Standard Article: Authors must present accurate, original articles about their work processes and provide objective discussions. Data must be displayed accurately in the article. Articles must contain sufficient details and references to enable others to replicate or build upon the research. Deliberate false or inaccurate statements constitute unethical and unacceptable behavior.
Access to Data: When requested by the editor, authors must be prepared to provide access to raw data related to the review process.
Authenticity and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure their work is completely original. Any use of others' work or words must be properly quoted or cited.
Multiple Publication: Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or publication. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is unethical and unacceptable.
Source Recognition: Authors must always acknowledge the work of others. Publications that have influenced the nature of the submitted article must be properly cited.
Authorship: Authorship should be limited to those who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported research. All significant contributors must be listed as authors. Others who have participated in substantive aspects should be acknowledged as contributors. The corresponding author must ensure all appropriate co-authors are included, all have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript, and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Conflict of Interest: All authors must disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed.
Errors in Published Works: When authors discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work, they must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate to retract or correct the manuscript.
Editors' Responsibilities
Fairness: Editors must evaluate manuscripts based on their intellectual content without regard to authors' race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political views.
Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher.
Conflict of Interest: Unpublished material from submitted manuscripts must not be used in editors' own research without the authors' written consent.
Publication Decisions: Journal editors are responsible for deciding which articles to publish. Editors may consult with the editorial board and use available tools to address copyright infringement and plagiarism. They may discuss manuscripts with other editors and reviewers to make informed decisions.
Manuscript Review: Editors must ensure each manuscript is evaluated for originality. They must manage and use reviewers fairly and wisely, explain the peer review process to authors, and indicate which journal sections undergo peer review. Editors must select appropriate reviewers with sufficient expertise while avoiding conflicts of interest.
Reviewers' Responsibilities
Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Reviewers assist editors in making editorial decisions and, through editorial communication with authors, can help authors improve their manuscripts.
Promptness: Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review a manuscript or cannot provide a timely review must notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.
Objectivity: Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers must express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Confidentiality: Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers must avoid conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any author, company, or institution connected to the manuscript.
Source Recognition: Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument has been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper.