General Policy
Sustainability Science and Resources (SSR) is not yet a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), but we adhere to all guidelines issued by COPE. Our peer-review process follows COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. We have zero-tolerance against misconducts and all other violations of scholarly publication ethics. Authors and reviewers are strongly advised to refer to COPE’s guidelines here as we intend to join COPE membership at the earliest possible opportunity.
Inclusive Language
Use inclusive language in all parts of the manuscript, acknowledging diversity, respecting other groups of people, being sensitive to differences, and promoting equal opportunities. The manuscript must be free from bias, stereotypes, slangs, and assumptions about beliefs and culture. Avoid using singular nouns indicating gender (e.g., he, she) in the manuscripts.
English
Use appropriate scientific English in the manuscript. This journal accepts American or British English as long as consistent (not a mixture of both). All parts of the manuscript should be free from grammatical and spelling errors. Using professional English editing services or grammatical software before or during the publication processes might be helpful to improve the manuscript language.
Reporting Standards
Research Articles should consist of Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussions, and Conclusions. However, there is no strict reporting standard for Review Articles and Commentaries.
Availability of Data and Materials
Author(s) must publish their experimental and research data as supplementary material to maintain data integrity, transparency and reproducibility. The data must be available and accessible during the peer review process in a common file format.
Citations
Citations must follow Harvard referencing style. Authors need to ensure that material taken from other sources is cited clearly and to avoid excessive self-citation. Copying references from other publications without reading the original cited work is prohibited. Advertisements should not be cited. Original wording from other sources must be in quotation marks with appropriate citation. All sources inspiring the design, structure and language of the manuscript must be explicitly cited.
Correction and Retraction
Suspicion of misconducts will be investigated by the journal and/or publisher. The authors will be contacted for clarification and addressing the issues. Depending on the investigation results, one of these actions might be implemented by the journal and/or publisher:
a. Returning the manuscript to the author during the peer-review process.
b. Rejecting the manuscript during the peer-review process.
c. Placing correction with an explanation in the published article.
d. Placing editorial concern with an explanation in the published article.
e. Retracting the published article. In this case, the article will be watermarked “retracted” with an explanation, the author’s institution will be informed, and a notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system will be included.
Appeals and Complaints
Appeals to editorial decisions (e.g., against rejection) will be handled by the Editor-in-Chief. Decisions on appeals will be made based on careful consideration on the authors’ arguments and appeals, reviewer reports and decisions, and other independent opinions. Decisions on appeals are final. Complaints to the process of handling paper (e.g., duration of peer review) will be investigated by the Editor in Chief. Appropriate feedback will be provided to the complainant and stakeholders to improve publication processes. Complaint to publication ethics (e.g., author's or reviewer's conduct) will be handled by the Editor in Chief.