The editorial board of "Foreign Affairs" is guided in its work by the international ethical rules of scientific article, including the rules of decency, confidentiality, supervision of article, consideration of possible conflict of interest, etc.

In its activities, the editorial board follows the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics and, in particular, "Publishing Ethics Resource Kit" by Elsevier.

The editorial board of the journal adheres to the following rules for supporting publication ethics:

• observance of the main principles of the publication: scientificity, objectivity, professionalism, informational support of the most significant innovative research;
• unconditional loyalty to all subjects of the creative process who take part in the creation of the journal;
• use of double-blind peer review, the involvement of objective competent reviewers;
• implementation of constant consultative work with authors aimed at meeting the requirements of international databases for the design and content of materials submitted for publication.

DECIDING ON ARTICLE

The editor decides on the publication of the submitted articles. It is guided by a journal policy based solely on academic value and the conclusions of the reviewers. The editor adheres to modern rules regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

The editor should not use the published information in their research without the written consent of the author. Editors should make appropriate decisions to address ethical complaints regarding submitted manuscripts or published articles.

The journal editor evaluates the intellectual content of the manuscripts regardless of the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, or political preferences of the authors.

CONFIDENTIALITY

The editor and editorial board do not disclose information about the submitted manuscripts (authors, topics, texts, etc.). Any manuscript received for review is considered a confidential document. The editor and the editorial board undertake not to disclose information about the accepted manuscripts unnecessarily, with the exception of authors, reviewers, other scientific consultants and the publisher.

RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Unpublished materials should not be used in any research by the editor, reviewers, or others without the written consent of the authors.

Editors, reviewers, and scientific consultants undertake to recuse themselves from consideration of manuscripts in the presence of conflict of interest as a result of competitive, joint, and other interactions and relations with authors, companies, other organisations associated with the manuscript.

The editorial board undertakes to take retaliatory measures in case of conflict situations and claims regarding the manuscripts or published materials.

The editorial board may address claims or concerns about research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, or others. Furthermore, the journal reserves the right to inform readers about the resolution of conflict situations.

ETHICS

Papers involving human subjects submitted to the journal must comply with the principles set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki "Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects", adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964 (and its successive amendments). The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed. If the work involves the use of animal subjects, the author should ensure that the manuscript contains a statement that all procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and that the appropriate institutional committee(s) have approved them.

DUTIES OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD:

• observe a respectful and correct attitude towards the author and his or her scientific orientation, keep editorial secrets, and prevent bad faith during processing;
• not to correct the author's text on their own, to agree with the authors the final version of the text after making an editorial revision;
• do not allow materials to be published if they do not have scientific value, do not correspond to the subject of the journal, contradict its editorial policy, contain plagiarism or were previously published in other article;
• ensure the involvement of objective and competent reviewers, apply the practice of double (blind) review.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS:

• to consider all manuscripts submitted for publication without prejudice, evaluating each properly, regardless of race, religion, nationality, as well as the status or place of work of the author;
• to observe the period of reviewing established by the editorial board;
• treat the manuscript received for review as a confidential document, not to provide it to others for review; written reviews must be confidential;
• not to use data from the manuscript;
• to provide an objective, reasoned, and correct assessment of the stated research results.

Reviewers must notify the Editorial Board immediately if they detect any conflict of interest related to the author's identity. If a reviewed paper is not within the reviewer's area of expertise, they must inform the Editorial Board promptly.  

The reviewers are obligated to inform the Editorial Board of any suspected scientific misconduct, as well as any other violation of ethical principles of publication referenced in these guidelines.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE AUTHORS OF ARTICLES:

• to ensure the novelty, reliability, and originality of the research results;
• to draw up all materials of other authors with an exact indication of the primary sources;
• to avoid excessive borrowing and plagiarism in any form; to prevent auto-plagiarism;
• to ensure that the article is exclusive material and has not been previously published or proposed to another publication.

By submitting materials for publication in the journal "Foreign Affairs", the authors agree that, if the materials are accepted for publication, the latter may be placed in electronic databases with the obligatory indication of authorship and copyright retention in full.

In the text of the work itself, sources of external information should be presented – in the form of lists of used literature (including personal previously published articles of the authors). Authors are obliged to properly draw up borrowings in the form of citations or links.

If the author discovers significant errors or inaccuracies in the publication, the author must notify the editor of the journal and interact with him/her to correct them as soon as possible.

If the editor has received information from a third party that the publication contains material errors, the author shall be obliged to remove the article or correct the errors as soon as possible.

AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT

The editorial board of the journal "Foreign Affairs" assumes that all authors agree with the content of the article, have given explicit consent for its publication, and have obtained permission from the responsible individuals in the institution/organization where the work was carried out before the article was submitted for consideration.

All authors, whose names are listed in the submission, declare that they:

- made substantial contributions to the conception or structure of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data;
- prepared the research material or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
- approved the version to be published;
- agree to be responsible for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The editorial board of the journal "Foreign Affairs" encourages collaboration with colleagues in the locations where the research is conducted, and expect their inclusion as co-authors when they fulfill all authorship criteria described above. Contributors who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section.

SUBMISSION DECLARATION

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, or in any other language.