Policies
1. Authorship & Contributions
Eligibility:
- Authors must be affiliated with accredited institutions or recognized organizations, verified via institutional email and/or website profiles
- AI tools (e.g., LLMs, chatbots) are prohibited as authors but must be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section if used for content refinement.
Contributions:
- Credit taxonomy is mandatory to specify roles (e.g., Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis).
- Non-author contributors (e.g., technical/writing assistants) must be listed in Acknowledgments with their consent .
Changes:
- Post-publication authorship modifications require unanimous author approval and a new version with an “Amendments” statement.
- Name changes (e.g., gender identity, marriage) will be confidentially processed without legal documentation.
2. Originality & Prior Publication
- Plagiarism: All submissions are screened via Crossref’s iThenticate. Unattributed plagiarism/self-plagiarism results in rejection.
- Preprints: Preprint server submissions (e.g., arXiv, bioRxiv) are permitted but must be disclosed during submission.
- Redundant Publication: Simultaneous submission to multiple journals is prohibited. Articles under review elsewhere will be rejected.
3. Ethical Compliance
- Human/Animal Research: Must adhere to institutional/national ethics guidelines. Ethics committee approval details and compliance statements are required.
- Competing Interests: Financial (e.g., funding, patents) and non-financial (e.g., ideological, political) conflicts must be declared. Use: “No competing interests disclosed” if applicable.
- Misconduct: Fabrication, falsification, or unethical data collection will lead to retraction and institutional notification.
4. Data, Software & Reproducibility
Data Availability:
- Mandatory statement detailing repository, access conditions, and license (e.g., CC0, CC-BY).
- Restricted data (e.g., privacy, copyright) must justify limitations and provide controlled-access methods.
Software & Code:
- Source code must be archived in GitHub/BitBucket with OSI-approved licenses. Version numbers and open-access alternatives for proprietary tools are required.
Extended Data:
- Supplemental materials (e.g., questionnaires, protocols) must be deposited in approved repositories (e.g., Zenodo, OSF).
5. Peer Review Process
- Model: Open, post-publication review. Articles publish pre-review; expert reviewers are invited post-publication.
- Criteria: Reviewers assess scholarly validity, methodology, and ethical compliance. Competing interests must be declared in reports.
- Revisions: Authors must respond to reviewer comments. Persistent disputes may trigger editorial arbitration.
6. Article Types & Structure
Research Articles:
- Scope: Original/null/confirmatory findings; methodological advances
- Word limits: ≤20,000
- Sections: Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion
Reviews/Systematic Reviews:
- Scope: Critical field assessments
- Word limits: ≤15,000
- Sections: Balanced literature synthesis
- Abstracts: Structured (Background, Methods, Results, Conclusions) for research; unstructured for opinions
7. Corrections, Retractions & Versioning
- Corrections: Errors are amended via new versions with tracked changes. All versions retain DOIs and are cross-linked.
- Retractions: Applied for legal/ethical violations, dangerous inaccuracies, or irreproducible data. Retraction notices specify reasons.
- Withdrawals: Permitted only pre-publication. Post-acceptance withdrawals incur no fee refunds.
8. Fees, Licensing & Open Access
- APC: https://jsciengpap.com/apc/
- Licensing: CC BY-SA 4.0 default. Data/software under CC0 or OSI-approved licenses.
9. Copyright & Permissions
- Authors retain copyright but grant JoSEP publishing rights.
- Third-party material: Permissions must be obtained for copyrighted figures/tables. CC-licensed material reused per license terms
10. Editorial Independence & Misconduct Handling
- Editors may reject articles violating policies or with legal/ethical risks.
- Complaints: Allegations (e.g., plagiarism, bias) are investigated per COPE guidelines. Outcomes include corrections, retractions, or bans
What is Crossmark?
Crossmark is a multi-publisher initiative from Crossref that provides a standardized way for readers to verify the current status of a scholarly publication. When you see the Crossmark logo (
) on a document, it indicates the publisher’s commitment to maintaining the content and providing timely updates about any changes.
The Crossmark Logo: What It Means
The Crossmark logo appears on HTML and PDF versions of publications. Clicking the logo reveals a pop-up dialog box showing:
- Publication Status: Confirms whether the document is the latest version.
- Update History: Details any changes (e.g., corrections, retractions, or additions).
- Publication Record: Links to metadata, peer review reports (if available), and funding data.
Example Statuses:
- Current Version: No updates exist.
- Updated: Corrections or additions have been made.
- Retracted: The document has been withdrawn.
- Supplemental Data: Additional materials (e.g., datasets) are available.
Types of Updates We Provide
When content changes substantively, we apply a Crossmark update and notify Crossref. Changes include:
- Corrections: Typographical errors, mislabeled figures, or minor data inaccuracies.
- Retractions: Withdrawal of content due to ethical violations or irreproducible results.
- Addenda: Supplementary information (e.g., author contributions, funding details).
- Expressions of Concern: Notices about potential integrity issues under investigation.
- Article Replacements: Author-initiated updates (e.g., revised conclusions).
Note: Minor formatting changes (e.g., layout, broken links) do not trigger Crossmark updates.