Ethical Guidelines for the Publication

　　

Nuclear Techniques (NT) formulates the ethical standard for authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers to strengthen academic integrity construction, standardize the process of paper writing, editing and publishing, and resist academic misconduct. 

1. Identification and Treatment of Academic Misconduct Manuscripts

NT's editorial board uses the "academic misconduct detection system" of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) to assess all the submissions and papers to be published. In general, a replication ratio in a submission is required below 15%. Submissions with a replication ratio of more than 25% are to be rejected; however, articles quoted from the author's own master's thesis may be considered. Submissions with a replication ratio of 15%~25% may be checked on whether the duplicate section is the main result or conclusion before making the final editorial decision.

Unpublished papers with academic misconduct will be rejected, wherein the published papers will be withdrawn, and the respective authors shall be informed of the same.

2.  Publishing Ethics

2.1 Duties of Authors

1. Ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors use the work and/or words of others, they should cite or quote appropriately and obtain permission where necessary. Further, they can provide supporting materials such as original pictures, original data, fund project assignments, project names, etc.

2. A "Paper Copyright Transfer Agreement" signed by all the authors should be submitted.

3. Abide by the following principles: no third party is allowed to write the paper; no third party is permitted to submit the paper; no third party is permitted to modify the content of the paper; providing false peer reviewer information is prohibited; it is not permitted to violate the article signature standard; and resolutely resist those who have no substantial academic contribution to sign the paper.

4. Authors shall take full responsibility for their papers.

5. Authors have the right to appeal against the editorial decision by submitting a written statement to the editorial board.

6. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors (according to the above definition) and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the author list of the manuscript, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

7. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

8. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal’s editor or publisher and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or to publish an appropriate erratum.

2.2 Duties of Reviewers

NT adopts a single-peer review mechanism in manuscript processing. The reviewing experts are to review manuscripts scientifically, scrupulously, objectively, and fairly.

1. Reviewers should adhere to the principles of objectivity, fairness, impartiality, confidentiality, and timelines when reviewing manuscripts.

2. Declare to the editorial board when there are conflicts of interest between the reviewers and the authors.

3. Reviewers should not suppress or degrade any author's paper by taking advantage of the reviewer's convenience if the reviewer's research field is similar to the author(s)'.

4. If the manuscript cannot be reviewed in time, they should promptly inform of the editorial board and return the manuscript. Without the consent of the editorial board, peer reviewers are not allowed to let students, colleagues or others to review the manuscript on behalf of themselves.

5. Reviewers should not use any useful information in the paper unpublished. 

2.3 Duties of Editors

1. Use NT's electronic submission system for all journal communications. Evaluate every submission fairly, justly, and timely.

2. Abide by the principle of confidentiality, including the reviewer's information and the author's research content.

3. Ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely.

4. Avoid academic misconduct such as multiple contributions and repeated publications of one manuscript, check and review the newly submitted papers and the papers to be published.

5. Respect the author's point of view and style of writing and obtain the author's consent for critical changes in the paper, such as academic viewpoints, etc.

6. Editors should recuse themselves from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors.

7. Editors should double check and review the submitted papers, avoiding academic misconducts such as multiple submissions and repeated publications.

8. An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

2.4 Duties of the Publisher

1. The publisher should report original research results and reviews.

2. For the accepted manuscript, if there are any forms of academic misconducts, the publishers have the right to reject, and notify the institute and relevant periodicals.

3. For the published papers, if there are academic misconducts, this paper will be retracted, and a retraction will be issued.

4. Publish detailed writing guidelines on the website: http://www.hjs.sinap.ac.cn for authors.

5. Commitment to publish papers, and the order of their appearance in the same issue, only related to the topic selection and the time of paper acceptance.

6. A publisher should always be willing to issue corrections, explanations, withdrawals, and apology statements when necessary.

All the interpretation rights of the above clauses are reserved by NT's editorial office.