Copyright

Forum Philosophicum is available free of charge online to anyone who accesses its URL. Our journal does not use article processing charges (APCs). Articles published in this journal incur no cost to the author. Authors are welcome and encouraged to self-archive the final published version of their work in institutional and disciplinary repositories of their choosing. Authors of papers that have been accepted will be asked to grant the publisher—i.e. Ignatianum University Press—the royalty-free right to first publication, which means that if they should mention the place of the original publication when re-publishing the papers published earlier in Forum Philosophicum.

Financing

All authors whose research is supported by special sources of financing, such as grants, research programs, etc., are asked to prepare an information note mentioning the support they have received.

Forum Philosophicum does not charge the Author with any expenses for the publication.

Originality

Forum Philosophicum will only accept manuscripts of papers not previously published in, or submitted to and currently under review by, another journal or collection.

The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education requires the editors of all Polish journals which they evaluate to remind authors of certain basic rules of scientific honesty —even though we strongly believe that the authors submitting papers to Forum have no intention whatsoever of breaking those rules, and in spite of the fact that the rules pertaining to joint authorship are rarely applicable to papers submitted to a philosophical journal. Thus, we remind authors that it is not acceptable to submit papers that reflect anything other than original research or reflections conducted by the author himself/herself. Concealing the true authorship of a part of a paper, even if the paper is in itself an original contribution, also constitutes a breach of such rules. Since all papers are reviewed by specialists, those seeking to make a submission should work on the assumption that all instances of such plagiarism or ghostwriting will be detected. For jointly authored papers, a clear indication must be given in the paper itself of the manner and extent of each and every author’s contribution. Papers with so-called “guest authors,” whose contribution to the thesis of the paper is actually minimal, cannot be accepted. All cases of academic dishonesty, if detected, will be reported to the organisations with which the authors are affiliated.

Ethical issues: plagiarism and redundant publication

By plagiarism, we understand a situation when an author presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were his/her own and without proper acknowledgement. Plagiarism constitutes unethical scholarly behaviour and is never acceptable. Therefore, a proper acknowledgement of the work of others used in a research project must always be given. See the COPE’s policies on plagiarism (suspected both in submitted and published work), which are implemented in our journal.

By redundant publication, we understand a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgement of the source/cross-referencing/justification,
or
the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before. See the COPE’s policies on redundant publication (suspected in both submitted and published work), which are implemented in our journal.

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the research study. All those who have made significant contributions should be offered the opportunity to be listed as authors. Other individuals who have contributed to the study should be acknowledged, but not identified as authors. All authors should provide upon submission of the article their affiliation(s) to institutions at the time the research that is reported was conducted and/or written up.

All collaborators share some degree of responsibility for any paper they co-author. Every co-author should have the opportunity to review the manuscript before it is submitted for publication. Any individual unwilling or unable to accept appropriate responsibility for a paper should not be a co-author.

It is unethical for an author to publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently is unethical and unacceptable.

When an error is discovered in a published work, it is the obligation of all authors to promptly notify the publisher and discuss appropriate action (such as a retraction or erratum).

Authors' Contributions

To ensure transparency in the collaborative process of philosophical scholarship, authors are required to include a brief statement of individual contributions at the end of each paper. This statement should follow the format below and reflect the specific stages of work undertaken by each author. Appendix to be included at the end of the paper, before the bibliography:

• Authors’ Contributions:
Author1: [List specific contributions]
Author2: [List specific contributions]

Possible stages of preparing a philosophical (non-empirical) paper:
• Conceptualisation – Identifying the central philosophical problem; determining scope and aims of the paper.
• Literature Review – Locating relevant philosophical sources; synthesising prior arguments and debates.
• Argument Development – Constructing original arguments or positions; responding to opposing views.
• Drafting (main sections) – Writing key parts of the paper (introduction, body, conclusion); incorporating
philosophical terminology and citations.
• Revisions and Objections – Critically reviewing the draft; addressing counterarguments; restructuring for
clarity or coherence.
• Formatting and Citations – Adapting paper to the journal style; verifying accuracy of citations and references.
• Peer Review and Responses – Managing communication with the journal; revising in response to reviews.
• Final Proofreading – Polishing grammar, style, and consistency; approving final manuscript version.

Authors should only list those stages in which they made a meaningful intellectual contribution. All authors listed on the manuscript must approve the final version and agree with the stated contributions.

Conflict of interest

Our journal follows COPE guidelines and core practices to safeguard the ethical standards in publishing and to act appropriately whenever their breach is suspected. We emphasize that It is every author’s, contributor’s, reviewer’s, and editor’s responsibility to identify, prevent and deal with any signs of publication misconduct. 

All parties involved in the process of publication, such as authors, co-authors, reviewers, and editors are held to disclose interests that might prevent or be perceived as preventing their contribution, either in presenting the work, or in assessing it, from being objective and impartial. Competing interests as well any associations which may be considered by others as a competing interest, either financial or non-financial in nature, should be disclosed immediately to allow appropriate publication decisions to be taken and in the case when the submission is accepted, to offer readers the opportunity to form their own judgments regarding a potential bias.

Editors are forbidden to act as reviewers for the submitted papers. Editors are allowed to submit their own research to the journal, but they are required to take extra precautions not to exploit their position or to create an impression of impropriety. Our journal has a procedure for handling submissions from editors or members of the editorial board that ensures that the peer review is handled independently of the author/editor. In such cases the submission is handled directly by the editor-in-chief (or the appointed person), who conducts the peer-review process out of the journal management system by sending documents with reviewer forms directly to the reviewers. Once the review is made, the review is sent to the author/editor and to the editor-in-chief. In this way, the editor, who submitted the paper, cannot know who reviews (or has reviewed in the past) his or her article.

Regarding peer-reviewers and their identity, and the conflict of interests between reviewers, editors, and authors, the journal follows COPE guideline. Authors are obliged to disclose the potential ocnflict of interests when submitting the paper.