Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statements
Articles published in this peer-reviewed publication play a fundamental role in developing a more logical and professional knowledge base. Peer-reviewed articles incorporate and maintain the integrity of the research methodology. Ethical publishing practices for the publisher, authors, peer reviewers, journal editors, and the community of societies that publish or fund journals are herein explained.

Authorship and Contributorship
Only individuals who have made significant contributions to the research should be listed as authors. This includes everyone involved in the idea, design, implementation, or interpretation of the study. All substantial contributors should be acknowledged as co-authors.

It is widely agreed that an "author" is someone who has made a considerable intellectual contribution to scientific inquiry.

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) specifies that "All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed in their standards for authorship". For more information please refer to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142758

In the Acknowledgements section, those who have contributed to substantial aspects of the paper (such as language revision, etc.) should be recognized.

Each author should have examined and accepted the final version of the manuscript before it is submitted for publication, and the corresponding author is responsible for making sure that all suitable co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included.

Before submitting a paper, writers should verify the names and order of all listed authors and provide that list together with the document itself. After a paper has been submitted to the Food Science and Applied Biotechnology international journal, no changes may be made to the list of authors. All authors must agree to the authors' team proposed and the submission of the work for review by the FSAB journal.

Authors accept individual and shared accountability for the content they create.  Each author is responsible for ensuring that any concerns regarding the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are thoroughly investigated and resolved.

Authors should ensure that they adhere to the policies of the FSAB journal and its specific definitions (e.g. for articles reporting in vivo experiments when conducting animal research for the purpose of meat or milk production, they should adhere to the recommendations described in the publication: “Reporting in vivo experiments: The ARRIVE guidelines”. Please refer to: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.00872.x

Before the manuscript is accepted, the Editor should provide a final approval of any changes to the authors list, including additions, deletions, and rearrangement of names. The Editor needs the following information from the relevant author to make these changes: (a) an explanation why the authors' order has to be altered, and (b) written confirmation (email, letter) from all authors that they approve of the new order. Authors may be added or removed, and in either case, they must confirm their addition or removal.

It is ensured that the appropriate people are responsible for the study carried out by specifically identifying the authors of the research paper. Misconduct in the scientific community occurs when an author intentionally misrepresents his or her affiliation with published research.

Authorship recognition is given to those who meet the following requirements:

• Authors significantly contribute to the conception and design of the research, data collection, analysis, and interpretation processes.
• Authors make any necessary changes to the logical structure and substance of the article.

A "joint decision of the co-authors" is required for the order of authorship to be used. It is appropriate to use the terms "Contributors" or "Recognized Persons" when referring to participants in a survey who differ from the journal's authorship standards. In significant multidisciplinary studies, a list of abilities and centers is often published in addition to a statement of each scientist's or center's specific contribution. When all writers have contributed equally to the research and writing, they may be listed in alphabetical order.

There are three problematic conceptions of "authorship":
    -"Gifts" to the research that are given by authors whose contributions are insignificant in scope;
    - "Guest" writers, who have not contributed much but are mentioned so that their chances of being published may increase;
    - "Ghost" writers, who have contributed greatly but are not credited as a substitute for financial compensation (often provided by commercial sponsors).

Should a complaint be submitted about authorship disagreement, an inquiry may be made by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, or the institution of the author’s affiliation. The inquiry may continue until an acceptable solution is reached.

This statement suggests that prior to describing how each scientist will be acknowledged in the authors’ team and what their contribution will be, all parties concerned should get together to discuss the subject and make a plan.

Authors of original research articles are expected to provide readers with an accurate overview of the work carried out as well as an objective assessment of the relevance of their findings. A paper should contain sufficient information and citations to allow others to replicate its findings. Review articles should adhere to standards of accuracy and objectivity. It is important to clearly distinguish editorial works that express personal opinions.

Handling of Complaints and Appeals
The Editor-in-Chief, in collaboration with the publisher, implements a transparent procedure to address appeals regarding specific editorial decisions.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the record published. This involves a thorough review and evaluation of any reported or suspected instances of misconduct related to research, publication, reviewers, or editorial matters. The Editor-in-Chief collaborates with the publisher or society to address and resolve these issues.

Along with the publisher (or society), the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for investigating and evaluating any allegations or suspicions of unethical behavior in the areas of research, publishing, reviewer and editorial conduct. This ensures full protection of the authenticity of the record published.

Normally, these measures will involve contacting the manuscript author and carefully evaluating the complaint or claims submitted. Additionally, this may lead to engaging in further communication with the relevant institutions and research organizations. The Editor is expected to use the publisher's systems effectively to identify and address instances of misconduct, including plagiarism.

The Editor-in-Chief will provide compelling evidence of misconduct and collaborate with the publisher (and/or society) to make arrangements for the timely publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or any other appropriate means of rectifying the record, as deemed necessary.

Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests
As regards the disclosure of possible conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief will follow the policy of the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv, as outlined in the ICMJE guidelines (see: https://icmje.org/recommendations/). For more information about ICMJE uniform requirements for writing and editing for biomedical publication please refer to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142758.

Our journal prioritizes transparency and objectivity in peer-reviewed research and development.

There is a potential competing interest when a researcher, author, editor, or reviewer has a financial or personal interest or any belief that could affect their objectivity, or inappropriately affect their actions. Such relationships are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing loyalties.

The most evident examples of conflicts of interest include financial attachments, e.g.:

• Employment, stock ownership, government grants, and patents are examples of direct compensation;
• Consulting work, fees, mutual fund holdings, and paid expert testimony are examples of indirect compensation.
  

Undeclared financial interests can severely undermine confidence in a publication, its authors, and science itself.

Personal relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion can also give rise to competing interests - for instance, a scientist who has:
    - a relative who works for a company whose product is being evaluated by the researcher;
    - a self-serving share in research results (e.g., potential promotion/career advancement based on results);
    - personal beliefs that are in direct conflict with the topic they are researching.

Not all relationships involve legally competing interests; prospective or actual conflicts can exist.

The institution's ethics commission and the journal's Editor-in-Chief should be notified of any relationships that might constitute a conflict of interest, even if the individual is unaware that these relationships may influence their judgment. We require a cover letter and/or a footnote in the manuscript to that effect. The journal may use the disclosures as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish them as being crucial to the evaluation of a manuscript by the readers. Likewise, the journal may decide not to publish a manuscript due to a declared conflict of interest.

Any prospective editorial conflicts of interest should be disclosed in writing to the publisher before an editor's appointment, and updated as new conflicts arise. Such declarations may be published in the journal by the publisher.

The Editor-in-Chief may not participate in decisions regarding papers they have written, papers written by family members or colleagues, or papers concerning products or services wherein the Editor has a financial interest. Moreover, any such submission should be subjected to all standard procedures of the journal; peer review should be managed independently of the relevant author/editor and their research organizations, and a clear statement to this effect should be included in any such paper that is published.

Reviewers’ Objectivity and Competing Interests
Evaluations are performed objectively. When evaluating a paper, reviewers should be aware of any personal biases they may have and take them into account. Criticism of an author on a personal level is not acceptable; readers should instead focus on the paper content. Therefore, peer review in the journal will be double-blind.

Prior to the review of a paper wherein they may be involved in any conflicts of interest on account of competition, cooperative relationships or any connections between authors, enterprises or institutions related to these papers, reviewers should consult the Editor-in-Chief.

Reviewers should not recommend that authors add their own or their colleagues' citations for any purpose other than genuine scientific interest; moreover, they must not do so for the purpose of enhancing their own or their colleagues' citation count or profile.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility
Together with librarians, the research community, funders, and other stakeholders, the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv creates policies that might aid customers and clarify its stand on crucial problems.

The Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv plays an encouraging, investing and nurturing role in academic communication but is ultimately accountable for ensuring that best practices are followed in its publications.

The Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv has developed rules and processes aimed at assisting editors, reviewers, and writers in the performance of their ethical responsibilities. Together with other publishers and professional groups, we are elaborating guidelines for the handling of moral issues, mistakes and corrections.

The prevalent opinion in the academic community is that the Editor-in-Chief has the sole responsibility and autonomy to decide on the papers approved for publication in the journal. Therefore, the Editor needs to consider journal regulations and any applicable laws concerning libel, copyright infringement, or plagiarism when making a decision. The significance of the academic archive as a permanent, historical record of the transactions of scholarship follows from this premise. Published articles will be kept as close to their original form as is considered practical. In very rare cases, however, an article that has been published may need to be withdrawn or deleted due to circumstances beyond the publisher’s control. These measures are always applied with care and are restricted to emergencies. Article versions, including those that have been withdrawn or otherwise deleted, will be preserved in our official archives at the Bulgarian National Library.

This policy has been designed to respond to these issues and include up-to-date recommendations from the academic and library sectors. This problem will need to be re-addressed regularly as standards develop and change; hence, we would encourage the scientific and library communities to provide the necessary input. Our belief is that the publishing and information sector would benefit from worldwide standards regulating these matters, and we intend to strongly support different information authorities towards this end.

Author’s Declaration of Competing Interest
Any financial or personal connections to other persons or groups that may prejudice an author's work must be mentioned. Employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, grants, and other financing are all examples of possible conflicts of interest. The corresponding author must ensure that there is no prejudice in the submission procedure.

According to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), a conflict of interest occurs when "a reasonable observer might wonder if the behavior or judgment of the individual was motivated by considerations of their competing interests". More detailed information on the requirements of the WAME Editorial on Conflict of Interest can be found here: https://wame.org/conflict-of-interest-in-peer-reviewed-medical-journals. This occurs when a person's private interests (competing interests) and their responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities diverge. When submitting a paper, writers have the responsibility to disclose any financial and personal relationships to other persons or organizations that may be seen as prejudiced.

All financial support received for conducting the research or preparation of the article should be disclosed. Additionally, the role played by the sponsor(s), if any, in the experiment design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, or paper writing, or the decision to submit the article for publication should also be disclosed. It is important to indicate whether a funding source or sources have been involved in any way in the above-mentioned stages.

Disclosure of any conflicts of interest should occur as soon as practicable. More detailed information on these types of requirements can be found here: https://wame.org/wame-editorial-on-conflict-of-interest.

Ethical Oversight

Ethics of Publication
Research data supporting a publication may be requested from authors for editorial review or to meet the journal's open data standards.  If possible, authors should make their data accessible to the public, and they should also be willing to keep their data for a fair amount of time following publication. For further information, authors should consult the journal's Author Guidelines.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism may take various shapes and forms, from direct copying to paraphrase, and can include elements like:

• using someone else’s data without permission;
• using someone else’s terms and phrases without permission;
• using someone else’s ideas and concepts without permission.

The significance of plagiarism changes depending on factors such as:

• How much of someone else’s work has been plagiarized (a few lines, a few paragraphs, a few pages, or the whole article)?
• Reusing language, paraphrasing, considerable copying, and copying in full are all forms of plagiarism.
• Which part of the paper (the inputs, methods, or outcomes) has been copied?

Authors have to establish their work within the larger body of knowledge on a subject and give proper credit to the work of other scholars on whose discoveries their own have been based. For more information about our plagiarism policy please refer to: https://www.ijfsab.com/index.php/fsab/Plagiarism_policy

Simultaneous Submission
Declaration in Cover letter – download

The authors are responsible for ensuring that their work has not been previously published or currently considered for publication in another journal. It is unethical to submit or resubmit the same work for publication more than once.

• Duplicate or repeated publication may occur when two or more articles without full cross-reference share essentially the same hypotheses, data, discussion points, and/or conclusions;
• Simultaneous submission occurs when someone submits the same paper to multiple journals at the same time. This may take several forms, including word-for-word repetition, considerable paraphrasing, and little changes in word choice.

Inadvertent double counting or incorrect weighting of the outcomes of single research that distorts the available data is one of the key reasons why duplicate publication of original studies is deemed unethical.

Submission Preparation Checklist and Author Guidelines 
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off the compliance of their submission with all of the following items, and submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned to authors.
You can see the Submission Preparation Checklist form here:
 https://www.ijfsab.com/index.php/fsab/about/submissions

The text should adhere to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines. For more information see:
https://www.ijfsab.com/index.php/fsab/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.

The authors should declare that they are not aware of any competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in the paper.

Fair Play in the Publication Process
The Sector Editor and/or Editor-in-Chief examine submissions strictly on the basis of their intellectual substance, regardless of the writers' gender, sexual orientation, religion, color, nationality, or political beliefs.

The Editor-in-Chief must take into consideration the requirement for adequate, inclusive, and varied representation when making nominations to the Editorial Board.

The journal's editorial principles favor transparency and accuracy in reporting.

The Editor-in-Chief makes sure that both the reviewers and the writers are fully aware of what is expected of them.

The electronic submission method and emails to the Editor-in-Chief should be used for all correspondence.

Ethics of Journal Metric Management
The Editor-in-Chief of a journal is not allowed to manipulate the journal's impact factor or other metrics in order to improve the publication rating. It is inappropriate for an editor to insist that references be provided for papers published in the journal (or any other journal) unless there are solid scientific reasons for doing so; and it is also inappropriate for an editor to insist that writers make references to articles written by the editor or to items and services in which the editor has a financial interest.

Reviewers’ Confidentiality
We follow a strict policy of maintaining the privacy of all submissions. Without the editor's explicit approval, reviewers are restricted from sharing any details of the manuscript or review with any other parties.

To protect everyone's anonymity while giving proper credit to everyone who has contributed, reviewers should consult the Editor-in-Chief in advance on the manner of handling this issue.

Reviewers may not use any unpublished material revealed in a submitted work without the authors’ permission. Peer-reviewed materials are considered private and should not be used for personal gain.

Alertness to Ethical Issues
A reviewer should be aware of any possible ethical issues in the article and bring them to the Editor-in-Chief’s notice, particularly any significant resemblance or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper that the reviewer has personal information about. Any claim that an observation, derivation, or argument has previously been published should be backed by a reference.

Image Integrity
It is unacceptable to alter a picture, including by emphasizing, hiding, repositioning, removing, or adding details. Modifications to brightness, contrast, or color balance of the image are permitted as long as they do not compromise the legibility of the original content. Images may be manipulated for better clarity, but any alteration beyond that may be considered an abuse of scientific ethics and will be treated as such. More information can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200406019.

The original pictures should be provided as supplementary material with the paper (if appropriate) or deposited in a suitable repository, as required by the relevant journal's policy for graphic images.

Clinical Trial Transparency
The Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv supports transparency in clinical trials. Guidelines for registering and reporting clinical trials (such as the CONSORT standards for randomized trials) are available at https://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c332 and ICMJE (please refer to https://icmje.org/recommendations/). Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals (Writing and editing for biomedical publication, available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3142758) should be followed, as outlined in the regulations of the appropriate publication.       

Hazards for Human or Animal Subjects
Authors have to clearly state in the publication whether there are any exceptional hazards associated with the use of substances, techniques, or equipment in the research.

Authors whose work required the use of human or animal subjects should include a statement in their manuscripts attesting to the fact that all necessary procedures were implemented following all applicable laws and institutional guidelines and were approved by the relevant institutional committee(s). A statement that informed permission was acquired from all human participants should be included in the paper. People's right to privacy must be respected at all times.

The author of any study involving human subjects is responsible for ensuring that the research was conducted in conformity with the principles outlined in the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki  (for more information please refer to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566407/pdf/11357217.pdf);

in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (please refer to: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/14/contents) and associated guidelines in the United Kingdom; EU Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes in the European Union (for more information please see here:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:276:0033:0079:en:PDF), or the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (please refer to: https://olaw.nih.gov/policies-laws/phs-policy.htm) and, if applicable, the Animal Welfare Act in the United States (please see link: https://www.nal.usda.gov/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-welfare-act). All of these documents require strict adherence to their guidelines in order to ensure the safety of all animals used in experiments.

If writers intends to publish with the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv, they must first get the necessary consent documents, licenses, and releases before doing so. Authors are responsible for retaining all written consents and, upon request from the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv, they should provide copies of these consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained.

Intellectual Property
Originality and Acknowledgement of Sources
Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and provide context for the work within the greater scholarly record. Information obtained in private conversations, correspondence, or discussions with third parties may not be used or disclosed without the source's express written consent.

Plagiarism may take various forms, such as presenting someone else's work as one's own, quoting extensively from someone else's work without providing a proper citation or taking credit for the findings of someone else's study. Plagiarism, in all of its many forms, is dishonest and must not be tolerated.

Citing unpublished data, obtaining permission to reuse figures and tables

The onus of securing permission to reprint content from published works is on the authors. Use of any unpublished data belonging to other scientists requires their permission as well.

Checking for Plagiarism
The iThenticate plagiarism detection technology will be used to compare all published papers in order to ensure they have not been plagiarized.

Authors should only discuss their adaptations in detail in the Materials and Methods section, referring readers to the source articles for the procedures.

The Editor-in-Chief must maintain the confidentiality of all journal submissions and all communications with reviewers unless the authors and reviewers agree otherwise. When investigating possible research misconduct, the publisher and the journal's Editor-in-Chief may agree to share restricted information with the editors of other journals under certain conditions (see Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org). The reviewers' anonymity is protected under all circumstances by the Editor-in-Chief.

An editor may not use any previously unpublished materials mentioned in a submitted work for his or her own research without the author's permission. The peer review procedure provides access to secret information or ideas that must be protected and not used for personal gain.

Copyright Transfer Agreement
Copyright Transfer Agreements (Download) are required of writers whose work is accepted for publication. The Open Access Option specifies whether or not other parties may use open-access articles.

Open Access and Charging
Authors have the option of publishing their work in an open-access format via the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) applies to all articles published in this journal.

With Online Open, the author, institution or funder owes a publication fee equivalent to €100 VAT exclusive (payable in BGN) for the article to be viewed in open access, making it immediately and easily accessible to everyone.

Post-publication Discussions and Corrections
Since the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv places a premium on researchers' and librarians' continued faith in the reliability of its electronic archive, it has considered the following three strategies for ensuring the completeness and accuracy of the scholarly record.

Article Withdrawal
Articles in Press and Early View are reserved for pre-publication drafts of a piece that may not be completed or may have been submitted twice by mistake. There is a small chance that the publications violate professional ethical rules in some way. Articles in Press or Early View (articles accepted for publication but not yet formally published and thus lacking the complete volume/issue/page information) that contain errors or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s) or that violate the publishing ethics guidelines of our journal in the editors’ opinion (such as multiple submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of existing work or similar) will be rejected. Articles that have been withdrawn have their original content (HTML and PDF) replaced by a page (PDF file) stating, indicated with a watermark, that the article has been withdrawn in accordance with the Policy of the Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv on Article in Press or Early View Withdrawal, along with a link to the most up-to-date version of that policy.  

Article Retraction
Multiple submissions, false claims of authorship, plagiarism, and other forms of data fraud fall within this category. Sometimes mistakes made during the submission or publishing process need a retraction. It has always been a rare but not unprecedented occurrence in the academic world for an essay to be retracted after being published at the urging of scholars. The Academic Publishing House of the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv has implemented the best practices established by several library and academic groups for handling article retractions. It is feasible to do the following:

- a retraction note titled "Retraction": [article title]" signed by the author(s) and/or the editor is published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the contents list;

 - a link is made to the original article in the electronic version; 

- the original article is kept unchanged save for a watermark on the PDF file indicating on each page that it has been "retracted.";

- the PDF version of the document is removed.

Article Removal: Legal Limitations
The removal of an article from the internet database is allowed under exceptional circumstances. This will only happen if the article is libelous or breaches others' legal rights; or if it is, or there is a good reason to believe that it will be the subject of legal processes, such as a court order; or if adherence to the advice in the article might seriously endanger someone's health. The information (Title, Authors) will be preserved, but a screen will replace the content to explain why the article has been taken down due to legal issues.

Article Replacement
The authors of the original article may want to withdraw the incorrect original and replace it with a revised version in situations when the article, if adhered to, might pose a major health risk. In such cases, standard retraction processes will be applied and a formal notice of the retraction will be posted in the relevant database.

Notification of Fundamental Errors
Should authors find an important error or inaccuracy in their published article, it is their responsibility to promptly inform the journal editor or publisher thereof, and to work with the editor towards removing or updating the manuscript, if required. Authors should cooperate with the editor and provide proof, if necessary, if a third party informs the editor or publisher that a published work includes an error.