Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Overview and Core Principles

NAS Publisher is dedicated to ensuring high standards of ethical behavior across all stages of the scholarly publication process. We align our policies with international best practices and guidelines established by organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the publishing process—authors, editors, and reviewers—are expected to commit to these ethical standards.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

• Publication Decisions: Editors are solely responsible for deciding which submitted articles should be published, based on the journal's editorial board evaluation, academic validity, and peer review reports.
• Fair Play: Manuscripts are evaluated exclusively on their intellectual and scholarly merit, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
• Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and editorial advisers.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

• Contribution to Editorial Decisions: Peer review assists editors in making editorial decisions and helps authors improve their manuscripts through constructive academic critique.
• Promptness: Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor immediately and excuse themselves from the review process.
• Confidentiality: Received manuscripts must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate, and referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• Disclosure of Conflicts: Reviewers should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

4. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

• Reporting Standards: Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.
• Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable public time post-publication.
• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if they have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited.
• Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication: Authors should not concurrently publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.
• Acknowledgment of Sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given, including citations of publications that have influenced the nature of the reported work.
• Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.
• Hazards and Human/Animal Subjects: If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript alongside necessary ethical clearances.
• Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All authors should disclose any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.

5. Handling of Unethical Behavior

In cases of suspected or alleged research misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, NAS Publisher will take prompt action following COPE guidelines. This includes investigating the allegation, contacting the corresponding author, and, where necessary, issuing retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern.