The Journal of Smart Agriculture and Environmental Technology (JOSAET) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and editorial independence. All parties involved in the publication process, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are expected to adhere to recognized principles of ethical scholarly publishing.
JOSAET takes reasonable measures to prevent, identify, and address publication malpractice and research misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and other practices that may compromise the integrity of the scholarly record.
Authors' Responsibilities
Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts present original work and provide an accurate and objective account of the research performed. Data, methods, results, and relevant references should be reported with sufficient accuracy and detail to allow appropriate evaluation and, where applicable, reproducibility of the work.
Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate manipulation of data or images, or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical publishing behavior and are unacceptable.
Authors must ensure that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Any use of the work, ideas, data, or words of others must be appropriately acknowledged and cited.
Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception or design of the study; acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or preparation and critical revision of the manuscript. All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission to JOSAET.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all individuals listed as authors meet appropriate authorship criteria and that individuals who have made relevant contributions that do not justify authorship are appropriately acknowledged.
Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, professional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as actual or potential conflicts of interest. Sources of financial support for the research must also be clearly acknowledged.
Authors are responsible for complying with applicable ethical requirements for research involving humans, animals, biological materials, sensitive data, or other research requiring ethical approval. Where applicable, relevant ethical approval, informed consent, permits, or other appropriate authorization must be reported in the manuscript.
If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, they must promptly inform the JOSAET Editorial Office and cooperate with the editors in correcting the scholarly record or, when necessary, retracting the article.
Reviewers' Responsibilities
Reviewers must treat all manuscripts and associated materials received for review as confidential documents. Manuscripts and information obtained through the peer-review process must not be disclosed, copied, distributed, or discussed with unauthorized persons.
Reviews should be conducted objectively, constructively, and professionally. Reviewers should express their views clearly and support their comments with appropriate scholarly arguments. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate and unacceptable.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited by the authors and should inform the editors of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under review and other published or submitted work of which they are aware.
Reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality. A reviewer should decline the review if a significant conflict of interest exists or if the reviewer is unable to provide an independent and objective assessment.
Reviewers who feel unqualified to review a manuscript or are unable to complete the review within the requested timeframe should promptly inform the Editorial Office so that alternative reviewers can be appointed.
Unpublished materials, data, ideas, or information disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by reviewers for their own research, personal advantage, or the advantage of another party. Such information must remain confidential throughout and after the peer-review process.
Reviewers must comply with JOSAET's policy concerning the use of artificial intelligence in peer review. Submitted manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, figures, tables, supplementary materials, or other confidential information must not be uploaded to publicly accessible generative artificial intelligence systems or other tools where confidentiality cannot be assured.
Generative artificial intelligence or other automated tools must not be used to generate or substantially prepare peer-review reports. Limited use of automated tools for language editing may be permitted only when confidentiality is maintained. Reviewers remain fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and content of their review reports.
Editors' Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for ensuring the integrity, quality, fairness, independence, and confidentiality of the editorial and peer-review process. Editorial decisions regarding submitted manuscripts should be based on the manuscript's scientific quality, originality, relevance to the aims and scope of JOSAET, methodological soundness, research integrity, and contribution to the field.
Editors must evaluate manuscripts without discrimination based on authors' nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, political beliefs, or other personal characteristics unrelated to the scientific quality of the work.
Editorial decisions must remain independent of commercial considerations, including Article Processing Charges (APCs), advertising, sponsorship, or other financial interests.
Editors must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and must not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone other than individuals appropriately involved in the editorial and peer-review process.
Editors must disclose and appropriately manage any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest. An editor should not handle a manuscript when a conflict of interest could reasonably affect, or appear to affect, the editor's impartiality. In such cases, editorial responsibility should be assigned to another qualified editor.
Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate and qualified reviewers and for taking reasonable steps to ensure that the peer-review process is fair, objective, confidential, and timely. The anonymity and confidentiality of reviewers must be protected in accordance with JOSAET's double-anonymous peer-review policy.
Editors should take appropriate action when credible ethical concerns or allegations of research or publication misconduct are raised regarding a submitted or published article. Such concerns should be considered fairly and, where appropriate, authors should be given an opportunity to respond.
When necessary to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record, JOSAET may publish corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other appropriate notices.
Editors must ensure that decisions to accept or reject manuscripts are not influenced by the authors' ability to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC). APC payment is required only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication, in accordance with JOSAET's applicable APC policy.
Publisher's Responsibilities
The publisher supports the editorial independence of JOSAET and works with the Editorial Team to maintain the integrity of the scholarly publication process. The publisher must not improperly influence editorial decisions for commercial, institutional, or personal reasons.
The publisher supports appropriate action to correct the scholarly record when ethical or research-integrity concerns are substantiated, including the publication of corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other appropriate notices.
Conflicts of Interest
Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relationships or interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence their work, evaluation, or editorial decisions. Conflicts of interest may be financial, institutional, professional, academic, or personal.
Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not automatically imply misconduct; however, relevant conflicts must be transparently declared and appropriately managed to protect the integrity and impartiality of the publication process.
Research Misconduct and Publication Malpractice
JOSAET does not tolerate research misconduct or publication malpractice. Allegations involving fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, inappropriate authorship, unethical research practices, manipulation of the peer-review process, or other serious breaches of publication ethics will be evaluated by the Editorial Team.
Where necessary, JOSAET may request clarification, supporting data, ethical approval documentation, or other relevant information from authors. Appropriate editorial action will depend on the nature and severity of the concern and may include rejection, correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other measures necessary to protect the scholarly record.
Plagiarism and Originality
JOSAET does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original works and that all ideas, data, text, figures, tables, or other materials derived from the work of others are appropriately acknowledged and cited.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened for similarity using appropriate plagiarism-detection or similarity-checking software as part of the editorial evaluation process. Similarity reports are used as editorial screening tools and are not, by themselves, considered definitive evidence of plagiarism. The Editorial Team evaluates the nature, extent, and context of identified similarities before making an editorial decision.
Manuscripts containing plagiarism, inappropriate copying, substantial unattributed overlap, or other serious breaches of publication ethics may be rejected. If such issues are identified after publication, JOSAET may take appropriate action, including issuing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the nature and severity of the case.
Authors are responsible for ensuring proper citation and attribution and for obtaining any necessary permissions for copyrighted material included in their manuscripts.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
JOSAET is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. When significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other appropriate notice depending on the circumstances and severity of the issue.
Post-publication notices should be clearly identified and linked to the original article whenever technically possible so that readers can understand the status of the published scholarly record.
Use of Artificial Intelligence by Authors
Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted technologies must not be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for the integrity of a scholarly work.
Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, and content of their manuscripts, including any content developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence or automated tools.
Where generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies have been used in a manner that materially contributes to the preparation of a manuscript, authors should transparently disclose such use in the manuscript where appropriate. AI-assisted language editing that does not generate substantive scientific content should not transfer responsibility from the authors, who remain accountable for the final submitted work.
Authors must not use artificial intelligence tools in ways that compromise confidentiality, copyright, research integrity, data protection, or applicable ethical requirements.