Security and Defence Quarterly is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adheres to a strict code of practice to maintain a high standard of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process and to ensure that malpractice is dealt with in a timely and responsible manner. The journal’s code of practice is in line with guidelines made available by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is overseen by the journal’s Editorial Board.

How to raise a concern
Anyone who is convinced that research published by Security and Defence Quarterly has not been carried out in line with the principles see here specified by COPE should raise their concerns with the relevant Editor,
Editor-in-Chief: Dorota Domalewska d.domalewska@akademia.mil.pl
Associate Editor: Małgorzata Gawlik-Kobylińska m.kobylinska@akademia.mil.pl
Managing Editor: Przemysław Gasztold p.gasztold@akademia.mil.pl
Managing Editor: Joanna Przybylak j.przybylak@akademia.mil.pl
Managing Editor: Alexander Kravcov kravtale@fsv.cvut.cz
Any concern reported to any Editor is directed to the Editor-in-Chief and then resolved without undue delay.

The standards of proper ethical behaviour apply to all parties involved in the act of publishing: authors, editors, peer reviewers and the publisher.

Submission
Submitted papers should not be considered for publication elsewhere, published in any language, and should not be subject to any prior agreement or encumbrance. They should rely on a significant amount of new material and present an original view on scientific issues. In addition, authors should confirm that all the presented data and obtained results are their own, real, and authentic; that the work has not been copied or plagiarised, in whole or in part, from other works; and that they have disclosed actual or potential conflicts of interest with their work or partial benefits associated with it.

Submissions to SDQ proceed totally online here. The system converts uploaded files to a single PDF file, which is used in the peer-review process. All submissions are subject to a double-blind peer review process.

To verify originality and ethical conduct, all manuscripts are routinely checked by the plagiarism detection software SimilarityCheck by iThenticate.

Authors should be aware of the fact that presenting defamatory or confidential material, infringement of proprietary rights, state secrets, violation of the right of privacy or publicity of any third party or any other applicable law, will result in the rejection of a manuscript.

Authors submitting manuscripts for publication warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright, infringement of proprietary rights, invasion of privacy, or libel and will indemnify, defend, and hold the journal harmless from any damages, expenses, and costs against any breach of such warranty.

Negative research results are not excluded.

Authors are encouraged to provide detailed descriptions of their methodologies to ensure that experiments or studies can be replicated accurately by other researchers.

All authors of the papers are responsible for the content, they should provide a list of references, acknowledgments, and financial support, if relevant.

All authors should report a contribution to the research.

Authorship is limited to those who have made a substantial contribution to the manuscript. Those who fail to meet this criterion should be acknowledged. Authors are responsible for ensuring that anyone named in the acknowledgments agrees to be so named.

All manuscripts are professionally proofread and edited before publication. Editors reserve the right to edit and abridge papers during the editing process. SDQ reserve the right to reject a paper even after it has been accepted if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems with its scientific content or violations of SDQ publishing policies.

No responsibility for the views expressed by the authors in this journal is assumed by War Studies University, by the editors, or by SDQ.

Review process participation & paper revision
When a manuscript is prepared according to the SDQ guidelines here, editors send the paper to at least two reviewers via the Editorial System. In other cases, the Author is asked to adjust a manuscript according to the editor’s comments (the paper is sent for adjustments).

Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and provide retractions or corrections of mistakes during this process. They return a revised version of the previously submitted article.

The corresponding author should be given the authority to act on behalf of all authors in all matters pertaining to publication and guarantees that the article has been approved by all the other authors.

Authors of criticised material are given the opportunity to respond. They can use the Editorial System (while asking for adjustments and corrections, they can list changes or leave their statements - in both cases with justifications) or direct an e-mail to a relevant editor.

References, acknowledgment and conflicts of interest
All publications used during the preparation of a paper should be included in the Reference list and in-text (as in-text citations). Cited works should make a substantial input to the paper’s novelty and originality. The acknowledgment concerning contributors with a determined field and scope must always be pointed out in a suitable manner in the submitted manuscript. The authors should disclose any financial or other support in order to preclude conflict of interest. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

Human or animal subjects
In relation to procedures with human or animal subjects, authors must include in the manuscript a clear statement that all procedures were conducted in compliance with relevant international, national, local and institutional laws and requirements. In addition, authors must confirm that approval has been sought and obtained. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be analysed and traced for update.

Scientific misconduct
As Security and Defence Quarterly is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics, it takes all possible measures against publication malpractice.

Scientific misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, ghostwriting, giftwriting, guest authorship, and other forms of violation of generally accepted research practices. If scientific misconduct is suspected, the editors can reject or retract the manuscript, alert editors of other journals or inform the author’s funding institution or other authority for investigation. The journal editors are willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication. An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.

Text-recycling, paraphrasing, substantial copying, literal copying. To avoid such situations, authors are requested to pay careful attention to quotation marks, using references when any borrowed idea or concept is discussed.

Salami-slicing: breaking one study for two or more publication. Fragmented data should disclose this information, and each paper involving part of the data should be encompassed with a separate methodology.

Simultaneous submission, text recycling, & translations of a paper published in another language. Author/s have to declare that they have submitted a manuscript to only one journal. Text recycling (using the same data - for example two manuscripts written from a different angle) requires a reference (citations, quotations) to a previously published paper. The journal decides on the publishing of such a paper when the author/s disclose details of related papers in a different language and any existing translations.

Figures and images which are not original should be provided with a relevant source. Using such elements should not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original. Any changes to borrowed images need the author to declare where manipulations have been made. If any images of third parties are used, the author should get the written consent of a person(s) who has/have the copyrights. Written permission(s) as a separate file/files must be attached to the manuscript submission. To check for any potential manipulation, the images will be analysed to reveal inconsistencies in the pattern of the background pixilation. Any fraudulent manipulation will result in the paper being rejected.

AI use
Authors must clearly disclose any use of AI tools in their manuscript, explaining how these technologies contributed to the writing process. This disclosure should be included in the manuscript’s Methods or Acknowledgments section. AI tools cannot be credited as authors. Authorship requires accountability, which only human authors can fulfill. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and originality of their work, including content generated with AI. AI should not replace critical tasks such as forming scientific conclusions. AI-generated content must not violate SDQ’s plagiarism policy. All sources and ideas must be properly cited. The use of AI to create or alter images and figures is not allowed, except when it is part of the research methodology and fully documented in the manuscript.

Research Data Sharing Policies
Security & Defence Quarterly is committed to supporting open scientific exchange. We encourage all authors of articles published in SDQ to deposit their research data in a relevant data repository and cite this dataset in their article. Where ethical, legal or privacy issues are present, data should not be shared.

Supplementary Materials
Additional data and files can be uploaded as "Supplementary Files" during the manuscript submission process. The supplementary files will also be available to the referees as part of the peer-review process.

Copyrights

For the articles published in SDQ, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work, while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.
In exceptional circumstances articles may be licensed differently. If you have specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

The Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 see here formalises these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.

Reproducing published material from other publishers
It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgment to be followed; otherwise, follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.

SDQ does not charge authors an open access publication fee.

Fundamental errors in submitted or published articles
If a significant error or inaccuracy is reported in a submitted or published article, the author is obliged to promptly notify the Editor and to cooperate while retracting or correcting the paper, and to publish an erratum, addendum, or corrigendum note. An editor notifies the Editor-in-Chief who directs the whole process. In other cases when an editor finds an error, the author is obliged to correct or provide evidence of correctness to the editor.

The peer-review process
Editors work in the Editorial System, which ensures that material submitted to Security and Defence Quarterly remains confidential while under review. Editors reserve the right to make necessary corrections to the manuscript, including editorial changes and stylistic errors.

Editors do not exclude papers with negative research results.

Encouraging academic integrity
To fulfill COPE guidelines, editors ensure that the research material they publish conforms to internationally accepted ethical guidelines. They seek assurances that all research has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board). However, such approval does not guarantee that the research is ethical. In this case, authors are asked for further explanations. A versatile analysis aided by external experts, which proves violation of ethical guidelines, results in rejection.

Protecting individual data
The journal has a double double-blind peer-review policy. The editors treat submitted papers as confidential. Their decisions about paper acceptance are based only on the paper’s importance, originality, and clarity, and the study’s relevance to the remit of the journal. In the case of publishing personal or vulnerable data, editors obtain from authors written informed consent from the research participants (e.g. patients), which should be described in case reports and for photographs of persons. It may be possible to publish without explicit consent if the report is important to public health (or is in some other way important); consent would be unusually burdensome to obtain; and a reasonable individual would be unlikely to object to publication (all three conditions must be met).

Monitoring of publishing ethics
The monitoring of publishing ethics, as a major aspect of the editorial and peer-review process, will be realised through sharing the information among members of the Editorial Board regarding possible misconduct. The monitoring process is aligned with Guidelines on Good Publication Practice see here
as well as the COPE Code of Conduct see here

Pursuing misconduct
Editors act if they suspect misconduct in both published and unpublished papers. As ethically obliged to pursue alleged cases, editors first seek a response from those accused and second, they ask the relevant employer or appropriate body to investigate.
While pursuing misconduct, editors act in line with the COPE flowcharts where applicable.

Editors deal with potential authorship disputes, if someone’s name is included against his/her wishes or an author’s name is omitted by accident, if the other authors agree, then the journal may publish a correction.

Cases for retraction
Retraction of a publication made by the editors may concern cases such as the findings are unreliable (either as a result of major error, data fabrication, or falsification), plagiarism, publishing findings in a different journal without it being disclosed, lack of authorisation for data use, infringement of copyright, unethical research, publication solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process, and failures in disclosing a major competing interest that would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Ensuring the integrity of the academic record
To ensure the integrity of the academic record, after an appropriate investigation, when an item proves to be fraudulent, it is retracted. The retraction will be clearly identifiable to readers and indexing systems.

Editors provide regular audits of their acceptance rates and publication times. Statistics are available in the journal’s Editorial System.

As COPE guidelines indicate, the relationship of editors to publishers and owners is based firmly on the principle of editorial independence. Notwithstanding the economic and political realities of their journals, the editors make decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability for readers, rather than for immediate financial or political gain.

Conflict of interest
Editors have systems for managing their own conflicts of interest as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers, and editorial board members. The systemic tool is the Editorial System in which relevant notes and comments as well as all the process of manuscript review are stored.

Post-publication debate
SDQ allow post-publication debate either on our fanpage or through letters to the editor, encouraging ongoing academic discussion. However, offensive, inappropriate, or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated. All discussions should adhere to professional and respectful standards, promoting constructive and meaningful exchanges of ideas.

Complaints
Editors respond promptly to complaints. Acknowledgment is sent to the complainant with a promise to take appropriate action within three working days. Handling of complaints is directed to the Editor-In-Chief. The decision is sent to a complainant by e-mail and a record is created in the Editorial System. The detailed procedure for handling with complaints is set out in the COPE flowchart [link to flowcharts:
see here].

Process for dealing with complaints against the editors is in compliance with COPE guidelines see here

Resolving complaints and appeals can concern plagiarism, copyright violation, deception in research results or wrong research results, violations of the set standard for research, unrevealed conflicts of interest, bias in the review process, the manuscript processing time is unusually late, unsatisfactory peer-review comments, and authorship. Further information: see here

Reviewer selection and confidentiality
Peer reviewers as external experts chosen by the editors, with the use of a form in the Editorial System, provide written opinions aimed at study improvement. Editors may elicit reviewers regarding the author’s suggestion, but usually, they are selected with regard to the field of interest and their Scopus record. Any manuscript received for review has to be treated by a reviewer as a confidential document. It cannot be shown to or discussed with others.

Reviewing procedure
Manuscripts are checked for plagiarism (or self-plagiarism) by reviewers and if there is evidence that large portions of a paper existed previously, the paper will be rejected. Each paper submitted via the Editorial System is reviewed by two independent reviewers (experts in the field). The corresponding author is informed about the results. A third reviewer is appointed when the first two reviews have quite different statements concerning acceptance. The result of the reviews will be in one of the following forms: accept without changes, minor revision, major revision, reject.
The initial review results are sent to the authors and further steps and time of review are explained. The final decision for publishing will be announced by sending a Form for Acceptance.

Acceptance criteria
The journal criteria for acceptance/rejection of a submitted manuscript are included in the Reviewer’s Report of the Editorial System. The acceptance criteria include: falling between journals; the correspondence of a title and structured abstract with the content; originality; scientific value; clarity and suitability; paper style; general structure of the paper; figures presentation; ethical considerations. Each of these positions is evaluated by using a three-point scale and five-point scale, or yes/no answers in the case of questions on conflict of interest. Each criterion has an open-text gap for an explanation. Quantitative and qualitative analysis is performed in the evaluation of a manuscript. When the quantitative assessment is less than 50% of the maximum value, the reviewer’s conclusion should be rejection.

Standards of reviewers’ behaviour
Reviews should use objective criteria. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

Transparency, confidentiality, and objectivity are required in the peer review process. Full disclosure about a relationship that causes a competing interest should be reported to the journal. Reviewers should provide speedy, accurate, courteous, unbiased, and justifiable reports.

Any points in reviews should be explained and justified.

Editors and reviewers must not use AI to process or analyze unpublished manuscripts to protect confidentiality and intellectual property. Specifically, reviewers must not employ AI or AI-assisted tools, such as ChatGPT, to evaluate submissions or to create peer review reports. The integrity of the peer review process is paramount, and reviewers are solely responsible for the content of their reports. The use of AI technologies for this purpose is considered a violation of peer review confidentiality. Should a review report fail to meet our quality standards, reviewers may be required to revise their reports or the report may be discarded.

Acknowledgement of sources and misconduct
Reviewers should verify that a manuscript has not been previously published (not cited by any other authors). In the event of any violation, if reviewers suspect misconduct, they should write in confidence to the Editor.
They should also make a record in the Editorial System. Doubts not fully expressed will result in the rejection of a manuscript.

Disclosure and conflict of interest
Reviewers and editors should not make any use of the data, arguments, or interpretations unless they have the authors’ permission. Taking personal advantage of using an author’s ideas or research results without written permission is regarded as a serious violation. Reviewers must keep the information confidential. The reviewers also cannot consider manuscripts as in conflict with their own work.

Complaints
In the event of any appeal processes concerning reviewers and the review process, authors may contact the editor via e-mail: sdq@akademia.mil.pl and clarify the reason for writing.

Publication decisions
SDQ welcomes original manuscripts that have not been previously published in any language. The paper should not be subject to any prior agreement or encumbrance and should not be considered for publication elsewhere. The manuscript should not contain any defamatory or confidential material and should not infringe any proprietary rights or state secrets. It also should not violate the right of privacy or publicity of any third party or otherwise violate any other applicable law.

War Studies University as a publisher is responsible for the selection and choice of the submitted manuscripts. This decision is made by the Editorial Board which participates equally in the initial, mid, and final phases of a review process. After the screening, the final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief. The manuscript is assigned to reviewers who cooperate with the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor in the whole process. Apart from review criteria, ethical aspects such as legal requirements, copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other unethical behaviour are taken into account while making a decision on publication.

Evaluation for intellectual content
Security and Defence Quarterly stands against racism and discrimination and fully supports actions concerning inclusion and diversity in publishing. The journal evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content.

Confidentiality
The publisher must keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
The publisher requires from reviewers and editors that unpublished materials not be used for any purpose unless the written consent of the author is provided. The publisher requires that all contributors disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If required, other measures are taken such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations
If there is an ethical issue, the publisher is actively involved in the process of clarification of any malpractice and infringement. The journal contacts the author, informing him/her of the complaint in the process of verification. If relevant, the publisher contacts the relevant institutions and research bodies. The action may result in retraction, correction, expression of concern, or the issuing of a note. Unethical publishing behaviour, even if it is discovered after years, is analysed.

Fees, sources of financing
We do not charge article processing fees. Publication in Security and Defence Quarterly is free of charge for all authors. Access to the content of the journal is also free of charge. The sources of financing for the journal are ministerial programmes and War Studies University subsidies. In 2022-2024 SDQ is co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Education and Science in the framework of the ministerial programme “Development of Scientific Journals” (RCN), on the basis of contract no. RCN/SP/0381/2021/1.
SDQ does not engage in advertising or email marketing. Our funding sources do not influence editorial decisions, ensuring the integrity and academic independence of the publication process.

To ensure permanent access to our publications, a full archival copy of all publications is deposited in electronic format in Portico, the digital preservation service audited by the Centre for Research Libraries. For the purposes of record-keeping, SDQ retains copies of submitted manuscripts and supporting files. However, for articles that are rejected, we will comply with requests from authors to delete files.

All data collected from authors and reviewers is protected against unauthorized access by third parties. We do our utmost to protect privacy through the appropriate use of security technologies and physical safeguards.
While you use our websites, your visits to individual pages will be tracked and recorded in web server log files (“Log Data”). Log Data may be used by SDQ for statistical purposes, to recognize patterns of usage of the websites, and to improve the structure and content presentation. The usage information we collect (using HTTP Cookies) includes referring URLs, browser and device characteristics, IP address, operating system, as well as dates and times of website visits.
Via the website, SDQ may offer via its website third-party services, such as article recommendations, social login, and social sharing.
Our website uses Google Analytics to help us collect information about how visitors use our sites. We use this information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to a site, where visitors have navigated to a site from, and the pages they visit whilst on a site.
To view Google’s Privacy Policy, see here.
You can configure your browser to opt out of providing data to Google Analytics by using the browser add-on provided by Google here.
To make use of personalised services, you will have to register a user account with our website. During registration we will ask you to provide some personal information, including, but not limited to, your name, valid e-mail address, affiliation, postal address, phone number, password, academic degree, position within your institution or organization, and your research interests. Some of this information is required to properly set up the user account. SDQ may use this information to fulfil our contract with you (e.g. the publication of your article). Furthermore, SDQ may also use this information internally, e.g., to evaluate and improve our business, respond to any questions, requests, or comments you make, for targeted marketing purposes, or identify and prevent fraud, claims, or other liabilities. SDQ may contact you by e-mail to draw your attention to content that might be of interest to you (e.g. new services, products, or publications). You will have the chance to opt out of receiving such e-mails by unsubscribing or contacting SDQ Support at sdq@akademia.mil.pl.
As a registered user, you can access your account at any time and make corrections or updates. In accordance with existing data privacy law, you may request the information that SDQ holds or processes about you. On request, we will also provide you with a copy of all personal information that we possess about you. We will delete this personal information when you request to deactivate your account. However, some personal information may remain in storage for a certain period of time in order to comply with our (legal) obligations and to resolve disputes.
SDQ reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting changes without prior notice. Please check this Privacy Policy periodically for any modifications. Your continued use of any service following the posting of any changes will mean that you have accepted and agreed to the changes.
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at sdq@akademia.mil.pl.
In accordance with art. 13 of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), SDQ states that:

1. The Publisher, War Studies University, at al. Gen. A. Chrusciela 103, 00-910 Warsaw is the administrator of your personal data.
2. The Data Protection Supervisor at War Studies University can be contacted at iod@akademia.mil.pl.
3. Your personal data will be processed in line with the requirements for manuscript publication or manuscript review
4. Personal data will be stored for the period necessary to achieve the above-mentioned purposes and for the period resulting from applicable law.
5. Providing data is voluntary, but necessary to achieve the purposes for which they were collected, i.e. to publish or review the manuscript.
6. The only recipients of personal data will be the entities authorised to obtain personal data on the basis of legal provisions.
7. You have the right to request from the Administrator:
- access to personal data - i.e. the right to receive confirmation from the Administrator whether personal data has been processed;
- the right to rectify data if the data processed by the Administrator is incorrect or incomplete;
- deletion or limitation of processing in accordance with applicable regulations;
- the right to withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal (in relation to the processing of personal data on the basis of consent - Article 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR).
8. You have the right to object to the processing of personal data.
9. Your personal data will not be subject to automated decision-making and will not be profiled.
10. The data subject has the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory body - the President of the Personal Data Protection Office in Warsaw at ul. Stawki 2.