In order to prevent scientific misconduct, the Editorial Board of the Scientific Journals of the Maritime University of Szczecin (Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Morskiej w Szczecinie) introduced a procedure, consistent with the guidelines of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, protecting against "ghostwriting" and "guest authorship":
- If necessary Authors are required to submit their papers with a declaration of authorship specifying the contribution of individual authors (to concepts, principles, methods, etc. used in the paper) and their affiliations. The main responsibility lies with the author submitting the publication (the declaration template is available on the website of the Quarterly).
- If necessary Authors are required to provide information about funding sources and contribution of research institutions, associations and other entities to the publication.
- All detected cases of "ghostwriting" and "guest authorship" will be exposed, including notifying the appropriate entities (institutions employing the authors, scientific societies and associations, etc.).
- All detected cases of scientific misconduct are documented.
For "ghostwriting" we take the cases when someone has made a substantial contribution to a publication and thier participation as an author has not been revealed or when their role has not been described in the acknowledgments. "Guest authorship" ("honorary authorship") are situations when an author's contribution is insignificant, despite of the previous declaration.