Appeal and Complaint

Clear publishing ethics will lead to a better science community. All the persons related to the publishing process are responsible for the work. Editors will take any possible misconduct seriously. Anyone, such as authors, editors, readers, and reviewers, could complain about any misconduct to the Editorial Office, including academic fraud, research misconduct, or publication malpractice.

If authors lodge an appeal against rejection, another independent report will be collected by the handing editor to Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief will consider all the comments and complaints to make a final decision with appropriate explanation. The decision is final, and more complaints will not be accepted.

If authors complain about the time taken in the editorial process, the handling editor will investigate the matter and coordinate with relevant parties to deal with the obstacles and carefully control the processing time. The complainant will be given appropriate feedback.

If the allegation is about publishing ethics, involving behaviors of reviewers, editors, and editorial staff, the Editor-in-Chief will organize a panel to investigate this allegation. If necessary cooperation is required for this investigation, e.g., ethical approval and data reliability, in such cases, the Editorial Office will contact the authors’ institutes or other journals from which the author(s) cited the relevant data for requesting assistance, as appropriate. Any possible complaints will be dealt with according to the guidance on complaints and appeals of COPE.

 

Investigations and sanctions

All suspected allegations of misconduct before or after publication will be investigated by the Editorial Office, and authors are expected to answer truthfully. Depending on the circumstances, sanctions for misconduct include, but are not limited to, the following forms.

If the work is under consideration, the manuscript may be rejected.

If the work has been published, an erratum or correction will be posted with a link to the article, or even a retraction will be initiated.

Authors are banned from submitting manuscripts to the publisher for 3 years.

Reviewers are no longer engaged in reviewing manuscripts for all journals from this publisher.

Authors have the right to appeal to the Editorial Office within 30 days upon receiving an editorial decision.