Bulgarian Astronomical Journal publication ethics and publication general rules:

1. Publication and authorship

Authors, submitting an article to BAJ, declare that it is their original research, it does not contain any fraudulent data, it has not been published before and it has not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other authors' work. Papers published in BAJ should cite original references whenever previously published work is quoted or is directly relevant to the presented results. The financial support must be clearly declared in the acknowledgement section and wherever possible or necessary in the text. Public dissemination of the referee reports and the editorial correspondence by the authors is inappropriate.
Any infringements of professional ethical codes, such as plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, bogus claims of authorship, will not be tolerated by the editors.

2. Author's responsibilities

Authors must have significant contribution to the research of their article. They are obliged to demonstrate that the data used in the article are real and authentic. Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and to provide corrections of mistakes. The author cannot withdraw a paper after it has been accepted.

3. Peer review / responsibility for the reviewers

BAJ is committed to maintaining high standards through a rigorous peer review together with strict ethical policies. The reviewers are responsible for evaluating the scientific contribution, they are expected to provide an objective judgment. The reviewers should identify any potential conflict of interests with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders, so that the editor can determine whether these are substantial to disqualify that reviewer. Reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not cited by the authors. Reviewers also must keep strict confidentiality; the reviewed articles and the contents of referee correspondence must not be shared with other parties. Referees, if they prefer, may contact directly the author for speeding the review process, however, they must notify the editor beforehand.

4. Editorial responsibilities

BAJ editors ensure the quality of the published work, they have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article. Editors are obliged to act if they suspect misconduct concerning both published and unpublished work. Editors decisions should be based only on the paper's importance, originality and clarity and its relevance to the remit of the journal. Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept. They are obliged to provide a second referee upon authors request. Editors provide guidance to the reviewers. Appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions. Editors require reviewers to disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission. The editors promote publication of corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
BAJ editors preserve the anonymity of the reviewers, treat confidentially the articles while under review, keep confidential the correspondence with reviewers and the authors. BAJ editors are expected to act as ambassadors of the journal, support and promote it.

5. Publishing ethics issues

BAJ editors are responsible for safeguarding the publishing ethics. They encourage responsible behaviour and discourage misconduct, also they are expected to educate the researchers about publication ethics. They must not allow plagiarism or fraudulent data to be published. They maintain the integrity of the academic record. Provide guidelines for retracting articles, publish corrections, clarifications and apologies when necessary. They preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards. The editorial decisions on which articles to publish are based on quality and suitability of the article for the readers rather than for immediate financial or political gain.
BAJ editors and referees work under the conditions of strict confidentiality. The journals and their editors will not reveal the identity of referees or the contents of peer review correspondence to individuals outside of the respective peer review process. All the people involved in the publication process - including editors, referees, authors and journal staff members - are expected to respect the basic standards for professional tolerance and respect. BAJ editors encourage cooperation with referees and authors to achieve high publication standards.