Journal policy

» Targets and goals
The scope of the publication includes providing information on the latest scientific achievements in fundamental geology, development of modern geological foundations for mineral management, rehabilitation of the raw material base of Russia, results of international cooperation in studying the geological structure and assessing the mineral resource potential of the largest regions of the world, such as Eurasia and the Circumpolar Arctic, the latest scientific and applied developments, discoveries, and the latest methods of geological research.
One of the main principles of the editorial policy of the journal is professional reviewing and placement of high-quality geological information in published materials. The authors of the articles are well-known scientists from Russia and abroad, experts from various departments, research laboratories, as well as postgraduate students, external PhD scholars, students.

» Sections of the journal
1. Regional geology
2. Metallogeny

» Periodicity
The journal is published 4 times a year.

» Distribution of publications
After publishing a journal issue on the website, the editors distribute (archive) the texts of publications in various databases:
• Russian State Library (RSL)
• Scientific electronic library eLibrary (RSCI)
• Scientific Electronic Library CyberLeninka
Each article is assigned a DOI number www.doi.org.
Printed copies of the journal in accordance with the requirements of the Law of St. Petersburg No. 690-165 of December 21, 2010 “On the legal deposit of documents of St. Petersburg and the legal deposit of documents of intra-city municipalities of St. Petersburg” are sent to V.V. Mayakovsky Central City Public Library, as well as in accordance with Paragraph 1 of Article 7 of the Federal Law of December 29, 1994 No. 77-FZ “On the mandatory copy of documents” to ITAR TASS (Russian Book Chamber) and to the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media.

» Archiving
The journal allows the following libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for preservation and restoration purposes:
• Russian State Library (RSL)
• Scientific electronic library eLibrary (RSCI)
• Scientific Electronic Library CyberLeninka

» Reviewing
The editors review all the materials received for their expert evaluation. Reviewers can be appointed by the editor-in-chief, his deputies, and members of the editorial board in specialized areas in agreement with the editor-in-chief. All reviewers are recognized experts in the subject of peer-reviewed materials. These may be employees of VSEGEI and other institutions, including deputy editors-in-chief and members of the editorial board. Priority external reviewers are employees of institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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The journal adopted blind peer review, in which the authors are not informed of the names of reviewers (can be reported at the request of reviewers). The interaction between the authors and reviewers is carried out only through the journal editors. The term for reviewing a manuscript is up to two months from the date of registration of the manuscript in the editorial office. Authors have the right to read reviews.
The reviewer should prepare the review according to the model and send from an e-mail address that allows the reviewer to be identified to the e-mail of the editorial office: izdatel@vsegei.ru. The review should be submitted within the stipulated time. Subsequently, the reviewer should promptly answer the questions of the authors and the editor, explaining his/her comments and recommendations. Based on the results of the review and in agreement with the deputies of the editor-in-chief or the member of the editorial board who appointed the reviewer, the editorial board decides on the possibility of publishing the article. Options for the decisions taken: recommend for publication, send the article for revision, recommend publication in another journal corresponding to the topics of the article.
Working with authors on the comments made by reviewers. When deciding to revise the article, the manuscript, along with the review and editorial comments, is sent to the author, who is obliged to inform the editorial board about the receipt of such letter. The author provides a new version of the manuscript as per the reviewers’ comments within two weeks from the date of receipt of remarks, feedback, and comments from the reviewer and the editors.
In the response letter (see sample) the author should indicate what changes have been made (moreover, responses to comments are given in the same order in which they are stated in the review). All comments should be answered without exception, no matter how insignificant they may seem to the author. In case of non-compliance with the terms of revision, as well as the absence of arguments for the authors’ disagreement with the comments made, the editors reserve the right to reject the manuscript. The author is sent a conclusion on the reasons for the rejection of the manuscript.
Checking the article by members of the editorial board. The finalized materials are submitted to the editor-in-chief, his deputies, or one of the members of the editorial board in the topical direction for mandatory approval (repeated review/editing at the request of the members of the editorial board). With a positive review (not formalized) by the editor-in-chief, his deputies, or a member of the editorial board, the manuscript is included in the editorial calendar and is considered accepted for publication. Upon receipt of a request, the editors of the journal send a copy of the review to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Reviews are kept in the editorial office for 5 years.

» Indexing
The journal is included in the current List of leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and publications in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of Candidate of Science, for the degree of Doctor of Science (the List of VAK) should be published. The journal is indexed in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) and included in the full-text database of the scientific electronic library eLibrary.ru.

» Ethical principles of scientific publications
The editorial board of the scientific journal “Regional Geology and Metallogeny” adheres to the principles of publication ethics accepted by the international community, reflected, in particular, in the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In the publishing activities, the editorial board of the journal is guided by international rules for copyright protection, the provisions of the current legislation of the Russian Federation, and international publishing standards. In order to avoid unfair practices in publishing activities (plagiarism, presentation of false information, etc.), to ensure the high quality of scientific publications, public recognition of the scientific results obtained by the author, each member of the editorial board, author, reviewer, as well as institutions involved in the publishing process, are required to comply with ethical standards, rules, and regulations and take all reasonable measures to prevent violations of them.

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1. Violation of publication ethics
In case of violation of publication ethics by the authors (plagiarism, multiple submission of texts to the editors, duplicate publications, etc.), the editors take the following steps:
1.1. If a violation is detected after the fact, all texts that violate publication ethics (for example, received by the editors during the multiple submission, containing plagiarism) will be removed from journals and scientific information databases (RSCI, SCOPUS, WoS);
1.2. The journal will send an appeal to the Council on the Ethics of Scientific Publications with a request to check all materials published by this author/group of authors for a ten-year period. In case of detection of violations in the field of publication ethics, the texts will be withdrawn from publication from journals and scientific information bases, and citation will be stopped;
1.3. The journal will veto the acceptance of materials from the author/group of authors who have violated publication ethics for a period of one year.
2. Responsibility of members of the editorial board and editors of the journal
In their activities, members of the editorial board and editors are responsible for the publication of authors’ works, which entails the following principles and procedures:
2.1. Contribute to the fulfilment of ethical responsibilities by the editors, the editorial and publishing group, the editorial board, reviewers, and authors in accordance with these requirements.
2.2. Ensure the confidentiality of the publication received from the authors and any information until it is published.
2.3. Always be ready to publish corrections, clarifications, contestations, and apologies when necessary.
2.4. Post information about financial support for the study, if the author provides such information in the article.
2.5. The editor has the right to reject the manuscript or require the author to improve it if it is prepared in violation of the rules adopted in this journal, contains plagiarism and inaccurate data.
2.6. If accepted for publication, the article is placed in the open access; copyright is reserved by the authors.
2.7. If any content, grammatical, stylistic, and other errors are found, the editors undertake to take all measures to eliminate them.
2.8. Coordinate with the author the editorial corrections made to the article.
2.9. Do not delay the release of the journal.
3. Responsibility of the authors
The authors (or a team of authors) when submitting materials to the scientific journal “Regional Geology and Metallogeny” are responsible for the content of the article:
3.1. The authors of the article must provide reliable results of the research. Knowingly erroneous or falsified statements are unacceptable.
3.2. Authors must ensure that the results of the study presented in the submitted manuscript are completely original. Borrowed fragments or statements must be formalized with the obligatory indication of the author and source. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including loose quotations, paraphrasing, or appropriation of rights to the results of other people's research, is unethical and unacceptable. The presence of borrowing without reference will be considered by the editorial board as plagiarism.
3.3. Authors should cite only true facts and information in the manuscript; give enough information to verify and repeat experiments by other researchers; do not use information obtained privately without explicit written permission; to prevent fabrication and falsification of data.
3.4. Avoid duplication of publications (in the cover letter, the author must indicate that the work is published for the first time). If individual elements of the manuscript have been previously published, the author must refer to an earlier work and indicate the differences between the new work and the previous one.
3.5. Authors should not submit to the journal a manuscript that has been submitted to another journal and is under consideration, as well as an article that has already been published in another journal.
3.6. It is necessary to recognize the contribution of all persons who in one way or another influenced the course of the study, in particular, the article should provide links to works that were important in the conduct of the study.
3.7. Authors must comply with ethical standards when criticizing or commenting on third party research.
3.8. All persons who have made a significant contribution to the study should be indicated as co-authors of the article. Among the co-authors, it is unacceptable to indicate persons who did not participate in the study.
3.9. Authors should respect the work of the editorial board and reviewers and eliminate the noted shortcomings or explain them with reason.
3.10. Authors must submit and prepare the manuscript in accordance with the rules adopted in the journal.
3.11. If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he must immediately notify the editors of the journal.
3.12. Authors must provide the editorial board or the publisher with evidence of the correctness of the original article or correct significant errors if the editorial board or the publisher has learned about them from third parties.
3.13. Authors should indicate their affiliation(s) and source(s) of research funding.
4. Responsibility of the reviewers
The reviewer carries out a scientific examination of authors’ materials, as a result of which his/her actions must be unbiased, consisting in the implementation of the following principles:
4.1. The manuscript received for review should be treated as a confidential document that cannot be transferred for review or discussion to third parties who do not have permission from the editors.
4.2. Reviewers must be aware that the manuscripts sent to them are the intellectual property of the authors and are classified as confidential information. Violation of confidentiality is possible only if the reviewer claims that the materials contained in the article are unreliable or falsified.
4.3. The reviewer should draw the attention of the editor-in-chief to the essential or partial similarity of the evaluated manuscript with any other work, as well as the absence of references to the provisions, conclusions, or arguments previously published in other works of this or other authors.
4.4. The reviewer should note the relevant published works that are not cited in the article.
4.5. The reviewer is obliged to give an objective and reasoned assessment of the stated results of the study and clearly substantiated recommendations. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.
4.6. The comments and wishes of the reviewer should be objective and principled, aimed at improving the scientific level of the manuscript.
4.7. The reviewer must make decisions based on specific facts and provide evidence for his/her decision.
4.8. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of manuscripts for their own use.
4.9. Reviewers have no right to take advantage of knowledge of the content of the work prior to its publication.
4.10. A reviewer who, in his/her opinion, does not have sufficient qualifications to evaluate the manuscript, or cannot be objective, for example, in case of a conflict of interest with the author or institution, should inform the editor about this with a request to exclude him/her from the review of this manuscript.
4.11. Peer review of articles in the journal is anonymous. Authors are not told who specifically reviewed their article. However, at the request of the reviewer, his/her name can be reported to the author of the article.
4.12. The reviewer is obliged to inform the editor-in-chief about the presence of a conflict of interest (dual obligations, competing interests) and refuse to examine the manuscript.

» Founder and publisher
A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI). Website www.vsegei.ru.

» Publication fee
The editors do not charge authors for the preparation, placement, and printing of materials. Fees are not paid.

» Conflict of interests
In order to avoid cases of violation of publication ethics, the conflict of interests of all parties involved in the process of publishing the manuscript should be excluded. A conflict of interest arises if an author, reviewer, or member of the editorial board has a financial, scientific, or personal relationship that may affect their actions. Such relationships are called dual obligations, competing interests, or competing loyalties.
In order to prevent conflicts of interest and in accordance with the accepted ethical standards of the journal, the following responsibilities are assigned to each of the parties.
If a situation arises related to a violation of publication ethics by an editor, author, or reviewer, a mandatory investigation is required. This applies to both published and unpublished material. The editorial board is obliged to demand clarification without involving persons who may have a conflict of interest with one of the parties. If material containing significant inaccuracies has been published, it must be corrected promptly in a form accessible to readers and indexing systems.

» Borrowing and plagiarism
The editorial board of the journal, when considering an article, can check the material using the Anti-plagiarism system. In case of detection of numerous borrowings, the editors act in accordance with the COPE rules.