Journal website - Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Poslovna izvrsnost – Business Excellence is fully committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. The journal follows the core practices and principles promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics, with a focus on editorial integrity, transparency, accountability, and academic honesty. All parties involved in the publishing process, authors, editors, reviewers, and publishers, must adhere to the ethical responsibilities outlined below.

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editorial Board is responsible for:

Fair editorial decisions: Manuscripts are evaluated for relevance, originality, and scientific merit, without regard to authors’ race, gender, nationality, religion, institutional affiliation, or political beliefs.
Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of all manuscript details, including content and reviewer identities.
Conflict of Interest: Editors must withdraw from handling manuscripts in which they have a competing interest.
Handling misconduct: Suspected cases of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or unethical research will be investigated and addressed in accordance with international guidelines.

Author Responsibilities

Authors must:

Ensure originality: Submitted work must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere.
Avoid plagiarism: Any content from other sources must be clearly cited. All submissions are screened for plagiarism. (see "For Authors" / Section 7)
Disclose funding and conflicts of interest: All financial or non-financial interests that could influence the research must be transparently disclosed.
Ensure authorship integrity: All individuals listed as authors must have made substantial contributions to the work and approve the final version.
Acknowledge contributions: Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.
Comply with data sharing and transparency: Authors may be asked to provide raw data for editorial review and should be prepared to make it publicly available where appropriate.
Ethical compliance: Research involving human or animal subjects must include a statement of ethical approval and, where applicable, confirmation of informed consent.

Guidelines

Reviewer Responsibilities

🔗 See our 'For Reviewers' guidelines for responsibilities.

Guidelines

Compliance with Ethical standards

The Journal requires compliance with ethical standards in all stages of research:

Human and animal research: All studies must have prior approval from an appropriate ethics committee. Authors must state the name of the committee and approval number.
Informed consent: Participants must be informed of the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of research and must voluntarily consent.
Privacy and data protection: Confidential information and participant anonymity must be preserved unless explicit consent is obtained.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest, including:

Financial interests (e.g., grants, employment)
Institutional affiliations
Personal relationships
Competitive or political interests.

Disclosures must be declared in a dedicated statement in the Title page of the manuscript. Editors will act to avoid bias in handling such submissions.

🔗 See our 'Conflict of Interest Policy'

Policy

Publication Misconduct and Corrections

The journal addresses all allegations of misconduct seriously, including:

Plagiarism
Data fabrication or falsification
Improper authorship
Undisclosed conflicts of interest

If misconduct is confirmed, appropriate actions may include:

Rejection or retraction of the article
Notification to author institutions or funders
Issuance of a formal expression of concern

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

Corrections: Issued when honest errors (e.g., typographical or factual inaccuracies) do not affect the validity of findings.
Retractions: Issued when findings are invalid due to serious error or misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, data falsification).
Expressions of Concern: Issued when an investigation is pending.

All post-publication updates are linked to the original article and archived transparently.

🔗 See our 'Correction and Retraction Policy'

Policy

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, readers, or reviewers may file complaints or appeals concerning:

Editorial decisions
Review process concerns
Ethical misconduct

Complaints should be addressed to the Associate Editor who will involve Editor-in-Chief and will be handled impartially. Unresolved matters may be referred to an independent ethics panel or the author’s institution.

🔗 See our 'Complaints Policy'

Policy

Long-term Archiving and Access

The journal ensures long-term digital preservation of all published content through the Hrčak Portal of Croatian Scientific and Professional Journals, providing perpetual open access.

Self-Archiving Policy

Authors are permitted to deposit all versions of their manuscripts — including the submitted version (preprint), accepted version (postprint), and published version (Version of Record), in institutional or subject repositories. It is mandatory to include a full bibliographic citation of the article, including the Journal name and DOI.

The Journal’s self-archiving policy is registered with the Jisc Open Policy Finder, where it is clearly stated that Poslovna izvrsnost – Business Excellence supports the Green level of self-archiving, in line with best practices in open scholarly communication.

If you have questions or concerns regarding publication ethics, please contact:

Mate Damić, Associate Editor
✉ mdamic@net.efzg.hr

Subject: Disclosure – [Manuscript Title or Concern]