Journal Policies

Authorship Policy
All manuscripts submitted to the journal must adhere to the journal’s authorship policy to uphold transparency, responsibility, and academic integrity. Beginning January 1, 2026, each paper may list no more than three (3) authors. A fourth author may be included only if a clear and justified rationale is provided. This limitation is intended to ensure clear attribution of individual contributions. All named authors must satisfy internationally accepted authorship criteria, which include: making a significant contribution to the conception or design of the study; participation in data collection, analysis, or interpretation; involvement in drafting the manuscript or revising it for important intellectual content; granting final approval of the version to be published; and accepting full responsibility for all aspects of the work.

The journal does not allow honorary, guest, or gift authorship. If it is determined that any listed author does not meet these standards, the manuscript will be declined, and the responsible author(s) may face a submission ban.

For manuscripts with multiple authors, the corresponding author must provide written, signed consent from all co-authors to the Editorial Board. A CRediT author statement is also required, offering a detailed description of each contributor’s role. These contributions will be published in the final article and must accurately represent the work performed by each author.

The journal follows COPE guidelines when reviewing authorship-related concerns, disputes, or allegations of misconduct.

Review Policy
Submitted manuscripts are subject to an initial editorial screening, followed by a double-anonymous peer-review process involving at least two independent reviewers. During the initial screening, the editorial team assesses whether the manuscript falls within the journal's scope and meets the required standards for quality and formatting. Manuscripts that successfully pass this stage are then forwarded for peer review. 

Anti-Plagiarism Policy
The publisher and the journal maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism and academic misconduct. All submitted manuscripts are screened using Grammarly prior to being sent for peer review. If plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other forms of unethical scholarly conduct are identified during the editorial process, the manuscript will be rejected immediately.

If such issues are discovered after publication, the editors reserve the right to publish a correction, issue an expression of concern, or retract the article, in accordance with the journal's publication ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Any confirmed instance of plagiarism or related misconduct will be addressed with appropriate editorial sanctions.

AI Tools Policy
According to COPE guidelines, artificial intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT) cannot be credited as authors on submitted manuscripts. Authors remain fully responsible for all content in their work, including material generated with AI, and are accountable for any errors or ethical issues. To maintain quality control, all submissions will be screened with Grammarly’s AI tools before peer review. In line with EASE recommendations, authors who have employed AI in preparing their manuscripts must disclose the tools used and their intended purpose in the AI declaration section. This disclosure does not apply to basic software tools, such as grammar and spelling checkers or reference managers.

Statement: During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

If misuse of generative AI tools is discovered after publication, the journal editors reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the article.

Authors can consult the EU's Living Guidelines on the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Research to ensure that generative AI is used responsibly in research.

In addition to complying with the journal's policies on the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in academic writing, authors affiliated with the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" – Bitola (UKLO) are also required to adhere to the relevant institutional regulations governing the ethical use of AI. These include, but are not limited to, the following official UKLO acts:

• The UKLO Code of Ethics

• The Declaration on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools at the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" – Bitola

• Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Authors and Researchers Affiliated with the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" – Bitola

Open Access Policy
HISJ is an electronic, peer-reviewed, fully open-access journal, meaning that all published articles are freely available to readers worldwide with no access restrictions and no author fees (Diamond OA model). This ensures maximum global dissemination of content. The journal provides immediate open access to all published materials, following the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a broader and more equitable worldwide exchange of knowledge. The main principles of open access we support are:

• peer-reviewed literature should be freely available without subscription or price barriers;
• Literature is immediately released in open access format (no embargo period); and
• published material can be reused without obtaining permission as long as a correct citation to the original publication is given.

HISJ accepts and is guided by the BOAI definition of open access:

"By open access to [peer-reviewed research literature], we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited."

Diamond Open Access is aligned with the UNESCO 2021 Recommendation on Open Science regarding open scientific knowledge and scientific publications (II.7; 7.a).

"Diamond Open Access is an equitable approach to scholarly publishing. It provides  online access to research outputs with no fees for readers or authors. Diamond Open Access relies on shared infrastructures and open licensing. These conditions enable scholarly knowledge to circulate as a digital public good" (UNESCO).

*HISJ and University "St. Kliment Ohridski" - Bitola have endorsed the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), the principles of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), and the Action Plan on Diamond Open Access.

As an open-access journal, all content is freely available to users and their institutions without charge. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without prior permission from the publisher or the author.

What is Diamond Open Access?
The Diamond OA model is an open-access publishing model in which scholarly articles are made freely available to readers without cost or barriers. In the Diamond Open Access model, the entire publishing process, from peer review to publication, is funded by non-profit organizations, research institutions, or government agencies rather than by charging fees to authors or readers.

Language Quality and Author Responsibility Policy
Authors are expected to submit manuscripts written in clear and accurate English. To ensure the required language standards are met, it is highly advisable that manuscripts be reviewed by a native English speaker or a qualified language professional prior to submission.

The journal may also employ AI-assisted language tools to improve the clarity, coherence, and readability of accepted manuscripts without altering their original meaning. Nevertheless, authors remain fully accountable for the precision and overall content of their submissions.

Article Correction and Retraction Policy

• Erratum, is a statement by the authors of the original article, that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the article should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but a notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article.
• Retraction, is a notice that the article should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature. The journal editors follow COPE guidelines on retraction.
• Corrigendum, notifies readers that an article has been corrected subsequent to publication. It is issued by the publisher and used when production errors (either the authors' or the publisher's fault) compromise the integrity of the article metadata (such as title, author list, or byline) or significantly affect readers' ability to comprehend the article. The original article is removed and replaced with a corrected version, and a Corrigendum describing the correction is linked to it. The date the correction is made is noted on the corrected article. Corrigenda are freely available to all readers.
• The journal editors are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Copyright Policy

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which allows others to share the work with acknowledgment of the authorship and its initial publication in this journal. All materials are published under an open-access license that gives authors permanent ownership of their work.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (author's pre-prints on the author server or institutional server only, while the author's post-prints on the author's personal website, departmental website, employer's website, or institutional repository) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
• Published sources must be acknowledged.
• Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published before and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• The journal editors are not responsible for any possible copyright violations in articles published in the journal; all responsibility lies with the authors of those articles. The journal or publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.

Repository Policy
The publisher and the journal have a registered deposit policy with Open Policy Finder (former Sherpa Romeo) (Jisc) and Mir@bel

Archiving
HISJ is archived at the National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Skopje, Public Knowledge Project PLN, Zenodo, Internet Archive, and LOCKSS.

Open Journal Systems supports the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal. LOCKSS is open-source software developed at Stanford University Library that enables libraries to preserve selected web journals by regularly polling registered journal websites for newly published content and archiving it. Each archive is continually validated against other library caches, and if the content is found to be corrupted or lost, the other caches or the journal is used to restore it.

EDI Policy
The journal is committed to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion in its editorial and publishing processes. We welcome submissions from authors of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and disciplines and ensure fair and unbiased peer review.

We do not tolerate discrimination or bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or socio-economic background. Our editorial team is dedicated to maintaining an equitable platform where diverse contributions are valued and respected, reinforcing our mission to advance inclusive and globally relevant academic discourse.

Indexation Independence Policy
HISJ expressly disclaims any responsibility for alterations, modifications, or adjustments that may occur during the indexation process or within indexing and abstracting databases. While HISJ remains committed to maintaining the overall quality, efficiency, and integrity of its operations, it does not exercise control over the indexation process. Therefore, HISJ cannot be held liable for any changes, errors, or discrepancies that may arise in this context.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Alignment Policy

Effective July 2026, Horizons – International Scientific Journal (HISJ) aligns its editorial mission and publishing activities with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting high-quality, interdisciplinary research that contributes to sustainable development and the advancement of knowledge. Every published article will now include an explicit indication of its relevant SDG(s) on the first page below the abstract and keywords to enhance discoverability.

Given its broad multidisciplinary scope, HISJ primarily contributes to SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) through the promotion of scientific excellence, the dissemination of research findings, the advancement of innovation, and the encouragement of international and cross-disciplinary academic collaboration.

Depending on the thematic focus of individual articles, HISJ also supports additional SDGs, including SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).

Through its commitment to interdisciplinary research, open scientific communication, and global scholarly cooperation, HISJ seeks to make a meaningful contribution to the achievement of the SDGs and to strengthen the role of science in addressing contemporary social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges.