Overview of the Editorial Process

Submission & Authorship

Submission Guidelines

The articles to be submitted must have a cover letter stating the authority of the author(s) to publish their scientific work, and the paper (or one with substantially the same content by any of the authors) has not been previously published (in any language) anywhere. It is not under simultaneous consideration by other journals. All authors of the submitted article are responsible for the content; they must have agreed to its publication, and the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all matters regarding the publication. Thus, the corresponding author must inform their co-authors throughout the status of submission, review, and production process of their article.

Authorship Criteria

The article's authorship must be limited to those who contribute significantly to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions to the development of the study should be listed as co-authors. Those who do not meet the cited criteria should be acknowledged. The contributors' sole responsibility is to determine the corresponding author and co-authors of the article submitted to the journal. Authors must ensure that anyone named in the acknowledgments agrees to be named.

Addition or Removal of Authors

The authors are entitled to request for addition or removal of an author and should be appropriately justified. In case of changing the authorship (order of listing, addition or deletion of a name, or corresponding author designation) after submission of the article, any changes will only be implemented after a receipt of signed statements of agreement between involved parties (all listed authors and the author to be removed or added).

Peer Review Process

Each article submitted to the Managing Editor must receive an acknowledgment receipt issued in correspondence to the publication process. However, the Managing Editor may decline the submitted article without review if the studies are not sufficiently novel or important to merit publication in the journal. Papers deemed unsuitable are returned to the author(s) without any review. The Managing Editor may appoint a particular Editor (with expertise in the relevant field) who can further handle the article and create an ultimate decision about its acceptance/rejection.

The reviewers must make an objective and impartial evaluation of the submitted article. They are asked to comment on the following aspects of the submitted article:

Once all the reviews have been received and considered, the Editorial Board will draft a communication letter to the author. The possible types of decisions are: accept without revision, minor revision, major revision, and reject.

Revised Manuscript Submission & Final Proofreading

Revised Manuscript Submission

When revision of an article is requested, the Authors should return the revised version as soon as possible to ensure prompt action before its acceptance for publication.

If the deadlines mentioned above are not met and no specific arrangements have been made with the Editor, the article will be treated as a new one and processed for the next issue. The final decision will be made by the Managing Editor, or in case of conflict, by the Editor-in-Chief.

Final Proofreading

The authors will receive a PDF file with the edited version of their article for final proofreading before its publication. No changes or modifications can be introduced once the article is published.

Copyright Policy & Erratum

Copyright Policy

The authors are entitled to retain their rights to the published works, such as (but not limited to): copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the published article, usage of the substance of the article in their future works, reproduce the published article for own purposes, self-archiving of the article, and additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published article with an acknowledgment to the journal.

Erratum

Any errors detected in the published materials should be reported to the Managing Editor, and the corresponding authors should send appropriate corrected material via email.

Scientific Misconduct & Other Fraud

In case of any suspicion or allegation of scientific misconduct or fraudulent research in the submitted and published article, the Editors have the right to impose sanctions on the authors, such as:

• An immediate rejection of the article
• Banning author(s) from submitting articles to the journal for a period of time
• Retracting the article
• Alerting editors of other journals and publishers
• Bringing the concerns to the author’s sponsoring or funding agencies or other appropriate authority for investigation

The journal publishes only original articles that are not issued or published elsewhere. Any multiple submissions/publications, or redundant publications (limited to re-packaging the paper in different words or data by the same authors) will be rejected. If the above is only detected after publication, the journal has the right to publish a Retraction Note.

Plagiarism Policy

The journal performs a plagiarism check on the submitted article before peer-reviewing. If plagiarism is detected, the extent of the article will be assessed. The journal uses standard software to check the plagiarism of the submitted paper. Thus, the authors will be provided with a copy of the result from the plagiarism checker. Based on the assessment, the following measures are taken:

Retraction Policy

The article will be retracted if serious errors like professional and ethical code infringements are detected. Retraction will occur if the article has defamatory or infringed others' legal rights. In many cases, all co-authors will be informed about the retraction. A Retraction Note that stipulates the reason for retraction will be linked to the original article.

Conflict of Interest

To encourage transparency, all authors, referees, and editors must declare any association that poses a conflict of interest in the submitted article without impeding the publication. Any contractual or proprietary considerations are not permitted, which can affect the publication of the information in the submitted paper. Potential conflicts of interest occur when an author, editor, or reviewer has financial, personal, or professional interests in the publication, which might influence their scientific judgments.

Editors should consider whether any area of conflict of interest is relevant to them and the article under consideration. Editor who believes the conflict will impede an impaired judgment should disclose the nature of the conflict and decline the submitted paper. Reviewers are encouraged to consider whether any of the above-mentioned applies to them and must declare any competing interests. If they feel they cannot review an article because of competing interests, they must inform the Editorial Board.

Ethical Policies

The journal is committed to upholding its highest publication ethics standards against publication malpractice. Any case of non-conformity to the ethical regulations of the journals is considered seriously. All parties involved in the act of publishing (the authors, Editorial Board, reviewer, and publisher) are necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior.

Appeals and Complaints

Appeals

Authors who want to appeal the rejection of their submitted article must contact the journal's Managing Editor. The appeals should refer to the paper's scientific content and its suitability for publication. The Managing Editor will make the final decision.

Complaints

The authors who want to complain about the journal must first contact the Managing Editor. If the Managing Editor cannot resolve the complaint, the authors can directly contact the Editor-in-Chief.