PUBLICATION CODE OF ETHICS AND INSTITUTIONAL PARTICIPATION

Abstract

The paper points out that the scientific research activity of university professors has a direct bearing on the visibility, recognition and positioning of the university in important rankings. The article presents the codes of publishing ethics posted on the websites of two universities - Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Warsaw University, Poland. The origin of the texts of the codes is analysed. It is pointed out that both universities do not have specially developed texts concerning the ethical rules for scientific publications, but use texts created by foreign institutions. Most universities and higher education institutions publish a code of ethics, i.e. a system of ethical rules or standards, that applies to publications written by employees of that institution. The comparative analysis shows that the codes unambiguously reflect the institutional positions of the higher education institutions embodied in the standards used, the provisions in them harmonize with each other and set a common global framework of good practices in this part of scientific activity. The ethical standards of the two universities studied do not represent documents created explicitly and specifically for the purposes of the particular university, but are summarised from organisations external to them. This fact does not prevent their successful incorporation into the system of postulates of generally accepted standards. The main problem areas in scientific publications pointed out in codes of ethics deal with the so called classification "FFP" - fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and the problem of predatory journals.