1. General information

Thank you for choosing Criminological Activity to publish your research. The journal’s founder and publisher is the Research Institute of Criminology of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The journal publishes original, scientifically significant theoretical, empirical and comparative research on crime, its causes and consequences, crime prevention, victimology, criminal policy and criminal justice. Its scope includes law enforcement, punishment, probation and reintegration, juvenile and digital criminology, corruption, organised crime and related social processes. Research on Uzbekistan and Central Asia should explain its scholarly relevance to a wider audience.

Manuscripts are accepted in Uzbek, Russian and English. Authors are responsible for accuracy, clarity, grammar, terminology and scholarly quality.

Follow these instructions and use the official template if it is available on the journal’s website. Until it is available, an editable, single-column manuscript prepared under these requirements is acceptable. Technical, scientific or ethical deficiencies may lead to return for correction before further consideration.

2. Manuscript types and requirements

The journal considers the following manuscript types. Other types require justification of their purpose, structure and relevance. Editorials and letters undergo assessment appropriate to their type; they are not presented as original peer-reviewed research unless that procedure has been completed.

There is no single main-text word limit for all manuscript types. Length must support clear, verifiable reporting without unnecessary repetition. The editorial office may request shortening or restructuring. Use an applicable reporting guideline and provide its completed checklist where one exists. For example, an appropriate version of PRISMA applies to systematic reviews; STROBE recommendations may apply to relevant observational designs. These checklists do not replace assessment of research quality.

3. Originality and exclusive submission

The manuscript must be original, must not have been published in an identical or substantially similar form and must not be under consideration by another journal.

It must not contain plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, fabricated or falsified data, misleading image manipulation, duplicate publication, citation manipulation or other breaches of research ethics.

Posting a preprint does not normally prevent submission. Authors must disclose the preprint and provide its link or persistent identifier at submission.

4. Online submission

All manuscripts are submitted through the journal’s official online system. A file sent only by email is not an official submission unless the editorial office has specifically requested that route.

The submitting author is normally the corresponding author. This person completes all submission steps, enters complete and accurate metadata, includes everyone who meets the authorship criteria, confirms all authors’ approval of the submitted version and maintains communication during review, revision, production and post-publication follow-up.

Before completing submission, check the full file package and the confirmations listed in section 35 and the submission form.

5. Submission metadata

The submission system must contain complete and accurate information on:

• the title, abstract, keywords, manuscript language and type;
• all authors’ full names in the agreed order;
• the department, organisation, city, postal code where available and country of each affiliation;
• each author’s email and, where available, their own ORCID iD;
• the corresponding author;
• funding sources and the funder’s role;
• conflicts of interest;
• applicable ethical approval and consent information;
• the data availability statement;
• the AI use statement when disclosure is required by journal policy.

Russian- and Uzbek-language articles must also provide an English title, abstract and keywords. Additional Russian or Uzbek metadata for English-language articles is supplied under published template requirements or at the editorial office’s request. Translations must accurately match the main text. Identifying metadata belongs in the fields intended for the editorial office, not in the anonymised manuscript.

6. Files required for submission

Title page

The title page must contain:

• the manuscript type and full title;
• all authors’ full names;
• departments and organisations;
• the city, postal code where available and country of each organisation;
• each author’s email;
• each author’s ORCID iD, where available;
• the corresponding author’s name and contact details;
• acknowledgements and other information that could identify the authors.

Anonymised manuscript

The file sent for double-anonymous review must not contain:

• authors’ names, affiliations, emails or ORCID iDs;
• acknowledgements identifying people or organisations;
• document properties or hidden metadata that identify authors.

Use neutral wording when citing your previous work where possible, without removing necessary references.

Additional files

Where applicable, provide:

• original figure files and supplementary tables;
• datasets, code, computational models or technical documentation;
• video or audio files in an approved format;
• checklists for applicable reporting standards;
• permissions for third-party materials;
• ethical approval, consent or other permission documents requested by the editorial office.

Revision files

When revision is requested, provide:

• a clean revised manuscript;
• a version showing changes, where required;
• a detailed point-by-point response to every reviewer comment;
• updated supplementary files, where necessary.

Full funding, competing-interest and ethics declarations are supplied to the editorial office. In the anonymised version, identifying names may be replaced with neutral descriptions without concealing material information about ethical acceptability. Restricted documents use an agreed secure channel; they do not automatically become publishable supplements.

7. Accepted file formats

Microsoft Word. Submit the main text as one editable .docx file. Use the official template if published; otherwise follow section 9. Place tables and figures near their first mention. Separate original graphics may be requested.

LaTeX/Overleaf. Accepted where an official journal package exists or with prior editorial agreement. Submit one ZIP containing the main .tex, bibliography, required classes and styles, figures and compiled PDF. The package must allow recompilation without inaccessible dependencies.

General requirements. Use widely available, accessible formats. Anonymous filenames must not reveal authorship or sensitive information. Do not submit executable or potentially unsafe files without a specific request; agree a safe route for research code where necessary.

8. Double-anonymous peer review

The journal uses double-anonymous review: authors’ and reviewers’ identities are concealed from each other. Scientific manuscripts that pass initial screening are sent to at least two independent external specialists under the Peer Review Policy.

Authors check the text, files and metadata for identifying information. A public preprint may reveal authorship, so absolute anonymity cannot be guaranteed. Information needed to assess methods and ethics is retained; identifying details are supplied separately to the editorial office.

The Editor-in-Chief, or an authorised independent editor where interests conflict, decides on the basis of scholarly quality, reviews, author responses and policy compliance. An invitation to submit or completion of revisions does not guarantee acceptance. Editorials and letters identify the assessment actually used and must not provide a route around peer review of research findings.

9. General manuscript preparation

Use a single column at initial submission unless the published official template specifies otherwise. Until a template is published, use a readable Times New Roman font, consistent headings and spacing suitable for review; improvised publisher-style typesetting is unnecessary.

• Write clearly and coherently; number headings where appropriate.
• Supply editable text, tables and equations.
• Define terms, symbols and abbreviations and avoid repetition.
• Use consistent, preferably automatic numbering for figures, tables, equations and references.
• Include the title, abstract, keywords, main text, declarations and references, and all cited tables, figures and supplements.
• Add page numbers and, where possible, line numbers to assist reviewers.

Theoretical, qualitative and comparative legal work may use an adapted structure while retaining a clear research question, method, evidentiary basis and conclusions.

10. Article title

The title must be concise, informative, specific, consistent with the manuscript and representative of its principal scholarly contribution. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations, equations, uncommon symbols and excessively general wording.

11. Authors and affiliations

Give authors’ full names consistently. Present each affiliation as: Department, Organisation, City, Postal code where available, Country.

Designate at least one corresponding author. Provide valid ORCID iDs where available. Name spelling should be consistent across the manuscript, submission metadata, ORCID records and previous publications.

Changes to authorship after submission require a written explanation and agreement from all current, added and removed authors. Changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional, justified circumstances.

12. Abstract

The abstract is one paragraph of no more than 200 words in each required language. It accurately reflects the article and contains no unnecessary references, undefined abbreviations, unsupported claims or information absent from the manuscript. Section 2 governs types that do not require an abstract.

A research abstract covers the problem and objective, design and methods, principal findings and conclusion without internal subheadings. Include quantitative findings when appropriate to the design; for qualitative or theoretical work, summarise the main themes, arguments or conceptual contribution. Do not artificially add numbers or causal claims unsupported by the research.

13. Keywords

Provide three to ten keywords. They should accurately reflect the article, use recognised disciplinary terminology, avoid duplicating the entire title or being overly general or vague, and support indexing and discovery.

14. Research article structure

A research article usually includes:

• Introduction;
• Methods;
• Results;
• Discussion;
• Conclusions;
• Author Contributions;
• Funding;
• Ethical Approval;
• Informed Consent and Consent for Publication;
• Data Availability Statement;
• Acknowledgements;
• Conflicts of Interest;
• an AI Use Statement, where required;
• Nomenclature and Abbreviations, where needed;
• References.

15. Introduction

Place the research in its wider scholarly context, explain the problem and its importance, critically summarise existing knowledge, identify the relevant scientific, methodological or practical gap, address conflicting findings or unresolved issues where appropriate, state the objective and explain the main scholarly or practical contribution.

The introduction should not become an excessively extensive literature review or prematurely report results from later sections. Number sources in order of first citation, for example [1], [2,3] or [4–6].

16. Methods and reproducibility

Describe methods sufficiently for assessment, verification and, where possible, reproduction. Explain new procedures in detail and cite established methods. Describe access restrictions on data, code and materials and permissible alternative verification routes. Reproducibility does not require disclosure of personal data or restricted case materials.

General information

• Research question, theoretical framework, design, setting and study period.
• Data sources, units of analysis, inclusion and exclusion criteria, sample and its justification.
• Definitions of crime, recidivism, victimisation and other key measures; differences between recorded events and unrecorded crime.
• Collection, coding, cleaning and analysis procedures, missing data and quality checks.
• Software, versions, parameters, preregistration where available and deviations from the initial plan.
• Ethical grounds, data access and participant safeguards.

Quantitative, experimental and evaluation studies

• Describe sampling, recruitment, intervention and comparison, randomisation where used, time points and attrition.
• State outcomes, instrument validity, weights, clustering, confounders and statistical models, as applicable.
• Report effect sizes and uncertainty; explain sensitivity analyses and multiple comparisons.
• For administrative statistics, describe coverage, changes in recording, definitions and territorial boundaries.
• Justify identification assumptions for quasi-experiments; correlation alone does not establish causation.

Qualitative and mixed-methods research

• Describe participant or document selection, the context of interviews, focus groups and observation, and access arrangements.
• Disclose the researcher’s role, participant relationships, language, translation, recording and transcription.
• Explain the analytical approach, coding, theme development and checks on interpretation appropriate to the methodology.
• Justify the adequacy of the material and consider divergent cases; do not claim saturation without a basis.
• For mixed designs, explain where and how methods and findings are integrated; protect quotations against re-identification.

Legal, comparative and review research

• Identify jurisdictions, periods and criteria for selecting countries, legislation, decisions and other sources.
• Distinguish current rules, proposals, historical provisions, implementation and authors’ recommendations; record the version and verification date of changing sources.
• Systematic reviews report databases, search strategies and dates, selection, quality assessment and synthesis; other reviews explain source-selection principles.
• Justify the comparability of concepts and contexts; do not transfer foreign practices without analysing the conditions for their use.

Computational research and cost assessment

• For models and AI, describe data provenance, separation of training and test samples, prevention of data leakage, validation, metrics and assessment of bias across groups.
• Report code, library and model versions, parameters and random seeds where relevant.
• Spatial analyses describe aggregation and protection of precise locations of sensitive events.
• Cost assessments state the analytical perspective, period, currency, price year, cost sources, assumptions and uncertainty analysis.

Follow the Data and Reproducibility Policy and the journal’s applicable ethics policies.

17. Results

Present results clearly, objectively, concisely and logically, with quantitative information where needed. Use subsections where appropriate.

Do not unnecessarily repeat the same data in text, figures and tables. Brief interpretation is permissible, but detailed explanation and comparison with earlier research normally belong in the Discussion.

Qualitative studies present themes and supporting extracts while protecting participants. Do not selectively exclude null, negative or unexpected findings. Numbers must be consistent with the sample size and methods.

18. Figures

Cite figures in order of first appearance, number them consecutively and provide a concise, informative caption below each figure.

Figures must be clear and legible, with consistent terminology, symbols and units. Label panels with lower-case letters: (a), (b), (c). Captions explain all panels, symbols, abbreviations, lines and markers needed to understand the figure.

• Accepted formats include TIFF, JPEG, PNG, EPS, SVG and editable Office formats.
• Raster photographs should normally have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
• Line artwork should normally have a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
• All text and symbols must be legible at publication size.
• The editorial office may request editable source files.
• Authors obtain permission to reuse copyright-protected images or parts of them.
• Image manipulation that changes, conceals, creates or distorts scientific information is prohibited.
• Alt text or a short accessibility description is recommended for informative figures.

Maps, network diagrams and images of case materials are checked for risks of identifying victims, witnesses and other protected individuals. Anonymisation must not distort scientific content; disclose image provenance and significant transformations.

19. Tables

Create editable tables rather than images; cite and number them sequentially. Give each table a concise, informative title above it, clear column headings and consistent units and terminology.

Define notes, abbreviations and symbols below the table. Avoid unnecessary duplication between tables and figures. Very large tables may be provided as supplementary material.

20. Equations and mathematical expressions

Supply editable equations, number them consecutively with Arabic numerals in parentheses and refer to them as equation (1), equation (2), etc. Punctuate equations as part of the sentence and use consistent notation.

Break long equations at appropriate mathematical operators and align them consistently. Number and format definitions, theorems, lemmas, corollaries and proofs consistently where needed. Do not supply equations only as images when an editable format is available.

21. Discussion

Interpret findings in relation to the objective, compare them with earlier work, explain agreements and differences, discuss scientific and practical significance, identify strengths and limitations, avoid repeating the Results or making unsupported assumptions, and identify justified directions for future research.

22. Conclusions

Research articles require a separate Conclusions section. It should directly address the objective, summarise the main findings, identify novelty and significance, explain potential practical uses, rest on the reported evidence and avoid repeating the abstract or discussion verbatim.

Include limitations, recommendations and future directions where appropriate. Reviews, editorials, perspectives, letters and other types may incorporate conclusions in a closing section.

23. Author contributions

A contribution statement is required for every manuscript, including single-author work. Describe applicable roles using CRediT — Contributor Roles Taxonomy. Report actual contributions; there is no requirement to fill every role. Initials must identify each author unambiguously.

Adapt the following example to actual participation:

Conceptualization — X.X., Y.Y.; methodology — X.X.; software — Z.Z.; validation — X.X., Z.Z.; formal analysis — X.X.; investigation — X.X., Y.Y.; resources — Y.Y.; data curation — X.X.; writing – original draft — X.X.; writing – review and editing — X.X., Y.Y.; visualization — Z.Z.; supervision — Y.Y.; project administration — Y.Y.; funding acquisition — Y.Y. All authors have read and approved the submitted version.

CRediT does not replace the criteria in the Authorship Principles. Funding, position or provision of access does not, in itself, establish authorship. Other contributors are acknowledged with their consent.

24. Funding

Disclose all financial and material support and, where applicable, the funder’s official name and grant or project number.

Use an appropriate statement:

This research received no external funding.

This research was funded by [FULL FUNDER NAME], grant number [XXX].

Disclose the funder’s or sponsor’s role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation, approval of the final version and the decision to submit or publish.

25. Ethical approval

The need for ethics review depends on the design, data and applicable requirements, not the discipline’s name. Research involving people, personal data, restricted case materials, observation in custodial settings or other sensitive sources requires appropriate prior assessment. Absence of direct participant contact or public availability of a source does not automatically create an exemption.

Where approval by a competent body is required, obtain it before the relevant work begins. Institutional permission to access a setting does not replace ethical approval or participant consent. Retrospective approval does not, in itself, remedy the absence of required prior permission. Special materials and technologies are subject to additional applicable requirements.

Choose a statement that matches the facts:

Ethical approval: the study was approved by [COMMITTEE OR AUTHORISED BODY], reference [NUMBER], date [DATE].

Exemption from ethics review: [BODY] determined that approval was not required on the basis of [GROUNDS], document [REFERENCE, IF AVAILABLE].

Ethical approval: not applicable because [SPECIFIC NATURE OF THE WORK AND APPLICABLE BASIS].

The statement must have a verifiable basis. The editorial office may request secure verification; confidential documents and participant identifiers must not be included in public supplements.

26. Informed consent and consent for publication

Human-participant studies state how voluntary informed consent was obtained or identify the body and basis for a permissible waiver. Additional safeguards are needed for minors, victims, people in custody, convicted persons and those in dependent relationships. Administrative permission does not replace participants’ free decisions; refusal must not lead to punishment or disadvantage.

Consent to participate is distinct from consent to publish identifiable material. Publication of recognisable photographs, audio, quotations, case descriptions or other information requires appropriate separate consent under the Informed Consent Policy. Removing names may be insufficient. Unnecessary identifiers are excluded; publication must not create unjustified risk even where consent exists.

Consent to participate: voluntary informed consent was obtained from all participants before their inclusion in the study.

Consent waiver: [AUTHORISED BODY] permitted a waiver on the basis of [REASON AND DOCUMENT].

Consent for publication: written informed consent was obtained from the relevant participants for publication of the specified identifiable materials.

Consent to participate / consent for publication: not applicable [SPECIFY WHICH CONSENT AND WHY].

27. Data availability statement

Every manuscript includes a statement covering data and other resources supporting its conclusions, including reused data and code. Identify the version used, repository and persistent identifier where available, restrictions, responsible custodian and actual access procedure. Open access to an article does not mean open access to all underlying data.

Choose and, where necessary, combine suitable statements:

Open data: resources supporting the results are available in [REPOSITORY], version [VERSION], [DOI OR URL], under [LICENCE].

Controlled access: access to [RESOURCE] may be requested from [CUSTODIAN / CHANNEL] subject to [CRITERIA AND CONDITIONS]. The authors [HAVE / DO NOT HAVE] authority to permit transfer.

Restricted data: [RESOURCE] is not publicly shared because of [SPECIFIC RESTRICTION]. Verification is supported by [ANONYMISED MATERIALS, CODE, DOCUMENTATION OR ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE ROUTE].

No new datasets were created: the work is based on [PUBLISHED SOURCES / THEORETICAL ANALYSIS]. Sources are listed in the references; supplementary analytical materials [STATUS].

“Available on reasonable request” is acceptable only where a functioning mechanism exists. Do not promise disclosure beyond your authority or treat secondary analysis as research without data.

28. Acknowledgements

Acknowledge people and organisations for assistance that does not meet authorship criteria: technical or administrative support, transcription, language editing, fieldwork assistance, access to permitted archival materials and equipment. Funding and actual author contributions are disclosed in their respective sections.

Named individuals must agree to acknowledgement. Acknowledgements must not identify protected participants or imply an organisation’s endorsement of the conclusions. Remove identifying details from the anonymised version and supply them separately to the editorial office.

29. Conflicts of interest

Disclose financial, professional, institutional, personal or other interests that could influence, or appear to influence, the research, interpretation, review or publication.

Where there are no conflicts:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Where funders had no influence on the research:

The funders had no role in study design; data collection, analysis or interpretation; manuscript preparation; or the decision to publish the results.

30. Use of artificial intelligence tools

AI cannot be an author or take responsibility for a manuscript. Human authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, sources, data, code, images, conclusions and ethical compliance. Fabricating results or references, concealing plagiarism and unauthorised transfer of sensitive data to external systems are prohibited.

Generative translation, drafting or substantive text revision, coding and AI use in research analysis are disclosed under the Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools. State the tool, version or date of use, purpose, affected parts and human verification. Research applications are also described in Methods. The acceptability of synthetic data and images is assessed separately; they must not be presented as real observations.

Routine spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting checks require no separate disclosure if they do not generate or substantially alter content.

AI was used: the authors used [TOOL, VERSION / DATE] for [TASK AND PARTS OF THE WORK]. Verification included [ACTIONS]. The authors are responsible for the final material.

No use requiring disclosure: the authors did not use AI in ways requiring a separate statement under journal policy.

31. Terms, abbreviations and units

Define symbols, variables, indices and abbreviations at first use. Include a separate list where many are used. Explain legal concepts in their jurisdictional context; the same label does not establish equivalence between legal categories in different countries.

Use SI for physical quantities, with additional units in parentheses where needed. Crime rates state the denominator and period, for example recorded events per 100,000 residents per year. Specify the observational unit, age limits, territory and definitions of recidivism; do not conflate people, events, cases and convictions. Monetary measures state the currency and price year. Use consistent notation and a decimal point in numerical tables and equations.

32. Supplementary materials

Supplements may include datasets, additional figures or tables, video or audio, code, computational models, questionnaires, interview guides, coding frameworks, research protocols, reporting checklists and technical documentation.

They must relate to the manuscript and must not remove from the main article information essential to understanding its principal conclusions. Authors are responsible for the accuracy, copyright status, confidentiality, safety and ethical compliance of supplements.

Use common, accessible file formats. The editorial office may reject an unsupported, unsafe or unjustifiably large file or require its deposit in a suitable repository.

33. References

Use a numbered citation style: number sources in order of first mention and cite them as [1], [2,3] or [4–6]. List only cited sources. Direct quotations require page, paragraph or other appropriate locators. Substantive legal footnotes are permissible but do not replace bibliographic references.

Verify authorship, titles, year, volume, issue, pages or article number and source status. Use a verified standard journal abbreviation or, where unavailable, the full title. Supply a functioning DOI link in the form https://doi.org/…; never invent one. Changing web sources require a version or update date and an access date.

Personal communications and inaccessible unpublished information are mentioned in the text with the necessary permission. Preprints and public reports may be listed with clear status labels. Cite retracted work only where justified and identify the retraction. Coerced irrelevant references and artificial inflation of the journal’s citations are prohibited.

The following are illustrative formats, not real bibliographic records. Replace fields with verified details; add a DOI or URL only where available.

Distinguish current and historical versions of legislation and judicial materials. Do not disclose restricted case identifiers or information identifying protected persons; describe restricted sources to the extent permissible.

34. Sources originally published in Cyrillic

Render Cyrillic entries in Latin script. Use authors’ official Latin name forms from the source publication, ORCID or another authoritative record; otherwise apply one consistent recognised transliteration approach. Follow the transliterated title with an English translation in square brackets and identify the original language at the end, for example (In Russian) or (In Uzbek). Retain original spelling for Uzbek sources first published in Latin script.

These examples are illustrative and must not enter a real bibliography without replacement by verified details:

[14] Author AA. Profilaktika prestupnosti [Crime prevention]. Journal Title. Year;volume(issue):pages. (In Russian). DOI, if available.

[15] Author AA. Jinoyatchilikning oldini olish [Crime prevention]. Journal Title. Year;(issue):pages. (In Uzbek). DOI, if available.

35. Author declaration and submission confirmation

On completing submission, the corresponding author confirms that:

• the manuscript is original and not under consideration elsewhere;
• all listed authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria;
• all authors approved the manuscript, author order, declarations and submission metadata;
• all applicable funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, consent, data availability and AI use have been fully disclosed;
• necessary permissions for third-party material have been obtained;
• authors understand copyright, licensing, open access and publication fee conditions;
• authors will cooperate with necessary corrections, investigations and post-publication action.

Confirmation method. The journal may record confirmation through mandatory online checkboxes, a timestamped electronic declaration, a signed form or another documented electronic mechanism. A paper signature is unnecessary unless specifically requested.

36. Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal and the Institute as publisher non-exclusive rights of first publication and the activities needed to distribute, index and preserve the article and metadata. Full copyright transfer is not required.

Articles published under the current open access policy use Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0. Copying, redistribution and adaptation, including commercial use, are permitted with appropriate attribution, source and licence information and identification of changes. No false impression of endorsement by authors or the journal may be created.

Exceptions for third-party material are separately identified; authors obtain necessary permissions. Personal data and confidentiality rights remain relevant. The licence does not automatically apply retrospectively to earlier publications or to every associated dataset or code resource. See the Copyright and Licensing Policy, Open Access Policy and Repository Deposit Policy.

37. Publication fees

The established article processing charge is USD 100 per article. Through 31 December 2026 inclusive, all publication costs are covered by the budget of the Research Institute of Criminology of the Republic of Uzbekistan; authors are not charged an APC.

Where an APC applies, payment is requested only after official acceptance. Current conditions, any waivers, payment and refund arrangements, and transitional conditions at the end of institutional coverage are published on the official publication fees page. Hidden or previously undisclosed charges are not permitted.

Payment, waivers and financial support do not affect peer review or editorial decisions. The APC covers publishing services and is not payment for acceptance. Consult current conditions before submission; promises by unauthorised intermediaries do not change them.

38. Manuscript revision

When revision is requested, submit the revised manuscript, a detailed point-by-point response to every reviewer comment, a clear description of changes and a reasoned explanation of any recommendation not implemented.

Show changes through tracked changes, highlighting or the method specified by the editor. Also provide a clean version; separate identifying information to preserve anonymity. Revision does not guarantee acceptance.

39. Proofs and final publication

After acceptance, necessary technical and language editing, typesetting, metadata and reference checks and final file preparation are undertaken. Proofs are sent to the corresponding author.

Proofs primarily correct production and factual errors. Substantial changes to authorship, title, data, methods, results or conclusions require explanation and an editorial decision and may entail renewed assessment. A substantive error must not be concealed to retain a publication date.

Return proofs by the editorial deadline; request an extension in advance where necessary. The corresponding author confirms all authors’ approval of the final version.

40. Corrections and post-publication responsibilities

If a substantive error, omission or ethical issue is discovered after publication, the author promptly notifies the editorial office and cooperates with verification and correction.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal issues a correction, expression of concern, retraction or other notice under the Policy on Corrections, Retractions and Post-Publication Updates. Removal is confined to specified exceptional circumstances; scientific content must not be silently replaced.

41. Confidentiality

Names, contacts, affiliations, ORCID iDs and other information are processed for necessary editorial, publishing and technical purposes under the Privacy Statement. Public authorship and publication information is distinguished from confidential contacts, reviews and documents.

Submission does not imply consent to optional mailings. Participant data, signed consent forms, restricted case materials and access keys must not be uploaded as public supplements or sent by ordinary email without agreeing a secure procedure.

42. Contact information and document administration

Questions on preparing and submitting manuscripts are handled by the editorial office of Criminological Activity. The founder and publisher is the Research Institute of Criminology of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Following approval by the authorised leadership, these instructions take effect on publication on the official website. The page displays the date and subsequent revisions. Updates are aligned with related policies; substantial new requirements for manuscripts already submitted are explained separately to their authors.

Editorial email: info@uzkti.uz. State the manuscript title or number and your question; official submission takes place through the journal system unless another route has been agreed by the editorial office.