Publication Ethics

Advances in Computational Mechanics 

ISSN: 1940-5820 (Printed)

ISSN: 1940-5839 (Online)

Publication Ethics and Professional Standards

Humans 

ACM adheres to the standards established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), including its Code of Conduct and its Best Practice Guidelines. According to these standards, research performed on humans must follow international rules set out in the Declaration of Helsinki (wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/). Thus, manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, identifiable human data, human primary cells, or human tissue must include a statement of ethics approval and consent. In practice, approval from an ethics committee should be obtained before the research is undertaken. The statement should indicate the name of the ethics committee, the date on which it approved the study, and, where appropriate, the committee’s reference number. Any exemption from ethics approval should also be detailed in the manuscript (with, again, the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). In the case of animal experiments as well, the authors must provide a statement of ethics approval and consent, as discussed further below.

For manuscripts reporting research involving clinical trials, the trial registration number and date of registration should be included as the last line of the abstract. The ICMJE’s clinical trial registration policy is detailed on its website and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. When this research relies on human subjects or tissue, manuscripts must be accompanied by statements of written informed consent from all of the participants. It is also TSP’s policy that patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated irrespective of any informed consent statement; in any case, an editor may ask for written informed consent forms from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Further information and documentation that support this policy should be made available on request to the editors, who retain the discretion regarding whether to proceed to peer review in such cases.

Publication Ethics

Tech Science Press (TSP) is dedicated to ensuring the quality of each paper that it publishes. In the interest of maintaining the highest standards in academic publishing, we suggest that authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff abide by the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Many questions regarding the ethical dimensions of conduct relating to the publication of scientific research can be answered by consulting the COPE website (publicationethics.org/core-practices); researchers may also contact this journal at fdmp@techscience.com regarding any ethical concerns. The potential conflicts of interest for all authors must be disclosed in their papers at the time of submission. It is assumed that authors are presenting their research findings accurately and discussing the significance of their work objectively. 

The data and methods used in the research must be presented in sufficient detail in the paper so that other researchers would be able to replicate the work. Authors should make the raw data available in a public repository prior to the submission of their manuscripts; at the very least, the data should be accessible to the journal’s referees and editors upon request. In addition, authors are expected to take appropriate measures so that their raw data are retained in full for a reasonable period of time after publication. 

TSP does not consider for publication manuscripts that have been submitted to more than one journal at the same time or that do not present novel results. Thus, for example, an English translation of a paper that has already been published in another language would not be considered. Further, manuscripts should not present as original any information that has already been published. Accordingly, previously published figures or images may be included only after the necessary permission has been obtained from the copyright holders for publication under the CC-BY license. Additional information on this topic is available on the Rights and Permissions page. 

Should authors find errors or inaccuracies in the published versions of their papers, they must promptly make editors of the journal aware of the fact so that the appropriate action can be taken to rectify the situation.  

Plagiarism

Submission of duplicate manuscripts 

As just stated, TSP journals consider for publication only original manuscripts. Thus, it is assumed that, when a manuscript is submitted, no other manuscript that is substantially similar to it has been or will be submitted to any other journal before a TSP journal has had the opportunity to decide whether to publish it. In other words, it is considered unethical to submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Likewise, publications that are duplicative or redundant (i.e., that present in different wording data that have already been published by the same authors) are not accepted. 

Fabrication and falsification 

The authors of submitted manuscripts or published articles in which the results are found to have been fabricated or falsified, including through the manipulation of images, may be sanctioned, and their published articles may be retracted. 

Plagiarism and other forms of fraud 

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure the originality of their work. Upon submission, all manuscripts are meticulously evaluated for similarity to previously submitted and published articles. So also figures and images are examined for the presence of duplicative or anomalous data. Authors should retain their unprocessed data and source files after submitting their articles, as the editor may request this material in the process of evaluation for publication, which may be suspended until or unless the authors resolve the issue. The editor reserves the right to question a manuscript’s originality and integrity and to raise these concerns with the authors’ sponsoring institutions and other relevant bodies.  

Misconduct 

The suspicion that authors or reviewers have engaged in misconduct will result in action either before or after publication. When such suspicions are raised regarding a paper that has already been published—even years after the fact—a preliminary investigation will be carried out, again following the COPE guidelines, in the course of which the party or parties involved will be called upon to explain their conduct. 

Investigations and Sanctions

Suspected breaches of our publication ethics policies, either before and after publication, as well as concerns about research ethics, should be reported to the ethics group of TSP and undergone a thorough investigation. During the investigation process, the authors may be requested to provide the underlying data and images, consult editors, and etc. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to: 

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.

• If the article has already been published online, an erratum/correction may be placed with the article or in severe cases, a retraction of the article may occur.

If Tech Science Press becomes aware of breaches of the publication ethics policies, the following sanctions may be applied across the Tech Science Press journals:    

• Rejection of the manuscript and any other manuscripts submitted by the author(s).

• Not allowing submission for 1–3 years.

• Prohibition from acting as an editor or reviewer.