Author's Responsibilities

1. Authors should ensure that the submitted manuscript has not been previously published in any other journal. Multiple submission or repeated publication of any given manuscript are prohibited.

2. Authors should ensure that all individuals listed as the author of a manuscript have made significant contributions to the said research. Authorship should be granted according to level of contribution. The listed authors should have no objections to the order of the names. If disputes arise regarding authorship, all listed authors are obliged to propose a cancellation or correction.

3. Authors should respect the intellectual property rights of other individuals and organizations and use appropriate citations and quotations to indicate others’ viewpoints and research results.

4. Authors should ensure that the submitted manuscript are the results of independent research and does not contain academic misconduct, such as plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification.

5. All authors are obliged to correct errors in their published works or to request a withdrawal.

6. Authors should ensure that their research complies with standards for relevant research ethics, and all authors should disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest.

7. Authors must comply with relevant national confidentiality regulations. The manuscript should not include any information that violates such regulations.

8. Authors should provide information on the source of funding and briefly introduce the role of the funder in the process of research design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing, and publication decision as required.

Reviewer's Responsibilities

1. Reviewers are expected to provide objective, independent, and pertinent written reviews. Reviewers should not tolerate academic misconduct of any kind. Offensive language should be avoided in the review comments and feedback.

2. Reviewers are expected to review the manuscripts in a timely manner. If a reviewer foresees any delay in completing the task, he/she should judiciously notify the corresponding editor so that the editor can submit the manuscript to another reviewer.

3. There should be no conflicts of interest between the reviewer(s) and author(s). Should there be a conflict of interest, the corresponding reviewers should withdraw themselves from the review process.

4. Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of the manuscripts on which they are assigned, avoiding communicating relevant information with anyone or using the content of such unpublished manuscripts without authorization from corresponding parties.

5. Reviewers must not use any confidential information or their reviewer's rights for their own benefit.

6. Reviewers should inform the journal editor of any absent citations.

7. Reviewers should immediately inform the journal editor of any conflicts of interest, multiple submissions, or suspicious academic misconduct.

8. Reviewers are not permitted to request others to review the manuscripts on their behalf.

Editor's Responsibilities

1. Editors should follow academic and ethical standards and the principles of the journal. They must not encourage or deliberately allow academic misconduct under any circumstances. Allegations of academic misconduct should be appropriately handled.

2. Editors should fairly treat each manuscript, and punctually register the submission and submit the manuscripts for review. Manuscripts that contain academic misconduct can be immediately and directly rejected.

3. When there is a conflict of interest between the editor(s) and author(s), the corresponding editor(s) should withdraw themselves from the editorial process. In addition, the manuscripts should be submitted to peer experts that do not have any conflict of interest with the author(s) during the peer review process.

4. During the double-blind peer review stage, editors are required to keep the information of the authors and reviewers confidential. Editors have the obligation to ensure the manuscript remains confidential prior to publication, and shall not disclose, publicize, or use the content of the manuscript without authorization of the corresponding parties.

5. Editors shall not influence the review stage of the manuscripts, deny reviewers' comments without proper reason, distort reviewers’ comments, or modify the manuscript to deliberately distort the authors' original intentions.

6. Editors must not use the confidential information in the journal's layout, editing procedures, or editing rights for their own gain.

7. Selection of manuscripts for major topics should go through the corresponding application procedures.

8. Editors should truthfully publish information related to awards received by research and the inclusion of academic research databases.

9. Editors are not permitted to add self-citations that are unrelated to the content of the manuscript, or to require or imply that the authors are to cite unnecessary works.

10. Editors must not negotiate or mutually cite other journals for the purpose of increasing the influence of the journal.

Retraction Rules

To ensure the scientific credibility of the journal, a published manuscript will be retracted for the following reasons: there is clear evidence that the research findings are unreliable, regardless of the degree to which academic misconduct (such as falsification) or unintentional mistakes (such as calculation errors or experimental errors) are present; the manuscript has been published in other locations without appropriate citations, consent, or explanation (applicable for replication study); it contains plagiarism; or the research is deemed to be unethical. The journal shall publish a statement of retraction of the corresponding manuscript in a prominent position on the platform and list any reasons for the retraction once found. If the retracted manuscript has been included in an academic research database, the retraction decision will be submitted to the relevant databases.

Document Preservation

The digital version of the manuscripts published in this journal are locally backed up by the press office. The backup facility is maintained by dedicated personnel. The online platform is connected to the Alibaba Cloud storage service to ensure the safe storage and smooth operation of data. In addition, all manuscripts published by this journal are simultaneously submitted to the CNKI for safe backup. In the case that the journal ceases to publish new content, the competent authority of the journal will maintain a digital version of all published manuscripts.

All articles published on this journal are archived at the National Digital Library of China: https://www.nlc.cn/web/index.shtml