Publication Ethics

The Editorial Office of TERRA ORTHOPAEDICA is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing.

The journal follows the core principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

All participants in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to act in accordance with ethical standards and to prevent any form of research or publication misconduct.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, and reliability of the data presented in their manuscripts.

By submitting a manuscript to TERRA ORTHOPAEDICA, authors confirm that:

the manuscript is original and has not been published previously;
the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal;
all authors have made a significant contribution to the research and/or preparation of the manuscript;
all individuals who made a significant contribution are properly listed as authors or acknowledged;
all sources of funding are disclosed;
all actual or potential conflicts of interest are disclosed;
the manuscript does not contain plagiarism, fabricated data, falsified data, image manipulation, or other forms of research misconduct;
all necessary ethical approvals and informed consent requirements have been met, where applicable.

Authors must ensure that research involving human participants, human biological material, or medical records complies with the ethical principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Where required, authors must provide information about approval by an institutional ethics committee or bioethics commission, including the name of the committee, approval number, and date.

Research involving animals must comply with international and national standards for the humane treatment of laboratory animals, including the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. 8th Edition, as well as applicable Ukrainian regulations.

Plagiarism, Duplicate Publication, and Research Misconduct

The following practices are considered unacceptable:

plagiarism, including the use of another person’s text, ideas, images, data, or results without proper attribution;
self-plagiarism or redundant publication without proper disclosure;
duplicate submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal;
fabrication or falsification of data;
inappropriate manipulation of images, figures, or research materials;
fragmentation of research results into several separate publications without scientific justification;
incorrect attribution of authorship;
concealment of conflicts of interest;
misrepresentation of funding sources, ethical approval, or research methods.

If plagiarism, duplicate publication, falsification, fabrication, unethical research practices, or other forms of misconduct are suspected, the Editorial Office will investigate the case in accordance with COPE recommendations. Depending on the outcome, the manuscript may be rejected, corrected, retracted, or subject to other appropriate editorial action.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, transparent, and unbiased editorial process.

Editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific quality, originality, relevance, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, and peer-review results of the submitted manuscript.

Editors must not discriminate against authors on the basis of nationality, institutional affiliation, academic status, gender, political views, religion, or other non-scientific factors.

Editors must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not use unpublished materials for personal advantage or disclose them to third parties except those involved in the editorial and peer-review process.

Editors must declare any conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where such conflicts exist.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, timely, and confidential assessments of manuscripts.

Reviewers should evaluate the scientific quality, originality, methodology, ethical compliance, clarity, relevance, and contribution of the manuscript to the field of orthopaedics and traumatology.

Reviewers must decline the review if:

the manuscript is outside their area of expertise;
they have a conflict of interest;
they cannot provide the review within the required timeframe;
they cannot provide an objective assessment.

Reviewers must not use information, data, ideas, or conclusions obtained during peer review for personal benefit or disclose them to third parties.

If reviewers suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification, authorship misconduct, ethical violations, or other forms of misconduct, they must inform the Editorial Office and provide relevant evidence or references where possible.

The standard peer-review period is defined in the journal’s Peer-review Process policy.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest that could influence the objectivity, integrity, or interpretation of the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest may include financial, institutional, professional, personal, academic, or other relationships that could affect the publication process.

The existence of a conflict of interest does not necessarily prevent publication, but it must be clearly disclosed and appropriately managed.

Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Actions

The Editorial Office is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.

If errors, inaccuracies, ethical concerns, or evidence of misconduct are identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other editorial notice, depending on the nature and severity of the issue.

Corrections and retractions are handled in accordance with COPE recommendations and are published in a transparent manner.

Open Access, Copyright, and Licensing

TERRA ORTHOPAEDICA is an open access journal.

Authors retain copyright of their published articles. All articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Reuse of published materials is permitted without additional permission, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s), article title, journal, and source of publication, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.