Cunoașterea Științifică seeks to publish relevant, original, and rigorous academic works within an editorial framework based on independence, impartiality, transparency, confidentiality, and respect for the principles of research and publication ethics.

This editorial policy applies to authors, editors, members of the scientific and editorial structures, reviewers, and all other persons involved in the publication process.

The journal follows the principles and good practices promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and other recognized standards of academic publishing. The application of these principles is intended to protect the integrity of the scholarly record and ensure a fair and transparent editorial process.

1. Editorial Independence

Decisions regarding the evaluation, acceptance, or rejection of manuscripts are made exclusively on academic and editorial grounds.

The following factors are not taken into consideration when making editorial decisions:

  • the author’s ability to pay the publication fee;
  • the publisher’s commercial or financial interests;
  • the author’s professional or institutional status;
  • age, sex, origin, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics;
  • the author’s political, philosophical, or religious views, except where such views form a relevant academic subject of the work.

Editors and the publisher must not allow commercial, personal, or institutional interests to influence the outcome of the evaluation process.

The EUR 10 publication fee is requested only after final acceptance of the article and does not influence the editorial or peer-review process.

2. Editorial Responsibility

Editors are responsible for:

  • the preliminary assessment of manuscripts;
  • determining whether submissions are compatible with the aims and scope of the journal;
  • selecting competent and independent reviewers;
  • ensuring the proper and confidential administration of peer review;
  • managing competing interests;
  • examining possible concerns regarding research or publication misconduct;
  • making the final editorial decision;
  • correcting the published scholarly record where necessary.

Editorial decisions should be based on the quality and relevance of the work, reviewer reports, and the editor’s own assessment.

Reviewer recommendations are advisory. Responsibility for the final decision rests with the Editorial Board.

3. Initial Editorial Screening

Each manuscript undergoes preliminary editorial screening before being sent for peer review.

The following may be assessed:

  • compatibility with the journal’s aims and scope;
  • the academic nature of the manuscript;
  • the originality and relevance of the contribution;
  • the general structure and quality of the work;
  • completeness of metadata;
  • compliance with the author guidelines;
  • possible ethical concerns;
  • significant overlap with previously published material.

Manuscripts that do not meet the minimum requirements or fall outside the scope of the journal may be rejected editorially without external review.

4. Peer Review

Eligible manuscripts normally undergo double-anonymous peer review.

Authors’ identities are not disclosed to reviewers, and reviewers’ identities are not disclosed to authors.

Reviewers are selected on the basis of relevant expertise, independence, and the absence of competing interests.

Authors may suggest reviewers, but the Editorial Board is not required to use the suggested individuals.

Detailed rules concerning reviewer selection, confidentiality, timelines, evaluation, and decisions are presented on the Peer Review Process page.

5. Confidentiality

Manuscripts under evaluation and associated information are confidential.

Editors and reviewers must not:

  • disclose manuscript content to unauthorized persons;
  • use unpublished information, ideas, or data for personal benefit;
  • distribute documents outside the editorial process;
  • use manuscripts for other purposes without appropriate authorization.

The duty of confidentiality continues after completion of the editorial process.

Personal data are handled in accordance with the journal’s privacy policy and applicable data protection legislation.

6. Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived competing interest that could influence the editorial process.

Competing interests may be:

  • financial;
  • professional;
  • academic;
  • institutional;
  • personal.

Authors must disclose funding sources and any relationships relevant to the interpretation of the research.

Reviewers should decline an assignment where a conflict may compromise their impartiality.

Editors directly involved in a manuscript or affected by a competing interest should transfer editorial responsibility to another qualified person whenever possible.

The existence of a competing interest does not automatically result in rejection of a manuscript; what matters is transparent disclosure and appropriate management.

7. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship must reflect a genuine intellectual contribution to the work.

Authors should have made a relevant contribution to one or more of the following activities:

  • conception of the research;
  • methodology or conduct of the research;
  • analysis or interpretation of results;
  • drafting or substantial revision of the manuscript.

All authors must approve the version submitted for publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for confirming the agreement of all co-authors and for communicating with the journal.

The order of authors is determined by the authors themselves.

Individuals who contributed to the work without meeting the criteria for authorship may be acknowledged in an acknowledgements section or in a contributorship statement.

Honorary authorship, fictitious authorship, or intentional omission of significant contributors is not accepted. (Publication Ethics)

8. Originality and Redundant Publication

Manuscripts must represent original contributions.

Authors must not present the ideas, data, text, or results of others as their own without appropriate citation and attribution.

The following are not accepted:

  • plagiarism;
  • data fabrication or falsification;
  • manipulation of results;
  • redundant or duplicate publication without justification and transparency;
  • inappropriate appropriation of the contributions of others.

If a version of the work has previously been published or made publicly available as a preprint, report, thesis, conference paper, translation, or in another relevant form, the author must inform the Editorial Board.

Further details are provided on the Plagiarism Policy page and in the author guidelines.

9. Citations and Citation Manipulation

Citations must be relevant to the content and argument of the work.

Authors must not include references for the purpose of artificially increasing their own citation metrics, those of other authors, or those of a journal.

Editors and reviewers must not make acceptance conditional on the inclusion of irrelevant citations.

Reviewers may suggest additional references only where they are genuinely relevant to improving the manuscript.

10. Research Data and Reproducibility

Authors should present research information and data clearly enough to allow evaluation of the methodology and conclusions, insofar as the nature of the discipline permits.

Where relevant, authors must provide a Data Availability Statement.

The Editorial Board may request clarification or access to data necessary to assess aspects of the manuscript, subject to confidentiality, data protection, ethical, and intellectual property requirements.

The journal encourages responsible preservation and sharing of research data where this is compatible with the nature of the research and applicable legal and ethical obligations. (Publication Ethics)

11. Research Involving Humans, Animals, or Sensitive Data

Authors are responsible for complying with the ethical and legal requirements applicable to their research.

Where research involves human participants, personal data, vulnerable populations, animals, or other areas subject to ethical approval, authors must obtain the required approvals, consent, and authorizations.

The Editorial Board may request relevant information or documentation to confirm compliance with these requirements.

Confidential data and information that could identify individuals must be handled in accordance with applicable law and ethical principles.

12. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, originality, citations, and interpretations contained in the manuscript.

Substantial use of generative artificial intelligence tools in writing, analysis, data generation or processing, image creation, or other components of the research must be transparently disclosed.

Use limited to minor spelling, grammar, language, or stylistic corrections may be exempt from disclosure where it does not substantially alter the intellectual content of the work.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts to public artificial intelligence systems that may store, reuse, or process the content for other purposes.

13. Research and Publication Misconduct

The journal takes seriously any suspicion or allegation concerning:

  • plagiarism;
  • fabrication or falsification of data;
  • manipulation of images or results;
  • inappropriate authorship;
  • redundant publication;
  • citation manipulation;
  • undisclosed competing interests;
  • breaches of confidentiality;
  • other forms of academic misconduct.

Concerns may be investigated both before and after publication.

Where necessary, the editorial process may be suspended while the matter is investigated.

Authors or other persons involved will be given an opportunity to explain the situation and provide relevant information.

Where justified, the journal may contact institutions or other appropriate bodies in order to clarify a matter. (Publication Ethics)

14. Corrections, Withdrawals, and Retractions

Editorial responsibility does not end when an article is published.

If an error or significant concern is identified after publication, the journal may publish, depending on the nature of the case:

  • a correction;
  • a clarification;
  • an editorial notice;
  • a withdrawal;
  • a retraction.

The status and history of the publication should remain as transparent as possible, and DOI and bibliographic records will be updated where necessary.

Retraction should not be used for minor errors that do not affect the validity of the work.

The journal seeks to preserve the integrity and traceability of the published scholarly record. (Publication Ethics)

15. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, or other persons may submit complaints or concerns regarding the editorial process, the conduct of individuals involved, or published content.

Authors may request reconsideration of an editorial decision where they believe that it was based on a factual or procedural error or an inappropriate interpretation.

An appeal must be reasoned and provide specific grounds.

An appeal does not guarantee that the decision will be changed.

Where possible, complaints and appeals are reviewed by a person who was not directly involved in the contested decision. (Publication Ethics)

16. Copyright and Licensing

Authors retain copyright in their published works and grant the journal a non-exclusive right of first publication.

Articles published under the journal’s current editorial policy are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Detailed conditions are available on the Copyright page.

17. Open Access and Self-Archiving

The journal provides immediate open access to published articles, without reader fees and without an embargo period.

Authors may deposit the preprint, accepted manuscript, and published version in accordance with the journal’s policy.

Further details are available on the Open Access and Repository and Self-Archiving Policy pages.

18. Publication Fees

The journal does not charge fees for:

  • manuscript submission;
  • editorial evaluation;
  • peer review;
  • manuscript revision;
  • reader access to published articles.

A EUR 10 publication fee is charged for each article definitively accepted for publication and is requested only after final acceptance.

The fee contributes partially to the journal’s technical and editorial costs and does not influence the publication decision in any way.

All accepted academic articles receive a DOI, with no separate DOI fee.

Further details are available on the Publishing Costs page.

19. Authors’ Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for:

  • the accuracy and authenticity of the content;
  • the correctness of data and interpretations;
  • compliance with copyright and third-party rights;
  • proper citation of sources;
  • disclosure of funding and competing interests;
  • compliance with ethical requirements;
  • obtaining any necessary permissions and approvals.

Publication of an article does not imply that the publisher, editors, members of the Editorial Board, or reviewers endorse all views expressed by the authors.

20. Manuscripts Submitted by Editors and Members of the Journal’s Structures

Editors, Editorial Board members, and Scientific Advisory Board members may submit manuscripts for publication in the journal. Such manuscripts are subject to the same editorial criteria and peer-review process as all other submissions. Any person who is an author or co-author of the manuscript is fully excluded from its editorial handling, reviewer selection, and editorial decision. The manuscript is assigned to an independent editor with no competing interest, who is responsible for the entire editorial process.

21. Responsibilities of the Publisher and the Journal

MultiMedia Publishing and the Editorial Board of Cunoașterea Științifică seek to maintain the infrastructure necessary for a transparent, independent, and documented editorial process.

The journal seeks to:

  • preserve the integrity of the scholarly archive;
  • maintain metadata and DOI records;
  • ensure open access to published content;
  • protect the confidentiality of manuscripts;
  • document editorial processes through OJS;
  • continuously improve publishing standards.

22. Application of this Policy

This policy applies to editorial processes conducted under the journal’s current rules.

The policy may be updated to reflect changes in academic standards, legislation, technical infrastructure, or internationally recognized good practices.

Significant changes will be published transparently on the journal website.