AIMS AND SCOPE

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD: Template SCSB 2026.docx. The document should be used as template.

1. PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

STUDII ȘI CERCETĂRI ȘTIINȚIFICE. BIOLOGIE / SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND RESEARCH. BIOLOGY is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record. The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and expects all participants in the publication process to comply with the principles outlined below. The journal's Review Process, Open Access Policy, Licensing Policy, Copyright Statement, Digital Archiving Policy, and Correction and Retraction Policy are published separately and form an integral part of the journal's publication ethics framework.

Responsibilities of Authors
Authors are expected to:
- submit only original work that has not been published previously or submitted simultaneously to another journal;
- ensure that all listed authors have made a significant scholarly contribution to the work and have approved the submitted manuscript;
- provide access to supporting research data where appropriate and in accordance with ethical and legal requirements;
- present research results accurately and refrain from fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or inappropriate image manipulation;
- disclose all sources of research funding and any potential conflicts of interest;
- disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools or AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of the manuscript, where applicable; authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity and ethical compliance of the submitted work; AI tools cannot be listed as authors or take responsibility for the content of the manuscript;
- comply with applicable standards for research involving biological materials, genetic resources, and field studies, including obtaining required permits and ethical approvals where applicable;
- ensure that research involving humans or animals has been conducted in accordance with applicable ethical standards and has received the necessary approvals;
- promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief if a significant error is identified in a published article and cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction when required.

Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers are expected to:
- provide constructive, objective and timely evaluations;
- maintain the confidentiality of all manuscripts received for review;
- declare any conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality and decline the review where appropriate;
- alert the Editor-in-Chief to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, image manipulation, or other forms of research misconduct.

Responsibilities of Editors
Editors are responsible for:
- making editorial decisions based solely on the scientific merit, originality and relevance of submitted manuscripts;
- ensuring a fair, impartial and confidential editorial process;
- avoiding conflicts of interest in editorial decision-making;
- addressing allegations of research or publication misconduct in accordance with COPE guidance;
- taking appropriate action, including the publication of corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern, whenever necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Conflicts of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, institutional, professional, or personal relationships that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the publication process.

Publication Misconduct
The journal does not tolerate publication misconduct, including plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified data, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, or other unethical publishing practices.
Allegations of misconduct will be investigated by the Editorial Board in accordance with the COPE Core Practices. Where appropriate, the journal may request explanations from the parties involved, consult relevant institutions and take appropriate corrective actions to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.

Complaints and Appeals
Authors may appeal editorial decisions or submit complaints regarding the editorial process by contacting the Editor-in-Chief. All appeals and complaints will be considered fairly, impartially, and confidentially, following COPE recommendations.


2. OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

STUDII ȘI CERCETĂRI ȘTIINȚIFICE. BIOLOGIE / SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND RESEARCH. BIOLOGY is an open-access journal, meaning that all content is freely available without charge.
Users are permitted to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts of the articles and reuse them according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).


3. LICENSING POLICY

All articles published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/):
- BY (Attribution): Proper credit must be given to the authors, providing a link to the license and indicating if changes were made.
- NC (Non-Commercial): The material may not be used for commercial purposes.
- ND (No Derivatives): If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
Any commercial reuse or sharing of adapted/derivative versions of the published material requires prior written permission from the publisher.


4. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT AND AUTHOR RIGHTS

Author Rights and Self-Archiving: Authors retain copyright and all moral rights to their articles. They retain the right to reuse the substance of their article in future personal works (e.g., lectures, books, textbooks, theses, and dissertations) and to self-archive all versions of their paper – including Preprint (Submitted Version), Postprint (Accepted Manuscript), and the Publisher's Version (Version of Record) – in any institutional or public repository immediately upon online publication, with no embargo period.
License granted to the Journal and Publisher: By submitting a manuscript, authors grant the journal and publisher a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to publish, reproduce, display, distribute and preserve the article in print and electronic formats.


5. DIGITAL ARCHIVING POLICY

The journal is committed to ensuring the long-term preservation of published content through the institutional repository of “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacău, which provides permanent archival storage, regular backup, and continuous public access to all published volumes.


6. CORRECTION AND RETRACTION POLICY

STUDII ȘI CERCETĂRI ȘTIINȚIFICE. BIOLOGIE / SCIENTIFIC STUDY AND RESEARCH. BIOLOGY is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. In accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the journal applies the following policies:
- Corrections are published as citable notices linked directly to the original article:
     - an Erratum is published to correct significant errors introduced by the journal during production;
     - a Corrigendum is published to correct significant errors made by the authors;
- Retractions: Articles will be retracted in cases of unreliable findings (due to major error, fabrication, or falsification), redundant publication, or severe plagiarism. A formal Retraction Notice signed by the Editor-in-Chief will be issued, and the original PDF will be watermarked as “RETRACTED”.
- Expressions of Concern: The Editorial Board may issue an Expression of Concern if an investigation into potential publication misconduct is ongoing but inconclusive.
All correction notices, retraction notices, and expressions of concern remain permanently linked to the original article and are freely accessible.

“VasileAlecsandri” University of Bacau
Faculty of Sciences
Department of Biology
157 Marasesti Street, 600115 - Bacau, Romania
E-mail: scsb.journal@ub.ro  
Web: https://pubs.ub.ro/journals/scsb