Publication Ethics

1. General Statement

The journal is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to follow ethical standards in scholarly publishing.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, unethical authorship practices, conflicts of interest, or any form of research and publication misconduct.

2. Duties of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted manuscript is original, accurate, and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.

Authors must ensure that:

  1. the manuscript is their original work;
  2. all sources, data, ideas, figures, tables, and quotations from other works are properly cited;
  3. the manuscript does not contain plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or misleading information;
  4. all authors listed in the manuscript have made significant contributions to the work;
  5. all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript;
  6. any conflict of interest is clearly disclosed;
  7. funding sources, institutional support, or project sponsors are properly acknowledged;
  8. permission has been obtained for the use of copyrighted materials, confidential data, project documents, or third-party materials when required.

Authors must promptly inform the editor if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article and cooperate with the editorial team to correct or retract the article when necessary.

3. Originality and Plagiarism

Submitted manuscripts must be original and free from plagiarism.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  1. copying text, data, figures, tables, or ideas from other sources without proper citation;
  2. paraphrasing another author’s work without acknowledgement;
  3. using substantial parts of one’s own previously published work without proper citation;
  4. presenting another person’s work as one’s own;
  5. using translated material from another source without proper acknowledgement.

Manuscripts may be checked using plagiarism detection software. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism may be rejected, and published articles found to contain plagiarism may be corrected, retracted, or removed according to editorial policy.

4. Data Accuracy and Research Integrity

Authors must present research findings, project results, engineering analyses, and data accurately and honestly.

Authors must not:

  1. fabricate data or results;
  2. manipulate data, images, figures, or tables in a misleading way;
  3. omit important data that may affect the interpretation of the results;
  4. present unsupported claims or conclusions;
  5. falsify methods, procedures, project information, or references.

The editorial team may request raw data, supporting documents, calculation results, laboratory records, or other evidence when necessary to verify the integrity of the manuscript.

5. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or writing of the manuscript.

All authors must:

  1. agree to be listed as authors;
  2. approve the final version of the manuscript;
  3. agree to submit the manuscript to the journal;
  4. take responsibility for the content of the article.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements section.

Changes in authorship, including the addition, removal, or rearrangement of authors, must be approved by all authors and explained to the editor.

6. Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

Authors must not submit work that has been previously published, either in full or in substantial part, unless the submission is clearly justified and properly disclosed to the editor.

Redundant publication includes publishing the same data, analysis, or findings in multiple publications without proper citation, permission, or explanation.

7. Citation and Reference Ethics

Authors must cite relevant and reliable sources accurately.

Authors must not:

  1. cite sources that they have not read or used;
  2. include irrelevant references only to increase citation numbers;
  3. manipulate citations for personal, institutional, or journal advantage;
  4. cite false, fabricated, or non-existent references;
  5. misrepresent the content of cited sources.

References must be complete, accurate, and formatted according to the journal’s referencing style.

8. Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any conflicts of interest that may influence the publication process.

Conflicts of interest may include financial, institutional, personal, academic, professional, or project-related relationships that could affect objectivity.

Authors must disclose funding sources, sponsorship, consultancy roles, employment relationships, patents, commercial interests, or other relevant relationships connected to the submitted manuscript.

9. Duties of Editors

Editors are responsible for ensuring a fair, objective, and transparent editorial process.

Editors must:

  1. evaluate manuscripts based on academic quality, originality, relevance, clarity, and contribution to the journal scope;
  2. ensure that manuscripts are reviewed fairly and confidentially;
  3. avoid discrimination based on nationality, gender, religion, political belief, institutional affiliation, or personal background;
  4. avoid using unpublished materials from submitted manuscripts for personal advantage;
  5. protect the confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and manuscript content;
  6. make publication decisions based on the merit of the manuscript and reviewers’ recommendations;
  7. handle complaints, appeals, corrections, and ethical concerns responsibly.

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest.

10. Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers play an important role in maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal.

Reviewers must:

  1. provide objective, constructive, and timely reviews;
  2. evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly quality, technical accuracy, originality, methodology, discussion, and relevance;
  3. maintain confidentiality of the manuscript and review process;
  4. not share, copy, distribute, or use unpublished manuscript content;
  5. disclose any conflict of interest before accepting a review assignment;
  6. inform the editor if they identify plagiarism, duplicate publication, ethical issues, or major errors;
  7. avoid personal criticism of authors.

Reviewers should provide clear comments that help authors improve the manuscript.

11. Confidentiality

All submitted manuscripts are confidential documents.

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisers, or publisher, as appropriate.

Unpublished materials from submitted manuscripts must not be used for personal research or other purposes without written permission from the authors.

12. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Authors may use artificial intelligence tools for limited purposes such as grammar checking, language editing, translation, reference formatting, or manuscript organization.

However, authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, validity, and integrity of the manuscript. AI tools must not be listed as authors and must not be used to fabricate data, manipulate results, create false references, or replace the authors’ scientific and professional judgment.

Any use of AI must be clearly disclosed in an AI Use Declaration. If AI is used for data analysis, modeling, image generation, or interpretation, the tool, purpose, procedure, and validation must be explained in the manuscript.

13. Ethical Clearance and Consent

For studies involving human participants, personal data, interviews, surveys, clinical information, or sensitive information, authors must obtain appropriate ethical approval, informed consent, or institutional permission when required.

For studies involving organizations, companies, government agencies, project data, or confidential documents, authors must ensure that publication permission has been obtained when necessary.

Personal information must not be published without consent.

14. Corrections, Retractions, and Withdrawals

The journal may issue corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or article withdrawals when necessary.

A correction may be issued when an article contains honest errors that do not invalidate the main findings.

A retraction may be issued when an article contains serious ethical violations, plagiarism, fabricated data, falsified results, duplicate publication, or major errors that invalidate the findings.

Article withdrawal may be allowed before publication only for valid reasons and with approval from the editorial team.

15. Handling Publication Misconduct

When publication misconduct is suspected, the editorial team will investigate the case carefully and fairly.

Possible actions may include:

  1. requesting clarification from the authors;
  2. requesting supporting data or documents;
  3. consulting reviewers or editorial board members;
  4. rejecting the manuscript;
  5. issuing a correction or retraction;
  6. notifying the authors’ institution or relevant authority when necessary.

All ethical concerns will be handled with confidentiality, fairness, and due process.

16. Publisher’s Responsibility

The publisher supports the editorial team in maintaining publication ethics and ensuring the integrity of the scholarly record.

The publisher will not interfere with editorial decisions and will assist in handling ethical issues, corrections, retractions, and long-term access to published content.