Editorial Policies

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions rest with the journal’s editors. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.

Decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial or reviewer roles. An author’s membership, an invoice, a paid language-editing order or a role on the board changes nothing about how a manuscript is read.

Peer review

All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.

Editors weigh the reviews they receive against the manuscript itself; a review is advice to the editor, not a vote. Decision letters set out the key points raised and the revisions required.

Research ethics

Research involving human participants requires approval from the appropriate ethics committee and informed consent from participants. Research involving animals requires approval from the appropriate animal-ethics committee. Missing documentation is grounds for return without review.

For applied AI and robotics work, manuscripts also report, where relevant: dataset provenance and licensing; privacy and consent for data collected from people; separation of training, validation and test data; the baselines and evaluation metrics used; availability of models and code, or the restriction that prevents it; the hardware or simulation configuration; and safety reporting.

Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.

Data availability

Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. The statement describes how the supporting data can be reached, or the restriction that prevents it.

Editors may ask for data, code or documentation when a question about reliability or reproducibility arises during review.

Authorship and contribution

Every listed author must meet accepted authorship criteria and approve the final manuscript. Contribution statements clarify who did what, and they are encouraged on multi-group submissions.

Changes to the author list after submission require written agreement from all authors.

Conflicts of interest

Authors, editors and reviewers disclose financial, professional and personal interests that a reader could reasonably consider relevant.

An editor with an interest in a submission, including their own work, takes no part in its assessment; the manuscript is handled independently.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and reviewer reports are confidential. Editors and reviewers do not share, circulate or use their contents outside the review process.

After submitting the review, reviewers should securely delete downloaded manuscript files and must not retain or use unpublished material.

Integrity of text and images

Submissions are screened for originality with Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate, and figures are checked for signs of inappropriate manipulation. A similarity report is read in context by an editor; it is not an automatic decision.

Allegations of misconduct are investigated under documented procedures, and the journal cooperates with institutions when a formal inquiry is opened.

Corrections, expressions of concern and retractions

When an error is identified after publication the journal issues a correction, an expression of concern or a retraction, according to the seriousness of the problem.

The original article is not removed. Each notice is linked to the article it concerns so the record remains readable in both directions.

Appeals and complaints

Authors may appeal a decision by writing to the editorial office with a reasoned, evidence-based response. An appeal is considered by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision.

A complaint concerning an editor is handled by the publisher rather than by that editor, and the complainant is told the outcome.

Withdrawal

A manuscript under consideration may not be submitted elsewhere until it has been formally withdrawn.

Authors should contact the editorial office promptly and wait for written confirmation before submitting the work elsewhere.

Manuscripts withdrawn within 3 days of submission are not subject to a withdrawal charge.

Manuscripts withdrawn more than 3 days after submission incur a withdrawal charge equal to 30% of the journal's APC.

Authors must receive official withdrawal confirmation before submitting the manuscript to another journal.

Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright. Articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, so others may share and adapt the work with attribution.

Permission from the journal is needed only for material that falls outside that license, such as third-party content reproduced with separate permission.