Policies and Ethics

Baku Mathematical Journal (Baku Math. J.) follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is committed to maintaining integrity, transparency, confidentiality, and fairness throughout the editorial and publication process. Submission of a manuscript implies that all authors have read and agreed to the journal's policies and that the manuscript complies with the journal's ethical and editorial requirements.

Access, Copyright, and Licensing

Who Can Submit

Anyone may submit an original manuscript to Baku Mathematical Journal, provided that the author or authors hold the copyright to the work or have obtained all necessary permissions from the relevant rights holder(s). Submissions must be original, must not have been published previously, and must not be under consideration by another journal or publisher at the same time.

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work complies with the journal's editorial and ethical policies, that all listed authors have approved the submission, and that the manuscript is not subject to any restriction that would prevent publication under the journal's open access license.

Open Access Policy

Baku Mathematical Journal provides immediate open access to its published content. Readers may access, read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, and link to the full text of published articles without subscription or registration barriers, subject to the terms of the applicable Creative Commons license.

Article Processing Charges and Other Fees

Baku Mathematical Journal is a Diamond Open Access journal. The journal does not charge submission fees, review fees, Article Processing Charges (APCs), publication fees, page charges, or subscription fees. There are no publication fees at any stage of the editorial or publication process.

Copyright Statement

Authors retain copyright in their published articles. By publishing in Baku Mathematical Journal, authors grant the journal the right of first publication and the non-exclusive right to publish, reproduce, distribute, and archive the article in all formats and media.

Licensing

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, translate, adapt, and reuse the work for any purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.

Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce or adapt any third-party material, including figures, tables, images, data, or extended text excerpts, unless the material is in the public domain or is licensed in a way that permits the intended reuse. Proper attribution must be provided for all third-party material regardless of copyright status or license type.

Repository and Self-Archiving Policy

Authors may share preprints of their manuscripts at any time. If a manuscript is accepted and published, authors are encouraged to update preprint records with a link to the version of record using the article DOI.

Because articles are published open access under CC BY 4.0, authors may deposit the published version of record in institutional, disciplinary, or personal repositories, provided that the published article is properly cited and linked to the journal version of record.

The journal does not accept third-party advertising. Editorial decisions are independent and are not influenced by commercial, institutional, or personal interests.

Acknowledgments

Authors should acknowledge individuals, institutions, or organizations that contributed to the development, preparation, or improvement of the manuscript but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Examples include technical assistance, language editing, administrative support, constructive feedback, or access to facilities and resources.

Acknowledgments must be accurate and should not imply authorship, endorsement, or responsibility for the work. Financial support must be reported separately in the Funding statement rather than only in the acknowledgments.

Affiliations

Authors must provide complete, accurate, and verifiable institutional affiliation information at the time of submission. For research articles, the listed affiliation should reflect the institution where the work was conducted, approved, or substantially supported. For non-research articles, authors should provide their current institutional affiliation where applicable.

If an author has changed institution after the work was completed, the affiliation associated with the research should remain listed, and the current affiliation may be included as a present address or note. A change in affiliation alone is not a valid reason to remove an author who meets the authorship criteria.

Misrepresentation, falsification, or inappropriate use of affiliations may be treated as publication misconduct and handled under the journal's ethics policies.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship carries both credit and accountability. Authorship should be limited to individuals who made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work and who can take responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the published content.

To qualify for authorship, each author should meet all of the following criteria:

Made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data or mathematical results.
Participated in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
Approved the final version to be submitted and published.
Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to help ensure that questions related to accuracy or integrity are appropriately investigated and resolved.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible authors are included, that no ineligible individuals are listed as authors, that all authors have approved the final manuscript, and that all authors agree to submission and publication.

Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must include a clear explanation and written agreement from all listed authors and any author being added or removed. The journal may decline authorship changes that are not adequately justified or documented.

Declaration Statements for New Submissions

As part of the journal's updated policies, all new submissions must include the declaration statements listed below, where applicable. These requirements apply prospectively to new submissions under the updated policy framework. Articles published before the adoption of these updated policies may not contain all of these declaration headings.

Author Contribution Statement

Authors must include an Author Contribution statement for multi-author manuscripts. The statement should describe each author's role in the research and preparation of the manuscript. Single-author manuscripts may include a brief statement confirming that the sole author is responsible for the work.

Example statement: Author Contributions: A.A. conceived the study; B.B. developed the methodology; C.C. performed the analysis; A.A. and B.B. wrote the original draft; all authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

A conflict of interest exists when financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the conduct, interpretation, or reporting of the work.

Authors must include a dedicated competing interests statement in all manuscripts. Authors must disclose all relevant financial and non-financial competing interests. If no competing interests exist, authors should include a statement such as: "The authors declare no competing interests."

Examples of potential conflicts include grants, research funding, employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership, patents or patent applications, paid expert testimony, personal relationships, academic rivalries, or institutional relationships relevant to the work. Failure to disclose relevant competing interests may lead to editorial action, including correction or retraction where appropriate.

Funding

Authors must include a Funding statement in all manuscripts. The statement should identify all sources of financial support, including grants, sponsorships, institutional support, or other assistance related to the research or preparation of the manuscript.

Where applicable, authors should provide the funder name and grant or project number. Authors should also state whether the funder had any role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit for publication. If no funding was received, authors may use the statement: "The authors received no specific funding for this work."

Data Availability and Data Sharing

Baku Mathematical Journal supports transparency and reproducibility where relevant to mathematical research. The journal recognizes that many mathematics articles may not generate datasets, while other manuscripts may use data, code, computational outputs, or other research materials.

Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in all manuscripts. The statement should explain whether the data or materials underlying the article are available, where they can be accessed, and under what conditions. For theoretical articles or manuscripts where no datasets were generated or analyzed, authors should include a statement confirming that data availability is not applicable.

Authors may use one of the following statement types, as appropriate:

Data available in an online repository: "The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI/accession number]."
Data available on reasonable request: "The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."
Data included in the article or supplementary materials: "The data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary materials]."
Data available with access restrictions: "The data that support the findings of this study are available from [source/repository/corresponding author], but restrictions apply to their availability. The data may be made available upon reasonable request and with permission from [third party/institution/data owner], where permitted by applicable ethical, legal, or institutional requirements."
Data not publicly available due to privacy, confidentiality, or ethical restrictions: "The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise privacy, confidentiality, or ethical requirements. Data may be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to applicable approvals and restrictions."
No datasets generated or analyzed: "No datasets were generated or analyzed during the preparation of this manuscript."
Not applicable to the article type or study design: "Data availability is not applicable to this article, as no data were generated or analyzed."
Code or computational materials available: "The code and/or computational materials used in this study are available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI/accession number]."
Code or computational materials available on request: "The code and/or computational materials used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors must disclose any material use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies in manuscript preparation, research, analysis, figures, code, or other content. No disclosure is required for standard spelling, grammar, formatting, or reference-management tools that do not generate substantive content.

Any AI use must remain under the full supervision and control of the authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriate citation of the submitted and published work. AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Research Ethics Approval and Consent

Most submissions to Baku Mathematical Journal are expected to be theoretical, computational, or mathematical in nature and may not involve human participants, animals, personal data, hazardous materials, or regulated research procedures. Where a manuscript does involve any of these areas, authors must comply with applicable laws, institutional requirements, and ethical standards.

Where applicable, authors must include statements confirming ethics approval, informed consent, consent for publication, and protection of privacy. The journal may request supporting documentation where ethical compliance is relevant to the submitted work.

Citations

Authors must cite relevant, accurate, timely, and verifiable sources that support the manuscript. References should be selected for scholarly relevance and should not be included solely to increase citation counts for particular authors, journals, institutions, or groups.

References must be listed in alphabetical order, and all entries in the reference list must be cited in the text. Titles of periodicals should be abbreviated in accordance with Mathematical Reviews. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy and completeness of all references.

Citation manipulation, excessive self-citation, citation stacking, or irrelevant citation practices are inconsistent with responsible scholarly publishing and may result in editorial action.

Images, Figures, Tables, and Data Integrity

Figures, tables, diagrams, and other visual materials should be accurate, relevant, and necessary to communicate the research. Authors must ensure that visual materials do not misrepresent data, calculations, or findings.

Any image adjustment, enhancement, or modification must not distort the scientific meaning. The journal may request original data, source files, code, or higher-resolution figures where needed for editorial assessment, peer review, or publication.

Duplicate Submission, Redundant Publication, and Preprints

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Submitting a manuscript that is under consideration elsewhere constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Authors should not publish substantially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication without appropriate disclosure, justification, and cross-reference. Posting a preprint does not normally constitute prior publication, but authors should disclose any relevant preprint version during submission and link the preprint to the final article after publication.

Research and Publication Misconduct

The journal takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously and handles concerns in accordance with COPE principles. Misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

Data fabrication or falsification.
Manipulation of images, figures, tables, calculations, or results in a misleading way.
Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, or unattributed reuse of text, ideas, data, or results.
Duplicate submission or redundant publication.
Citation manipulation or inappropriate citation practices.
Peer review manipulation.
Improper authorship practices, including guest, gift, honorary, or ghost authorship.
Undisclosed conflicts of interest or funding.
Misrepresentation of affiliations or approvals.

When a credible concern is raised, the journal may contact the corresponding author for an explanation, request supporting data or documentation, consult editors or independent experts, and, where appropriate, contact relevant institutions. Depending on the outcome, actions may include rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other measures needed to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Plagiarism Policy

The journal has a strict policy against plagiarism. Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original and that all sources are properly cited or quoted. Plagiarism includes copying, close paraphrasing, translation without acknowledgment, unattributed use of ideas or results, and inappropriate reuse of an author's own previously published work.

Submitted manuscripts are checked for originality through iThenticate. Similarity reports are evaluated in context, considering the nature, extent, and source of overlap. Manuscripts with unacceptable overlap may be rejected, and published articles may be corrected or retracted where appropriate.

Peer Review Policy

Peer Review Type

The journal uses a single-blind peer review model. Under this model, reviewer identities are concealed from authors, while reviewers may know the identity of the authors. Reviewer identities and review materials are treated confidentially.

Editorial Workflow and Stages

Initial editorial screening: After submission, each manuscript is assessed for relevance to the journal's scope, originality, presentation quality, compliance with submission requirements, and obvious ethical concerns. Manuscripts that are outside the journal's scope or do not meet basic scholarly or formatting standards may be declined without external review.

Reviewer assignment: Manuscripts that pass initial screening are normally sent to two or three referees with appropriate expertise. Reviewers are selected based on subject knowledge, independence, availability, and absence of conflicts of interest.

Review and recommendation: Reviewers assess manuscripts for correctness, originality, significance, clarity, rigor, presentation, and suitability for publication. Reviewers may recommend one of the following decisions:

Accept
Minor revisions
Major revisions
Reject

Revision stage: When revisions are requested, authors should submit a revised manuscript and a response explaining how each editor or reviewer comment has been addressed. Revised manuscripts may be returned to reviewers if further assessment is needed.

Final decision: The final decision on publication is made by the Editor-in-Chief after considering reviewer reports, author responses, and the journal's editorial standards. The journal may seek additional review or editorial advice before reaching a decision.

Desk Rejection

The journal may reject a manuscript before external peer review if it falls outside the journal's scope, lacks a clear mathematical contribution, does not meet submission or formatting requirements, contains substantial ethical concerns, shows unacceptable overlap, or is otherwise unsuitable for the journal.

Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary materials such as appendices, datasets, code, tables, or additional proofs where relevant. Supplementary materials should be accurate, cited in the manuscript, and suitable for editorial review. Authors remain responsible for the content and integrity of supplementary files.

Submissions by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts submitted by editors, editorial board members, or individuals with a close relationship to the journal will be handled by an independent editor who is not involved in the manuscript. The submitting editor or board member will not participate in reviewer selection, peer review handling, or editorial decision-making for their own manuscript.

Special Issues and Thematic Collections

Baku Mathematical Journal may consider special issues or thematic collections by decision of the Editorial Board. Special issues must fall within the journal's aims and scope and must make a clear scholarly contribution to mathematics or mathematically oriented areas of mechanics.

Special issue proposals should normally include the proposed title, rationale, scope, expected article types, proposed guest editor(s), expected timeline, and a description of how the issue will contribute to the field. The Editorial Board reviews proposals and decides whether a proposed special issue is appropriate for the journal.

All manuscripts submitted to a special issue are subject to the same editorial screening, peer review standards, publication ethics policies, declaration requirements, and editorial independence standards as regular submissions. Acceptance is not guaranteed by invitation or inclusion in a special issue proposal.

Guest editors must have appropriate expertise and must declare any conflicts of interest. They must not handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest, including manuscripts by close collaborators, current colleagues, students, supervisors, or others where impartiality could reasonably be questioned. The Editor-in-Chief or an independent editor retains oversight of the process and final editorial decisions.

Special issue articles must be clearly identified as part of the special issue or thematic collection when published. Any call for papers must accurately describe the scope, timeline, peer review process, and submission requirements.

Appeals and Complaints

Appeals

Authors may submit an appeal if they believe that an editorial decision was affected by a factual misunderstanding, procedural irregularity, or significant information that was not adequately considered during review. Appeals should not be submitted merely because the authors disagree with the editorial judgment.

Appeals must be submitted in writing to the Editorial Office and should include a clear, evidence-based explanation addressing the reasons for the decision and the reviewer or editor comments. Appeals will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or another appropriate editor who was not directly involved in the original decision where feasible. Appeal outcomes are final.

Complaints

The journal will consider complaints relating to editorial conduct, peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, research integrity, or post-publication issues. Complaints should be specific, submitted in good faith, and supported by relevant information where possible.

Complaints will be handled confidentially and fairly. If a complaint involves the Editor-in-Chief or another member of the editorial leadership, that individual will not participate in the assessment of the matter. Depending on the nature and outcome of the review, actions may include clarification, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or other appropriate measures.

First point of contact: Appeals and complaints should be submitted to the Editorial Office at bakumathj@asoiu.edu.az.

Post-Publication Discussions, Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy, transparency, and integrity of the scholarly record. After an article has been published, concerns may be raised by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other parties. The journal will consider post-publication comments and concerns carefully, fairly, and confidentially where appropriate, and will handle such matters in accordance with the principles and guidance of COPE.

Post-publication discussions may relate to possible errors, interpretation of findings, authorship, conflicts of interest, research ethics, data reliability, plagiarism, duplicate publication, image or figure integrity, or other matters affecting the published record. Concerns should be submitted to the Editorial Office with sufficient detail and supporting information to allow proper assessment. The journal may contact the authors, editors, reviewers, institutions, or other relevant parties as needed to evaluate the matter.

Where a published article contains an error that affects understanding, indexing, metadata, citation details, author information, or the scholarly record, but does not invalidate the main findings, the journal may issue a correction notice. Corrections may address errors introduced by authors or during production, including mistakes in text, tables, figures, affiliations, funding information, declarations, acknowledgments, references, or article metadata. Minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect the meaning, interpretation, or record of the article may not require a formal correction.

An expression of concern may be issued when serious questions have been raised about the integrity, reliability, or ethical status of an article, but the available information is not yet sufficient to determine whether correction or retraction is required. This may occur, for example, when an investigation is ongoing, when authors or institutions have not yet provided sufficient information, or when the outcome of an inquiry remains uncertain. An expression of concern is intended to alert readers while the matter is being assessed.

A retraction may be issued when the findings or conclusions of an article are found to be unreliable, when the article contains serious errors or evidence of misconduct, or when publication was unethical or otherwise invalid. Grounds for retraction may include, but are not limited to, data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, serious image or figure manipulation, unethical research, compromised peer review, major authorship misrepresentation, undisclosed conflicts of interest that affect the integrity of the work, or publication of the article in error.

Before issuing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, the journal will review the available evidence and, where appropriate, give authors an opportunity to respond. The journal may seek advice from members of the editorial board, independent experts, the publisher, relevant institutions, or ethics bodies. If an investigation by an institution or other authority is required, the journal may wait for the outcome where appropriate, while taking interim action if needed to protect readers and the integrity of the scholarly record.

All post-publication notices will be clearly identified, dated, and linked to the original article. The original article will normally remain available, with a clear notice indicating the nature of the correction, concern, or retraction. Retraction notices will explain the reason for retraction and identify who is retracting the article, where this can be stated appropriately. The journal will not remove published content except in rare circumstances, such as legal requirements, privacy risks, defamatory content, or serious harm concerns.

The journal aims to ensure that all post-publication actions are proportionate, transparent, and consistent with accepted publication ethics practice. The purpose of such notices is to correct the literature, inform readers, and preserve the integrity of the scholarly record, not to punish authors.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and related correspondence are confidential. Editors, reviewers, editorial staff, and others involved in manuscript handling must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone except those involved in legitimate editorial, review, production, or publication processes.

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents and must not share, copy, distribute, or use unpublished material for personal advantage. Confidential information may be shared with relevant institutions or authorities only when necessary to investigate serious ethical or research integrity concerns.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, confidentially, and on scholarly merit. Editors should assess submissions without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, political belief, institutional affiliation, or other irrelevant characteristics of the authors.

Editors must declare and manage conflicts of interest. An editor should recuse themself from handling a manuscript where they have a conflict arising from a personal, professional, financial, institutional, or collaborative relationship with the authors or the work. Editors must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts in their own research without written permission from the author.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers assist editors in making editorial decisions and may help authors improve their manuscripts. Reviewers should accept review invitations only when they have appropriate expertise, sufficient time, and no conflicts of interest that would compromise objectivity.

Reviews should be objective, respectful, constructive, and supported by clear reasoning. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited where this is important to the manuscript and should alert editors to possible overlap, plagiarism, or ethical concerns.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for submitting original, accurate, and properly cited work. Authors must present their research honestly and provide sufficient detail, references, and, where applicable, data or code to allow appropriate assessment of the work.

If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, they must promptly notify the journal and cooperate with the editors to correct or retract the article where necessary.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

This policy applies prospectively to new manuscripts, peer review, and editorial work handled under the journal's updated publication policies. Earlier articles may not contain AI-use declarations because the policy was introduced as part of the updated policy framework.

Authors' Use of AI in Manuscript Preparation

Authors may use generative AI or AI-assisted tools to support language editing, such as improving grammar, clarity, readability, or formatting. These tools must not replace core scholarly work, including developing original research ideas, producing mathematical arguments, generating scientific interpretations, performing substantive analysis, or drawing conclusions.

Any use of AI must remain under the full supervision and control of the authors. Authors are responsible for reviewing and editing all AI-assisted content and for ensuring that the manuscript is accurate, original, appropriately cited, free of errors or bias, and compliant with the journal's ethical standards. Authors remain fully accountable for the submitted and published work.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript, or be accountable for its integrity.

Disclosure requirement: Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies that materially contributed to the manuscript's text, analysis, figures, code, or content. The disclosure should identify the tool name and version where available, the purpose of use, and the extent of use. Use of standard spelling, grammar, formatting, or reference-management tools that do not generate substantive new content does not require disclosure.

Responsible use and privacy: Authors must use AI tools responsibly and must not enter confidential, sensitive, unpublished, or third-party copyrighted material into external AI systems unless they have permission and appropriate privacy protections are in place.

Figures and images: Generative AI must not be used to create, alter, enhance, or manipulate figures, images, or data in a way that misrepresents the underlying results. If AI tools are used as part of the research method, such as in computation, coding, or image analysis, their use must be described transparently in the manuscript.

Use of AI by Editors

Editors and editorial staff must protect manuscript confidentiality. They must not upload submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, author correspondence, or unpublished editorial materials to publicly available AI tools or external systems that do not guarantee confidentiality and data protection.

Editorial decisions must be made by qualified human editors. AI tools must not be used to make editorial decisions, replace expert judgment, rank manuscripts for acceptance or rejection, or generate decision letters without human oversight. If journal-approved AI tools are used for limited administrative assistance, such as checking language, formatting, or internal workflow notes, editors remain responsible for the accuracy, fairness, confidentiality, and appropriateness of all editorial actions and communications.

Editors who use AI-assisted tools in a way that materially affects editorial summaries or communications should ensure that use is consistent with journal policy, confidentiality requirements, and the expectations of authors and reviewers.

Use of AI in Peer Review

To protect confidentiality and the integrity of peer review, reviewers must not upload manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, figures, tables, supplementary files, or review materials to external generative AI or AI-assisted tools for summarizing, analysis, translation, drafting, or evaluation unless the journal has explicitly approved a secure tool and the reviewer has permission from the editor.

Peer review is an expert intellectual activity requiring human judgment. Reviewers remain fully responsible and accountable for the content, quality, fairness, and confidentiality of their review reports.

Ongoing Policy Development

The journal will continue to monitor developments in AI technologies and may revise this policy as needed to uphold standards of research integrity, confidentiality, transparency, and ethical publishing.