The following behaviors are clearly defined as academic misconduct in this journal:
2.1 Plagiarism and Self-plagiarism: Plagiarism refers to presenting others' ideas, texts, research findings, or data as one's own without proper citation, including direct copying and paraphrasing without attribution. Self-plagiarism means reusing substantial parts of one's own previously published works (such as core texts, key data, or analytical frameworks) in new submissions without explicit disclosure and acknowledgment.
2.2 Data Fabrication and Falsification: Deliberately fabricating non-existent research data, experimental results, or survey statistics; arbitrarily altering original data, charts, or analytical conclusions to meet expected research outcomes; or modifying research images and experimental records without legitimate reasons.
2.3 Inappropriate Publication Practices: This includes duplicate submission (submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously without notification), redundant publication (publishing slightly revised versions of previously published papers without significant new contributions), and salami publishing (splitting a single complete research project into multiple fragmented papers to inflate publication counts).
2.4 Misconduct in Authorship and Citations: Adding irrelevant personnel as authors without their participation or consent; excluding core contributors from authorship; reviewers or editors forcing authors to cite specific works to manipulate citation metrics; or fabricating false references.
2.5 Other Misconduct: Unauthorized use of confidential research materials or data without permission; violation of research ethics in studies involving human subjects or animals; and failure to disclose conflicts of interest that may affect research objectivity.
Penalties are imposed based on the severity of the misconduct (minor, intermediate, and major) and the perpetrator's attitude during the investigation:
This mainly refers to unintentional and minor violations caused by insufficient understanding of academic norms, such as improper citation formats, accidental reuse of small amounts of one's own text without citation, or minor calculation errors in data that do not affect the core conclusions.
Including moderate plagiarism (with a similarity rate between 25%-30%), unintentional data errors that affect partial research conclusions, improper authorship adjustments, and first-time duplicate submission.
Covering severe plagiarism (similarity rate exceeding 30%), intentional data fabrication/falsification, repeated redundant publication, malicious citation manipulation, and refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
For cases involving legal issues such as copyright infringement, refer the matter to relevant legal authorities for further handling.
4.1 Performance-related Penalties for Editors/Associate Editors: If editors or associate editors fail to fulfill their duties (e.g., failing to detect obvious misconduct during review), 5%-10% of their annual allowances will be deducted proportionally for each violation. If the misconduct leads to serious negative impacts on the journal, their positions will be revoked, and the case will be made public.
4.2 Incentives for Mitigation: If the perpetrator takes the initiative to report their own misconduct before detection, actively cooperates with the investigation, and takes measures to reduce the impact (such as revising the manuscript or apologizing publicly), the penalty may be reduced by 10%-20% upon approval by the editorial board.
4.3 Dynamic Adjustment of Penalties: If the journal is included in SCOPUS, ESCI, SCIE, or SSCI, the penalty standards will be adjusted with reference to the relevant norms of top international journals. For individuals who have previously received penalties but maintained a sound academic record thereafter, the term of the ban may be appropriately shortened upon application and review.
5.1 Once suspected misconduct is detected through plagiarism-checking tools or reviewer feedback, the editorial board will set up a special investigation team to collect and sort out relevant evidence confidentially.
5.2 The investigation team will notify the relevant parties of the allegations and provide them with a reasonable period to respond, defend themselves, and submit evidence.
5.3 The team will make a preliminary penalty proposal based on evidence and the parties' responses, which will be finalized after consultation with the editor-in-chief and the editorial board.
5.4 Implement the penalty measures, issue public notices or private notifications as required, and file all investigation materials and penalty records for long-term preservation.