Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1. Commitment to Ethical Publishing

The Journal of Thermal and Sustainable Energy Systems (JTSES) is committed to integrity, transparency, fairness, confidentiality, and accountability in scholarly publishing.

This statement sets out the responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher. It also describes how the journal addresses ethical concerns before and after publication.

All parties involved in publication are expected to provide accurate information, disclose relevant competing interests, and cooperate with reasonable requests relating to editorial assessment or investigations.

2. Author Responsibilities

Authors must ensure that:

• Submissions are original, relevant to the journal's scope, and not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
• Research methods, findings, limitations, and conclusions are reported accurately.
• Sources and previous work are appropriately acknowledged.
• All listed authors approve the manuscript and agree to its submission.
• Affiliations, funding information, and competing-interest declarations are accurate.
• Necessary permissions and applicable ethical approvals have been obtained.
• Significant errors discovered after submission or publication are promptly reported to the journal.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their work throughout the publication process.

3. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contributions to the research or manuscript. All authors must approve the final version and accept responsibility for their contributions.

Contributors who do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged, with their permission. Gift, guest, purchased, and undisclosed authorship are unacceptable.

The corresponding author is responsible for communication with the journal and for ensuring that all authors receive relevant editorial correspondence.

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors must include a reason and written agreement from all affected authors. The journal may suspend processing while an authorship dispute remains unresolved. Disputes requiring investigation may be referred to the relevant institutions.

4. Originality, Plagiarism, and Overlapping Publication

JTSES does not accept plagiarism, unattributed use of another person's work, duplicate publication, or substantial undisclosed reuse of previously published material.

Authors must disclose related publications, conference papers, preprints, and manuscripts that overlap with the submission. They must explain the relationship and identify the submission's original contribution.

Any similarity evidence will be assessed in context. A similarity percentage alone will not establish whether plagiarism has occurred.

Suspected plagiarism or overlapping publication will be handled through the procedures described in Section 11.

5. Data Integrity and Reproducibility

Fabrication, falsification, misleading manipulation of figures or images, and selective reporting that materially distorts research findings are prohibited.

Authors should provide sufficient methodological detail to support assessment and reproducibility. For experimental, computational, and numerical studies, this includes relevant procedures, assumptions, boundary conditions, validation methods, and uncertainty information, where applicable.

Research articles must include a Data Availability Statement explaining:

• Where supporting data and relevant code can be accessed;
• Whether access is available on reasonable request; or
• Why access is restricted or data sharing is not applicable.

Restrictions involving confidentiality, third-party ownership, or other legitimate limitations must be explained. Editors may request supporting data, calculations, code, or research records during assessment or investigation.

6. Peer-Review Policy and Reviewer Responsibilities

Manuscripts undergo initial editorial assessment for relevance to the journal's scope, originality, scholarly quality, completeness, and compliance with submission requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be rejected without external peer review.

Research manuscripts that pass the initial assessment are normally sent to independent subject specialists. Reviewers assess originality, methodology, technical accuracy, clarity, evidence, presentation of results, and contribution to the field.

Reviewers must:

• Provide objective, constructive, and academically justified assessments.
• Disclose competing interests and decline assignments where impartiality is compromised.
• Maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and review communications.
• Avoid using unpublished information for personal advantage.
• Recommend additional citations only when relevant and academically justified.
• Report suspected ethical concerns privately to the handling editor.
• Notify the editor if they cannot complete the review within the agreed period.

Editorial decisions may include acceptance, minor revision, major revision, resubmission for further consideration, or rejection. Authors may be required to provide a detailed response explaining how reviewer comments have been addressed.

The Editor-in-Chief or an authorized, non-conflicted editor makes the final publication decision based on reviewer reports, author responses, editorial assessment, and compliance with journal policies.

7. Editorial Responsibilities and Independence

Editors must assess submissions on scholarly merit, relevance, methodological soundness, and compliance with journal policies.

Editors must protect confidential information, manage competing interests, and respond appropriately to credible ethical concerns.

Submissions involving an editor, editorial-board member, publisher, or a close collaborator must be assigned to an independent, non-conflicted editor. The person with the conflict must not control reviewer selection or the publication decision.

Publication fees, commercial interests, and personal relationships must not determine editorial decisions. Acceptance is not guaranteed.

8. Conflicts of Interest and Funding

Authors must disclose financial and non-financial relationships that could reasonably influence the research or its interpretation. Where no competing interests exist, authors must state this explicitly.

Funding sources and the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, and submission decisions must be disclosed where applicable.

Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant competing interests and withdraw from assignments when necessary.

9. Ethical Oversight

Authors must obtain and report ethical approvals, permissions, and informed consent where applicable to their research.

Where approval is not required or an exemption applies, the manuscript should explain the basis. Authors must protect confidential information and comply with applicable research-safety and institutional requirements.

The journal may request supporting documentation when ethical oversight is relevant to assessment.

10. Copyright, Licensing, Open Access, and Fees

Authors retain copyright in their published work, subject to the publication agreement and license accepted during submission and publication. Authors grant JTSES the rights necessary to publish, distribute, and archive the article and identify the journal as its original publisher.

Authors must obtain permission for copyrighted third-party material unless its use is otherwise permitted.

JTSES provides immediate open access to published scholarly content without a reader subscription or access fee. Open access does not remove applicable copyright conditions. The license accompanying each article specifies permitted reuse.

Any author charges and waiver arrangements must be clearly disclosed on the journal's Article Processing Charges page.

11. Allegations of Misconduct

Concerns about plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, citation manipulation, authorship, peer-review manipulation, or other suspected misconduct may be submitted to editor@jtses.com.

Reports should identify the manuscript or article and provide supporting evidence where possible. Anonymous reports will be considered when sufficiently specific and supported.

The journal will:

1. Assess the concern and assign a non-conflicted person to handle it.
2. Review the available evidence.
3. Give the relevant parties an opportunity to respond.
4. Request supporting records or independent advice where necessary.
5. Contact relevant institutions when an institutional investigation is appropriate.
6. Determine and communicate proportionate editorial action.

Actions may include requesting clarification, suspending manuscript processing, rejecting a submission, publishing a correction or expression of concern, or retracting an article.

Allegations alone will not be treated as proof. Information will be shared only as necessary for fair assessment, investigation, and protection of the scholarly record.

12. Complaints and Appeals

Complaints about editorial procedures, reviewer conduct, publication practices, or journal communications may be sent to editor@jtses.com.

Authors appealing a decision must identify the manuscript, explain the grounds for appeal, and provide supporting evidence. Disagreement with a decision alone does not establish that the decision was incorrect.

An appeal will be assessed by an editor who was not responsible for the disputed decision wherever practicable.

Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief or publisher must be referred to an independent, non-conflicted editorial-board member or external adviser. The person who is the subject of the complaint must not determine its outcome.

The journal will communicate the outcome and its reasons to the complainant or appellant.

13. Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

JTSES will address significant errors and credible concerns affecting published articles.

• Corrections: Address errors that do not invalidate the article's overall findings.
• Expressions of concern: Alert readers to serious unresolved concerns when available evidence is inconclusive or an investigation is pending.
• Retractions: Address unreliable findings or serious publication-ethics breaches.

Notices will identify the affected article, explain the reason for the action, and be linked to the original publication.

Retracted articles will normally remain accessible and clearly marked to preserve the scholarly record. Removal of content will be considered only in exceptional circumstances.

14. Post-Publication Discussion

Readers may submit evidence-based comments, questions, or concerns about published articles to editor@jtses.com.

The journal may invite an author response and publish substantive correspondence following editorial assessment. Discussions must remain relevant, professional, and supported by evidence.

15. Citation Integrity

References must be relevant and accurately represent the cited work.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not manipulate citations to inflate the standing of an individual, journal, or organization. Acceptance must not be conditional on adding citations that lack a genuine scholarly justification.

16. Generative AI and AI-Assisted Tools

AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Human authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, references, and integrity of submitted work.

Authors must disclose substantive use of generative AI in preparing manuscript content or conducting the research, identifying the tool and its purpose. Routine spelling and grammar assistance does not require disclosure unless it materially changes the content.

AI tools must not be used to fabricate data, results, images, or references.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, research data, or review reports to external AI services without appropriate authorization and confidentiality safeguards. Editorial decisions and scholarly assessments remain human responsibilities.

17. Contact