Ethical Research and Publication Policy

Journal of Maritime Innovation and Sustainability (JMIS) is committed to maintaining high standards of research integrity and ethical scholarly publishing. All authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial-office personnel are expected to act honestly, responsibly, transparently, and professionally throughout the research, submission, review, and publication processes. The journal does not tolerate practices that compromise the reliability, credibility, or fairness of the scholarly record.

Responsibilities of Authors

For research involving human participants JMIS encourages that authors should mention the obtaining of informed consent in the manuscript. Where research involves identifiable personal information, photographs, or other material that could identify an individual, authors must obtain appropriate consent for publication and protect participant confidentiality through anonymization or de-identification wherever possible. Authors should retain evidence of consent and provide it to the journal if requested.

Research involving human participants, animals, personal data, or other ethically sensitive subjects must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements. Where required, authors must obtain approval from an appropriate ethics committee, Institutional Review Board (IRB), or equivalent body before commencing the research. Manuscripts should include the name of the approving body and approval or reference number, where applicable. If formal ethics approval was not required, authors should state this and provide an appropriate explanation. Journal may request supporting documentation or clarification at any stage and may take appropriate editorial action where ethical requirements have not been met.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts represent original and ethically conducted research. They must accurately report their methods, findings, sources of data, and limitations and must not fabricate, falsify, manipulate, or selectively misrepresent research results. All sources and contributions should be appropriately acknowledged, and plagiarism, duplicate publication, and inappropriate text or data reuse are not permitted.

Authors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest, funding sources, and significant use of AI-assisted technologies in accordance with the journal's policies.

Authorship must accurately reflect substantive contributions to the work. All listed authors should approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission. Authors are also expected to cooperate with reasonable editorial inquiries concerning the accuracy, integrity, or ethical conduct of their work and to notify the journal if a significant error is identified after publication.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers contribute to maintaining the quality and integrity of JMIS by providing independent, objective, and constructive assessments. They should evaluate manuscripts based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological soundness, relevance, clarity, and ethical standards rather than personal, institutional, geographical, or other irrelevant considerations.

Reviewers must maintain strict confidentiality and must not share, reproduce, use, or disclose unpublished manuscript content for personal or professional purposes. They should promptly declare any actual or potential conflict of interest and decline the assignment where their impartiality may reasonably be affected. Reviewer comments should be professional, evidence-based, and free from discriminatory, offensive, or personal remarks.

Reviewers must not use confidential information obtained through peer review to advance their own research or request unnecessary citations for personal or journal-level citation advantage. Any suspected plagiarism, fabrication, ethical concern, or other serious irregularity should be confidentially reported to the assigned editor.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors of JMIS are responsible for ensuring that editorial decisions are fair, independent, consistent, and based primarily on the scholarly quality and relevance of submitted work. Manuscripts should be assessed without discrimination based on authors' identity, nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, academic status, or other characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

Editors must maintain confidentiality throughout the editorial and peer-review process and must appropriately manage conflicts of interest. They should select qualified and independent reviewers, consider reviewer recommendations fairly, and avoid influencing reviewers toward a predetermined decision. Editors must not use unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal advantage.

Editors are also responsible for responding appropriately to allegations of research or publication misconduct. Where necessary, they may request explanations or supporting documentation, seek institutional input, issue corrections or expressions of concern, or recommend retraction in accordance with the journal's post-publication policies.

Responsibilities of the Editorial Office

The editorial office supports the integrity and consistency of the journal's publishing processes. Editorial staff must handle manuscripts and author information confidentially, maintain accurate publication records, and ensure that submissions are processed according to established journal policies.

The editorial office must not interfere with academic editorial decisions on the basis of commercial, financial, personal, or institutional interests. Staff should identify and appropriately escalate concerns relating to plagiarism, authorship, conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, ethical approval, data integrity, or other potential misconduct to the responsible editor.

The editorial office is also responsible for maintaining appropriate records of submissions, peer-review activities, editorial decisions, and post-publication actions. Where an ethical concern is substantiated, the journal will take proportionate corrective action to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Publication Misconduct Policy

JMIS is committed to protecting the integrity, reliability, and credibility of the scholarly record. Publication misconduct includes any intentional or negligent practice that misrepresents research, improperly attributes scholarly work, undermines peer review, or otherwise compromises the publication process. The journal expects authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff to comply with recognized standards of research and publication ethics. Suspected misconduct will be assessed fairly and confidentially, and appropriate action will be taken based on the nature and seriousness of the concern.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism involves presenting another person's words, ideas, data, results, images, or other intellectual material as one's own without appropriate acknowledgement. This includes direct copying, inadequate paraphrasing, unattributed use of published or unpublished material, and plagiarism of ideas. Authors must properly cite and acknowledge all sources and obtain permission where required for copyrighted material. Confirmed plagiarism may result in manuscript rejection or, where discovered after publication, correction, retraction, or other appropriate action.

Self-Plagiarism and Text Recycling

Authors should not substantially reuse their own previously published text, data, figures, or other material without appropriate disclosure and citation. Limited reuse of standard methodological descriptions may sometimes be acceptable where justified, but substantial or misleading duplication is not permitted. Authors must clearly identify and reference relevant previous publications when building upon or reusing earlier work.

Fabrication of Data

Fabrication is the invention of data, observations, participants, experiments, results, references, or other research information that did not actually exist. Fabricated research findings must not be submitted or published. Where credible evidence of fabrication is identified, the journal may reject the manuscript or retract the published article and may refer the matter to the relevant institution or authority.

Falsification and Manipulation of Research

Falsification involves deliberately altering, omitting, manipulating, or misrepresenting research materials, procedures, data, images, results, or analytical processes so that the published work does not accurately represent the research conducted. Legitimate data processing or image enhancement must not change or obscure the underlying evidence. Serious or deliberate manipulation may constitute grounds for rejection, retraction, or institutional notification.

Image and Figure Manipulation

Figures, photographs, images, graphs, and other visual materials must accurately represent the underlying research. Authors must not selectively modify, remove, add, duplicate, or manipulate visual information in a misleading manner. Any legitimate technical adjustments should be applied consistently and disclosed where appropriate. Concerns regarding image integrity may result in requests for original files or supporting evidence.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

A manuscript should not be submitted to or published by more than one journal simultaneously. Duplicate publication occurs when substantially the same research is published more than once without adequate justification or disclosure. Redundant publication, including unnecessary fragmentation of substantially related findings across multiple articles, may also constitute misconduct where it misleads readers or distorts the scholarly record.

Salami Publication

Authors should avoid dividing a single study into multiple publications primarily to increase publication output when the resulting articles substantially overlap in research questions, data, methodology, or findings. Where different publications arising from the same research project are scientifically justified, authors must clearly disclose related publications and explain the distinct contribution of each manuscript.

Authorship Misconduct

Authorship must accurately reflect substantive scholarly contributions. JMIS does not permit guest, honorary, gift, or ghost authorship, or the deliberate exclusion of individuals who meet legitimate authorship criteria. Authors must agree to the submitted authorship list and order before submission. Disputed or improperly assigned authorship may result in suspension of editorial processing until the matter is resolved.

Citation Manipulation

Citations must be included because they are academically relevant and support the manuscript. Excessive self-citation, coordinated citation arrangements, irrelevant references, or pressure from reviewers or editors to cite particular individuals or journals for the purpose of increasing citation metrics are unacceptable. Citation recommendations should be based solely on legitimate scholarly relevance.

Peer-Review Manipulation

Any attempt to improperly influence or interfere with peer review is prohibited. This includes providing fabricated reviewer identities or contact details, submitting reviews on behalf of another person, impersonating reviewers, coordinating fraudulent reviews, interfering with reviewer communications, or attempting to influence reviewers through inappropriate contact. Evidence of manipulated peer review may result in rejection, withdrawal of acceptance, retraction, and notification of relevant institutions or other appropriate bodies.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other interests that could reasonably influence their judgment. Failure to disclose a relevant conflict may constitute publication misconduct, particularly where the undisclosed interest materially affects the research, review, or editorial decision. Depending on the circumstances, the journal may request a disclosure, publish a correction, reconsider an editorial decision, or take further action.

Research Ethics Violations

Research involving human participants, animals, personal data, or other sensitive materials must comply with applicable ethical requirements. Misconduct may include conducting research without required ethical approval, failing to obtain appropriate informed consent, improperly using confidential or personal information, or violating applicable research regulations. Where ethical concerns arise, the journal may request documentation or contact the relevant ethics committee or institution.

Data and Materials Misconduct

Authors are expected to maintain appropriate research records and provide supporting data or materials where required by the journal's policies. Deliberately concealing, destroying, fabricating, manipulating, or misrepresenting research data may constitute misconduct. Where data cannot be shared because of legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, or contractual restrictions, authors should clearly explain the applicable limitations.

Misuse of Artificial Intelligence

AI-assisted technologies must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, manipulate research findings or images, impersonate authors or reviewers, or otherwise deceive the journal. AI systems must not be listed as authors. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of AI-assisted content, while reviewers and editors must protect confidential manuscript information when using such technologies.

Misconduct in Acknowledgements and Funding Disclosure

Authors must accurately identify individuals who provided significant assistance and disclose relevant funding sources. Misrepresenting financial support, concealing material sponsorship, falsely claiming institutional support, or deliberately omitting contributors may constitute publication misconduct where such actions affect transparency or accountability.

Complaints and Investigation

Concerns regarding suspected misconduct may be raised by authors, reviewers, editors, readers, institutions, or other appropriate parties. JMIS will assess allegations confidentially and may request explanations, original data, ethical approvals, authorship documentation, or other relevant evidence. Where appropriate, the journal may consult the authors' institutions, ethics committees, funding organizations, or other competent authorities.

Editorial Actions

The action taken will depend on the seriousness, reliability of the evidence, and whether the issue occurred before or after publication. Possible actions include requesting clarification or correction, rejecting a manuscript, suspending editorial consideration, withdrawing acceptance, publishing an Expression of Concern, issuing a correction, retracting an article, or notifying an appropriate institution or authority. JMIS will seek to ensure that any action taken is proportionate, transparent, and consistent with the protection of the scholarly record.