1. Core Principles

• Editorial decisions are based on academic merit, methodological validity, originality, clarity and relevance to the journal’s scope.
• Decisions must not be influenced by nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, political opinion, institutional affiliation or other personal characteristics unrelated to the scholarly work.
• Commercial, financial, institutional or personal interests must not compromise editorial independence.
• Submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports and editorial correspondence are confidential.
• All journals must describe their peer-review process clearly and apply it consistently.
• Special issues, supplements and content handled by guest editors are subject to the same ethical and editorial standards as regular journal content.
• Ethical concerns may be examined before or after publication, regardless of when they are reported.

2. Authors’ Responsibilities

Authors must:

• Submit accurate and original work that is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• Present methods, data, analyses and conclusions honestly and in sufficient detail to permit proper scholarly evaluation.
• Cite relevant sources accurately and avoid plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, fabricated references, misleading attribution and citation manipulation.
• Disclose any related manuscript, prior publication, preprint or other form of previous dissemination that may overlap with the submitted work.
• Ensure that every listed author satisfies the applicable authorship criteria, has approved the submitted version and accepts responsibility for the work.
• Acknowledge contributors who do not qualify for authorship.
• Disclose all funding sources and relevant financial or non-financial competing interests.
• Obtain all necessary ethical approvals, participant consents, registrations and third-party permissions before submission.
• Retain relevant research records and provide supporting data, documents or explanations when reasonably requested by the journal.
• Respond to editorial and reviewer comments accurately, completely and respectfully.
• Inform the journal promptly if a significant error or integrity concern is discovered before or after publication.

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and for ensuring that all co-authors are properly identified, informed and included in decisions concerning submission, revision and publication.

3. Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Reviewers must:

• Accept review assignments only when they have appropriate expertise and sufficient time.
• Declare any actual, potential or perceived competing interest and decline the review when impartiality may be compromised.
• Treat the manuscript, supplementary files and review process as confidential.
• Provide objective, evidence-based and constructive comments without personal criticism or discriminatory language.
• Inform the editor confidentially of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data problems, citation manipulation or other ethical concerns.
• Not use unpublished information or ideas obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.
• Not request citations for the purpose of increasing their own or another person’s citation count.
• Not share the manuscript or involve another reviewer without prior editorial permission.
• Not upload manuscripts, review reports or confidential information to external artificial intelligence systems.

4. Editors’ Responsibilities

Editors must:

• Evaluate submissions fairly, consistently and independently.
• Base decisions on the scholarly quality and relevance of the work.
• Select reviewers with suitable expertise and take reasonable precautions against conflicts of interest, fabricated reviewer identities and manipulation of peer review.
• Protect the confidentiality of manuscripts, author information, reviewer identities and editorial correspondence in accordance with the journal’s peer-review model.
• Recuse themselves from manuscripts in which they have a personal, professional, academic or financial competing interest.
• Not use unpublished information obtained through editorial work for their own research or personal advantage.
• Consider reviewer recommendations critically while retaining responsibility for the final editorial decision.
• Respond appropriately when ethical concerns are raised about submitted or published work.
• Ensure that submissions authored by editors, editorial board members or persons closely connected to the journal are handled independently.

5. Publisher’s Responsibilities

Tulpar Academic Publishing:

• Supports editorial independence and does not allow commercial considerations to determine editorial decisions.
• Supports journal editors in handling allegations of publication misconduct and serious ethical concerns.
• Maintains confidential systems for manuscript submission, peer review and editorial communication.
• Takes reasonable measures to protect the integrity of published content.
• Provides an alternative reporting route when a complaint concerns a journal’s Editor-in-Chief, editorial office or management.
• Publishes corrections, expressions of concern, retractions or other notices when necessary to protect the scholarly record.
• Does not interfere with a justified editorial rejection, revision request or other academic decision merely because an author has submitted a complaint.

6. Research and Publication Integrity

Originality and plagiarism

Plagiarism includes presenting another person’s text, data, images, ideas, methods or results without appropriate acknowledgement. Plagiarism, fabricated citations, undisclosed text recycling and misleading attribution are unacceptable.

Submissions may be screened using similarity-detection software at any stage of the editorial or production process. A similarity score alone does not establish plagiarism. Editors assess the nature, extent, source and context of any overlap before reaching a decision.

Duplicate and redundant publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously or publish substantially the same findings more than once without appropriate disclosure, justification and cross-referencing. Legitimate secondary publication, translation or republication requires prior editorial agreement and transparent reference to the original work.

Fabrication, falsification and manipulation

Fabrication or falsification of data, results, images, participant information, ethics documents, reviewer identities or other records is prohibited. Images must not be altered in a manner that obscures, removes, adds or misrepresents information.

Authorship and contributorship

Authorship must be limited to persons who made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work, participated in drafting or critically revising it, approved the final version and agree to be accountable for its content.

Gift, guest, honorary and ghost authorship are prohibited. Persons who provided technical, administrative, language or other assistance without meeting the authorship criteria should be acknowledged where appropriate.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors must be explained in writing and normally require the agreement of all affected authors. Journals cannot adjudicate unresolved authorship disputes and may refer such matters to the authors’ institutions.

Citation practices

Citations must be relevant, accurate and used for legitimate scholarly purposes. Authors, reviewers and editors must not engage in coercive citation, excessive self-citation, citation cartels or requests intended primarily to manipulate citation indicators.

Data and supporting records

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their data. The journal may request raw data, unprocessed images, calculations, analysis files, research protocols or other supporting records when necessary to evaluate the work or investigate a concern.

Where relevant to the discipline, authors should state whether and under what conditions the underlying data can be accessed. Ethical, legal, privacy or legitimate confidentiality restrictions must be explained.

Competing interests and funding

Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, the research, review or editorial decision. All sources of research funding and material support must be identified.

The existence of a competing interest does not automatically prevent publication. Failure to disclose a relevant interest may, however, require editorial or post-publication action.

Copyright and permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted text, figures, tables, questionnaires, data or other third-party material. Submission of material without the necessary rights or permissions is prohibited.

7. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, personal or identifiable information, biological materials or animals must comply with applicable laws, institutional requirements and recognised ethical standards.

Where applicable, authors must provide:

• The name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board;
• The approval, permit or exemption number;
• A statement concerning informed consent or the grounds for an authorised waiver;
• Confirmation that participant privacy and confidentiality have been protected; and
• Information concerning the ethical treatment of animals.

The journal may request copies of ethics approvals, consent documentation, registrations or related records. More detailed requirements for medical and clinical research are stated in the policies of the relevant journal.

8. Artificial Intelligence and AI-assisted Technologies

• Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.
• Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, references, data, images, analysis and conclusions of their work.
• Generative AI tools may be used only under human supervision and in accordance with the journal’s stated policy.
• AI must not be used to fabricate or falsify text, data, images, references, results, reviewer identities or other research records.
• AI must not replace the authors’ scientific reasoning, interpretation or accountability.
• Use of generative AI to produce or materially revise manuscript content must be disclosed transparently, including the tool used and the purpose of its use.
• AI-generated or AI-manipulated figures and research images are not permitted unless the use of AI is itself part of the research method and is described transparently and reproducibly.
• Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, files or personal information to external AI systems.

9. Allegations of Misconduct and Investigations

Concerns may be raised by authors, reviewers, editors, readers, institutions or other persons. Anonymous allegations may be considered when they contain sufficiently specific information or supporting evidence. An allegation is not, by itself, proof of misconduct.

Information is shared only with persons or organisations that have a legitimate role in reviewing or investigating the matter. Complete confidentiality cannot be guaranteed when disclosure is necessary for a fair investigation, legal compliance or protection of the scholarly record.

Possible actions include:

• Requesting clarification, data or documentation;
• Suspending editorial evaluation;
• Rejecting or withdrawing a manuscript;
• Correcting or retracting a published article;
• Publishing an expression of concern;
• Removing an editor or reviewer from a particular case;
• Temporarily restricting future submissions or editorial participation; and
• Referring the matter to an institution or competent authority.

Actions are determined case by case and must be proportionate to the evidence, seriousness of the conduct and responsibility of each individual. Restrictions are not imposed automatically on all co-authors without evidence of their individual involvement or responsibility.

10. Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

Tulpar Academic Publishing is committed to maintaining an accurate and transparent scholarly record. Published content may be updated through the following mechanisms:

• Correction: Used when an error affects the accuracy, interpretation or presentation of an article but does not invalidate its main findings.
• Expression of concern: Used when serious concerns remain unresolved and an investigation is incomplete, delayed or inconclusive.
• Retraction: Used when findings are unreliable, serious misconduct or unethical research has occurred, duplicate publication materially compromises the record, or the article otherwise cannot be relied upon.
• Removal: Considered only in exceptional circumstances involving serious legal, privacy or public-safety concerns.

Post-publication notices will identify the affected article, explain the reason for the action as clearly as circumstances permit and remain linked to the published record. Retraction and correction procedures are intended to protect the scholarly record rather than to serve primarily as punishment.

Authors are expected to cooperate with legitimate post-publication enquiries and correction procedures.

11. Appeals and Complaints

Appeals against editorial decisions

An author may appeal an editorial decision when there is evidence of a material factual error, a significant procedural problem, a relevant conflict of interest or important information that was not adequately considered.

Disagreement with the reviewers’ opinions or the editorial outcome, without specific supporting grounds, is not sufficient for reconsideration.

• Appeals must be submitted in writing by the corresponding author.
• The manuscript identification number and specific grounds for the appeal must be provided.
• The journal may request a concise response to the editorial and reviewer comments.
• Where reasonably possible, the appeal will be considered by an editor who was not directly responsible for the disputed decision.
• Submission of an appeal does not guarantee that the manuscript will be reopened or sent for further review.
• The journal’s final decision following consideration of the appeal concludes the internal editorial appeal process.

Complaints

A complaint may concern editorial procedure, unreasonable delay, peer-review management, staff or editor conduct, discrimination, confidentiality, publication ethics or another aspect of journal or publisher practice.

• Complaints concerning a journal should normally be submitted first to the journal’s editorial office.
• Complaints concerning an Editor-in-Chief, editorial office or journal management may be submitted directly to Tulpar Academic Publishing.
• A person who is directly involved in the subject of a complaint must not be solely responsible for deciding its outcome.
• Complaints will be considered fairly and without retaliation against persons who raise concerns in good faith.
• The complaints process cannot be used to compel an editor to change a legitimate scholarly decision without valid grounds.