The journal's publication ethics and error reporting are based mainly on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (COPE, 2011) and Elsevier's "Publication Ethics" statement.
Authors' Responsibilities
The reported research must be conducted ethically and responsibly and comply with all relevant legislation. Authors must take collective responsibility for their work and the content of their publications. Researchers should check their publications carefully at each stage to ensure that methods and findings are accurately reported. Authors should carefully check calculations, data presentations, citations, and evidence.
Honesty
Researchers should honestly present their results without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. Research images should not be altered misleadingly.
Researchers should endeavor to describe their methods and present their findings clearly and concisely. Researchers should follow applicable reporting guidelines. Publications should provide sufficient detail to allow replication of experiments by other researchers.
Authors should alert the editor immediately if they detect an error in any submitted, accepted, or published work. Authors should cooperate with the editors to correct or retract as necessary.
Authors should accurately present the work of others in quotations and citations. Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work.
Transparency
All authors must agree to be listed and approve the submitted and accepted versions of the publication. Any changes to the author list must be approved by all authors, including those removed from the list. The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors, keep co-authors informed, and involve them in important decisions about the publication.
Reporting Standards
All authors should read and be familiar with the reported work and ensure that publications follow the principles set out in these guidelines. In most cases, authors are expected to take joint responsibility for the integrity of the research and its reporting; however, if authors take responsibility for only certain aspects of the research and its reporting, this should be indicated in the publication.
Authors should work with the editor or publisher to correct their work promptly if errors or omissions are identified after publication.
Authors of original research reports should accurately account the work done and objectively discuss its significance. The underlying data must be accurately presented in the paper. A paper should include sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly false statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Data Access and Storage
Authors may be asked to provide raw data of their work with their manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if possible. In any case, authors ' ability to protect the confidentiality of contributors and legal rights to proprietary data does not prevent their publication.
Authenticity and Plagiarism
Authors shall submit only completely original works and shall cite or quote the works and/or words of others as appropriate. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the work reported should also be cited.
Authors must comply with publication requirements that the submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be observed. Copyrighted material (e.g., tables, figures, or extensive quotations) should only be reproduced with appropriate permission and approval.
The other researchers' and the authors' work and publications should be appropriately acknowledged and cited. Primary literature should be cited where possible.
Authors should inform the editors if findings have been previously published or if multiple reports or multiple analyses of a single data set are being considered for publication elsewhere.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors must provide a statement disclosing any financial or other significant conflicts of interest that may influence the conclusions or interpretations of their papers. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed.
Submission to Multiple Journals or Simultaneous Publication
Generally, articles describing the same research should not be submitted/published in more than one journal. Submitting the same article to multiple journals constitutes unethical publishing behavior and unacceptable.
Articles published elsewhere as copyrighted material cannot be submitted. In addition, articles under review by the journal should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications.
Article Authorship
Authorship should be limited to those who contributed significantly to the reported work's conception, design, conduct, or interpretation. All significant contributors should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors are included in the list of authors. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.
Basic Errors in Published Works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his or her published work, the author must immediately notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the article.
Generative Artificial Intelligence Statement in Articles
Authors must declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing when submitting the manuscript. Generative AI and AI-enabled technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the writing. The technology should be implemented with human supervision and control. Authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI may produce seemingly authoritative output that may be inaccurate, incomplete, or biased. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the content of the work. Authorship implies responsibilities and duties that can only be attributed and performed by humans, so authors should not list or cite AI and AI-enabled technologies as authors or co-authors in the manuscript. The use of generative AI and AI-enabled technologies in scientific writing should be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the manuscript is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references.