In order to strengthen the professional ethical quality of the publishers of academic journals, practice scientific research integrity at all times, and resist academic misconduct, we hereby formulate the Publication Ethics Statement of Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Science & Technology for the authors, reviewing experts, and publishers as follows based on domestic and international mature codes of ethics for publication and other relevant provisions and the actual situation of the publication of this journal.

1. Duties of Authors

(1) The manuscript's content is scientifically and accurately expressed in compliance with relevant national laws and regulations. It does not contain confidential information. When confidential information is involved, the author's affiliation should issue a non-disclosure certificate.

(2) Ensure that submitted manuscripts are original research without academic misconduct, such as multiple submissions, duplicate publication, plagiarism, or data forgery.

(3) All authors' names and affiliations must comply with the journal's requirements and should not be added or removed arbitrarily.

(4) Every effort should be made to avoid potential conflicts of interest due to publication of the results. For example, the sources of funding related to the research should be stated in the manuscript.

(5) Respect the opinions of the reviewers, and appeal any disagreement to the editorial board.

2. Duties of Reviewers

(1) Review the manuscripts in a timely manner and provide specific feedback. If you cannot fulfill your review duties in time, inform the editorial office as soon as possible regarding the extension time and reasons.

(2) Respect the authors' research results and avoid manuscripts with conflicts of interest, such as competition and collaboration. Evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly, scientifically, and accurately. Refrain from making rude or derogatory comments or launching personal attacks.

(3) Confirm the source of the data used in the study and immediately inform the editor of any plagiarism or multiple submissions.

(4) Keep the contents of manuscripts under review confidential. Do not circulate, discuss, or use authors' research results in violation of the law.

(5) If you have any conflicts of interest with the authors or their organizations, etc., take the initiative to avoid reviewing the manuscript.

3. Duties of Publishers

(1) In the publication process, the publisher shall uphold the principles of objectivity, impartiality and honesty, treat all manuscripts equally, and select manuscripts on the basis of their academic level and application value.

(2) The publisher shall respect the academic independence and intellectual property rights of the authors and observe the principle of confidentiality, on the one hand, keep the information of the authors and reviewing experts confidential, and on the other hand, keep the research content of the authors confidential.

(3) Respect the opinions of the reviewers, and allow the authors to appeal if they have any objections. In order to ensure the fairness of the evaluation, when authors request to avoid certain reviewers, the editor should give full consideration.

(4) Publishers should complete the manuscript review process in time, provide authors with detailed modifications or reasons for the withdrawal of manuscripts, and decide whether or not to accept them as soon as possible, so as to ensure that articles that meet the publication requirements of journals can be published in a timely manner.

(5) Have the obligation to investigate and communicate with the academic misconduct. In the event of an academic ethics complaint about the submission of a paper or the publication of an article, an effective response must be taken.

4. Academic Misconduct Handling

The journal defines academic misconduct papers based on the latest national standard of the People's Republic of China, Academic Publishing Specification — Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals (CY/T 174-2019), including plagiarism, forgery, tampering, inappropriate attribution, multiple submissions, duplicate publication, and violation of research ethics. The journal will seriously deal with papers with academic misconduct, hold the authors responsible, and purify the academic environment.

The journal will first be evaluated by a web-based program Academic Misconduct Literature Check (AMLC) (http://check.cnki.net/amlc2/) to check the articles at the preliminary review stage and before publication in order to eliminate academic misconduct.

If a manuscript is detected at any stage of academic misconduct, the journal will withdraw the manuscript; if the manuscript is found to have academic misconduct after publication, the journal will withdraw the manuscript and hold the author responsible in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations and the Copyright Transfer Agreement signed by the author. For serious cases (e.g. intentional multiple submissions, etc.), the journal will no longer accept the author's submissions.

5. Statement on Regulating the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

In order to maintain and ensure the originality, authenticity, and rigor of published scholarship, uphold academic integrity, advocate a good academic culture, and promote the construction of academic norms, the Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Science & Technology declares the following policies on the standardized use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, which are intended to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, reviewers, editors, and readers:

(1) For authors

a. In principle, this journal does not accept any Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools as authors of signed papers, while references should not contain papers that list AI as an author, and authors must be natural persons who can be held responsible for the authenticity, completeness, and scientificity of the paper's content.

b. If authors use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, these should be used only for making textual touches to improve the readability of the work and the standardization of the language.

c. If the submitted paper uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the authors should indicate the use, including the name of the specific AI tool used, the scope and extent of the generated content, and the role and function of the AI in the creation of the paper, so that the reviewers and editorial board can judge the originality of the paper.

d. The submitting authors themselves should abide by academic ethics and academic integrity, and take full responsibility for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their papers. Once it is verified that there are cases of concealing or not truthfully providing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the journal will regard it as a violation of academic integrity and has the right to return or withdraw the paper.

(2) For reviewers

a. Reviewers should not upload the submitted manuscript or any part of it to AI tools, as this may violate the confidentiality and proprietary rights of the authors and may violate data privacy if the paper contains personally identifiable information.

b. Reviewers of the journal are required to complete the review of the manuscript independently at all stages of the initial, review, and final review of the manuscript, and should not use artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies to review the paper, and the reviewers should be responsible for the content of the review report.

c. If the reviewer believes that the manuscript may use AI tools, he/she should reflect this truthfully in the review comments so that the editorial office can further investigate the matter, and if the reviewer determines that the manuscript uses AI tools, he/she should state the reasons in the review comments.

(3) For editors

a. Editors may utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) for assisted editing, but should not use AI technology for the evaluation and decision-making process of the final manuscript.

b. The Editorial Board reserves the right to track and review the use of AI technology in the submission and publication of manuscripts over time, and if it is found that there is concealment or untruthful provision of the use of AI tools, as well as the existence of the above violations, the journal will be considered as a violation of academic integrity, and has the right to take notice of return and withdrawal of manuscripts.

6. Correction policy for published articles

The journal usually does not publish corrections or retractions to published articles. However, should it be necessary, the journal will issue corrections or retractions under the following circumstances. This policy applies to all articles published in the journal, including but not limited to research papers, review articles.

Correction statements are applicable in the following situations:

(1) Factual Errors: Such as data errors, figure/table errors, citation errors, etc.

(2) Textual Errors: Such as spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, unclear expressions, etc.

(3) Ethical Issues: Such as incorrect authorship, undeclared conflicts of interest, etc.

(4) Other Situations Requiring Clarification: Such as supplementary information, corrections to research methods, etc.

Correction Statement Process:

(1) Submission of Correction Requests

a. Author-Initiated: If authors identify errors in the article, they should submit a correction request by sending email to the editorial office, detailing the errors and proposed corrections.

b. Reader's Feedback: If readers identify errors in an article, they can submit correction suggestions by email, online feedback, etc.

c. Editorial Office's Discovery: If editors identify errors during routine review or peer review processes, they will contact authors for corrections.

(2) Review and Evaluation

a. Upon receiving a correction request, the editorial office will probably invite external experts to conduct the assessment.

b. For correction requests involving academic misconduct, the editorial office will initiate a formal investigation and may involve external experts for evaluation.

(3) Publication of Correction Statements

a. Corrigendum: After confirmation by the editorial office, the author needs to submit the corrected manuscript and a correction statement. The correction statement will be publicly posted on the journal's website.

b. Erratum and Clarification: The editorial office publishes correction statements, indicates what are wrong contents and how to correct them, and provides further explanation of the article's content.

c. Retraction: After confirming serious issues with the article, the editorial office will issue a retraction statement.

The editorial office will consider retraction in the following situations:

(1) Academic Misconduct: Such as plagiarism, data fabrication, image manipulation, etc.

(2) Unverifiable Research Results: Such as non-reproducible experimental data.

(3) Authorship Disputes: Such as unauthorized use of others' work.

(4) Other Serious Breaches of Academic Integrity.

7. Appeal Mechanism

The authors are allowed to make complaints in case they have obtained sufficient information or evidence (such as providing other facts, corrections, or additional materials, or filing complaints against the conflicts of interest or unfair peer review). The editorial office will deal with the complaints according to the relevant information and evidence provided by the authors.

8. Advertising Policy

At the moment, Journal of Inner Mongolia University of Science & Technology is not opted for advertising and no advertisements would be published in the paper journal, official website of the journal, etc.