Publication Ethics

This statement applies to the author(s), the chief editor(s), and the Editorial Board as well as the peer-reviewer(s) and Publisher. This statement is based on the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authorship

Although there is no universal definition of authorship, an "author" is generally considered to be an individual who has made a significant intellectual contribution to research.

There are four criteria that must be met in order for someone to be called an “author”:

  1. Making a substantial contribution to study conception and design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation.
  2. Participating in compiling or revising articles.
  3. Giving final approval of the manuscript.
  4. Being responsible for all aspects of work related to the accuracy or integrity of each part of the work.

The order of the authors must be a joint decision of the co-authors. Individuals who are involved in a study but do not meet the criteria for authorship must be listed as "Contributors" or "Recognised Individuals". If there is a dispute over authorship, the editors will conduct an investigation to reach a solution.

Competing Interest

Authors should disclose any interests that may affect their ability to present the work objectively in the "Acknowledgments" section. This may include relevant financial interests (for example, patent ownership, stock ownership, consultants, or speaker fees), or personal, political, or religious interests.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is something that must be avoided in writing articles. Always remember that appreciating the work of others is an important part of the process. There are several things that need to be considered to avoid plagiarism. To perform literal copying, the author must put quotation marks around the copied text. Substantial copies may include research materials, processes, tables, or equipment. Quotations are only acceptable if the author ensures that he or she does not change the meaning intended by the source. For all the things mentioned before, the author must ensure that he or she has referred to the correct sources and properly mentioned the sources according to the format in the Author's Guidelines.

Simultaneous Submission

Articles submitted for publication must be original and have not been submitted to other publications. At the time of submission, the author must disclose details of the associated paper (even when in a different language), similar papers in press, and translations. Deliberately submitting or re-submitting a work for duplicate publication is considered a violation of publishing ethics.

Research Fraud

Research fraud is publishing data or conclusions that are not produced by experiments or observations but by engineering or data manipulation. There are two types of research fraud, i.e.

  1. Engineering research data and results, and record or report them.
  2. Falsification: Manipulating research materials, drawings, data, equipment, or processes. Falsification includes altering or omitting data or results in such a way that research is not accurately represented. Someone might falsify the data to match the desired end result of the research.

Both fabrication and falsification are serious offences because they produce scientific records that do not accurately reflect observed truths.

Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content Tools (AIGC)—such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLM)—are deemed incapable of conducting original research without direction from human authors. They also cannot be held liable for published work or research designs, which are generally accepted requirements of authorship, nor do they have the legal standing or ability to hold or assign copyright. Therefore, this tool cannot fulfill the role, or be registered as the author of the article.

If an author has used such a tool to develop any part of the manuscript, its use should be described, in a transparent and detailed manner, in the “Methods” or “Acknowledgments” section. The author is solely responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by this tool and for properly referencing any supporting works on which the information depends. Tools used to correct spelling, grammar, and general editing are not included in the scope of this guide.