Aim and Scope
UJCL aims to create a platform for discussions on the issues of constitutionalism from comparative and nationally oriented perspectives. We focus on the latest developments, original ideas and trends in the doctrine of constitutionalism and related fields, including Constitutional law, Comparative constitutional law, Political science, Theory and philosophy of law, European and International law. Interdisciplinary studies that focus on theoretical and practical constitutional and legal issues are welcomed.
Frequency and schedule of issues
UJCL is published quarterly (4 Issues a year – in March, June, September, and December).
Publication model
UJCL is an Open Access Journal based on the institutional support of its founder – Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, which allows us to publish articles without any fees from the authors. Along with this, UJCL is free and independent in its editorial and publishing policy.
Editorial Policies
The core principles of the editorial policy are the novelty and depth of published research, strict adherence to the rules of academic integrity and publishing ethics, and clear and understandable practices for resolving malpractice (see below for details).
- Open Access Policy
UJCL is an Open Access Journal that publishes original research articles, reviews, and supporting analytical materials necessary for research. All of them can be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed, searched, or linked to the full texts, crawled for indexing, passed as data to software, or used for any other lawful purpose without any fees, requirements for registration of any kind or other technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. Meanwhile, we urge our readers to respect the rights of our authors and follow the generally accepted rules for citing published texts.
In our Open Access Policy, we support Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002; Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, 2003; Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities of 22 October 2003.
- Free-of-charge Publication Policy
The Journal is based on the institutional support of its founder – Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, which allows us to publish articles without any fees from the authors.
Commitment to the COPE and EASE principles
UJCL fully supports the guidelines established by the COPE and is committed to investigating any suspected instances of research and publication misconduct, such as falsification, unethical experimentation, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, and redundant publication (http://www.publicationethics.org).
We support the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) recommendations in publication activities, as well as in ethics issues (https://ease.org.uk/publications/author-guidelines-authors-and-translators).
Authorship and Author information
The authorship of a manuscript is the starting point for the entire publishing process, so adherence to ethical standards at this stage is a prerequisite for successful submission.
We assume that the author (s) of the manuscript is the person(s) indicated in the submission until the opposite was discovered within the proper investigation according to the rules and guidelines of COPE and Elsevier. In particular, author(s) should take responsibility for the content of their manuscript, the ideas and opinions, given in their research result, as well as proper sources citation and methodology of studying, in any case avoiding research misconduct.
Co-authorship is acceptable in UJCL. We believe that all co-authors have significantly contributed to the submitted manuscript. In the case of different degrees of involvement, the contribution of each author is preferable to be specified in a note to the article. In determining the contribution of each author, we recommend using the CRediT – Contributor Roles Taxonomy (https://casrai.org/credit/). In any case, co-authors should confirm their responsibility for a whole manuscript or a particular section of the study.
In communication with the editorial board, one particular author can act on behalf of all of them. Along with this, in case of any allegations, each co-author can contact the editorial office by emailing editor@constjournal.com.
The author(s) are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes or/and shortcomings upon request of reviewers or editors. The author(s) should provide a list of references following UJCL requirements.
The author(s) should mention any financial support of their publication, in particular, concerning funding of projects within which a particular research has been conducted.
Copyright and Publishing Licences
When submitting the manuscript to UJCL, the authors are confirming and certifying the following:
- They have the authorization of their co-authors to represent them concerning the manuscript and communication with the Editorial.
- The manuscript being submitted to the Journal has not been previously published, is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere, and has received approval for publication from all authors and relevant authorities at the institutions where the work was conducted.
- They can provide written permission from the copyright holders to reproduce any material (including parts of the manuscript) that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
The authors agree to the terms of the following license and copyright agreement:
- Copyright for any article is retained by the author(s).
- The authors grant the Publisher (“Ukrainian Journal Of Constitutional Law” Editorial Magazine, LLC) a license to publish the article.
- The authors grant any third party the right to use the article freely, under the condition that the original authors and citation details are properly identified. The article and any associated published material are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).
It’s important to note that nothing in this license impairs or restricts the right of authors to protect the integrity and ownership of their works. All content is published in good faith, and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Journal.
Privacy Statement
In its relationship with its authors, UJCL is guided by the norms of the legislation on personal data protection. Under it (in particular, the Law of Ukraine “On Personal Data Protection”), the authors, as owners of personal data, give to the Publisher (“Ukrainian Journal Of Constitutional Law” Editorial Magazine, LLC) their consent to:
- processing of their personal data (Art. 2 of the abovementioned Law);
- use of their personal data, which includes any actions of the owner of personal data to process this data, actions to protect them, as well as actions to grant partial or full right to process personal data to other subjects of relations related to personal data (Art.10 of the Law);
- dissemination of their personal data, which provides for the actions of the owner of personal data on the transfer of information about an individual (Art. 14 of the Law);
- third-party access to their personal data (Art.16 of the Law).
The authors confirm that they have been duly notified of the purpose of the processing of their personal data, namely the preparation for publication, review, editing and publication of the manuscript in print and on the UJCL website, as well as in social networks.
Personal data may be transferred to/from other electronic information resources solely for their processing (collection), without further notification of the personal data subject of such transfer. The authors confirm that the purpose and conditions of processing their personal data are clear and they agree with them.
Peer Review
All manuscripts submitted to UJCL undergo peer review and scientific editing, which are considered a crucial basis for ensuring the high quality of published works. UJCL uses the model of double-blind peer review, which means that the author and reviewer are unknown to each other.
The procedure of independent double-blind peer-reviewing is performed for all manuscripts of research articles that have been submitted to the Journal.
The review process involves evaluating submitted manuscripts, obtaining advice on individual manuscripts from reviewers and their recommendations on publication of the article and/or improving the study.
Reviewers evaluate the theoretical, methodological and practical value of the manuscript and its scientific significance. In addition, the reviewers determine the compliance of the article with the ethics of publications.
UJCL reviewers are external experts, who are recognised scholars in the research subject matter. They are selected by the managing editors on the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest with the author(s).
The Editorial assumes responsibility for organising the peer-review process, which is aimed at preventing any fraudulent actions or manipulations by authors and reviewers. We make every effort to ensure that the review process is objective and that all conclusions and judgments made by reviewers are based on an unbiased and detailed analysis of the manuscript. The Editorial supports thorough peer review and takes all comments from reviewers seriously, especially those regarding violations of the rules of academic integrity. At the same time, if there are reasonable doubts about the objectivity of the reviewer, the editors undertake to appoint an additional review by another independent reviewer.
Reviewers should evaluate the manuscript as a whole and give their competent advice on the possible publication of the manuscript.
All peer-reviewed articles are reviewed confidentially prior to their publication, in any case avoiding copying, transmission to third parties, public discussion of their content, as well as the use of any data, ideas or arguments contained in the manuscript. The responsibility for this lies with the reviewers and editors jointly. All of our reviewers strongly support and adhere to publication ethics, which is confirmed by the responsible editor.
The peer review procedure, which is described in detail on our website, is available here.
Conflicts of Interest
The Editorial Board, Chief co-editors, managing editor, and the entire UJCL team in their publishing activities are guided by the principles of academic integrity, independence, and compliance with ethical standards in the publishing field. This includes avoiding conflicts of interest and, in the event of such cases, promptly and effectively eliminating.
By conflicts of interest, we mean any direct or indirect influence on the submission, editing, reviewing and/or publication of a manuscript, the lack of which could lead to the refusal of the publication.
UJCL Editorial Team is committed to independence from any conflicts of interest, corporate, personal or any other influence, which may lead to a violation of the principles, specified above, or any widely used principles of publishing in the scholarly community. The decision to accept the manuscript for publication is made by the managing editor regardless of any influence solely based on the results of the double-blind review.
We expect not only members of the Editorial team but also reviewers and authors to share these principles, which is a condition for cooperation with the Journal.
We try to ensure that any of our publications is free from influence, in particular, due to corporate or commercial benefits, as well as free from any form of conflicts of interest. While submitting a manuscript author(s) should declare any potential conflicts of interest with any member of the Editorial team, other staff of the Editorial Board or publisher, who could interfere with the objectivity of its assessment.
By competing interest, we mean anything that could reasonably influence the full, objective and free opinion of the author, reviewer or editor concerning the publication of the particular article. In the event of any allegations of an undisclosed conflict of interest, please, contact the Managing editor for investigation and decision-making of a publication retraction.
We strongly support the freedom of expression which is an integral part of academic research, unless any research misconduct is discovered. Meanwhile, we do not support any harmful or subjective statements, racist or any other form of discrimination, or any statements that could be considered a violation of human rights.
All the appeals concerning the violation of the decision-making process should be directed to the managing editor editor@constjournal.com.
Corrections, Retractions and Post-publication Debate
If a significant error is detected in an article, our top priority is to fairly investigate and rectify the situation. We will take appropriate action, either by issuing a correction notice or retracting the article, depending on the nature and severity of the error. Our approach adheres to the retraction guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and we utilize the EASE Standard Retraction Form.
According to the COPE Guidelines for Retraction of Articles, articles may be retracted due to unreliable findings, over-publication, or unethical research behaviour, such as plagiarism. The EASE Retraction Form is used for the retraction procedure, which is applied after careful consideration of appeals from editors, authors, or readers. If any of the above reasons are found in the appeal, a retraction statement will be attached to the PDF file of the article. In cases where there is evidence of misconduct or unreliable findings, but no investigation is planned or conducted, a statement of concern may be published on the journal’s website.
If authors disagree with a decision to retract an article and believe that retraction is unwarranted, they have the option to appeal to the Co-editor-in-chief. The Co-editor-in-chief, who was not involved in the publication of the article, will review appeals.
Articles that undergo the appeal process may undergo further review. However, it is important to note that the decision reached at the end of the appeal process is considered final. We welcome alternative and peaceful resolution of any disputes arising from the publisher, editors and authors’ communication.
UJCL encourages constructive discussion and criticism of published articles, while any changes in the text must be agreed with the authors. Minor corrections (such as typos, and grammatical or technical errors) that do not affect the content of the published material may be made without such approval.
Minor errors can be corrected by publishing a corrigendum, while major errors require a separate publication with its own DOI. The Managing Editor makes the decision to publish corrections.
In case of any full or partial disagreement of the author with this decision, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at editor@constjournal.com.
Allegations of Research Misconduct
The Editorial team takes very seriously any allegations of research, publication, and review misconduct whether before or after publication.
If cases of academic dishonesty, such as academic plagiarism or fabrication, are identified, they should be immediately reported to the Managing Editor, who will ensure that the appropriate procedure is carried out for proper investigation and that an appropriate decision is made based on its results.
The process of investigating alleged violations involves various parties, including reviewers, department heads, and editors. Persons accused of violating academic integrity are guaranteed the right to familiarize themselves with the content of the accusation, and available evidence of the violation, and to provide appropriate explanations. Proof of a violation will result in a refusal to publish an article, deprivation of the editor or reviewer of the right to participate in editorial work, or a ban on the author’s publication in the journal. In addition, such cases, if proven, are reported to the administration of the author’s affiliated institution.
Complaints
We care about our reputation and strive to maintain the highest standards of publishing. Therefore, we will be grateful for any feedback from the editorial staff that will help us eliminate shortcomings and improve our activities.
In case of claims or complaints against the journal, its staff, editorial board or the publisher, please contact the chief co-editors at editor@constjournal.com.
We ensure that all such incidents will be properly investigated and appropriate action will be taken.
The procedure for such an investigation is organized by the managing editor, involving the necessary resources and persons to establish the truth. However, if the complaint concerns the activities of the Managing Editor, the investigation is organized by the Chief Co-Editor.
The results of the inspection, the persons involved (if they agree) and the materials examined shall be communicated to the complainant within a reasonable time.
Commitment to Sustainable Development
UJCL strongly supports sustainable development and takes measures to support it, in particular, we encourage the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Approach, promoting environmental Education and Awareness, and resource utilization as per carrying capacity.
We support the idea of a joint blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet and follow the strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth.
EDI policy statement
Equality, diversity, and inclusion require a strong commitment and concerted action to build an inclusive environment where opportunities are open to all, diversity is valued, and where everybody can reach their full potential without fear of harassment, prejudice or discrimination.
UJCL team follows from the commonly recognised values of equality, diversity, and inclusion and believes that no discrimination should take place within academic activities and scholarly publishing. We implement these rules in our everyday work including equal proportions of people of different ethnicities and genders among our authors and reviewers, as well as ensuring the representation of people with disabilities in our Journal community.