishing ethics of the Klaipėda University: https://www.ku.lt/apie-universiteta/akademine-etika/
Allegations of misconduct
The Archaeol. Balt. investigate, any allegations of misconduct, pre- and postpublication
(e.g. editors or reviewers requiring authors to cite their own work, or authors withdrawing papers after acceptance then submitting their work to a high impact factor journal)
Authorship and contributorship
The Archaeol. Balt. expects transparency around who contributed to a submitted piece of work and in what capacity. The list of authors should accurately reflect who carried out the research and who wrote the article. The names of individuals who have not contributed significantly to the work should not be included.
Complaints and appeals
Authors have the right to appeal against editorial decisions. Appeals or complaints can be addressed directly to Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Team. E-mail: archaeologia.baltica@ku.lt
We will investigate and respond to all appeals and complaints in a timely manner.
Conflicts of interest/competing interests
We will seek to handle and resolve conflicts of interest of authors, reviewers, editors, our journal and publisher. All authors and peer reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest relating to submitted work. Sources of support for the research to be published must be acknowledged by authors. Authors are invited to suggest specialist peer reviewers, and can also indicate the names of certain experts whom they would prefer not to be included in the peer review process for stated reasons (e.g. a strong personal conflict), although the final decision on selection of peer reviewers will be taken by the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Team.
The Archaeol. Balt. expects authors to make all relevant data available, as well as details of methods used and ethical conduct of research using cultural and human remains. We adhere to the principle that the destructive sampling of human remains should strive to minimize damage and preserve material. Images of human remains should not be published without consideration to the views of any demonstrated genealogical descendants or affiliated cultural communities’.
In accepting the terms and conditions of the Archaeol. Balt. authors guarantee that their work was produced free of research misconduct. In line with the EAA’s Code of Practice (1.6) which states that ‘Archaeologists will not engage in, or allow their names to be associated with, any form of activity relating to the illicit trade in antiquities and works of art, covered by the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property’. Archaeological material knowingly obtained illegally from unprovenanced sources should not be published in the Archaeol. Balt.
It is the responsibility of corresponding authors to obtain consent to submit work to the journal from all co-authors, before the work is submitted. The Archaeol. Balt. advocates freedom of scholarly expression and, therefore, reserves the right to publish criticisms of published work and of scholars, including any firmly substantiated claims of misconduct, and to report them to professional organisations and higher authorities for further investigation. The Editor-in Chief, Editorial Team reserve the right to edit peer reviews, including reviewers’ requests that authors cite their own work.
Intellectual property, including copyright
Authors are responsible for ensuring that they hold intellectual property rights to the work that they submit to the journal, including copyright on all illustrations. They are also responsible for any costs associated with obtaining such rights. Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript will always be investigated, and―if proven―authors will be presented with the evidence. The Archaeol. Balt will not consider any paper submitted simultaneously to another journal. We do not publish work that has been previously published elsewhere (partly or in full), including in a different language. Full acknowledgement to other works used to produce the paper must be given. Fully published versions of articles with copyright are held by the Archaeol. Balt and cannot, therefore, be published elsewhere by authors or modified by them without permission.
Journal management
The Archaeol. Balt working in collaboration with our publisher Klaipėda University Press, are responsible for managing the journal in an efficient manner. Our work and processes are subject to the regular scrutiny of the Editorial Team and Editorial Board. Submitted papers, specialist peer reviewers’ comments and editorial decisions are stored securely on our Editorial Manager system.