In order to strengthen the academic integrity construction of Journal of South China University of Technology(Natural Science Edition), standardize the process of writing, editing and publishing papers, resist academic misconduct and provide correct suggestions when discovering the existence of academic misconduct in authors’ articles, this journal forms the ethics instructions for authors, peer reviewers and editors according to the Copyright Law, publication ethics at home and abroad, CY/T 174—2019 Academic Publishing Specification-Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals and other relevant provisions, for the reference of contributors. For more details, please refer to the official website of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://www.publicationethics.org/) and publication ethics standards formulated by European Association of Science Editors (EASE), National News Publication Bureau and other institutions.
Once the contributed paper is confirmed to have violated academic ethics, the paper will not be accepted. In addition, the Editorial Office of the journal reserves the right to retract papers that have been accepted and published if they are later confirmed to be in violation of academic ethics.
1. Publication Ethics for Authors
Authors are obliged to state that their papers do not involve classified information or any infringement of intellectual property rights.
Authors should abide by the principle of “Five Prohibitions”: the paper shall not be written by the third party; the paper shall not be submitted by the third party; the content of the paper shall not be modified by the third party; false peer reviewer information is not allowed; those without substantial academic contribution shall not sign the paper.
The cited sources should be clearly indicated in the references and a reference list is required. The institutions and individuals who provide scientific support and consultation for the paper should be listed in the footer of the first page or in the acknowledgements. Authors shall respect the revision comments of reviewers and editors and agree that the property right (including the use right of various media and media publications), exclusive right to use and exclusive agency of the copyright of their papers are granted to the Editorial Office of Journal of South China University of Technology (Natural Science Edition) after the paper is published.
Authors must refrain from the following academic misconduct:
1) Duplicate submission
It is authors’ duty to ensure the submitted paper is original (except for reviews) and without any forgery, deception or plagiarism, ensure that no paper is submitted more than once, and its content has not been published in any other journals or media in any other language, and ensure that such paper will not be submitted to other journals before receiving the rejection letter from the Editorial Office.
2) Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the most common violation of publication ethics. It refers to the intentional use of others’ works by authors without citation, acknowledgement, or the consent of the original author. Plagiarism includes direct copying and rewriting of others’ works, and can involve ideas, data, images, audio, methods, text, unpublished results or the work in a whole. No plagiarism is allowed.
3) Inappropriate authorship
Authorship is limited to those who have made significant contributions to the research work; the significant contributors shall be listed as the co-authors or corresponding authors, those who have made important contributions shall have their authorship, and others participating in the research work shall be listed in the acknowledgements. It is not allowed to add unreasonable authors at will. The contributors shall obtain the authorization and consent of the co-authors before submitting the manuscript, and a copyright authorization letter signed by all the authors shall be submitted.
4) Repeated publication
Authors shall not intentionally republish published papers or submit published data as original material, except when they explicitly inform the Editorial Office and quote moderately.
5) Forgery and falsification
Forgery means that data or conclusions are not obtained from experiments or studies, and funds, review opinions and relevant information are not actually obtained, but are forged and falsified by the author. In any case, the researchers shall not make a forgery.
2. Publication Ethics for Peer Reviewers
Ensure scientific and accurate review of manuscripts, and objective and fair evaluation. Strictly keep the contents of the review confidential and respect the author’s research results. Avoid manuscripts that involves a financial interest.
1) Reviewers should: adhere to the principles of fairness, impartiality, confidentiality and timeliness and use their own professional knowledge and abilities to review the originality, scientificity and practicability of the manuscript; give a fair evaluation on whether the research methods are appropriate, scientific research design is reasonable, results and conclusions are accurate and whether there is a breach of confidence so as to help editors to judge the selection of manuscripts; and provide detailed comments on the existing problems of the manuscripts to help the author improve the quality of the articles.
2) Reviewers shall give an academic evaluation for the manuscripts, instead of personal comments and personal attack. The selection of manuscripts is not affected by the ethnicity, gender, religion, faith or status, seniority or authority of the contributor. Reviewers shall clarify their own views clearly with sufficient arguments and facts.
3) Reviewers shall fill in the review comments on the reviewed manuscripts on time and give feedback to the Editorial Office within the specified time. If the review cannot be completed on time, the situation should be explained and the manuscript should be returned. Other reviewers can be recommended. Without the consent of the Editorial Office, the reviewers shall not entrust their own students, colleagues and others to review the manuscripts on their behalf.
4) All review opinions and information shall be kept confidential and shall not be used for personal purposes, circulated or discussed to others. The data, opinions and conclusions in the reviewed manuscript shall not be used or published. If needed, the consent of the author shall be obtained.
5) During the review process, if the reviewer finds that there are the same or similar contents between the reviewed paper and published works, he/she shall explain the similarity or duplicity between the submitted paper and published works and data to the author as per his/her knowledge and expertise. The reviewer is obliged to report the situation to the Editorial Office in case of any manuscript that has been reviewed before.
6) Reviewers shall not review articles with conflict of interest incurred by competition or cooperation with authors, institutes or companies.
7) When the reviewer finds that the research under review is similar to his/hers, he/she shall not suppress or disparage the author’s paper by taking advantage of the review.
3. Publication Ethics for Editors
Strictly implement the relevant national laws and regulations and abide by the academic publication ethics and norms. Handle all manuscripts in a timely and fair manner, respect the author’s research results and respect the opinions of reviewers. Keep the information of authors and reviewers confidential and avoid manuscripts of acquaintances.
1) Editors shall be responsible for all editorial stages of the journal, including continuously promoting the development of the journal and ensuring the high-quality and on-time publication of manuscripts. Editors shall abide by the relevant policies formulated by Journal Editorial Board and follow the relevant laws and regulations concerning defamation, infringement and plagiarism to select articles.
2) Editors shall keep the authenticity of the review records and have the obligation to keep and keep confidential the materials in each stage of review and revision. In addition to the provision of necessary information for corresponding authors, reviewers and members of Editorial Board according to the circumstances, editors and members of Editorial Office shall not disclose any information related to the submitted paper to others.
3) Select manuscripts fairly. Acceptance or rejection of articles can only be based on the originality, importance, clarity and conformity with the purpose and scope of the journal.
4) Editors shall respect the author’s point of view and writing style,and any critical changes made to the paper involving academic points of view should be agreed to by the author.
5) Editors shall eliminate all business needs and interest exchanges that are detrimental to academic ethics.
6) Editors are obliged to investigate and communicate about academic misconduct. Once an academic ethics appeal for the submitted or published paper occurs, the editor must take effective measures. If necessary, corrections, clarifications, retractions or apologies shall be published in public in a timely manner. Editors are obliged to hold authors and reviewers responsible for their improper behaviors.
7) Editors shall ensure that the information submitted by the author shall not be used for the editor’s or others’ research and ensure that the identity of reviewers and other relevant members of the Editorial Office is protected during the blind review process.
8) Editors shall encourage academic debate and have the obligation to respond to the authors’ different opinions against those of the reviewers. Editors shall consider the publication of negative results obtained by scientific and rigorous research to avoid repetition of unnecessary research by other scholars.
9) Editors are responsible for avoiding academic misconduct such as duplicate submission and repeated publication and shall check and review the newly submitted papers and the papers to be published.
10) Editors are obliged to remind authors of possible copyright and intellectual property issues after a change of authorship, affiliation and order of authors.
11) Editors shall ensure that the evaluation of papers is fair and reasonable. In case of any conflict of interest or cooperative relationship with authors, institutes or companies due to competition or cooperation, the editor must propose to replace the reviewer, and the editor-in-chief or other members of the Editorial Board shall be responsible for the review of papers.