Publication Ethics Policy

Publication Ethics

International Journal of Engineering and Automation (IJEA) follows strict ethical standards for publication to ensure high-quality scientific publications and public trust in research findings. Our publication ethics policy is mainly based on the “Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors” published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

IJEA also adheres to the “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing” jointly published by COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

The ethical standards summarized below provide guidelines for editors, reviewers, and authors who contribute to IJEA. For more detailed information on ethical issues, please see the COPE guidelines.

Ethical Guidelines for Editors

Editorial Process
Editors should strive to ensure that peer review at the journal is fair, unbiased, and timely and to provide authors with clear information about the ongoing review and publication process.

Editorial Decisions
Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s scientific and technical quality, importance, originality, the study’s validity, and its relevance to the journal’s scope. Manuscripts must be evaluated without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality
Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by the editor or editorial board members for their own research purposes or personal advantage.

Ethical Guidelines for Reviewers

Accountability
Peer reviewers play a central role in ensuring the integrity and quality of scholarly publication in engineering and automation. They must conduct reviews in an ethical and accountable manner. The review report should be prepared by the reviewer themselves unless they have permission from the journal’s editor to involve another person. Reviewers must refrain from suggesting that authors include citations to their own (or an associate’s) work unless there is a valid scholarly or technical reason. All suggestions must be based on valid academic or engineering criteria.

Objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments and refrain from making unfair negative comments or unjustified criticisms of any competitors’ work mentioned in the manuscript.

Competing Interests
Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have competing or conflicting interests. Competing interests may be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political, or religious. If reviewers are currently employed at the same institution as any of the authors or have been mentors, mentees, close collaborators, or joint grant holders, they should decline to review.

Promptness
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review a manuscript or knows that a prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality
Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the peer review process and must not use information obtained during the review for their own or another’s advantage, or to disadvantage others.

Suspicion of Ethics Violations
If reviewers encounter any irregularities concerning research and publication ethics (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication), they should inform the journal’s editor immediately. Reviewers should cooperate confidentially with the journal and not investigate independently.

For more detailed information, please refer to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

Authorship
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Significant contributions include:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis and interpretation of the reported study.

  • Drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission. Those who contributed but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements section.

Originality and Acknowledgement of Sources
The manuscript must be an original work, and authors must properly cite all works, words, ideas, or figures used. All sources must be appropriately cited. Reuse of text from another source must be clearly quoted. Citations should follow the journal’s prescribed reference style (e.g., IEEE, APA).

Reporting Standards
Authors should present an accurate account of the work performed, especially regarding data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Underlying data must be represented accurately. The study should contain sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable in IJEA. This includes presenting others’ work as one’s own, copying or paraphrasing parts of other studies without proper attribution, or using research data from others without permission and attribution.

IJEA uses Turnitin and/or other plagiarism detection software to screen all submissions. If plagiarism is suspected, editors will follow COPE guidelines. Confirmed plagiarism will result in manuscript rejection.

Data and Image Fabrication
Practices such as fabricating or manipulating data, manipulating images or figures, or deliberately selecting analytical methods to support a particular conclusion constitute unethical behavior and are strictly prohibited.

Article Retraction
Published articles in IJEA should remain extant and intact. However, under exceptional circumstances involving plagiarism, data fabrication, redundant publication, or serious errors, articles may be retracted to protect the integrity of the literature. The decision to retract is made by the Editor-in-Chief, but may be initiated by the author(s) in cases of flawed data or conclusions.

A notice of retraction will be published, linked to the original article, and include:

  • The title and authors of the article.

  • The reason for retraction.

  • Who is retracting the article.

Data Availability
IJEA encourages authors to make research data openly available, either by depositing it in a public repository (e.g., IEEE DataPort, Zenodo, Figshare) or by uploading it as supplementary material. Authors can find a suitable repository at www.re3data.org.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication
Manuscripts that have already been published or are under review elsewhere cannot be submitted to IJEA. Submitting the same paper to multiple journals constitutes unethical behavior. Papers previously published in another language may be submitted if this is clearly declared. Extended versions of conference papers or thesis-based work are acceptable if significantly expanded and properly cited.

Ethical Oversight
Research involving human subjects, animal experiments, safety-critical systems, or sensitive data must comply with relevant ethical standards (e.g., IEEE, ACM, or institutional ethics committee guidelines). Authors must include a statement of ethical approval (or exemption) where applicable.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
Authors must disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support should be declared in the acknowledgements or a separate disclosure section.