Policies

Editorial policies

Editorial decisions at FTI Publishers are made by independent editors on the basis of a manuscript's originality, quality, clarity and relevance to the journal's scope. The publisher's business interests, including payment of fees, never influence these decisions.

Each journal has its own editorial board, listed on the journal's page.
Editors do not handle manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Their own submissions are handled by another editor and reviewed in the usual way.
Appeals: authors may appeal a decision within 30 days by writing to the journal with a reasoned explanation. Appeals are considered by a member of the editorial board who was not involved in the original decision.

Peer review policy

All research articles and reviews undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent experts. Neither authors nor reviewers know each other's identity.

Reviewers are chosen for their expertise and must declare any conflict of interest.
Manuscripts are confidential. Reviewers may not share them or upload them to public AI tools.
Reviewers assess originality, methods, results, conclusions, ethics and clarity, and recommend accept, revise or reject.
The final decision rests with the editors, not the reviewers.

See the full peer review process.

Authors' rights and licence

Authors keep the copyright of their work. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which lets anyone share and adapt the work for any purpose, provided the original authors and source are credited.

Authors grant FTI Publishers a non-exclusive licence to publish the article and its metadata.
Authors may reuse their article in any way, including in theses, books and teaching.
Authors must obtain permission to reuse third-party material, such as figures from other publications.

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest exists when financial or personal relationships could influence, or appear to influence, a person's judgement. Authors, reviewers and editors must declare any such interests.

Authors include a conflict-of-interest statement in every manuscript, even if there is none to declare.
Reviewers decline an invitation if they have a conflict with the authors or the work.
Editors step aside from manuscripts in which they have a conflict.

Plagiarism policy

What we mean by plagiarism. Presenting someone else’s words, ideas, data or images as your own without proper credit. This includes copying text without quotation marks and citation, close paraphrasing, reusing figures without permission, self-plagiarism (recycling your own published text without citing it), duplicate or redundant publication, and submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal at a time.

How we check. Every submission is screened with similarity-detection software before it is sent for peer review, and again before publication if it has changed substantially. Editors read the report in full; a similarity score alone never decides the outcome. As a guide, an overall similarity above about 15% or more than 5% from a single source leads to a detailed review by the editor. Properly quoted and cited text, standard methods descriptions and reference lists are taken into account.

Minor overlap (for example, uncited phrases or close paraphrasing): the authors are asked to revise and cite correctly.
Substantial plagiarism before publication: the manuscript is rejected, and the authors may be barred from submitting to FTI journals for a period decided by the editors.
Plagiarism found after publication: handled using COPE guidance. Depending on its extent, we publish a correction or retract the article, and may inform the authors’ institutions.

Authors’ responsibilities. Authors confirm on submission that the work is original, that all sources are cited, and that permission has been obtained for any reused material. Text produced with generative AI must be disclosed and checked by the authors, who remain fully responsible for its accuracy and originality. Concerns about possible plagiarism can be sent confidentially to contact@ftipublishers.com.

Protection of research participants

Research involving people, human data or tissue, or animals must follow recognised ethical standards, including the Declaration of Helsinki.

Authors state the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the approval number.
Clinical trials must be registered in a public registry before enrolment.
Animal studies should follow the ARRIVE guidelines.
Extra care is required for research involving children or other vulnerable groups.

Data availability

Research articles include a data availability statement explaining where the underlying data can be found, or why it cannot be shared. We encourage authors to deposit data and code in public repositories and to cite them in the article.

Corrections, retractions and expressions of concern

We follow COPE guidance to keep the scholarly record accurate.

Correction: published when an error affects part of an article but not its overall findings.
Retraction: published when findings are unreliable or there is serious misconduct. The article remains online, clearly marked as retracted.
Expression of concern: published while an investigation is under way.

Every notice is linked to the original article. To report a concern, email contact@ftipublishers.com.

Self-archiving policy

Authors may deposit any version of their article (preprint, accepted manuscript or published version) in institutional or subject repositories, on personal websites or on academic networks, immediately and without embargo. Please cite the original publication and link to its DOI.

Use of artificial intelligence

Authors must disclose any use of generative AI in their research or writing; AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Reviewers may not upload manuscripts to public AI tools. FTI Publishers uses automated tools to support checks, but people make every editorial decision. See publication ethics.

Advertising policy

Our journals do not currently carry advertising. If we accept advertising in future, it will be clearly labelled, kept separate from editorial content, and will never influence editorial decisions.

Privacy policy (GDPR)

Data controller: UAB FTI Publishers, V. Nagevičiaus g. 3, LT-08237 Vilnius, Lithuania (EU). Contact: contact@ftipublishers.com.

What we collect: names, email addresses, affiliations, ORCID iDs and the content of submissions, reviews and messages.
Why: to manage submissions, peer review, publication, membership and payments, and to answer enquiries.
Legal basis: performance of a contract and our legitimate interest in running the journals (GDPR Article 6(1)(b) and (f)), or your consent where we ask for it.
Sharing: only with service providers we use to run the journals, such as hosting, email and payment processing. Card details are handled by our payment provider and are never stored by us.
Retention: for as long as needed for the purposes above and to meet legal obligations. Published author names remain part of the scholarly record.
Your rights: access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection and data portability. You may complain to the State Data Protection Inspectorate of Lithuania (VDAI).
Cookies: see our cookie policy.

Cookie policy

What cookies are. Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies, such as your browser's local storage, work in the same way. Some last only until you close the browser (session cookies); others stay until they expire or you delete them (persistent cookies).

Cookies we use. This website does not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not sell or share browsing data.

Strictly necessary: we store your cookie choice in your browser so that we do not ask again. This is needed for the site to work and does not require consent.
Optional third-party content: the map on our Contact page is provided by Google Maps, which may set its own cookies. It loads only if you choose "Allow optional content" or press "Show map".
Fonts: our fonts are delivered by Google Fonts, which does not set cookies but receives your IP address to send the font files.

If we add analytics in the future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent before any analytics cookies are set.

Your choices. You can change your choice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). Blocking strictly necessary storage may mean the cookie notice appears on every visit.

Questions. Contact contact@ftipublishers.com.

Refund and cancellation policy

No fee is charged at submission. The article processing charge (APC) is invoiced only after acceptance.
Authors may withdraw a manuscript free of charge before peer review starts.
A withdrawal charge of €499 applies if a manuscript is withdrawn after peer review has started or after substantial editorial work, because reviewers and editors have already given their time. This charge does not apply if the manuscript is rejected, or if it is withdrawn because of a delay or error on our side.
If an APC has been paid and the article is not published for reasons within our control, we refund it in full within 14 days.
APCs are not refunded after publication, or if an article is retracted because of author misconduct.
Refund requests: contact@ftipublishers.com.

Terms and conditions

1. About these terms. This website, ftipublishers.com, and the journals published on it are operated by UAB FTI Publishers, V. Nagevičiaus g. 3, LT-08237 Vilnius, Lithuania ("FTI Publishers", "we"). By using the website or submitting a manuscript, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the website. We may update these terms; the version published here applies from the date it is posted.

2. Using the website. You may use the website for lawful purposes only. You must not try to gain unauthorised access to it, disrupt it, upload harmful code, or use automated tools in a way that overloads it. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of any files you send us.

3. Submissions. By submitting a manuscript (a "contribution"), you confirm that:

you have the right to submit it and all co-authors have agreed;
the work is original, has not been published before and is not under review elsewhere;
it does not infringe anyone's rights, including copyright and privacy, and you have permission for any third-party material;
you will follow our publication ethics and the author guidelines.

Editorial decisions are made by the journal's editors and reviewers and are final, subject to our appeals process.

4. Fees and payment. No fee is charged at submission. An article processing charge (APC) is invoiced to the corresponding author only after acceptance and must be paid by the date on the invoice. Paying the APC does not guarantee publication if serious problems are found later, for example misconduct. Withdrawal charges and refunds are explained in our refund and cancellation policy. Prices do not include VAT where it applies.

5. Copyright and licence. Authors keep the copyright in their articles. Published articles are open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence, so anyone may share and adapt them with proper credit. The website design, the FTI Publishers name and logo, and other content not covered by an article licence belong to UAB FTI Publishers and may not be reused without our permission.

6. Availability of the website. We work to keep the website accurate and available, but it is provided "as is". We do not guarantee that it will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free, and we may change, suspend or withdraw any part of it.

7. Links to other websites. Links to other websites are provided for convenience. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices.

8. Liability. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from use of the website or the content published on it. Articles express the views of their authors, not of FTI Publishers. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, or your rights as a consumer under EU and Lithuanian law.

9. Your responsibility. If you breach these terms, for example by submitting material that infringes someone else's rights, you are responsible for any claims and losses that result.

10. Privacy and cookies. How we use personal data is explained in our privacy policy and cookie policy.

11. General. If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we do not lose it. These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania, and disputes are handled by the courts of Lithuania, without affecting any mandatory consumer protections where you live.

12. Contact. contact@ftipublishers.com, +370 644 57550.

Last updated: 2026. These policies should be reviewed by a legal professional before launch.