As a reader with SciOpen, you can expect:

• We provide you with a variety of high quality journals to further your research and progress in your chosen field.
• We support you to find, collate, and consume the information that you need to strengthen your research output.
• We help you explore the broadest and deepest multidisciplinary collection of online resources covering Natural Science, Engineering and Technical Science, Medical Science, and Humanities and Social Science.

In addition, we are an open access platform that provides you with free full-text browsing, downloading, and sharing.

As an author with SciOpen, you can expect:

• A wide range of journals suitable for all levels—from sound research to groundbreaking discoveries.
• A fast and efficient service with high quality and attention to every detail.
• The support of editors and reviewers who add value by working closely with you to improve your papers.
• A wide and established readership which ensures that your research reaches as much audience as possible.

Various ways to maximize the impact of your article.

Authors are encouraged to value the opportunity for publication and uphold the esteemed reputation of SciOpen journals. Before submitting their work, authors should carefully read and adhere to the following responsibilities

Authorship

Authors should be limited to those who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, execution, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the paper, and contributed to drafting the paper or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content. The others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. AI or AI-assisted technology should not be listed as an author.

Please indicate one author as the corresponding author in the case of papers with multiple authors. The corresponding author should ensure that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission for publication. Besides, the corresponding author has responsibility for communication with the editorial office, overseeing the publication process and ensuring the integrity of the final document.

Any change to the author list during the editorial process should be approved by all authors, including any who have been removed. The corresponding author should put forward a written application including the consent of all authors before the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) makes final decision for the paper. It can be modified after EIC approval. Requests for a change in authorship will be evaluated and require the publication of a Correction for published papers.

Duplication, plagiarism and, originality

SciOpen only publishes original content and authors should ensure the originality of their works. Reuse of text work should be appropriately cited or quoted and permission should be obtained.

Plagiarism is not acceptable in SciOpen journals. All SciOpen submissions are checked for plagiarism by the software CrossCheck, powered by iThenticate. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript would be regarded as plagiarism and rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, an investigation or action would be taken based on the COPE principles on plagiarism.

Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. When submitting the manuscript, all authors should certify the manuscript is the original one and have not been previously published on or be under consideration for publication in other journals.

Declaration of competing interests

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial and personal relationships with other people or other substantive conflict of interest that might inappropriately influence (bias) the results of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest stage possible.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include but are not limited to financial interests (employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, grants or other funding) and non-financial interests (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, and personal beliefs).

Multiple, redundant publication

Publication of very similar papers based on the same experiment or study constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable. Authors should avoid undue fragmentation of their work, that is, unnecessarily splitting a body of work into several shorter papers.

Previous publication on a preprint server such as arXiv, bioRxiv and ChemRxiv could be considered as a subsequent publication in SciOpen journals, but authors should fully disclose the fact at the time of submission and cite the preprint in the reference. When the paper is published, authors are encouraged to link from the preprint server to the SciOpen publication to enable readers to find, access, and cite the final peer-reviewed version.

The content could be published which first appeared in an author's thesis or dissertation so long as this is the only form in which it has appeared. It should be noted in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and cited accordingly in the Reference section.

The conference paper or abstract should expand the content in order to be considered as original work. Authors should get the permission for reuse if they do not hold its copyright, and it should be cited in the Reference section before submission.

The use of AI or AI-assisted technologies

SciOpen follows the COPE position statement when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation. TUP is a member of STM, so we also encourage journals on SciOpen follow the Ethical and Practical Guidelines released by STM Generative AI in Scholarly Communications.

Authors should not list AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. TUP will monitor this development and will adjust or refine this policy when appropriate.

Authors should disclose the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies with sufficient details at submission via the cover letter. Authors should carefully review and edit the AI generative materials, and be responsible for any submitted materials containing AI technologies. Furthermore, authors should declare the use of these tools or technology and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within Method, Acknowledgement or other related sections.

Most contents published in SciOpen are Open Access, and are freely available online upon publication. As an alternative model to subscription, article processing charge (APC) is required to make the Open Access possible. Journals charge APC to cover the publishing service, allowing a sustainable service provision and development of the journal.

APC is payable when your manuscript is editorially accepted and before publication. Journal-specific APC and how to pay for it can be found on journal’s guide to authors. You can also contact the journal editorial offices for more details.

SciOpen is a professional open access resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the Tsinghua University Press (TUP) and its publishing partners, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, and identity management and expert advice to ensure each journal’s continued and optimal development by offering a range of options across all functions as Journal Layout, Production Services, Editorial Services, Marketing and Promotions, Online Functionality, etc. The whole process digital solutions are provided for publishers, from Manuscript Submission, Peer Review, Production, to Academic Promotion, Academic Evaluation. Many of project and account managers are also technologists, and they keep you up to speed on how to apply the newest platform features and how to make the best use of the existing ones.

We are open to launch new OA journals with you as your publishing partner, as well as developing existing journals with you.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to launch a new OA journal or transfer the society with the existing OA journals:

Yao Meng

Tel.:+86-8347-0574

Email: mengy@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn

Limenglu Ma

Tel.:+86-8347-0558

Email: malml@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn

For other matters, please contact us as follows:

Tel.: +86-8347-0580

Email:journals@tup.tsinghua.edu.cn

Editors are in-house editors and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) who take on an editorial role on behalf of the Publisher. The EIC is ultimately accountable for accepting or rejecting a paper. Editors should exercise their responsibilities based on the EIC or Editorial Board Members' suggestion of whether the paper needs to be modified or can be published. Editors should obey the responsibilities below.

Confidentiality and anonymity

Manuscripts should be handled in a confidential manner. No details should be disclosed to anyone without permission from the author (except the reviewers, potential reviewers, EIC, publisher or the occasion where a formal investigation into the allegations of unethical behavior is being conducted). Editors should respect the independence of the author's ideas.

TUP Journals perform Single- or Double-blind Peer Review. Editors should keep the reviewer anonymity policy which can protect the review results from the interference of authors.

Declaration of competing interests

Editors are required to declare any conflict of interests and they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts and the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

The manuscript submitted by editors themselves should be handled by other editors who have no conflict of interest. The manuscript submitted by the EIC or an EBM shall be handled and reviewed by another EIC or EBM.

Editors may not use the content in the manuscripts for their own work, and if the topic is too close, the manuscript must be handled by other editors.

Fair play and timely evaluation

Editors should treat all manuscripts fairly and timely. Editors should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regarding to ethnic, religion, nationality, gender, age, or affiliation of the authors. However, the editor may consider the history record of the previous manuscripts submitted by the same authors. Editors can directly reject the manuscript if it is not in accordance with the requirement of a specific journal in the theme, breadth, depth, and English expression.

Editors should follow up on any indications or allegations of questionable research practice timely and consider the appeals which are against editorial decisions fairly and seriously.

The use of AI or AI-assisted technologies

The manuscript before publication is a confidential document. Reviewers and editors should not upload the manuscript or any part of it to a public generative AI platform. This confidentiality requirement extends to all communication about the manuscript including any notification or decision letters as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and/or the authors.

Manuscript review is an essential stage in the process of publishing, and peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication. Reviewers have the following responsibilities.

Alertness to ethical issues

Referees should inform the editor of any similarity between the submitted manuscript and work that is already published or under consideration at other journals.

Referees should alert the editor if there is any indication of potential ethical problems including but not limited to ethical concerns regarding animal experiments or studies involving human subjects, scientific misconduct.

Confidentiality and anonymity

Referees should treat the manuscript and the review process as confidential. The content in the manuscript shall not be shared with others, nor shall reviewers use non-public information contained in a paper to advance their own research or financial interests.

Reviewers should be careful not to reveal their identity to the authors, either in their comments or in metadata for reports submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Declaration of competing interests

Referees should report to the editorial office and remove themselves from the peer-review process immediately for any personal or business relationship with the authors or partner of the paper may result in impartial evaluation.

Fair play and timely evaluation

Referees should focus on the content of the manuscript, avoid personal criticism and evaluate the quality of the manuscript, the level of the experiments and the theory objectively.

• Referees should explain and support their judgements.
• Referees should identify whether the relevant and important literature has been properly cited or not by the authors. It is absolutely forbidden guiding the authors to cite the reviewer’s own paper.

Any referee who feels unqualified to review the manuscript or prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor immediately.