EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• The editor-in-chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to Stanovništvo will be published. The editor-in-chief is guided by the publication ethics and constrained by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.
  
  
• The editor-in-chief reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet the relevant standards concerning their content or format. The editorial staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within 90 days of its submission.
  
  
• The editor-in-chief must have no conflicts of interest regarding the articles they consider for publication. If the editor-in-chief feels that there is likely to be a perceived conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions regarding that paper shall be made by the editorial board.
  
  
• The editor-in-chief shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.
  
  
• The editor-in-chief and the editorial staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
  
  
• The editor-in-chief and the editorial staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that reviewers remain anonymous to authors before, during, and after the evaluation process, and authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.
  
  

  Editorial Board structure and roles:
  

• Editor-in-chief supervises the functions of all other segments and is the primary decision-maker for all manuscripts. The Editor-in-chief needs to approve or reject the decision of the Associate and Guest editors. She/he can re-assign this role to designated deputy editors. In addition, the Editor-in-chief assigns roles to members of the Editorial board and is able to execute changes in the journal sections without the need for approval from the Publisher or Editorial board.
• Deputy editors assume the role of Editor-in-chief in their absence and assist the Editor-in-chief and other associate editors in editing articles for style and length and ensuring that the journal has a consistent style. They can serve as primary decision-makers if and when asked to do so by the Editor-in-chief.
• Associate editors put a preliminary decision on papers assigned to them by the Editor-in-chief, supervise the assignment and review process, and serve as reviewers in some cases. 

• Editors constitute those that are not assigned to any of the above categories; essentially, they form the editorial board. They contribute by publishing and/or recruiting contributors (publications, reviewers…) to the journal, review manuscripts on the request of the editor-in-chief, deputy, associate or guest editors, and give their opinions on assigned tasks.

  Guest editors are responsible for the following: inviting contributions and liaising with the Editor-in-chief; coordination of the thematic issue; communicating to prospective contributors that being invited to submit a paper is not a guarantee of its publication; formulating a timetable with the Editor-in-chief; advising the Editor-in-chief of suitable referees for specific papers; preparing the introductory paper for the thematic issue; providing detailed editorial comments on each paper and rejecting those that are inappropriate; securing requested revisions of articles from authors and re-submitting revised and final versions of papers to the Editor-in-chief; ensuring that the manuscripts have not been published elsewhere.

DUTIES OF THE ADVISORY BOARD

• The Advisory Board is an advisory body that actively contributes to the development of the journal. The tasks and duties of the Advisory Board include: supporting the development of the journal, promoting the journal, encouraging experts in population studies to get involved in the journal as authors and/or reviewers, and writing editorials, reviews, and commentaries.
  
  

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

• Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, has not been published before (in any language), and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same paper to another journal constitutes misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by Stanovništvo.
  
  
• Authors also warrant that the manuscript is not and will not be published elsewhere (after its publication in Stanovništvo) in any language without the consent of the publisher.
  
  
• In case a submitted manuscript is the result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project or the conference where the work originated shall be provided in the Acknowledgements section prior to the list of references. A paper that has already been published in another journal cannot be reprinted in Stanovništvo.
  
  
• It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that papers submitted to Stanovništvo are written in accordance with ethical standards. Authors affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
  
  
• Authors are required to respond to communications from the editorial team in a timely manner. Upon receipt of queries or requests for revisions from the editorial team, authors are expected to provide their response or submit the required revisions within 30 days, unless otherwise specified.

Availability of Data and Materials

• • Stanovništvo strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. This includes both primary data used in the analysis and any additional data necessary to understand and interpret the results. Authors should provide a Data Availability Statement at the end of the manuscript (after the References), specifying the availability of the data.
    
    
  • Some of the options for this statement are given bellow:
    1. Data are available in the manuscript/Appendix.
    2. Data are available from the authors upon request.
    3. Data are available in a publicly accessible repository with a persistent identifier (DOI or accession number).
    4. Data are proprietary/confidential and cannot be shared.
    5. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

• • In case of option 4, authors must provide an explanation of the reasons for not making the data publicly available and how the conclusions of the study do not rely on the availability of the data.
    
    
  • We encourage authors to make data available in a public repository (such as Open Science Framework, figshare, etc.) whenever possible, as this supports transparency and reproducibility of research.
    
    
  • Regardless of the option selected, authors are expected to provide data/calculation used in the submission for purposes of peer review.
    
    
  • Please note that failure to provide data availability information or providing insufficient information may result in the manuscript being rejected.

Data Sharing Policy

• • Stanovništvo is committed to promoting transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration in scientific research. To that end, we require authors to share their data and other research materials, as appropriate, in accordance with the following data sharing policy.
    
    
  • Availability of data: Authors are required to make their data and other research materials, such as code, available to other researchers upon request, subject to any legal restrictions or ethical considerations.
    
    
  • Data repository: Authors are encouraged to deposit their data in a publicly available repository, such as figshare, Zenodo, or a relevant discipline-specific repository, and to include the DOI or other permanent identifier in the reference list of their paper.
    
    
  • Data format: Data should be shared in a format that is easily readable and usable by others. This may include, for example, plain text files, spreadsheets, or well-documented data structures such as R or Stata datasets.
    
    
  • Data documentation: Authors are required to provide sufficient documentation of their data, including details of the methods used to collect, process, and analyze the data, so that others can understand and use the data effectively.
    
    
  • Access to data: Requests for access to data should be sent to the corresponding author of the paper, who will respond in a timely manner. The corresponding author may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of reproducing and sharing the data, but only in accordance with established norms in the relevant field.
    
    
  • Confidentiality: If the data contain sensitive or confidential information, authors may redact or anonymize the data as appropriate, but they must also provide a sufficient explanation of the methods used to ensure that the data are still useful for scientific purposes.
    
    
  • Data preservation: Authors are responsible for ensuring that their data are preserved for a sufficient period of time to allow for verification of their results and reuse of the data by others.
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• By submitting their paper to Stanovništvo, authors confirm that they have read and agree to comply with this data sharing policy. The journal reserves the right to reject papers that do not comply with this policy.

Advertising Policy

• Stanovništvo is committed to maintaining the integrity and independence of its content. To that end, we do not accept any paid advertising in our journal. The journal does not accept any form of paid advertising, including but not limited to display ads, sponsored content, and product promotions. The publication of an article in the journal does not imply endorsement of any product, service, or company mentioned in the article.

Informed Consent Policy

• Stanovništvo is committed to upholding ethical standards in scientific research. To that end, we require authors to obtain informed consent from study participants in accordance with the following informed consent policy.

• • Definition of informed consent: Informed consent is a process by which study participants are fully informed of the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of a study, and voluntarily agree to participate.
  • Obligation to obtain informed consent: Authors are required to obtain informed consent from all study participants or their legally authorized representatives.
  • Documentation of informed consent: Authors must provide evidence of informed consent, such as a signed consent form, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
  • Confidentiality and privacy: Authors must ensure that study participants' personal and confidential information is protected and used only for the purpose for which it was collected.
  • Children and vulnerable populations: Special care must be taken when obtaining informed consent from children and other vulnerable populations, such as prisoners, elderly persons, and persons with mental or physical disabilities.

• By submitting their paper to Stanovništvo, authors confirm that they have read and agree to comply with this informed consent policy and have obtained informed consent from all study participants in accordance with this policy and applicable laws and regulations. The journal reserves the right to reject papers that do not comply with this policy.

Coauthor Contributions

• For the sake of transparency and to appropriately acknowledge the contributions of each co-author, we follow the CRediT taxonomy for specifying individual contributions. If the manuscript has more than on author, each coauthor's contribution should be described according to the following roles:
  1. Conceptualization: Developing and refining research ideas and plans.
  2. Data Curation: Managing and organizing research data.
  3. Formal Analysis: Analyzing data using statistical, mathematical, or other formal techniques.
  4. Funding Acquisition: Securing financial support for the project.
  5. Investigation: Conducting the research and data collection process.
  6. Methodology: Developing or selecting the methodologies used in the research.
  7. Project Administration: Managing and coordinating the research project.
  8. Resources: Providing study materials, reagents, laboratory samples, or other resources.
  9. Software: Developing or contributing to the software used in the study.
  10. Supervision: Overseeing the research project, including mentoring and guiding junior researchers.
  11. Validation: Verifying the accuracy and validity of findings.
  12. Visualization: Creating visual representations of data and findings.
  13. Writing - Original Draft: Writing the initial drafts of the manuscript.
  14. Writing - Review & Editing: Critically reviewing and revising the manuscript.
      
      
      It's important to note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors can contribute in multiple roles. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the contributions of all co-authors are accurately represented. The information on the coauthor contributions has to be included in a Word submission file containing information on authors.

       

      EXAMPLE: Coauthor contributions
      Coauthor A: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Visualization, Writing - Original Draft). Coauthor B: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing - Review & Editing, Validation. Coauthor C: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - Review & Editing.

Reporting standards

• A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.
  
  
• Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the data public.
  
  
• Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Authorship

• Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than the authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section.

Acknowledgment of sources

• Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties in reviewing project applications, manuscripts, and similar materials must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.

Plagiarism

• As a committed member of the academic community, Stanovništvo strictly adheres to the highest ethical standards in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics  (COPE).
• Plagiarism, where someone assumes another person's ideas, words, or other creative expressions as one's own is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law and may be punishable by legal action.
  
  
• Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:
  • 1. Copying word for word – or almost word for word – or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks);
  • 2. Copying equations, figures, or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder;
  • 3. Text recycling (‘self-plagiarism’) and misappropriation of ideas.
    
    
• Upon submission, as part of the editorial procedure, all manuscripts pass an automated similarity check by iThenticate. Manuscripts with clear indications of plagiarism will be automatically rejected, and authors will be subject to the rules defined under Major misconduct of ethical standards (see below).
  
  

  Procedure for handling suspected plagiarism:

  1. Upon suspicion or notification of potential plagiarism, the editorial board will conduct a preliminary review.

  2. If initial findings indicate possible misconduct, a more thorough investigation will be initiated, following COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines.

  3. The corresponding author will be contacted with details of the suspected breach for a response.

  4. In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below in the retraction policy, and its authors will be subject to the rules defined under Major misconduct of ethical standards (see below).
  
  An exception to the sanctions for plagiarism will be made for junior researchers who made a genuine mistake, according to COPE guidelines.

Conflict of interest

• Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.

Fundamental errors in published works

• When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editor-in-chief or publisher and cooperate with the editor-in-chief to retract or correct the paper.
  
  

• By submitting a manuscript to the Editorial board of the journal Stanovnistvo, the authors undertake to adhere to the stated rules.

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

• Reviewers are required to provide written, competent, and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and scientific value of the manuscript.
  
  
• Reviewers assess manuscript for their compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, and the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, as well as presentation style and scholarly apparatus.
  
  
• Reviewers should alert the editor-in-chief to any well-founded suspicions or knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognise relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the editor-in-chief to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the editor-in-chief to a parallel submission of the same paper to another journal in the event they are aware of such.
  
  
• Reviewers must not have conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authors, and/or funding sources of the research. If such conflicts exist, reviewers must report them to the editor-in-chief without delay.
  
  
• Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor-in-chief without delay.
  
  
• Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  
  
• Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
  
  

PROCEDURES FOR DEALING WITH UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

• Anyone may inform the editor-in-chief and/or editorial staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by providing the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation.

Investigation

• The editor-in-chief will consult with the editorial board on decisions regarding the initiation of an investigation.
  
  
• During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those directly involved in investigating.
  
  
• The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them.
  
  
• If it is adjudged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious.

Minor misconduct

• • Minor misconduct will be addressed directly with those involved, without involving any other parties, e.g. by:
    • Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred;
    • Sending a warning letter to an author or reviewer regarding minor misconduct.

Major misconduct

• The editor-in-chief, in consultation with the editorial board and, when appropriate, further consultation with a small group of experts, should use all the evidence available to make any decision regarding the course of action to be taken. The possible outcomes are as follows (these can be applied separately or jointly):
• Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct;
• Informing the author's (or reviewer's) head of department or employer of any misconduct by means of a formal letter;
• The formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the retraction policy (see below);
• A ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period;
• Referring the case to a professional organisation or legal authority for further investigation and action.
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  When dealing with unethical behaviour, the editorial staff will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
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  Authors have the right to appeal against plagiarism allegations. Appeals must be substantiated with clear evidence, and the editorial board will reassess the case following COPE's guidelines.
  
  

RETRACTION POLICY

• Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder, or author(s), infringements of professional ethical codes such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, or any major misconduct require the retraction of an article. Occasionally, a retraction can also be used to correct errors in submission or publication. The main reason for withdrawal or retraction is to correct the mistake while preserving the integrity of science; it is not to punish the author.
  
  
• Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by many library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by Stanovništvo: in the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article, a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article remains unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted”.
  
  

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

• Stanovništvo is an open-access journal. All articles can be downloaded free of charge and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Licence.
  
  
• You are free to: 
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material,   
  under the following terms:
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes have been made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.
    
    
• The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the licence terms.
• The journal does not charge any fees for submission, reviewing, and production.
  
  

SELF-ARCHIVING POLICY

• Stanovništvo allows authors to deposit the author's post-print (accepted) version and the publisher's version/PDF in institutional repositories and non-commercial subject-based repositories, or to publish it on the author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.) and/or departmental website in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0, at any time after publication. Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and a link must be made to the article's DOI.
  
  

COPYRIGHT

• Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) shall transfer the copyright to the publisher. If the submitted manuscript is not accepted for publication by the journal, all rights shall be retained by the author(s).
  
  
• Authors grant to the publisher the following rights to the manuscript, including any supplemental material and any parts, extracts, or elements thereof:
• the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
• the right to produce prepublications, reprints, and special editions of the manuscript;
• the right to translate the manuscript into other languages;
• the right to reproduce the manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these reproductions;
• the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript electronically or optically on all data carriers or storage media – especially in machine-readable/digitised form on data carriers such as hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), MiniDisc, data tape – and the right to reproduce and distribute the article via these data carriers;
• the right to store the manuscript in databases, including online databases, and the right of transmission of the manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
• the right to make the manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the internet, other online services, or via internal or external networks.

Advertising Policy

• • Stanovništvo is committed to maintaining the integrity and independence of its content. To that end, we do not accept any paid advertising in our journal.
    
    
  • No paid advertising: The journal does not accept any form of paid advertising, including but not limited to display ads, sponsored content, and product promotions.
    
    
  • No endorsement: The publication of an article in the journal does not imply endorsement of any product, service, or company mentioned in the article.
    
    
  • Unbiased content: The editorial content of the journal is subject to rigorous peer review and is intended to provide accurate and impartial information to our readers.
    
    
  • By publishing in Stanovništvo, authors confirm that they have read and agree to comply with this policy. The journal reserves the right to reject submissions that do not comply with this policy.

DISCLAIMER

• The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the editor-in-chief and editorial staff of Stanovništvo. Authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in their articles. The publisher shall have no liability should any claims for damages be issued. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.