About the Journal

The Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach (FinS) has been published quarterly since 1995. Until 2008, it was known as Finance, Banking, Accounting and was part of the Research Papers of Wroclaw Academy of Economics (now Wroclaw University of Economics and Business). Initially, articles were published in both Polish and English, but since 2018, all issues have been exclusively in English.

We place a strong emphasis on supporting Young Scholars who are committed to developing their academic publishing skills. Our goal is to foster well-motivated studies with a solid theoretical foundation, robust empirical research, and a well-structured approach.

One of our core objectives is to provide comprehensive support throughout the publication process. From the moment a paper is submitted, we dedicate time and resources to guiding Young Scholars, offering valuable feedback and mentorship to help them refine and enhance their work.

The journal scored 40 points on the Ministry of Science and Higher Education journal evaluation list of December 2021.

New Resource for Authors: Best Practices for Empirical Research!

This Best Practices Guide for Empirical Research aims to support authors in structuring and enhancing their manuscripts.

This guide provides valuable insights on how to:

Formulate clear research questions and hypotheses
Conduct a systematic literature review
Define and justify methodology, data collection, and sample selection
Present and discuss empirical results effectively
Strengthen contributions to existing literature

Following these best practices will help ensure clarity, coherence, and academic rigor in your research. Check out the full guidelines here: Best Practices for Empirical Research.pdf

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us! We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Stay connected & keep publishing with us!
Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach Editorial Team

Publishing Ethics

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach (FinS) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. The Journal follows the principles and recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including the COPE Core Practices, COPE Guidelines for Editors, Reviewers and Authors, and internationally recognized standards of responsible scholarly publishing.

These principles apply to all parties involved in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board, and the Publisher.

The Journal does not tolerate any form of publication misconduct and undertakes appropriate actions whenever ethical concerns arise.

Adherence to COPE Core Practices

Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach adheres to the COPE Core Practices in the areas of:

authorship and contributorship,
complaints and appeals,
conflicts of interest,
data and reproducibility,
ethical oversight,
intellectual property,
journal management,
peer review processes,
post-publication discussions and corrections,
allegations of misconduct.

Research Integrity and Scientific Misconduct

The Journal is committed to safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record.

Publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

plagiarism;
self-plagiarism and inappropriate text recycling;
duplicate or redundant publication;
data fabrication;
data falsification;
image manipulation;
citation manipulation;
peer-review manipulation;
authorship manipulation;
undeclared conflicts of interest;
unethical research practices;
misuse of artificial intelligence tools.

All allegations of misconduct are investigated in accordance with COPE guidance and relevant COPE flowcharts.

Depending on the severity of the case, the Journal may:

reject the manuscript;
suspend the editorial process;
request corrections;
issue an Expression of Concern;
retract the publication;
notify relevant institutions, funders, or other authorities.

All investigations are conducted fairly, confidentially, and without discrimination.

Publication Policy

The Editorial Committee accepts only original scientific articles addressing the scope of the Journal. All manuscripts are submitted through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform and are subject to a double-blind peer review process involving at least two independent reviewers.

The Journal follows an Open Access model and publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence.

All submitted manuscripts are screened using the iThenticate plagiarism detection software. Manuscripts with an unacceptable level of similarity or evidence of plagiarism may be rejected at any stage of the editorial process.

The Journal opposes all forms of unethical publishing behaviour, including plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, guest authorship, ghost authorship, citation manipulation, data fabrication and data falsification.

The ethical principles presented below apply to all participants in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, members of the Editorial Board and the Publisher. Publication policy of the journal Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach summary

The Editorial Committee accepts only original scientific articles addressing the range of problems outlined in the section ”Aims and Scope”.
Articles are submitted using the Open Journal Systems as described in the section ”Submissions”.
The articles accepted for publication by the Committee are subject to the review procedure explained in the section ”Reviews”.
The published articles can be accessed in accordance with the principles listed in the section ”Open Access”. The articles are available on the website of the Dolnośląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa based on the licence Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). The open access policy has been noted in Sherpa Romeo
The anti-plagiarism policy is applied as shown in the following flowchart. The submitted articles are verified using the iThenticate anti-plagiarism system. The manuscript is rejected if the similarity index exceeds 30%.
The applied policy counteracts unacceptable authorship practices, such as: guest authorship, ghost authorship, anonymous authorship, piracy, reusing text from one’s own previous publications, in accordance with the following guidelines:

The publisher follows the principles regarding the Protection of Personal Data – General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Detailed regulations concerning publication of a manuscript are described in the guidelines on the authorship and the protection of personal data.

Duties and responsibilities of the Publishers

Responsibilities

Publish and share information about the principles of cooperation with all the parties involved in the editorial process.
Define the principles of cooperation with the Editorial Committee of the journal and support of the editorial process.
Observe the rules connected with independence of the Editorial Committee of the journal, the ethics of the publishing process and the reliability of the reviews.
Observe the ethical principles formulated by COPE for publishers and editors of academic journals.
Publish the required and justified revisions, explanations and corrections.
Comply with publication deadlines.
Update the principles of the journal’s publication in response to ongoing changes in its environment.

In cases of suspected or proven scientific inaccuracy, dishonest publication and plagiarism, the Publisher, in close collaboration with the Editorial Committee, will undertake all appropriate actions in order to explain the arising situation and introduce necessary corrections into the given article. This involves an immediate publication of an erratum or, in extreme cases, withdrawing the problematic article from publication.

Duties and responsibilities of the Editors

Duties

Members of the committee are competent in the fields of scientific research defined in the ”Aims and Scope” section of the journal.
Information about the members of the Editorial Committee and the Scientific Council are available on the journal’s website under ”Editorial Team”.
Members of the Editorial Committee make their independent decisions about the preliminary acceptance or rejection of the article in line with the rules listed in the section ”Submissions”.
The Editorial Committee makes independent decisions about appointing reviewers in accordance with the rules described in the ”Reviews”.
The Editorial Committee makes independent and final decisions about the article’s publication.
The Editorial Committee follows the ethical rules formulated by COPE for publishers, editors, reviewers and authors.
The Editorial Committee takes responsibility for the content published on the journal’s website and its updates.

Responsibility

The Editor of the journal is responsible for making a decision as to which submitted articles should be published, and moreover takes full responsibility for all the materials published in the journal. When making these decisions, the Editor acts in line with the publishing policy assumed by the Editorial Committee, as well as the legal requirements concerning libel, infringement of copyright and plagiarism. The Editor may consult other editors and reviewers when making the final decision about the publication of articles. The Editor should care about maintaining the reliability of scientific input, and prevent the infringement of intellectual and ethical standards due to business reasons. They should also facilitate the publication of corrections, explanations and apologies, should such need arise.

Editorial Independence

Editors make publication decisions independently and exclusively on academic grounds.

Editorial decisions are based on:

scientific merit;
originality;
methodological rigor;
clarity and quality of presentation;
contribution to the literature;
relevance to the Journal’s aims and scope.

Commercial considerations, sponsorship, institutional interests, advertising revenue, or personal relationships shall not influence editorial decisions.

Fairness and Non-Discrimination

Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on their academic merit, regardless of:

nationality;
ethnicity;
gender;
age;
religion;
disability;
sexual orientation;
political beliefs;
institutional affiliation.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The Journal promotes diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the editorial and peer-review process and seeks to ensure respectful treatment of all participants in scholarly communication.

Honesty

The Editor should evaluate manuscripts only from the viewpoint of their intellectual content, and not the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origins, citizenship or political preferences of the author/s. The Editor will not disclose any information about the submitted manuscript to any parties other than the author/s, reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some cases, also members of the respective Editorial Committee.

Confidentiality

The Editor and the Editorial Committee can disclose information about the submitted article only to its author/s, reviewers and potential reviewers, other editorial consultants and the publisher, according to the specific case.

Disclosure of information, conflicts of interest, and other issues

The Editor will follow the COPE Guidelines when making decisions regarding the withdrawal of articles and introducing corrections in the articles published in the journal Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach. The unpublished material revealed in the submit-ted manuscript cannot be used for the purposes of the Editor’s own research without the explicit written consent of the author. Privileged information and ideas obtained in the way of mutual exchange must be treated as confidential and are not to be used for personal benefit.

The Editor guarantees that any advertisement, reprint and other commercial revenue will not influence editorial decisions made. The Editor should aim at providing an honest and appropriate reviewing process.

The Editors should abstain from considering manuscripts which create a conflict of interests resulting from competition, cooperation or any other relations and connections with any of the authors, companies or (possibly) institutions linked with the articles. In such cases they can ask another member of the Editorial Committee for their consideration of the manuscript. The Editors should request that all their collaborators disclose any relevant conflcts of interest, and publish corrections if any conflicting interest were revealed following the publication.Should this be required, other appropriate measures should be taken, such as rejecting the manuscript.

Engagement and research collaboration

The Editors should protect the integrity of the published text, and when necessary, introduce corrections or question any suspicious or alleged inappropriate conduct of research. They should also point out unreliable reviewers and editorial misdemeanors. The Editor should undertake the appropriate actions in cases of reported ethical complaints regarding a submitted manuscript or published article.

Use of Artificial Intelligence by Editors

Editors must not use generative AI systems in a manner that compromises the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.

Editorial responsibility and decision-making always remain with human editors.

Duties and responsibilities of the Reviewers

The process of reviewing work for the journal Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach is carried out in the system of a double-blind review, and every submitted article is subject to at least two reviews.

Contribution to editorial decisions

By providing a review, the Reviewer makes an important contribution to the process of evaluating submitted material. A written review helps the Editor with making correct editorial decisions, and the author – through the editorial input – can improve the article. Mutual evaluation constitutes a vital element of formal scientific communication and provides the basis for a research method. Apart from the certain ethics-related duties described below, reviewers are generally asked to treat both the authors and their work in the same way as they would wish to be treated themselves, and observe the rules of good reviewing practices.

Professionalism and timeliness

COPE recommends that every invited reviewer who acknowledges not having the specialist knowledge necessary to review the subject matter presented in the manuscript, or is aware of being unable to meet the review deadline, should immediately notify the Editor in order that alternative reviewers can be found.

In cases when, due to changing circumstances, the reviewer is unable to meet the conditions of the original review contract or require an extension of the deadline for submitting the review, the Editorial Committee should be immediately informed. When refusing to review the article, the reviewer can suggest other persons for these purposes, on the basis of their professional knowledge and not any personal preferences.

Confidentiality

All the manuscripts sent for review should be treated as private documents. Reviewers are not allowed to share reviews and any information about the article, nor directly contact the author/s without the Editor’s permission.

Any unpublished material disclosed in the submitted manuscript cannot be used by the reviewer in his/her own research without the clear written consent on the part of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained in the way of a mutual assessment must be treated as confidential and cannot be used for personal gains.

Objectivity

Reviews should be objective, constructive, evidence-based, and free from personal criticism.

Ethical Vigilance

Reviewers should notify editors of any suspected:

plagiarism;
duplicate publication;
unethical research conduct;
data manipulation;
image manipulation;
authorship concerns;
conflicts of interest.

Sensitivity on ethical issues

Reviewers should be sensitive to any potential ethical problems arising in the manuscript, and point them out to the Editor, including any relevant resemblance or duplication regarding the reviewed article and any other publications of which the reviewer has any personal knowledge. Each statement that an observation, education and argument had been previously reported, should be accompanied by an appropriate citation.

Standards of objectivity and conflicting interests

Reviewing should be performed in an objective way. Reviewers should be aware of any possible personal bias, and bear it in mind when reviewing the manuscript. It is inappropriate to express any personal criticism of the author/s. Reviewers should clearly state their opinions, justifying them with appropriate arguments.

Reviewers should consult the Editor before agreeing to review an article containing a potential conflict of interests resulting from competition, collaboration or any other connections with any authors, companies, and institutions linked with the manuscripts.

If a reviewer suggest to the author to include citations from their own ( or collaborators’) works, it has to be due to authentic scientific reasons and not related to a wish to increase the reviewer’s number of citations or increasing the public visibility of their (or collaborators’) work.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers should identify the respective published works which were not cited by the author/s. Any statement that an observation, deduction or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. The reviewer should also draw the Editor’s attention to any significant similarities or duplication of the reviewed manuscript and any other published data of which they has have knowledge.

Disclosure and conflict of interests

Privileged information and concepts obtained in the way of mutual assessment have to be treated as confidential and must not be used for personal gains. Reviewers should not undertake a review of manuscripts in relation to which exists a conflict of interests related to competition, collaboration or any other links, or connections with any of the authors, companies and institutions related to the submission. According to the COPE guidelines, in cases of suspected undisclosed conflict of interests in the submitted manuscript, a reviewer is obliged to inform the editors about this fact. It is necessary to obtain a reviewer’s declaration about the absence of the conflict of interests before the publication of the article.

Exposing plagiarism

According to the COPE guidelines, in cases of the suspicion of a redundant (duplicated) publication or a suspected plagiarism, as well as a suspected fabrication of data in the submitted manuscript, the reviewer has the duty to inform the Editor about this fact.

The reviewers are obliged to address specifically the following questions:

Has the author published this study before?
Did they commit plagiarism in respect of another publication?
Was the research ethical and were the relevant permissions obtained?
Does any premise exist to indicate that the data were fabricated or manipulated in any inappropriate manner?
Did the authors declare all the significant conflicts of interests?
Is there a conflict of interests present?

Duties and responsibilities of the Authors

Originality

Authors must submit original work that has not been previously published and is not under consideration elsewhere.

Plagiarism and Text Recycling

All sources must be appropriately cited.

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and inappropriate text recycling are unacceptable.

The Journal uses iThenticate software to screen submissions.

Accuracy and Integrity

Authors must present research findings honestly, accurately, and transparently.

Fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, or deliberate misrepresentation of data are considered serious misconduct.

Authorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who made substantial contributions to:

study conception and design;
data collection;
analysis and interpretation;
manuscript preparation.

All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript.

Contributorship

The contribution of each author should be transparently disclosed.

Guest authorship, ghost authorship, honorary authorship, and anonymous authorship are unacceptable.

Change of Authorship

Any proposed changes in authorship after submission require written consent from all authors and approval by the Editorial Committee.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose all financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that may influence the interpretation of the research.

Funding Disclosure

All sources of financial support must be disclosed.

Data Availability and Reproducibility

Authors are encouraged to make research data, code, and analytical procedures available whenever possible and legally permissible.

Where data cannot be shared due to legal, ethical, confidentiality, or contractual restrictions, authors should provide an appropriate explanation.

Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, surveys, interviews, personal data, experiments, or other ethically sensitive procedures should comply with applicable legal and institutional requirements.

Authors may be required to provide documentation confirming ethical approval or informed consent.

Research Involving Human Participants

Where applicable, authors must confirm that:

informed consent was obtained;
participants' rights and privacy were protected;
personal data were processed in accordance with relevant legal requirements.

Use of Artificial Intelligence by Authors

Generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors.

Authors using AI-assisted technologies for writing, editing, image creation, data collection, coding, or analysis must disclose such use in the manuscript.

Responsibility for AI-Assisted Content

Authors remain fully responsible for:

accuracy of the content;
verification of facts, references, and data;
originality of the manuscript;
compliance with copyright requirements;
appropriate use of confidential information.

Confidentiality of Editorial Communication

Authors should treat correspondence with editors, reviewer reports, and editorial decisions as confidential unless otherwise agreed.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal editorial decisions or submit complaints concerning:

editorial procedures;
peer review;
publication ethics;
conflicts of interest;
allegations of misconduct.

Appeals must be submitted in writing and supported by appropriate evidence.

Complaints are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or another editor not involved in the original decision.

The Journal may seek guidance from COPE when necessary.

Post-Publication Discussions, Corrections and Retractions

The Journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy of the scholarly record.

Where necessary, the Journal may publish:

Errata;
Corrigenda;
Addenda;
Expressions of Concern;
Retractions.

Retractions

Retractions may be issued when:

findings are unreliable;
data have been fabricated or falsified;
plagiarism has occurred;
serious ethical violations are identified.

Expressions of Concern

Expressions of Concern may be issued when investigations are ongoing and conclusive evidence is not yet available.

All notices will be clearly linked to the original publication and remain permanently accessible.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

The Journal respects intellectual property rights and copyright regulations.

Authors retain copyright to their work under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence while granting the Publisher the right to publish and disseminate the accepted manuscript.

Alleged copyright infringements will be investigated in accordance with COPE recommendations and applicable legal regulations.

Digital Archiving and Preservation

The Journal ensures long-term preservation and accessibility of published content through institutional repositories, DOI registration, and digital archiving systems.

Published articles remain permanently accessible as part of the scholarly record.

Protection of Personal Data

Financial Sciences. Nauki o Finansach complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable legislation concerning the collection, processing, storage, and protection of personal data.

References

Ethical writing

Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE)

Open access and copyrights policy