The American Scientific Publishing Group (ASPG) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, and transparency across its journals.
This policy defines the ethical responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher throughout the submission, peer-review, publication, and post-publication processes. It applies to all ASPG journals and should be read together with the publisher's related editorial and publication policies.
1. Editorial Responsibilities and Independence
Editors are responsible for maintaining the scholarly quality, integrity, and relevance of journal content. Editorial decisions must be based on the academic merit, originality, methodological or theoretical soundness, clarity, and relevance of submitted work.
Editors are expected to:
Evaluate manuscripts fairly and impartially;
Maintain the confidentiality of submitted material;
Avoid discrimination based on personal characteristics, institutional affiliation, nationality, or other factors unrelated to scholarly merit;
Declare and appropriately manage conflicts of interest;
Refrain from handling manuscripts where their impartiality may reasonably be questioned;
Protect the integrity and confidentiality of the editorial process; and
Take appropriate action when potential research or publication misconduct is identified.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are made independently and must not be influenced by commercial interests, publication charges, sponsors, advertisers, institutional relationships, or other external considerations.
The publisher supports the authority of editors to make decisions based on scholarly and ethical considerations.
2. Peer-Review Integrity
Manuscripts considered suitable following initial editorial assessment proceed through the applicable journal peer-review process.
Peer review must be conducted independently, objectively, confidentially, and without inappropriate influence. ASPG journals normally apply a single-blind peer-review model unless otherwise specified by the individual journal.
Detailed information concerning editorial assessment, reviewer selection, confidentiality, revisions, and editorial decisions is provided in the Peer Review Process.
3. Reviewer Responsibilities
Reviewers play an important role in maintaining the quality and integrity of scholarly publishing.
Reviewers are expected to:
Provide objective, constructive, and academically reasoned assessments;
Evaluate manuscripts only within areas in which they have appropriate expertise;
Treat manuscripts and associated review materials as confidential;
Declare any actual or potential conflicts of interest;
Decline a review where impartial evaluation cannot reasonably be provided;
Complete reviews within the agreed timeframe or inform the journal if this is not possible;
Avoid using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage; and
Report suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data concerns, citation manipulation, or other potential ethical issues identified during review.
Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, figures, tables, data, correspondence, or other confidential review materials to publicly accessible generative AI tools or other systems where confidentiality, intellectual property, or author rights may be compromised.
Review reports must reflect the reviewer's own scholarly expertise and professional judgment.
4. Author Responsibilities
Authors are responsible for the integrity, accuracy, and originality of the work they submit.
Authors must ensure that:
The submitted work is original and appropriately acknowledges previously published material;
The manuscript is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal;
Sources and prior work are cited accurately and appropriately;
Data, results, images, analyses, and other research materials are not fabricated, falsified, or misleadingly manipulated;
All individuals listed as authors have made legitimate scholarly contributions to the work;
All listed authors have approved the submitted manuscript; and
Relevant ethical, legal, institutional, and professional requirements have been observed.
Authors are collectively responsible for the integrity of their published work and should cooperate with reasonable editorial inquiries concerning the accuracy or ethical status of a submitted or published article.
General manuscript and submission requirements are provided in the Author Guidelines.
5. Authorship
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the work and who accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript.
All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript before submission.
Individuals who have contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors.
Guest, honorary, gift, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.
Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be communicated to the editorial office and may require agreement from the authors concerned. Authorship disputes that cannot be resolved by the journal may be referred to the relevant institution or another appropriate authority.
ASPG does not require a standardized author-contribution statement for every published article unless specifically requested by an individual journal or by the editorial office in a particular case.
6. Conflicts of Interest
Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose actual or potential conflicts of interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation of results, peer review, or editorial decision-making.
Conflicts may include financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships relevant to the work.
Editors and reviewers who have a conflict that could affect their impartiality must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process.
Authors should disclose relevant conflicts to the journal where applicable. ASPG does not require a separate declaration of absence of conflict in every manuscript unless requested by the journal or editorial office.
7. Research and Publication Misconduct
ASPG does not tolerate practices that compromise the integrity of research, peer review, or the scholarly record.
Research and publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to:
Plagiarism or substantial unattributed copying;
Fabrication or falsification of data, results, or research records;
Inappropriate manipulation of images, figures, data, or results;
Duplicate submission or redundant publication;
Undisclosed substantial overlap with previously published work;
Fabricated, falsified, or deliberately misleading references;
Inappropriate or manipulative citation practices;
Authorship manipulation or misrepresentation;
Peer-review manipulation, including the use of false reviewer identities or attempts to improperly influence the review process;
Misrepresentation of ethical approval, consent, research methods, or research findings;
Publication of material without necessary authorization or permission; and
Other conduct that materially compromises the reliability or integrity of scholarly communication.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using recognized similarity-detection tools as part of the editorial assessment. Similarity reports are evaluated in context by editors and are not, by themselves, considered evidence of plagiarism or misconduct.
8. Investigation of Research or Publication Misconduct
Allegations of research or publication misconduct are assessed objectively and confidentially by the journal and/or ASPG Research Integrity Office.
Depending on the nature of the concern, an investigation may involve communication with authors, editors, reviewers, affiliated institutions, research-integrity officers, or other appropriate parties.
Individuals involved in an investigation must disclose relevant conflicts of interest and should not participate where their impartiality may reasonably be questioned.
Authors or other individuals whose work or conduct is the subject of a material concern will normally be given an appropriate opportunity to respond before a final determination is made, except where immediate action is required for legal, ethical, confidentiality, or safety reasons.
Where misconduct or a serious breach of publication ethics is established, appropriate action may include:
Rejection of a submitted manuscript;
Correction of the scholarly record;
Publication of an Expression of Concern;
Retraction of a published article;
Notification of relevant institutions or authorities where appropriate;
Restriction of future submissions or editorial participation in serious cases; or
Other proportionate action necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.
Post-publication actions are handled in accordance with the Corrections and Retractions Policy.
Suspected research or publication misconduct may be reported confidentially to the ASPG Research Integrity Office at researchintegrity@americaspg.com.
Reports should provide sufficient information to allow an appropriate assessment, including the journal and article or manuscript title, DOI or manuscript number where available, a description of the concern, and relevant supporting information.
9. Data Integrity and Research Transparency
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and appropriate presentation of the data, evidence, analyses, and results supporting their research.
Research data and results must not be fabricated, falsified, selectively manipulated, or intentionally presented in a misleading manner.
Where reasonable questions concerning the integrity or verification of research findings arise, the editorial office may request relevant supporting information from the authors. Such requests will take into account applicable ethical, legal, contractual, confidentiality, privacy, and institutional restrictions.
ASPG supports responsible research transparency and appropriate sharing of research materials where feasible and suitable to the discipline. However, the publisher does not impose a general requirement that every article must publicly provide datasets, source code, or other research materials.
10. Ethical Approval, Human Participants, and Animal Research
Research involving human participants, identifiable personal information, human biological material, or animals must comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant national or international regulations and guidelines.
Appropriate ethical approval must be obtained where required.
For research involving human participants, informed consent should be obtained where applicable. Additional consent should be obtained when identifiable personal information, photographs, case details, or other material that could reasonably identify an individual is intended for publication.
Authors are responsible for maintaining appropriate documentation relating to ethical approval and consent and may be requested to provide relevant evidence to the journal when necessary.
11. Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies
Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for published work.
Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted under their names, including its accuracy, originality, integrity, appropriate attribution, references, interpretation, and conclusions.
Authors should disclose the substantive use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies where such tools have materially contributed to the generation, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of manuscript content.
Authors must verify factual statements, references, citations, and other material produced or suggested by AI-assisted tools. Fabricated or inaccurate references, data, claims, or other content remain the responsibility of the authors.
Routine tools used solely for functions such as spelling, grammar, formatting, or basic language correction do not normally require disclosure.
The use of AI-assisted technologies must not compromise confidentiality, intellectual property rights, research integrity, participant privacy, or other ethical obligations.
Requirements governing the use of generative AI by reviewers are also addressed in the Peer Review Process.
12. Citation and Reference Integrity
References should be selected on the basis of scholarly relevance and should accurately represent the sources used in the research.
Authors must not:
Fabricate or falsify references;
Cite sources that do not support the claims for which they are referenced;
Add citations solely to artificially increase citation counts;
Participate in coercive or coordinated citation manipulation; or
Include irrelevant references for the purpose of influencing journal, author, institutional, or individual citation metrics.
Editors and reviewers must not require authors to add unnecessary citations for the purpose of increasing citations to their own work, a particular journal, or another publication.
Legitimate recommendations for additional literature should be based on its relevance to improving the scholarly quality, context, or accuracy of the manuscript.
13. Post-Publication Integrity, Corrections, and Retractions
ASPG is committed to maintaining the accuracy, transparency, permanence, and integrity of the scholarly record.
Errors or ethical concerns identified after publication will be assessed according to their nature and significance. Appropriate actions may include corrections, addenda, clarifications, Expressions of Concern, retractions, withdrawals, or removal in exceptional circumstances.
ASPG does not make undisclosed substantive changes to the Version of Record. Editorially significant post-publication actions are documented transparently and linked to the affected publication where applicable.
The DOI of an original article is not normally deleted because the article has subsequently been corrected or retracted.
Detailed procedures concerning corrections, retractions, Expressions of Concern, withdrawals, content removal, version control, and DOI management are provided in the Corrections and Retractions Policy.
14. Appeals and Complaints
Authors, reviewers, readers, editors, and other interested parties may raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial decisions, peer review, manuscript handling, publication ethics, or published content.
Appeals concerning editorial decisions, manuscript handling, or peer-review procedures should normally be directed to the journal's Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor. Where an appropriate journal-level contact is not available, correspondence may be sent to the ASPG Editorial Office at editorial@americaspg.com.
Concerns involving research misconduct, plagiarism, authorship misconduct, data fabrication or falsification, peer-review manipulation, unethical research, significant undisclosed conflicts of interest, or the integrity of published content should be directed confidentially to the ASPG Research Integrity Office at researchintegrity@americaspg.com.
Complaints and appeals are assessed objectively and, where appropriate, confidentially.
Complete procedures are provided in the Appeals and Complaints Policy.
15. Copyright, Licensing, and Author Rights
Copyright, licensing, reuse, and author rights are governed by the ASPG Copyright and Licensing Policy.
Authors retain copyright in their published work and grant ASPG the applicable rights required to publish, distribute, and archive the article.
ASPG articles are published under the Creative Commons license specified in the Copyright and Licensing Policy. Reuse rights should therefore be interpreted according to the applicable license rather than being restricted generally to academic or non-commercial use.
Further information concerning immediate access and distribution is provided in the Open Access Policy.
16. Publisher Responsibilities
ASPG is responsible for supporting the integrity, independence, transparency, and continuity of the scholarly publication process.
The publisher is committed to:
Respecting the editorial independence of its journals;
Ensuring that commercial considerations and publication charges do not determine editorial decisions;
Supporting editors in addressing allegations of research or publication misconduct;
Maintaining appropriate publication-ethics, peer-review, copyright, correction, and complaints procedures;
Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of editorial and peer-review processes;
Taking appropriate action when credible concerns arise regarding submitted or published content;
Maintaining the scholarly record through transparent correction, retraction, and version-control procedures; and
Making relevant publication policies publicly available to authors, reviewers, editors, and readers.
Where an ethical matter requires specialist, institutional, legal, or independent assessment, ASPG may consult appropriate external parties while maintaining confidentiality to the extent reasonably possible.
17. Policy Application and Related Policies
This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement applies across ASPG journals. Individual journals may provide additional discipline-specific requirements where appropriate, provided that such requirements are consistent with publisher-level policies.
This statement should be read together with the following ASPG policies:
Where a detailed procedure is addressed by a dedicated ASPG policy, that policy provides the applicable procedural framework.
18. Contact Information
Research Integrity
For concerns relating to research or publication misconduct, plagiarism, authorship disputes or misconduct, data or image integrity, peer-review manipulation, unethical research, Expressions of Concern, corrections involving research integrity, or retractions, please contact:
ASPG Research Integrity Office
Email: researchintegrity@americaspg.com
General Editorial Matters
For manuscript submissions, editorial decisions, peer-review correspondence, journal-level enquiries, or other general editorial matters, please contact:
ASPG Editorial Office
Email: editorial@americaspg.com