Publication Ethics and Misconduct
Publication Ethics and Misconduct Policy
The Journal of Intelligent and Sustainable Systems (JISS), published by the International Natural and Social Sciences Press (INSS Press), is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and to taking all possible measures against publication malpractice. This policy applies to everyone involved in the scholarly publishing process: authors, reviewers, and editors. It is informed by the guidelines and flowcharts of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
1. Duties of authors
Originality and proper citation. Submitted manuscripts must be original works. Authors must cite all sources that influenced the work, including their own previously published work. Any form of plagiarism — including unattributed self-plagiarism — is unacceptable.
Exclusive submission. A manuscript must not be under consideration by any other journal while under review at JISS, and must not have been published elsewhere in substantially the same form.
Authorship. Authorship is limited to individuals who made a significant intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the work. All listed authors must have approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission. The corresponding author ensures these requirements are met and communicates with the journal on behalf of all co-authors. Changes to authorship after submission require the written agreement of all authors.
Disclosure of conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work.
Data and reproducibility. Authors should be prepared to make the data underlying their findings available to the editors and reviewers, and to retain the data for a reasonable period after publication.
Reporting errors. If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published article, they must notify the editors promptly so that a correction or retraction can be issued.
2. Duties of reviewers
Confidentiality. Manuscripts under review are confidential documents and must not be shared or discussed outside the review process.
Objectivity and constructiveness. Reviews must be objective, evidence-based, and constructive. Personal criticism of authors is never appropriate.
Promptness. Reviewers who cannot complete a review on time, or who feel unqualified, should decline promptly so an alternative reviewer can be found.
Conflicts of interest. Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts where a competing, collaborative, or other relationship with the authors could bias their judgement.
Unpublished material. Ideas and data obtained through peer review must not be used for personal advantage.
Alerting the editors. Reviewers should draw the editors' attention to any substantial overlap with other published work or any suspected misconduct they observe.
3. Duties of editors
Fair and independent decisions. Editorial decisions are based solely on the manuscript's scholarly merit — its originality, validity, and relevance to the journal's scope — without regard to the authors' identity, affiliation, or beliefs.
Confidentiality. Editors do not disclose information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, and editorial advisers as appropriate.
Conflicts of interest. Editors recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where they have a conflict, and do not use unpublished material from submissions for their own research.
Appeals and complaints. Authors may appeal editorial decisions; appeals are handled fairly, normally involving an editor not previously involved with the manuscript.
4. Research and publication misconduct
JISS regards the following as misconduct: fabrication or falsification of data; plagiarism; duplicate or redundant publication without clear disclosure; authorship misconduct (gift, ghost, or coerced authorship); undisclosed conflicts of interest; and manipulation of the peer-review process.
Allegations of misconduct are taken seriously and handled following the COPE flowcharts. Depending on the findings, the journal may reject the manuscript, publish a correction or an expression of concern, retract the article, notify the authors' institutions, and bar the responsible individuals from submitting to JISS for a defined period. Investigations are conducted confidentially and the accused are given the opportunity to respond.
Suspected misconduct may be reported in confidence to the Journal Manager at jiss@insspress.org.
5. Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions
Corrections are published when honest errors affect the scholarly record but not the validity of the findings. Expressions of concern are issued when serious questions arise that cannot yet be resolved. Retractions are issued when findings are unreliable due to error or misconduct, or when there is clear evidence of plagiarism or duplicate publication. Retraction notices are linked to the original article, which remains online with a clear retraction notice.
6. Open access and licensing
All articles published in JISS are open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). Authors retain copyright in their work.