1. Review Policy
The journal adopts a double-blind peer review system for manuscript evaluation. The review process is as follows:
§ Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted via the journal's website, after which a confirmation email will be sent.
§ Manuscript Received: The editor will then receive the manuscript, assign it a serial number, and inform authors of the number via email.
§ Initial Review: An initial review of the manuscript will be conducted by the editor. Manuscripts lacking originality, suspected of academic misconduct, containing serious scientific flaws, lacking valuable information, or not within the journal's scope will be rejected. If the manuscript passes the initial review, the author will be informed to pay the review fee, which will be waived if rejected.
§ External Review: A minimum of two external reviewers will be invited to conduct peer review to the manuscript. If there are any disputes among the reviewers, additional reviewers will be invited to review the manuscript, with a maximum of 4-5 review rounds.
§ Final Review: The Editor-in-Chief conducts a conclusive assessment of the manuscript based on the external reviewers' comments. The Editor-in-Chief will determine whether the manuscript should be accepted, rejected, or revised and subjected to further review.
§ After acceptance, the manuscript undergoes editing, processing, and publication.
Note: Submissions from Editorial Board Members (EBMs) and editors must also follow all the journal's review procedures strictly. Reviews to these manuscripts will be conducted independently of relevant EBMs, editors and their research teams. Furthermore, EBMs and editors must avoid participating in the review of manuscripts from authors with whom they have a competitive, collaborative, or other conflict of interest.
2. Appeals & Feedback
If the author has objections to the review comments or results, he/she may submit a written appeal to the editorial office and send it to the journal's email address. The author must provide a detailed explanation for each of the review comments. The editorial office will review the appeal promptly and provide feedback to the author. Please note that normally only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript.
If any authors or readers have comments or feedback about the articles published in our journal, or if there are any opinions regarding our review process or publication ethics policy, please feel free to send your comments to our email. The editorial department will address them as soon as possible and provide feedback as appropriate. We welcome the active participation of our readers and authors in overseeing and contributing feedback about our journal, as we strive together to foster a positive academic atmosphere.
3. Academic Misconduct Detection & Handling.
To prevent academic misconduct, the editorial office uses the Academic Misconduct Literature Checking System (AMLC) developed by CNKI to detect plagiarism during the initial review. The journal only accepts original articles that have not been published in any other journals. The journal strictly prohibits academic misconduct such as multiple submissions, duplicate publication and plagiarism. If any academic misconduct is detected, the manuscript will be rejected. In the meantime, the author's institution and other relevant journals will be notified. The author's future manuscripts will not be accepted anymore.
4. Correction and Retraction
The journal typically does not publish corrections or retractions to published articles. However, should it be necessary, the journal will issue corrections or retractions under the following circumstances:
- Correction: If a published article is found to contain unintentional scientific errors that do not significantly affect the results and conclusions of the article, the editorial office will publish a correction notice in the journal as soon as possible. This notice will detail the changes made to the original article and indicate the source of the article. The journal shall release a corrected version of the article, clarifying all the modifications made to the original article and indicating the date of update. The earlier version will also be archived and accessible to readers. However, when citing the article, reference must only be made to the latest edition.
- Retraction: If a published article is found to contain significant scientific errors that render the conclusions and results untrustworthy, it will be retracted by the journal. In addition, if an article is suspected of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism or data fabrication, the editorial office will investigate and issue a statement to readers detailing the risks associated with the article. The results of the investigation will be made public after it is completed. If academic misconduct is proven, the editorial office will retract the article and publish a notice of retraction.
5. Advertising
The journal does not publish commercial advertisements. All articles, as well as our official website and other platforms, are free from advertising. The review and acceptance decisions for manuscripts are not influenced by any commercial factors.