Publishing Ethics

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Publication Ethics
Corrections
Retractions
Expression of Concern
Appeals and Complaints
Duties of Authors
Duties of Editors
Open Access and Copyright
Guest Edited Contents
Advertising Policy

Publication Ethics

Publication Ethics

Tsinghua Science and Technology (TST) is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), adhering to its principles and guidelines for addressing misconduct to safeguard the integrity of research.

In cases where there is suspicion of misconduct or alleged fraud, the journal will conduct an investigation in accordance with the principles and flowcharts provided by COPE. If valid concerns arise, the author(s) will be contacted to discuss the matter. The journal and/or publisher may then implement the following measures, among others:

1) If the manuscript is still under review, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

2) If the paper has been published online, the response will vary based on the nature and severity of the violation:

A correction may be appended to the paper,
An expression of concern may be issued alongside the paper,
Or, in extreme cases, a retraction of the paper may be warranted.

Corrections

TST acknowledges its responsibility to correct any scientifically relevant errors in published papers that may impact their scientific interpretation. Once approved by the editorial office and Editor-in-Chief (EIC), the paper will be revised accompanied by the publication of a correction. A correction is a distinct publication that is linked to the updated paper. It serves to inform all readers that a significant change has been made, and the updated version is available on the website. Notification will be sent to all relevant indexing databases to ensure that they update their records as well.

Corrections can be submitted if:

change the authorship OR,
there are scientifically relevant errors, e.g. missing sections/tables/figures, raw data errors, replacing images, table, and figure errors OR,
add or remove an entire reference.

Retractions

Papers that threaten the integrity of the scientific record should be retracted. TST adheres to COPE’s guidelines and procedures for handling retractions.

Please be aware that retraction entails retaining the original publication on the platform with a “Retracted” watermark, and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked paper. A paper will only be fully removed from SciOpen's website and corresponding indexing databases under rare and exceptional circumstances, such as when retaining the article online would be unlawful or pose a risk of substantial harm.

Expression of Concern

When an investigation is ongoing or the evidence is inconclusive, an Expression of Concern may be issued. Editors believe that it is essential to inform readers about potential issues within the paper to uphold journal’s transparency:

There is a suspicion of academic misconduct within the paper, yet the evidence is insufficient to determine it as such OR

The results of the study are suspected to be unreliable, but the author’s institution is unwilling to initiate an investigation OR

Conflicting interpretations exist among the authors OR

An investigation is in progress, and final conclusions may require an extended period.

Appeals and Complaints

TST adheres to the COPE principles regarding appeals and complaints concerning the peer-review process and editorial decisions. Authors have the right to appeal if they believe their manuscript was unfairly treated during peer review or if they consider the rejection decision to be incorrect. However, to lodge an appeal, authors must present substantial evidence or new information/data that counters the reviewers’ comments and the editors’ decisions.

Authors should submit their appeal letter to the journal’s Editorial Office, directing it to the editors, and include specific responses, evidentiary materials, or any new information/data they wish the journal to consider.

Authors must not submit their manuscript for publication elsewhere until they receive a final decision or decide to withdraw their manuscript from consideration and have informed the journal accordingly. Each appeal is assessed on its individual merits. Editors will consider only one appeal per manuscript, and the EIC’s decision on the appeal is final.

Duties of Authors

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

1) 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.

2) Duplication, plagiarism and, originality

TST 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 in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable in TST. All submissions would be checked for plagiarism by the software CrossCheck, powered by iThenticate. The paper will be regarded as plagiarism and will be rejected once the paper is found more than 20% similar to the previous published article. 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. Once the unethical publishing behavior found, the paper would be rejected. TST will inform the institute of the author and other journals relevant, and will reject to publish all the papers submitted by this author forever.

3) 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).

4) 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 TST, 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 TST 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.

5) The use of AI or AI-assisted technologies

TST 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, TST also 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. TST 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.

Duties of Editors

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:

1) 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.

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

2) 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.

3) 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.

4) 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.

Open Access and Copyright

All articles in TST are published with open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which means that anyone may download, distribute, and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes for free, while citing Tsinghua University Press as the original publisher and ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

The CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license does not apply to third-party materials that display a copyright notice to prohibit copying. Unless the third-party content is also subject to a CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license, or an equally permissive license, the author(s) must comply with any third-party copyright notices.

Guest Edited Contents

In pursuit of advancing knowledge and fostering academic discourse within specific domains, the Journal occasionally publishes guest edited content (e.g., special issues, guest edited series) dedicated to exploring cutting-edge research, emerging trends, and significant developments in focused areas of study.

All guest-edited content shall be proposed prior to calling for papers. Upon approval by the EiCs, a submission option is made available on the submission system, where all manuscripts are assessed according to the Journal’s standard initial check, preliminary assessment, and peer-review criteria. The only difference is that manuscripts that pass through the initial check are preliminarily assessed by the Leading Guest Editor and then the handling Guest Editors, and final decisions are made by the Leading Guest Editor. When the Leading Guest Editor or Guest Editors are listed as authors, an EiC will be assigned to assess the manuscript.

Advertising Policy

All advertisements are subject to approval of the Publisher, Editors, or publishing partners of Tsinghua University Press which reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time.

Statements in advertisements should carry no direct or implied disparagement of another product. There should be no statements that are misleading, exaggerated, or contrary to proven facts. Advertisements may not be indecent, obscene, or defamatory.

The principle of maintaining editorial independence from commercial influence underlies decision-making. Editorial decisions are not influenced by advertising.

Advertisements must be clearly identifiable as advertisements and clearly distinguishable from editorial content. Tsinghua University Press will not publish advertisements in the form of editorial content.