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Publication Ethics Statement of China Nonferrous Metallurgy
China Nonferrous Metallurgy abides by the universally recognized publication ethics, continuously strengthens self-regulation in the industry, and promotes the construction of academic integrity. It adopts a blind review system to strictly control the quality and content of papers, and prohibits academic misconduct such as plagiarism, inappropriate authorship, duplicate submission and ghostwriting. Based on the Copyright Law, domestic and international publication ethics, and the relevant provisions of CY/T 174—2019 Academic Publishing Standards – Definition of Academic Misconduct in Journals, this journal has formulated its own publication ethics policies and systems, which serve as a reference for authors, academic institutions, editors, research funders and readers.
If a submitted paper is confirmed to have violated academic ethics, it shall not be accepted. In addition, if a paper that has already been accepted and published is subsequently confirmed to have violated academic ethics, the editorial department of the journal reserves the right to retract the paper.
1. Authors' Publication Ethics
(1) Authors shall ensure that the paper does not involve state secrets in politics, military affairs, science and technology, or any sensitive issues inappropriate for public publication, nor does it involve any intellectual property infringement. It shall not contain language or experiments that harm animals or humans, or violate human ethics.
(2) Authors shall not engage in ghostwriting by third parties, nor allow third parties to submit papers on their behalf, nor provide false peer reviewer information.
(3) Listed authors must have made substantive academic contributions to the paper. Authorship for individuals with no substantive academic contributions shall be firmly rejected. Authors shall ensure that the authorship, affiliations, and order of all authors are accurate and undisputed. Upon submission, it shall be deemed that all listed authors have given their authorization and consent.
(4) Authors shall ensure that the paper (excluding review articles) is an original research result that has not been previously published publicly at home or abroad. The research results and data shall be true and reliable, free from fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate submission, redundant publication, or other academic misconduct. Objective evaluations shall be given to the research results of others, which shall be properly cited in the paper.
(5) Authors shall provide the editorial department of this journal with a complete copyright transfer agreement for the paper, and ensure that they will not submit the paper to any other journals prior to receiving the rejection notification from the editorial department.
(6) When submitting the paper to the journal, authors shall disclose all financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that may be related to the research results and the writing of the paper.
2. Review Experts' Publication Ethics
(1) Review experts shall adhere to the principles of fairness, impartiality, confidentiality and timeliness, ensure the scientific and accurate review of manuscripts, and provide objective and impartial evaluations. They shall maintain strict confidentiality of the review content, respect the authors' research achievements, and recuse themselves from reviewing manuscripts involving conflicts of interest.
(2) Upon receiving a review invitation, review experts shall assess whether their professional knowledge and research direction match the submitted manuscript. If there is a mismatch, or if they are unable to complete the review within the specified timeframe, they shall promptly notify the editorial department.
(3) Utilizing their professional knowledge and capabilities, review experts shall examine the manuscript's innovation, scientific rigor and practical applicability; provide impartial evaluations on the appropriateness of research methods, the rationality of research design, the accuracy of results and conclusions, and the absence of information disclosure risks, so as to assist editors in deciding on the manuscript's acceptance or rejection; and put forward detailed revision suggestions on existing problems to help authors improve the paper's quality.
(4) Review experts shall have no conflicts of interest with the manuscript's authors or funders, and shall recuse themselves from reviewing manuscripts where such conflicts exist.
(5) Review experts shall promptly propose recommendations for rejection, revision, or revision and re-review of the manuscript. They shall provide detailed revision suggestions on the manuscript's deficiencies to help authors accurately recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their work and assist the editorial department in making correct judgments on the manuscript's quality.
(6) Review experts shall keep the content of the reviewed manuscript and related information confidential. They shall not arbitrarily use or share the manuscript content for purposes unrelated to the review process, nor shall they transfer the manuscript to others (colleagues, students, etc.) for review without the permission of the journal's editorial department.
(7) If review experts detect or suspect academic misconduct in the manuscript, such as redundant publication, plagiarism, falsification, or fabrication, they shall promptly notify the editorial department and provide relevant evidence and information.
3. Editors' Publication Ethics
(1) Shall strictly implement relevant national laws and regulations, and abide by academic publishing ethics and norms.
(2) Shall handle each submitted manuscript promptly, fairly and impartially. Decisions on acceptance or rejection of a paper shall be based solely on its innovation, scientific rigor, practical applicability, the content of the paper itself, and its consistency with the journal's scope of acceptance.
(3) Shall respect authors' research achievements and reviewers' opinions, and shall not interfere with the peer review process of review experts due to interests, ensuring that review experts provide independent review suggestions.
(4) Shall keep the information of authors and review experts confidential, as well as the content of unpublished manuscripts, and avoid manuscripts submitted through personal connections.
(5) Shall make every effort to help authors improve the academic quality of their papers, refine language expression, standardize the format and style, and enhance the reference value of the papers.
(6) Shall ensure the high-quality and timely publication of edited manuscripts and promote the development of the journal.
(7) Shall prohibit all commercial demands and interest exchanges that undermine academic ethics.
(8) Shall have the obligation to investigate and communicate regarding academic misconduct. In the event of an academic ethics complaint against a submitted or published paper, editors must take effective response measures and are obligated to hold authors and reviewers accountable for their misconduct.
(9) Shall encourage academic debates and have the obligation to respond to authors' different opinions on reviewers' comments.
(10) Shall be responsible for preventing academic misconduct such as duplicate submission and redundant publication, and shall conduct duplicate checks and reviews on both initial submissions and upcoming publications.
(11) Shall have the obligation to remind authors of potential copyright and intellectual property issues that may arise from changes to authorship, affiliations, or their order.
(12) Shall ensure the fairness and rationality of the paper review process. If there is a conflict of interest or cooperative relationship between the editor and the paper's authors, affiliated institutions, or relevant enterprises arising from competition or cooperation, the editor must propose the replacement of reviewers, and the editor-in-chief or other members of the editorial board shall be responsible for the paper's review.
4. Handling of Academic Misconduct
The journal defines academic misconduct papers based on the latest national standard of the People's Republic of China, Academic Publishing Specification — Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals (CY/T 174-2019), including plagiarism, forgery, tampering, inappropriate attribution, multiple submissions, duplicate publication, and violation of research ethics. The journal will seriously deal with papers with academic misconduct, hold the authors responsible, and purify the academic environment.
The journal will first be evaluated by a web-based program Academic Misconduct Literature Check (AMLC) (http://check.cnki.net/amlc2/) to check the articles at the preliminary review stage and before publication in order to eliminate academic misconduct.
If a manuscript is detected at any stage of academic misconduct, the journal will withdraw the manuscript; if the manuscript is found to have academic misconduct after publication, the journal will withdraw the manuscript and hold the author responsible in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations and the Copyright Transfer Agreement signed by the author. For serious cases (e.g. intentional multiple submissions, etc.), the journal will no longer accept the author's submissions.
5.Statement on Regulating the Use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) Tools
In order to maintain and ensure the originality, authenticity, and rigor of published scholarship, uphold academic integrity, advocate a good academic culture, and promote the construction of academic norms, the Journal of China Nonferrous Metallurgy declares the following policies on the standardized use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, which are intended to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, reviewers, editors, and readers:
(1) For authors
a. In principle, this journal does not accept any Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools as authors of signed papers, while references should not contain papers that list AI as an author, and authors must be natural persons who can be held responsible for the authenticity, completeness, and scientificity of the paper's content.
b. If authors use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, these should be used only for making textual touches to improve the readability of the work and the standardization of the language.
c. If the submitted paper uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the authors should indicate the use, including the name of the specific AI tool used, the scope and extent of the generated content, and the role and function of the AI in the creation of the paper, so that the reviewers and editorial board can judge the originality of the paper.
d. The submitting authors themselves should abide by academic ethics and academic integrity, and take full responsibility for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their papers. Once it is verified that there are cases of concealing or not truthfully providing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the journal will regard it as a violation of academic integrity and has the right to return or withdraw the paper.
(2) For reviewers
a. Reviewers should not upload the submitted manuscript or any part of it to AI tools, as this may violate the confidentiality and proprietary rights of the authors and may violate data privacy if the paper contains personally identifiable information.
b. Reviewers of the journal are required to complete the review of the manuscript independently at all stages of the initial, review, and final review of the manuscript, and should not use artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies to review the paper, and the reviewers should be responsible for the content of the review report.
c. If the reviewer believes that the manuscript may use AI tools, he/she should reflect this truthfully in the review comments so that the editorial office can further investigate the matter, and if the reviewer determines that the manuscript uses AI tools, he/she should state the reasons in the review comments.
(3) For editors
a. Editors may utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) for assisted editing, but should not use AI technology for the evaluation and decision-making process of the final manuscript.
b. The Editorial Board reserves the right to track and review the use of AI technology in the submission and publication of manuscripts over time, and if it is found that there is concealment or untruthful provision of the use of AI tools, as well as the existence of the above violations, the journal will be considered as a violation of academic integrity, and has the right to take the right to take notice of return and withdrawal of manuscripts.
6.Correction policy for published articles
If it is necessary, the journal will issue corrections or retractions under the following circumstances.This policy applies to all articles published in the journal.
Correction statements are applicable in the following situations:
(1) Factual Errors: Such as data errors, figure/table errors, citation errors, etc.
(2) Textual Errors: Such as spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, unclear expressions, etc.
(3) Ethical Issues: Such as incorrect authorship, undeclared conflicts of interest, etc.
(4) Other Situations Requiring Clarification: Such as supplementary information, corrections to research methods, etc.
Correction Statement Process:
(1) Submission of Correction Requests
a. Author-Initiated: If authors identify errors in the article, they should submit a correction request by sending email to the editorial office, detailing the errors and proposed corrections.
b. Reader's Feedback: If readers identify errors in an article, they can submit correction suggestions by email, online feedback, etc.
c. Editorial Office's Discovery: If editors identify errors during routine review or peer review processes, they will contact authors for corrections.
(2) Review and Evaluation
a. Upon receiving a correction request, the editorial office will will probably invite external experts to conduct the assessment.
b. For correction requests involving academic misconduct, the editorial office will initiate a formal investigation and may involve external experts for evaluation.
(3) Publication of Correction Statements
a. Corrigendum: After confirmation by the editorial office, the author needs to submit the corrected manuscript and a correction statement. The correction statement will be publicly posted on the journal's website.
b. Erratum and Clarification: The editorial office publishes correction statements, indicates what are wrong contents and how to correct them, and provides further explanation of the article's content..
c. Retraction: After confirming serious issues with the article, the editorial office will issue a retraction statement.
The editorial office will consider retraction in the following situations:
(1) Academic Misconduct: Such as plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, etc.
(2) Unverifiable Research Results: Such as non-reproducible experimental data.
(3) Authorship Disputes: Such as unauthorized use of others' work.
(4) Other Serious Breaches of Academic Integrity.
7. Appeal Mechanism
This journal allows authors to file an appeal if and only if they provide sufficient information or evidence (such as additional factual information, corrected information, supplementary materials, or appeals against conflicts of interest and unfair peer review). The journal will handle the appeal based on the relevant information and evidence submitted by the authors.
