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Instructions for Authors

Journal of Advanced Optics and Photonics (Ceased)

ISSN: 2578-2274 (Online)


Shortcuts

Cover Letter
Templates
General Format of Articles
Declarations

Research and Supplementary Materials

Chemical Compounds

Data Sharing and Deposition

Suggesting Reviewers
English Editing Service
Authorship and Contribution
Publication Ethics
Editors and Journal Staff as Authors
Conflicts of Interest
Copyright and Licensing
Corrections and Retractions
Appeals and complaints

All manuscripts must be submitted via the online system, and manuscripts submitted for publication must be prepared according to the guidelines given below.


Template in MS Word: Sample.doc.


This guideline is intended to assist authors as they prepare their manuscripts. To avoid any delay and time-consuming restructuring, Journal of Advanced Optics and Photonics (JAOP) asks and encourages authors to read the guidelines before writing the manuscript.

JAOP publishes review and research articles. All papers must be written in English, and follow a clear, concise style. The language editors may have to check the language and grammar of your submitted manuscript, and make editorial changes if deemed necessary.


1 Cover Letter

A submitted manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter. The cover letter must clearly state that the manuscript is an original work with its own merit, has not been previously published in whole or in part, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. It should also include statements clearly indicating that all authors have read the final manuscript, have approved the submission to the journal, and have accepted full responsibilities pertaining to the manuscript’s delivery and contents. If there are any ethical, copyright, disclosure issues that come with the manuscript, please reveal them in the cover letter. In the cover letter, authors need to declare that there is no conflict of interests or disclose all the conflicts of interest regarding the manuscript submitted.


2 Templates

Authors are encouraged to use the Microsoft Word template (Sample-Tsp).


3 General Format of Articles

3.1 General Style

  • The paper size is US Letter (8.5“ × 11” or 21.59 cm × 27.94 cm) All margins — top, bottom, left, and right — are set to 1 (2.54 cm).

  • Use Times New Roman 11-point size for the main body of the paper, single spacing, except for the heading as outlined in Section 3.4.

  • The paper must be in a single column format.

  • Use British English or American English spellings throughout your manuscript, but not both.

  • Use 2-character indentation on the first line of each new paragraph.

  • Do not use page breaks or multiple returns between Sections.

  • Do not insert page numbers or line numbers.


3.2 Manuscripts

3.2.1 Title and Author Information

  • The title of the paper should be in bold, Times New Romans, 14-point, at the top center of the title page. Use capital letter on each word of the title.

  • Provide full names of all authors and their affiliations. The author line should be centered.

  • Authors should be numbered regard to their affiliations. There should be no space between the author name and the number.

  • Corresponding author should be marked *.


3.2.2 Abstract

  • Abstract of a research paper should be 200–400 words, and 150–300 words for review paper.

  • Abstract should be centered, and with indentation of 1 inch (2.54 cm).

  • The abstract should be in one continuous paragraph without reference numbers.

  • All abbreviations should be defined in full unless the abbreviation appears more than once in the abstract.


3.2.3 Keywords

  • Three keywords are the minimum. Use a comma to divide each keyword.

  • Keywords should be centered, and with indentation of 1 inch (2.54 cm).

  • Each keyword except the first one should be lowercase unless an uppercase letter is necessary.


3.3 Headings

In the main body of the paper, three different levels of headings (for sections, subsections, and sub-subsections) may be used.

  • The section of abstract should not be numbered. Subsequent sections should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers, starting from 1.

  • Level one headings for sections should be in bold, and be flushed to the left, e.g., 1, 2, …

  • Level two headings for subsections should be bold-italic, and be flushed to the left. Level two headings should be numbered after the level one heading, e.g., 1.1, 1.2,

  • Level three headings should be italic; and be flushed to the left, e.g., 1.1.1, 1.1.2,…

  • Use 12-pound before paragraph distance and 3-pound after paragraph distance.

  • Do not use page breaks or multiple returns between sections.


3.4 Units and Symbols

  • Units of measurement should be used concisely according to the International System of Units (SI). All units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.

  • There should be a space between the unit and Arabic number: 5 mm NOT 5mm.

  • Please use Arabic number and relevant unit in the manuscript: 5 kg NOT five kilograms or 5 kilograms or five kg.

  • Do not use hyphen/dash or any connector symbol between the value and its unit: 5 kg NOT 5-kg.

  • Please clarify all units during a calculation or a mathematical relationship: 3 cm × 5 cm NOT 3 × 5 cm, 123 g± 2 g or (123±2) g NOT 123± 2 g, 70%–85% NOT 70–85%.

  • Greek letters must be inserted using the correct Greek symbol (using Times, Helvetica or Symbol font), NOT written in full, i.e., alpha: α; beta: β, (available in Times and Helvetica); and gamma: γ, etc.


  • Abbreviations

    Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and figure or table captions and used consistently after that. Accepted abbreviations for statistical parameters are P, n, SD, SEM, df, ns, ANOVA, t.


    Equations

    If you are using MS Word, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images.


    Statistical Analysis

    Appropriate statistical treatment of the data is essential. When the statistical analysis is performed, the name of the statistical test used, the n number for each analysis, the comparisons of interest, the alpha level and the actual p-value for each test should be provided.


    3.5 Figures and Tables

    3.5.1 Figures

    • Figures should be centered, and should have a figure caption placed underneath.

    • The size of figures is measured in centimeters and inches. Please prepare your figures at the size within 17 cm (6.70 in) in width and 20 cm (7.87 in) in height.

    • Figures should be placed in the text soon after the point where they are referenced.

    • Figures should have no frames and borders.

    • In the main text, where reference the figures, use Fig. followed by a space and the figure number, e.g., Fig. 1.

    • The digital format JPEG, PNG, TIFF are acceptable, with >300 dpi resolution.

    • Figures should be in the original version, should not be stretched or distorted.

    • Do not use Photoshop or such software to change the color or appearance of figures.

    plot

    Figure 1: Some functions of x

    3.5.2 Figure Captions and Labels

    • Figures should have relevant captions but should not contain the same information which is already described in the main text.

    • Figure (diagrams and photographs) captions should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers.

    • One-line Caption should be centered in the column, e.g., Figure 1: The text caption …

    • The text caption with more than one line should use justified alignment.

    • The size of labels should be no smaller than 8-point and no larger than the font size of the main text.

    • Figure labels must be sized in proportion to the image, sharp, and legible.

    • Labels must be saved using standard fonts (Arial, Helvetica or Symbol font) and should be of the same font and size in all figures in one paper.

    • All labels should be in black, and should not be overlapped, faded, broken or distorted.

    • The first letter of each phrase, NOT each word, must be capitalized.


    3.5.3 Copyright of Figures

    • If a figure or a table has been published previously—even by an author of the manuscript being submitted for review, the copyright holder’s written acknowledgment and permission for its reuse are often required.


    3.5.4 Tables

    • Tables should be placed in the text after the point where they are referenced, and should be consistent with the main text.

    • Tables should be centered and should have a title placed above.

    • Table titles must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers.

    • One-line table title should be centered and multiple-line title should use justified alignment.

    • Use Times New Roman, font size smaller than 12 for table titles.

    • Titles should be centered in the format “Table 1: The text …”, e.g., Tab. 1.

    • Table notes should be aligned with the left table frame.

    • Where reference the Tables, please use abbreviation “Tab.”. followed by the number, e.g., Tab. 1.

    Table 1: Table caption

    1

    2

    3

    11

    12

    13

    21

    22

    23


    3.6 Equations and Mathematical Expressions

    3.6.1 In-line Style

    • In-line equations/expressions are embedded in paragraphs of the text. For example, E = mc2.

    • In-line equations/expressions should not be numbered.

    • In-line equations/expressions should be use as same/similar size font as the main text.


    3.6.2 Display Style

    • Equations in display format are separated from the paragraphs of text.

    • Equations should be flushed to the left margin of the column.

    • Equations should be editable.

  • Equations should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers. See Eq. (1) for an example. The number should be right aligned.

    E = mc2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  (1)

3.7 In-Text Citations

  • Please cite references by number in parentheses in the main text, e.g., [1], [2], [3]…

  • If the cited references are consecutive more than 2, please see the example, [1–3], [4–6].

  • No citation to the page number should be used.

  • Citation to the figures should be in Section 5.1. Citation to the tables should be in Section 5.3.


3.8 References

Tech Science Press (TSP) recommends editors and authors to utilize professional reference management tools such as EndNote for academic writing and literature formatting.

 

EndNote is a reference management software from Clarivate Analytics. It is designed to manage bibliographies and references and available for Windows and MacOS.

For authors, EndNote offers a convenient and efficient way to format their references according to a particular journal's guidelines.

For journals and publishers, EndNote can save editorial time, and also shortens production time potentially.


  • All references should be in font size 10 and listed at the end of the paper.

  • References should be organized in order of citation in the main.

  • Use full name of journal cited in reference e.g., Computational Mechanics, use italic font, followed by a comma before the volume, issue and page number.

  • Keep DOI number when you have the data aforementioned.

  • Based on our particular style, the first five authors will be listed as they appear. When more than five authors are listed, keep the first five authors and followed by et al.

  • Personal communications should be avoided.

  • Non-English references should not be included in the Reference list. The entire manuscript cited must be in English.


    Reference examples (References at the end should be listed in alphabetical order):

    Reference of a book: Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). TitlePublisher Location: Publisher.

    Reference of a book chapter: Author Surname, Author Initial.(Year Published). Chapter TitleTitle. Publisher Location: Publisher, .

    1. Atluri, S. N. (2004). A four-node hybrid assumed-strain finite element for laminated composite plates. USA: Tech Science Press. 

    2. Popovic-Djordjevic, J. B., Kostic, A. Z., Kiralan, M. (2021). Antioxidant activities of bioactive compounds and various extracts obtained from saffron. In: Charis, M., Galanakis (Eds.), Saffron, pp. 41–97. USA: Academic Press.


    Reference of journal article: Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). Title. Journal Full Name, volume number(issue number), page number.

    1. Atluri, S. N., Han, Z., Shen, S. (2003). Meshless Local Patrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approaches for weaklysingular traction & displacement boundary integral equations. Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 4(5)507–517.

    2. Atluri, S. N., Zhu, T. (1998). A new Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) approach in computational mechanics. Computational Mechanics22, 117–127.


    Reference of an online source: Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). Title. URL.

    Atluri, S. N. (2004). The meshless method (MLPG) for domain & BIE discretizationshttp://www.techscience.com/books/mlpg_atluri.html


    Reference of a Thesis: Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year Published). Title (Level). Institution Name, Location.

    1. Darius, H. (2014). Savant syndrome-theories and empirical findings (Ph.D. Thesis). University of Turku, Finland.

    2. Tantawy, M. A., Soliman, M. M., Agamia, A. H., Gawish, A. Y. (2015). Evaluation of gas condensate reservoirs using production data and well test analysis–Abu Qir Fields Mediterranean SeaEgypt (Master Thesis). Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Egypt.


4 Declarations

Submitted manuscripts should, where appropriate, contain the following parts right before the list of references:


Acknowledgement: TSP suggests to list all non-author contributors in the acknowledgement section at the end of the paper, with details on their respective activity. Contributors include individuals in the planning, conducting, editing and/or reporting the work, and all the patients or members of the public who have kindly assisted as research volunteers. This is a good place of acknowledging their support, list their names and recognize their individual roles. TSP strongly encourages authors to fully acknowledge contributions of patients and the public towards their research, if and where appropriate.


Funding Statement: Authors should describe sources of funding that have supported the work, including specific grant numbers, initials of authors who received the grant, and the URLs to sponsors’ websites. If there is no funding support, please write “The author(s) received no specific funding for this study”.


Author Contributions: The Author Contributions statement is mandatory. It should represent all the authors and is to be included upon submission. It can be up to several sentences long and should briefly describe the tasks of individual authors. All listed authors should have substantially contributed to the manuscript and have approved the final submitted version, which should include a description of each author’s specific work and contribution.

We suggest the following format for the contribution statement:

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: X. Author, Y. Author; data collection: Y. Author; analysis and interpretation of results: X. Author, Y. Author. Z. Author; draft manuscript preparation: Y. Author. Z. Author. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.


Availability of Data and Materials: This statement should make clear how readers can access the data used in the study and explain why any unavailable data cannot be released.


Ethics Approval (Non-Biological or Non-Medical manuscripts do not need to write this part): Guidelines for ethical approval statements may differ based on the journal, a standard ethical approval statement will usually include:

1. Whether or not the study included human or animal subjects. In all cases, the ethical approval status of the work should be stated in the ethical approval statement.   

2. The committee which approved the study.

3. The compliance documents. What policies, declarations, acts, etc.

4. Persistent identifier: reference or approval number. Include the registration ID/reference number if applicable.


Conflicts of Interest: Authors must declare all conflicts of interest. If there is no conflicts of interest, it should also be declared as in ex, please write “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study”.


Supplementary Materials: Supplementary Materials should be uploaded separately on submission. The supplementary files will also be available to the referees as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable; however, we recommend that common, non-proprietary formats are used where possible.

Supplementary materials should be clean, without tracked changes, highlights, comments or line numbers.

Supplementary figures must be clear and readable, and we recommend a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, figure legends must be clear and accurate.

Supplementary materials must be mentioned in the main text. The citation format of Supplementary Figure, Table, Equation, etc., should start with a prefix S (i.e., Fig. S1, Eq. (S2), Table S1, etc.).


    5. Research and Supplementary Materials

    In addition to the data, computer code, and research materials transparency guidelines, TSP encourages authors to provide supplementary materials that complement their main articles and enhance the readers' understanding of the research. These supplementary materials may include additional data, figures, tables, multimedia content, or relevant information.

    5.1 Supplementary Materials Submission: Authors should submit supplementary materials along with their main article during the manuscript submission process. These materials should be in a separate section and clearly labeled as "Supplementary Materials."

    5.2 Content Relevance: All supplementary materials should be directly relevant to the main research article and provide valuable additional insights or data that support or expand upon the article's findings. Supplementary materials should not duplicate information already presented in the main text.

    5.3 File Formats: Supplementary materials can be submitted in various formats, such as Word, PDF, Excel, CSV, images (JPEG or PNG), audio (MP3), video (MP4), or any other appropriate format for the content type.

    5.4 Supplementary Data: Authors can provide raw data or additional data that support the article's findings but are not included in the main text due to space constraints. Data should be well-organized, properly labeled, and accompanied by clear explanations of the data's context and significance.

    5.5 Supplementary Figures and Tables: Authors may include extra figures or tables that complement those in the main article. These should be numbered separately (e.g., Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Table S1) and referred to in the main text.


    6 Chemical Compounds

    Chemical and Chemical Nomenclature and Abbreviations
    Authors should provide the exact structure of the chemical compound, and if there are appeared as new chemical compounds, authors should submit the small-molecule crystallographic data to the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and deposit relevant information to PubChem. The final version of the manuscript should contain the accession codes. When possible, authors should use systematic nomenclature to identify chemical compounds, and biomolecules using IUPAC is preferred. Standard chemical and chemical abbreviations should be used. Chemical structures should be included as high-resolution files according to Cell Press Figure Guidelines.
     


    Combinatorial Compound Libraries

    The authors should include standard characterization data for a diverse panel of library components when describing the preparation of combinatorial libraries in the manuscript.


    Chemical Structures for Organic and Organometallic Compounds

    Chemical structures for organic and organometallic compounds should be established through spectroscopic analysis. The authors should provide standard peak listings for both 1H NMR and proton-decoupled 13C NMR for all new compounds. Other NMR data, when appropriate, such as 31P NMR, 19F NMR, etc. should be reported. For the identification of functional groups, both UV and IR spectral data should be reported when appropriate. For crystalline materials, melting-point ranges should be included. For the analysis of chiral compounds, specific rotations should be reported. For known compounds, authors should provide detailed references.


    Spectral Data
    Detailed spectral data for new compounds should be provided in the Materials and methods section. The authors should explain how specific, unambiguous NMR assignments were made in the Materials and methods section.


    Crystallographic Data for Small Molecules

    For crystallographic data for small molecules, authors should provide a standard crystallographic information file (CIF) and a structural figure with probability ellipsoids. The authors should check the CIF using the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) checkCIF. For the structure, the structure factors must be included either in the main CIF or in a separate CIF. Crystallographic data for small molecules should be submitted to the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC), and the accession number must be referenced in the manuscript.


    Biomolecular Materials
    Manuscripts reporting new biomolecular structures should contain a table summarizing structural and refinement statistics. If suitable, high-field NMR or X-ray crystallography may also be used. For new biopolymeric materials (e.g., oligosaccharides, peptides, nucleic acids, etc.), if it is not possible for structural analysis by NMR spectroscopic methods. Authors must provide evidence of the identity based on sequence (when appropriate) and mass spectral characterization.


    Biological Constructs

    Authors should provide sequencing or functional data that validates the identity of their biological constructs (plasmids, fusion proteins, site-directed mutants) upon request.


    Polymers

    For new materials, as well as 1H NMR and 13C NMR, the mass spectral analysis should be used to support the identification of molecular weight. Ideally, high-resolution mass spectral (HRMS) data are preferred.


    Nanomaterials

    The authors must provide a detailed characterization of both individual objects and bulk composition.


    7 Data Sharing and Deposition

    7.1 Data Availability Statement: At Tech Science Press, we value open scientific exchange and believe in promoting transparency and reproducibility in research. We encourage Authors to submit to TSP journals to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts. This statement should provide information about the availability of the research data and any restrictions or conditions associated with accessing it.


    7.1.1 Data sharing may be inappropriate when ethical, legal, or privacy considerations arise. In such cases, authors must clearly outline any limitations in the Data Availability Statement during manuscript submission. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that any shared data adhere to the consent obtained from participants regarding the use of confidential information.

    7.1.2 Data Repositories: Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit their research data in reputable and discipline-specific data repositories. Preferred data repositories should be recognized and indexed by organizations like DataCitere3data, or other relevant repositories in their respective fields.

    7.1.3 Data Citation: Research data should be cited in the main article to give proper credit and acknowledge the efforts of data creators. Authors must properly reference the deposited data in their reference list, including the dataset's persistent identifier (DOI, accession number, etc.).


    7.2 Analytic Methods (Code) Transparency

    For work where novel computer code was developed, authors should release it either by depositing it in a recognized, public repository such as GitHub or uploading it as supplementary information to the publication. The name, version, corporation and location information for all software used should be clearly indicated. Please include all the parameters used to run software/program analyses.


    7.2.1 Code Availability: Authors are strongly encouraged to share the computer code and software used to generate results presented in their articles. The availability of code enhances research reproducibility and allows other researchers to build upon the work.

    7.2.2 Code Repositories: Authors should deposit their code and software in well-established and reputable code repositories such as GitHubGitLabBitbucket, or other relevant platforms. Providing a link to the code repository should be included in the Data Availability Statement.

    7.2.3 Code Documentation: Authors must ensure that the deposited code is well-documented, readable, and easy to understand. Sufficient comments and explanations should be provided within the code to facilitate its usage by others.

    7.2.4 Citation: Authors must provide a citation for the code in the article's reference list. Include the code's persistent identifier (e.g., DOI or URL) to facilitate proper acknowledgment and citation by other researchers.


    7.3 Data Deposition and Suggested Repositories

    Prior to manuscript submission, please choose the appropriate repository, below are recommended data repositories for your research:

    DataverseDryadfigshare, GigaScience, Mendeley DataZenodo

    You may also visit DataCitere3data to identify registered data repositories for your data sharing.


    For journals with health research subjects, the deposition of sequence information to the community-endorsed, public repository is necessary. Accession numbers and other relevant, unique identifiers provided by the database should be included in the submitted manuscript. 

    DNA and RNA Sequences: Genbank, European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), DDBJ, Protein DataBank, UniProt 

    DNA Sequencing Data: GEO, ArrayExpress, NCBI Trace and Short-Read Archive, ENA's Sequence Read Archive

    New microarray (Data must be MIAME compliant, as described at the MGED website specifying microarray standards): Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ArrayExpress. Genetic polymorphisms: dbSNPdbVAR

    Linked genotype and phenotype data: dbGAPEuropean Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)

    Protein sequences: UniProt (submission tool SPIN). Flow cytometry: FlowRepository

    Chemical Compound Screening and Assay Data: PubChem


Suggesting Reviewers

Authors are welcome and encouraged to suggest reviewers when they submit their manuscripts by using the submission system. Authors should make sure they are totally independent and without conflicts of interest in any way. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer.


9 English Editing Service

Clear and concise language enables both the journal editors and reviewers to concentrate on the scientific content of your manuscript. In order to facilitate a proper peer review process and ensure that submissions are judged exclusively on academic merit, JAOP strongly encourages authors to prepare the language of their manuscripts with the utmost care. The use of the recommended language polishing service on your manuscript does not indicate the acceptance of your manuscript for publication in JAOP.


If you are an author whose native language is not English—or you have any concerns regarding the language quality of your manuscript—we recommend having your manuscript professionally edited by a qualified English-speaking researcher in your field prior to submission.



The following is TSP's collaborating language-editing company which offering discounted services to TSP's authors. To be noticed that the use of any language-editing services does not guarantee acceptance to any TSP Journal.


LetPub: https://www.letpub.com/

Please use the following Coupon Code to receive the special 5% off when you check out with LetPub: TSP5D


Charlesworth:  https://cwauthors.com.cn?rcode=TSP51
Please use the provided link or the following Coupon Code to receive the special 10% off when you check out with Charlesworth: TSP51


TopEdit: https://techscience.topeditsci.com/

Please use the provided link to receive the special 20% off when you check out with TopEdit.


10 Authorship and Contribution

The listed authors include all of the individuals who have made substantial contributions to the intellectual content of an article in terms of the conception, drafting, and revising of the work and the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data. Their approval is required for the submitted version as well as any substantially modified version to which they have contributed. Further, all of the listed authors are considered personally responsible for all aspects of the work and must guarantee that any questions regarding its accuracy or integrity—even for aspects of the work in which an individual author did not personally take part—are appropriately examined, resolved, and documented in the article.

On the other hand, involvement in the securing of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of a research group does not in itself justify listing as an author. Rather, those who have contributed to the work in such ways should be listed in the acknowledgments.

Please note that submissions by any individual other than one of the listed authors will not be considered. We expect all authors will take responsibility for the content of the manuscript they submitted. The information of contributions of all authors are urged to be described, as JAOP may contact all authors by email to ensure the authorship.

It is not only the edition changes that require the consent of all authors, but also the authorship changes, that is, adding and deleting authors requires the consent and signature of all authors.

Requests made for an authorship change must include an explanation for the change and must come from the corresponding author. If the change is appropriate, the corresponding author must receive and provide the consent to the change from all the authors, including any addition or deletion. If authorship issues are found after publication, it may result in a correction. If the authors are unable to resolve the dispute of authorship by themselves, TSP may raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its guidelines. Please note that if you have changed affiliation during the research, your new affiliation can be acknowledged in a note. TSP does not normally take requests for changes to affiliation after the acceptance of manuscripts.


Authorship and the Use of AI or AI-Assisted Technologies 

TSP follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position statement when it comes to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technology in manuscript preparation. Tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) do not meet authorship criteria and thus cannot be listed as authors on manuscripts.

 

In situations where AI or AI-assisted tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript, this must be appropriately declared with sufficient details at submission via the cover letter. Furthermore, authors are required to be transparent about the use of these tools and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within the “Materials and Methods” section, in addition to providing the AI tool’ s product details within the “Acknowledgments” section.

 

Authors are fully responsible for the originality, validity, and integrity of the content of their manuscript and must ensure that this content complies with all of TSP’s Publication Ethics Policies


11 Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

In the circumstances where Editors or editorial staff of the journal submit their own studies to the journal, they shall not be involved in the reviewing process, and the review process must be made transparently and rigorously. Submissions authored by editors or editorial staff of the journal will be handled by another editor who has least COIs with the authors to minimize the bias.


12 Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest (COIs, also referred to as “competing interests”) may indicate the potential to influence the validity or objectivity of research. Editors, authors, and reviewers may be involved into COIs, and JAOP considers it essential to identify and seek to mitigate them so as to ensure the integrity of its role in the dissemination and preservation of knowledge. Failure to declare competing interests may result in decline of a manuscript.

Authors must declare all potential conflicts of interest; if they have none to declare, they should state plainly, “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study”.

In order to limit COIs, all roles involved in the peer-review process must identify and declare any personal circumstances or associations that may be perceived as having such influence and acknowledge all funding sources for the work. However, COI statements relating to public funding sources, such as government agencies and charitable or academic institutions, need not be supplied.

To be specific, JAOP defines a COI as any relationship that may have an impact on the authors, reviewers, or editors of a manuscript during the peer review process, on the making of editorial decisions, or generally on any stage in the path toward publication.

Thus, COIs may include (but not limited to): 
Financial COIs

  • Stock or share ownership

  • Patent applications

  • Research grants

  • Consultancies

  • Royalties

Non-financial COIs

  • Affiliation with the same institution;

  • Personal relationships, e.g., between thesis advisers and their students, friends, family members, etc.;

  • Academic relationships, e.g., among co-authors, collaborators, or competitors;

  • Government employees;

  • Members of JAOP editorial board of a TSP journal.

COIs are not considered permanent; such relationships that have ended more than two years prior to the submission of a manuscript need not be identified as sources of potential conflict.


Authors

JAOP requires a declaration from all authors of a manuscript regarding any potential COIs that could be relevant to the integrity or reliability of the scientific and professional judgment presented therein, as well as that of otherwise unassociated studies in the same journal. Potential conflict, unless already declared, will be held in confidence while the paper is under review. If the article is accepted for publication, the potential conflict of interest will be included in the acknowledgments. If there is, in fact, no conflict of interest, the authors should state plainly.


Reviewers

Reviewers should declare any COIs when they are assigned a manuscript and disclose this information to the editor, who will then assess whether they should proceed with the review process. 


Editors

Editors, including Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors and Guest Editors should be aware of their own potential COIs. If the Editors have authored or coauthored the manuscripts submitted to JAOP, Editors might be perceived to be influenced by the relationship. JAOP expects the Editor(s) to declare any COIs or potential COIs.


JAOP publishes all articles under an open-access license, which means that the articles remain accessible to all without charge and without technical or legal barriers and that they can be reused with proper acknowledgment and citation. Financial support for the open access publication is provided by the authors’ institutions or by research funding agencies in the way of article processing charge (APC) once manuscripts have been accepted. More specifically, JAOP publishes articles under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License. JAOP is committed to open access publishing as a means to foster the exchange of research among scientists, especially across disciplines. 

The copyright and other proprietary rights related to papers published by JAOP are retained by the authors. If the authors reproduce any text, figures, tables, or illustrations from the papers published by JAOP in their own future research, they must cite the originally published version. They are further asked to inform JAOP’s editorial office of any exceptional circumstances in this regard at the time of submission, for which exceptions may be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

Articles published in JAOP are likely to contain material republished with permission under a more restrictive license. When this situation arises, it should be indicated; it is the responsibility of the authors to seek permission for reuse from the copyright holder.


14 Corrections & Retractions

TSP journals will issue corrections, and/or retraction statements, when deemed proper.


Corrections 

JAOP aims to publish every article online in its final form. Upon receiving the proofs of their accepted manuscripts, authors will have an opportunity to check for errors and oversights. Occasionally, a mistake is pointed out in a published article, necessitating the issuance of a correction statement. A correction is a statement rectifying an error or an omission, Authors or readers may submit such a statement either through the journal’s online manuscript submission system (https://www.techscience.com/jaop), or by sending an email, along with the submission ID, to the JAOP’s editorial office (jaop@techscience.com). A correction notice, published and linked to the corresponding article, is freely accessible to all readers.

When making corrections to the original articles, the original article both in PDF and XML versions are corrected and bi-directionally linked to and from the published amendment notice that details the original error. Any changes made to the original articles affect data in figures, tables or text, the amendment notice will reproduce the original data. If it is not possible to correct the original article in both PDF and XML versions, the article will remain unchanged but will contain links that direct to and from the published correction notice.


  • Author’s Correction: An Author’s Correction may be published to correct an important error(s) made by the author that affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or the journal. The Managing Editor of that manuscript will be responsible for handling the correction process.

  • Publisher’s Correction: A Publisher’s Correction may be published to correct an important error(s) made by the journal that affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or of the journal.


Retractions 

A retraction is a notice that a previously published paper should no longer be regarded as part of the published literature. The primary purpose of a retraction is to ensure the integrity and completeness of scholarly records by withdrawing any manuscript which is found to contain infringements of professional ethical codes, major errors, or where its main conclusion is seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light.
Violations of professional ethical codes include multiple submissions without proper citations or permission, redundant publications, fake claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc. Major errors cover any or all miscalculations or experimental errors, intentionally or due to honest mistakes.


The retraction will be referred to the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and the Managing Editor who have handled the paper. Retracted articles will not be removed from the printed copies of the journal (e.g., from libraries) nor from the electronic archives. Their retracted status will be indicated as clearly as possible. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the permanence and integrity of the published scientific record. When an article is retracted, in most of the cases, the original manuscript is corrected and is bi-directionally linked (to and from) the published retraction notice which details the original error. For the purpose of transparency, when corrections made to the original article affect any data, figures, tables or texts, the retraction notice will display the original data alongside the corrected version. When a correction is not possible, all existing versions of the article will remain unchanged but will contain the bi-directional links, to and from, the published retraction notice.
The notice of retraction is permanently linked to its corresponding retracted article and is freely available and accessible by all readers.
Articles may be retracted by their Author(s), by the Journal Editors, or by the Publisher, i.e., Tech Science Press. In all instances, the retraction should indicate the reason for the action as well as the entity behind the decision. A retraction made without the unanimous agreement of the authors is feasible and indicated as such.


Article Withdrawal

Article Withdrawal is only used for articles in press, which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, an articles may contain infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, and fraudulent use of data or the like. Articles that include errors or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s), or are determined to violate our publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), may be “Withdrawn” by the article author or the journal editor.


Removal of Published Content

Under special circumstances, TSP reserves the right to remove an article, book or other content from TSP’s website and submission system. Such action may be taken when:

  • There are evidence indicating that the published content is defamatory, infringes on intellectual property rights, privacy rights, other legal rights, or is plainly unlawful;

  • A court or government order requires removal of such content;

  • The content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risks to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. A statement will be published explaining the decision behind the removal.


Addressing Post-publication Issues

TSP is fully committed to maintaining the integrity and completeness of the scientific record and recognizes its importance to researchers and the academic community at large. As such, TSP will thoroughly investigate concerns that are directly raised with us by authors and/or readers. Authors are strongly encouraged to address any raised issues. In the course of our investigation, we may request original raw data, and consult with experts and other scholars in the field. Depending on the seriousness of the issues, the following outcomes may ensue:

  • A manuscript still under consideration may be rejected and returned to the author.

  • A published online article, depending on the nature and severity of the issues, may result in a correction notice or a retraction notice.

  • Issues deemed to be serious may prompt TSP to inform the authors’ institution and related affiliations.

Our actions are driven by our dedicated aim for transparent notification to our readers and unabated commitment to the integrity of the published record, and not by any motivation to sanction individuals or attribute responsibility to specific named individuals. We may refer readers to the institutional investigations’ reports if they are publicly available. While we are committed to addressing post-publications issues and correcting the record swiftly, investigations typically take some time to reach resolutions given the complexity of the discussions, the diligence in our process and the need to obtain original data and consult with experts. We will issue and regularly update relevant Editor’s Notes and/or Editor’s Expression of Concern as interim notifications to alert our readership of any of concerns with published material.


15 Appeals and Complaints

JAOP is open for further discussion after either a publication or a rejection of a manuscript.


Appeal against a Rejection

Authors may appeal a rejection, or request further discussions or post-publication revisions, by contacting the Journal’s Editorial department. When making such an appeal or request, Authors must provide a detailed justification for their request, with a description of the situation, including point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ and/or editor’s comments. The Journal’s Managing Editor will then forward the manuscript and the related information (including the identities of the referees) to the Editor in charge (either one of the Editors-in-Chief or, an Editorial Board Member without any conflict of interest (COI), who will render a final and irreversible decision. Appeals will only be considered from the originally submitting Authors. All information will be kept confidential.


As a general rule, an appeal to a Rejection Decision will only be considered if:

  • the authors can clearly and convincingly demonstrate that the final decision was based on an error made by a Referee or by the Editors during review

  • if important additional data can be provided

  • if a convincing case of bias in the process can be clearly demonstrated


Authors who wish to appeal an Editorial decision should submit a formal letter of Appeal to the Journal by contacting the journal editorial office (jaop@techscience.com) . Please include the manuscript number in the email subject line and on the appeal letter.

If an appeal is successful, the Authors will be sent instructions on how to proceed. If an appeal merits further consideration, the Editor may decide to submit the Authors' response and the revised paper for further peer review.


Complaints
Complaint about Scientific Content

Authors may contact the relevant Journal to file a complaint.
The Editor-in-Chief or the Handling Editor will consider the Authors’ argument and the Reviewers’ reports, and will decide whether:

  • The decision to reject should stand

  • Another independent opinion is required

  • The appeal should be considered


The complainant will be informed of the decision with an explanation when appropriate. Decisions on appeals are final and new submissions take priority over appeals.


Complaint about Processes

Authors may contact the Journal directly to raise a complaint concerning the process.
The Editor-in-Chief together with the Handling Editor will investigate the matter. The complainant will be given appropriate feedback. Feedback is provided to relevant stakeholders to improve processes and procedures.


Complaint about Publication Ethics

Authors may send an email to audit@techscience.com concerning ethical issues or complaints.
The Editor-in-Chief or the Handling Editor will diligently follow the guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics in assessing the situation, and may resort to asking the Publisher via their in-house contact for advice on difficult or complicated cases. The Editor-in-Chief or the Handling Editor will  decide on a course of action and will provide relevant feedbacks to the complainant. If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of the complaint, he/she may then submit the complaint to the Committee on Publication Ethics.

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