LSU publications are prepared and published in accordance with the ethical standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of the Republic of Lithuania, other relevant legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania, and the best practices of Lithuanian and foreign academic publishers.
The decision to accept or reject a publication shall be based on the relevance, originality, validity, ethics, compliance with the structure of the publication type, and other aspects specific to individual cases. If the author believes that the decision to reject their publication was incorrect, he or she may appeal against that decision. However, if the publication is rejected for publication at the University’s expense, the author may submit a separate application requesting publication at his or her own expense or using other financial support.
Authors are required to submit valuable, previously unpublished works for publication. By submitting their work, authors confirm that they understand that plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and may result in appropriate action being taken in accordance with the University’s Code of Academic Ethics. The plagiarism detection software iThenticate is further used to examine the accepted manuscripts.
The peer-reviewers of the accepted publication are approved by the Publishing Committee in accordance with the principles of professionalism, academic integrity, and ethical standards, as well as considering the content and purpose of the publication. Peer-reviewers who receive a request to review a publication must respond promptly to indicate whether they agree to do so, and if they agree, they must follow the review instructions and submit their review on time or immediately notify the Committee of any possible delay and the reasons for it. Peer-reviewers shall only agree to review those works whose subject matter corresponds to their competence and with whose authors there is no conflict of interest. In accordance with the academic ethics, the peer-reviewers shall submit a constructive review in writing within the specified time limit, describing their comments on the completeness, appropriateness, accuracy, and relevance of the content of the publication, with clear references to the parts that should be corrected. If the peer-reviewers notice any cases of dishonest citation or plagiarism, the use of previously published texts without attribution, or the fabrication or falsification of research data, they are asked to note this in their review.
Authors, considering the comments of the peer-reviewers and language editors, must revise their work within the specified time or provide an explanation as to why the comments of the peer-reviewers and language editors have not been followed up on.
The University is a member of the Association of Lithuanian Serials (Lit. LMPA). Membership in the LMPA entitles you to use Crossref’s services, such as registering a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and using the text-matching service. The person responsible for the publishing process, upon receiving an accepted manuscript, implements the policy for plagiarism check. The publication may be checked again using the plagiarism detection programme after the editing process.
If dishonest behaviour is detected (i.e. plagiarism, data falsification, breach of confidentiality, etc.), the author who submitted the publication is contacted. If dishonest behaviour is confirmed, the manuscript shall be sent back for corrections or rejected, depending on the extent of the violation.
Use of generative artificial intelligence tools. In accordance with LSU Guidelines for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Tools (in Lithuanian language), a GenAI tool cannot assume responsibility for the authorship of a work. The author who used the GenAI tool is responsible for the work’s compliance with all legal and ethical principles. Any use of GenAI tools must be transparently disclosed in the work, based on the Guidelines.
The University ensures the confidentiality of the publications by not disclosing the manuscripts received to persons not involved in the review, preparation, and other publishing processes. Manuscripts disclosed to persons involved in the publishing process are considered confidential documents.