Publication Ethics

Collaborate Engineering Daily Book Series is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparent peer review, editorial independence, and responsible open-access scholarly publishing for engineering book chapters and thematic volumes. Authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher are expected to uphold these principles throughout the publication process.

1. Publication Ethics and Integrity Statement

Collaborate Engineering Daily Book Series is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, research ethics, editorial independence, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing.

As a peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly book series, the publication supports the dissemination of original research, technological innovation, applied engineering knowledge, technical perspectives, and interdisciplinary contributions across engineering disciplines.

The series is guided by internationally recognized publication ethics principles, including those promoted by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), together with established best practices in scholarly book publishing. These principles apply to authors, chapter contributors, volume editors, series editors, editorial board members, peer reviewers, and the publisher.

All publication decisions must be based on academic merit, scientific validity, originality, relevance, methodological quality, and ethical compliance.

2. Responsibilities of Authors and Contributors

Authors submitting manuscripts or book chapters are responsible for ensuring the originality, accuracy, integrity, and scholarly quality of their work. Authors must:

• Submit original scholarly contributions and disclose any substantial overlap with previously published work.
• Present research methods, technical procedures, experimental results, computational analyses, and findings accurately.
• Ensure that data, figures, diagrams, tables, simulations, and technical illustrations are authentic and appropriately attributed.
• Cite all relevant sources, methodologies, datasets, software tools, and previously published materials.
• Avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, citation manipulation, and misleading representations of results.
• Disclose relevant financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest.
• Obtain necessary permissions for copyrighted or confidential material.
• Cooperate with editorial review, respond to reasonable revision requests, and promptly report significant errors discovered before or after publication.

Authors remain accountable for engineering calculations, simulations, observations, technical claims, and conclusions contained in their submissions.

3. Authorship and Contributor Recognition

Authorship must reflect genuine intellectual and scholarly contributions. An author should have made a substantial contribution to the work, participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, approved the final version, and agreed to be accountable for the contribution.

Qualifying contributions may include research conceptualization, methodology, engineering design, experimentation, computational modeling, validation, data analysis, interpretation, and substantial intellectual manuscript development.

Administrative assistance, technical support, funding acquisition alone, or general supervision without sufficient intellectual involvement should normally be recognized in the acknowledgments rather than through authorship.

Gift authorship, honorary authorship, ghost authorship, and authorship obtained solely through financial contribution are prohibited. All authors must approve the submitted manuscript. Proposed changes to authorship after submission require a clear justification and the agreement of all affected contributors.

4. Plagiarism and Originality Policy

The series does not tolerate plagiarism or the misrepresentation of existing scholarship as original work. Prohibited practices include:

• Copying text, data, diagrams, technical drawings, images, or findings without proper acknowledgment.
• Paraphrasing published content without sufficient citation.
• Presenting another researcher's ideas, models, calculations, or designs as one's own.
• Reusing substantial portions of previously published material without appropriate disclosure or justification.
• Submitting essentially identical work to multiple publications without editorial authorization.
• Manipulating citations to misrepresent scholarly influence.

Submissions may undergo similarity screening and editorial originality assessment. Similarity results are reviewed in context, with attention to quotation, proper citation, technical terminology, and legitimate methodological overlap; a numerical similarity score alone does not establish plagiarism.

Confirmed serious originality violations may result in rejection or, after publication, correction or retraction as appropriate.

5. Peer-Review Ethics and Procedures

Scholarly chapters and manuscripts are subject to editorial assessment and independent academic peer review. The series aims to obtain assessments from at least two qualified independent reviewers for each scholarly contribution.

Reviews should address originality, relevance to the series and thematic volume, methodological rigor, technical accuracy, reliability of experimental or computational findings, clarity, ethical compliance, and scholarly contribution.

Reviewers must maintain confidentiality, declare conflicts of interest, and provide constructive, evidence-based comments. Editorial decisions may be Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.

The responsible editor makes the final decision after considering review reports, author responses, and publication standards. Submission does not guarantee acceptance. Any justified departure from the standard review procedure should be recorded and disclosed transparently.

6. Responsibilities of Editors and Volume Editors

Series Editors, Editorial Board members, and Volume Editors are responsible for safeguarding academic quality, fairness, confidentiality, and integrity throughout the publication process.

• Evaluate submissions impartially and without discrimination.
• Appoint suitably qualified and independent reviewers.
• Preserve confidentiality of manuscripts and peer-review communications.
• Base decisions on scholarly merit, technical quality, ethical compliance, and reviewer recommendations.
• Manage conflicts of interest and prevent financial or institutional influence on decisions.
• Respond appropriately to credible misconduct concerns.
• Ensure chapters fit the scope and thematic purpose of the intended volume.

Editors must not use unpublished information for personal advantage. An editor with a material conflict of interest must recuse themselves from the relevant decision and arrange independent handling.

7. Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers support the credibility of the scholarly record through independent and professional assessment. Reviewers are expected to:

• Accept assignments only when they have appropriate expertise and sufficient time.
• Provide objective, constructive, technically grounded feedback.
• Keep unpublished manuscripts and review communications confidential.
• Declare any personal, professional, financial, or institutional conflicts of interest.
• Alert editors to suspected plagiarism, duplicated work, manipulated findings, or material technical errors.
• Avoid coercive citation requests and the misuse of confidential ideas or data.

Personal attacks, discriminatory statements, or reviews influenced by competing interests are unacceptable.

8. Research Ethics and Responsible Engineering Practices

All research must comply with applicable institutional, legal, professional, and ethical requirements. Relevant considerations include:

Experimental and Laboratory Research. Use appropriate safety protocols, sound measurement practices, equipment calibration procedures, and valid experimental methods.

Engineering Design and Computational Modeling. Report material assumptions, mathematical formulations, model inputs, boundary conditions, limitations, verification, and validation procedures as appropriate.

Industrial and Field Research. Follow applicable safety requirements and obtain permissions for facility access, operational data, and confidential industrial information.

Environmental and Sustainability Research. Observe applicable environmental rules and research responsibilities when studying energy, pollution, coastal areas, marine ecosystems, and sustainability.

Human Participants and Personal Data. Obtain informed consent and ethics approval where required for surveys, interviews, workplace observations, and studies involving personal information.

Data Security and Confidentiality. Respect confidentiality, intellectual property, contractual obligations, and authorization requirements when using sensitive engineering or industrial data.

Authors must state relevant approvals, permissions, and compliance measures when applicable.

9. Data Integrity, Transparency, and Reproducibility

Research findings must be supported by reliable evidence and transparent methods. Authors should provide enough information for readers to evaluate, and where feasible reproduce, their engineering work.

• Identify data sources, collection methods, and relevant sampling or measurement procedures.
• Describe experimental equipment, engineering assumptions, mathematical models, and essential parameters.
• Identify software, computational procedures, and relevant versions where material to reproducibility.
• Explain verification, validation, uncertainty, sensitivity, and study limitations.
• Share supporting data, code, or supplementary materials where legally and ethically feasible.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, and intentional misrepresentation of results are prohibited. Restrictions on data sharing due to intellectual property, confidentiality, security, or contracts should be disclosed.

10. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Research Policy

Artificial intelligence tools may be used responsibly to support engineering research, analysis, visualization, language editing, and manuscript preparation, provided that their use does not undermine accuracy, transparency, originality, or research integrity.

• AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors.
• Human authors retain full responsibility for submitted content and conclusions.
• Substantive AI assistance in writing, analysis, data processing, image production, or modeling should be appropriately disclosed.
• AI-generated references, calculations, figures, and interpretations must be independently verified.
• AI must not be used to fabricate experimental observations, falsify data, or produce misleading engineering evidence.
• Confidential manuscripts and sensitive technical data must not be disclosed to external AI systems without authorization.

Where relevant, authors should identify the AI tools used and describe their role. AI assistance does not replace professional engineering judgment, methodological validation, or author accountability.

11. Conflicts of Interest and Funding Transparency

Authors, editors, reviewers, and other participants must disclose relationships or circumstances that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgments.

Relevant interests may include research sponsorship, consultancy, employment, institutional relationships, patents, commercial interests, and personal relationships. Authors must acknowledge funding sources and, where applicable, disclose the funder's role in the research and publication process.

Funding, sponsorship, or payment of publication charges must never determine peer-review recommendations or guarantee editorial acceptance.

12. Copyright, Permissions, and Open Access

Collaborate Engineering Daily Book Series supports open access to engineering knowledge while respecting authors' and third parties' intellectual property rights.

Authors must obtain required permissions for reproducing or adapting protected figures, photographs, engineering drawings, tables, standards, software-related material, and other copyrighted works. Sources and permissions must be properly acknowledged.

Published volumes and chapters should clearly state the applicable copyright and reuse licenses. Open-access availability does not automatically grant unrestricted reuse rights for third-party material.

13. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

The series will take appropriate action when published work contains material errors or raises credible ethical concerns.

Corrections. A correction may be issued to address a specific error that does not invalidate the overall findings or contribution.

Retractions. A retraction may be necessary when serious misconduct, unreliable findings, plagiarism, fraud, unauthorized publication, or other major violations undermine the integrity of the work.

Expressions of Concern. An expression of concern may be issued when significant unresolved questions remain while an investigation is ongoing or inconclusive.

Corrective notices should explain the reason for the action and, where possible, remain clearly linked to the original record so that the scholarly history is transparent.

14. Handling Publication Misconduct

Allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication, authorship manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, citation or peer-review manipulation, or misuse of confidential information will be considered carefully and fairly.

The editorial team may conduct an initial assessment, request supporting evidence, invite explanations from the parties concerned, and seek advice from relevant institutions or independent experts. Those accused should be given a reasonable opportunity to respond.

Outcomes depend on the evidence and seriousness of the issue and may include rejection, correction, retraction, or referral to an appropriate institution. Good-faith complaints will be handled with suitable confidentiality.

15. Editorial Independence and Publication Decisions

Editorial decisions must be independent of commercial, institutional, political, and personal influence. Manuscripts are judged on originality, relevance, methodological rigor, technical accuracy, scholarly contribution, and ethical compliance.

Editors retain responsibility for final decisions after considering independent review and author revisions. Fees, sponsorship, partnerships, or other financial arrangements do not guarantee acceptance.

16. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and stakeholders may submit complaints concerning peer-review conduct, editorial decisions, publication procedures, or suspected ethical misconduct through the official editorial contact channel.

Appeals should identify a material factual error, a procedural concern, or evidence of unfair assessment and should include relevant documentation. Where appropriate, review will be undertaken by an editor not involved in the original decision.

An appeal does not automatically reverse a decision. Complaints will be considered impartially and without retaliation against individuals acting in good faith.

17. Publication Ethics for Thematic Volumes

Thematic volumes are subject to the same standards of integrity, transparent editorial procedures, and scientific assessment as the broader series.

• The volume's theme and academic rationale must be clear and relevant.
• Each contribution must meet the series scope and applicable ethical requirements.
• Independent peer review and conflict-of-interest safeguards must be maintained.
• Editorial communication and publication decisions must remain fair and transparent.
• Thematic volume arrangements must not bypass review or promise acceptance to selected contributors.

18. Commitment to Responsible Scholarly Publishing

Collaborate Engineering Daily Book Series is dedicated to advancing trustworthy engineering knowledge through ethical research practices, rigorous peer review, transparent editorial procedures, and responsible open-access publishing.

Engineering research can affect industrial performance, infrastructure safety, technological innovation, environmental protection, and sustainable development. Published contributions are therefore expected to demonstrate scientific integrity, technical responsibility, and respect for professional standards.

Our commitment is to promote ethical, transparent, and responsible scholarly publishing that advances engineering innovation, strengthens scientific credibility, and contributes to sustainable technological development.

Collaborate Engineering Daily Book Series

Advancing Applied Engineering Knowledge for Sustainable and Innovative Systems

ISSN: 3031-3279 | e-ISSN: 3031-6723 | DOI Prefix: 10.62012