Editorial and Ethics Policies
General Editorial and Publishing Policies
1. Editorial Independence
2. Editorial Management and Decision-Making
3. Peer Review
4. Open Access Policy
5. Licensing Policy
6. Special and Thematic Issues
7. Authorship and Contributorship
8. Corresponding Author
9. Competing Interests
10. Research Data and Materials
11. Human and Other Regulated Research
12. Intellectual Property and Copyright
13. Digital Preservation
14. Author Self-Archiving
15. Appeals and Complaints
16. Diversity, Equity, and Respectful Conduct
17. Advertising, Marketing, and Sponsorship
Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Policies
1. Originality and Duplicate Publication
2. Plagiarism and Text Recycling
3. Fabrication and Falsification
4. Research Data, Images, and Figure Integrity
5. Misconduct Investigation Procedure
6. Peer-Review Integrity
7. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies
8. Ethical Treatment of Participants and Confidential Information
9. Corrections and Retractions
10. Post-Publication Concerns
11. Confidentiality
12. Editorial Conflicts and Recusal
13. Corrections to the Author Record
14. Responsible Use of Citations
15. Scholarly Record and Author Responsibility
General Editorial and Publishing Policies
Journal of Intelligent Geotechnical Engineering and Foundations is committed to maintaining a scholarly publishing environment based on academic quality, editorial independence, transparency, fairness, and responsible research practices. The Journal’s policies apply to authors, editors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, and other individuals involved in the submission, review, production, and publication of scholarly content. The Journal follows recognized standards of publication ethics and research integrity and considers relevant guidance from organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) when addressing complex editorial and ethical matters.
1. Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are made independently on the basis of the scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance, ethical compliance, and contribution of a manuscript. Editors are expected to exercise independent academic judgment and must not allow commercial, financial, institutional, personal, political, or other inappropriate considerations to influence editorial decisions. The publisher provides the infrastructure and administrative support necessary for publication but does not interfere with editorial decisions concerning individual manuscripts.
2. Editorial Management and Decision-Making
The Editorial Team is responsible for maintaining the academic standards and continuing development of the Journal. Editors assess submissions for scope, quality, originality, ethical compliance, and suitability for peer review. Appropriate reviewers are selected according to subject expertise and the requirements of the manuscript. Editors may seek additional specialist advice when necessary and remain responsible for the final editorial decision.
Editorial Board members may advise on journal policies, emerging areas of research, reviewer selection, and scholarly development. Where an unusual or complex matter cannot be resolved through routine editorial procedures, the Editor-in-Chief may seek independent expert advice or consult appropriate publication-ethics guidance.
3. Peer Review
The Journal uses a double-blind peer-review process, under which the identities of authors and reviewers are not disclosed to one another during the review process. Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial assessment are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with appropriate subject expertise.
Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, confidential, and evidence-based assessments. Editors take reasonable measures to identify and manage conflicts of interest and may replace a reviewer where impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Detailed expectations for reviewers are provided in the Journal’s separate Reviewer Guidelines.
4. Open Access Policy
The Journal follows an open-access publishing model designed to ensure that scholarly research is freely available to readers worldwide. All articles are published online with immediate and permanent access, without subscription requirements or paywalls. Readers may access, read, and share published articles in accordance with the applicable licensing terms. The open-access model is intended to enhance the accessibility, visibility, dissemination, and academic impact of published research.
5. Licensing Policy
All articles published by Journal of Intelligent Geotechnical Engineering and Foundations are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. This license permits others to copy, distribute, reproduce, and adapt the published work for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author(s) and JMIS are appropriately acknowledged, the applicable license is identified and linked, and any changes made to the original work are clearly stated.
The use of published material for commercial purposes is not covered by the CC BY-NC 4.0 License. Commercial reproduction, redistribution, adaptation, or other commercial exploitation requires prior authorization from the copyright holder(s), i.e. authors.
6. Special and Thematic Issues
The Journal may publish Special Issues or Thematic Collections addressing significant, emerging, or specialized areas within its scope. Manuscripts submitted to such collections remain subject to the Journal’s normal editorial, ethical, and peer-review requirements.
Guest Editors may assist with developing the theme, attracting appropriate submissions, coordinating reviews, and preparing introductory material. Guest Editors must comply with all Journal policies and must declare and appropriately manage any conflicts of interest. The Journal’s regular editorial team retains responsibility for protecting the quality, integrity, and independence of the publication process.
7. Authorship and Contributorship
Authorship should accurately reflect substantial intellectual or scholarly contributions to the research and manuscript. Contributions may include conception or design, methodology, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, software development, investigation, drafting, or critical revision of the manuscript.
All listed authors must have made a meaningful contribution, approved the submitted version, agreed to the authorship order, and accepted responsibility for their respective contributions. Individuals who provide assistance that does not meet the authorship criteria should instead be acknowledged with their permission.
For multi-author manuscripts, the Journal requires an Author Contributions Statement describing the principal contributions of each author. Changes to the author list after submission require appropriate justification and agreement from all affected authors. Where an authorship dispute cannot be resolved editorially, the Journal may refer the matter to the relevant institution or research authority.
8. Corresponding Author
A corresponding author must be identified for each multi-author manuscript. The corresponding author serves as the principal contact with the Journal and is responsible for coordinating communication among the authors.
The corresponding author should ensure that all authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript, that the author list and order are accurate, and that all required declarations and supporting information have been provided.
9. Competing Interests
Authors, reviewers, editors, Guest Editors, and Editorial Board members must disclose relationships or circumstances that could reasonably influence, or appear to influence, their professional judgment.
Relevant competing interests may include financial relationships, employment, consultancy, research funding, patents, institutional affiliations, advisory roles, or significant personal or professional relationships. Disclosures should be made at submission and updated whenever circumstances change.
Where no relevant competing interest exists, authors may provide an appropriate declaration such as: “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.” Disclosed interests will be assessed according to their nature and significance, and appropriate safeguards may be introduced where necessary.
10. Research Data and Materials
Authors are encouraged to make the data, research materials, protocols, and other resources supporting their findings available through appropriate repositories whenever this is ethically, legally, and practically possible. If data cannot be shared because of privacy, confidentiality, consent, legal, contractual, or proprietary restrictions the journal encourages authors to provide a clear data-availability statement explaining the applicable limitations.
11. Human and Other Regulated Research
Research involving human participants or other regulated research activities must comply with applicable ethical standards, institutional requirements, and relevant laws and regulations.
Where applicable, manuscripts should identify the responsible ethics committee or institutional review board. The relevant approval or reference number must be provided if requested by the journal. Authors should describe informed-consent procedures or approved waivers where required. Ethical concerns may result in requests for documentation, suspension of editorial consideration, rejection, correction, retraction, or referral to an appropriate authority.
12. Intellectual Property and Copyright
Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted material is original or appropriately licensed and does not infringe the intellectual-property rights of others. Permission must be obtained where copyrighted third-party material requires authorization for reproduction.
Third-party figures, photographs, tables, substantial text, datasets, or other protected material must be properly attributed and used in accordance with the applicable rights and licensing conditions. Publication does not remove or diminish the underlying intellectual-property rights of third parties.
13. Digital Preservation
The Journal recognizes the importance of maintaining long-term access to the scholarly record. Published content is intended to be preserved through appropriate digital archiving arrangements, including established preservation services such as LOCKSS through the PKP Preservation Network, where applicable.
14. Author Self-Archiving
Authors may self-archive the accepted version of their manuscripts in appropriate institutional, disciplinary, or recognized repositories in accordance with the Journal’s self-archiving provisions.
The archived version should identify the Journal as the original publisher and, where available, include the DOI or link to the version of record. Repository copies should not be presented as separate or independently published articles.
15. Appeals and Complaints
Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe that a significant procedural error, misunderstanding, or substantive issue affected the decision. Appeals should clearly state the grounds for reconsideration and provide relevant supporting information.
Complaints concerning editorial procedures, communication, unreasonable delays, peer review, or other aspects of Journal operations may also be submitted to the editorial office at appeals_and_complaints@openhorizonglobal.com. Appeals and complaints will be considered separately from routine manuscript processing and will be reviewed by an appropriate editor or member of the editorial team.
16. Diversity, Equity, and Respectful Conduct
The Journal seeks to provide an inclusive and respectful environment for authors, reviewers, editors, and other contributors. Editorial and peer-review decisions are based on scholarly merit, methodological quality, relevance, originality, research integrity, and ethical standards.
The Journal does not discriminate on the basis of characteristics unrelated to the scholarly quality or ethical integrity of a submission. Participants are expected to communicate professionally and to avoid discriminatory, harassing, threatening, or exclusionary conduct.
17. Advertising, Marketing, and Sponsorship
The Journal currently does not publish advertisements or sponsored content as part of its editorial publications. If advertising, sponsorship, or other commercial arrangements are introduced in the future, they will be managed separately from editorial decision-making and subject to safeguards designed to protect editorial independence.
Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Policies
The Journal considers research integrity and responsible publication practices essential to maintaining confidence in the scholarly record. Authors and all other participants in the publication process are expected to act honestly, transparently, and responsibly. Concerns involving research or publication misconduct are assessed fairly and confidentially, with actions proportionate to the seriousness and reliability of the available evidence.
1. Originality and Duplicate Publication
Submitted manuscripts must represent original scholarly work and should not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Authors must disclose substantial overlap with previously published articles, conference papers, preprints, reports, or other publicly available material.
Duplicate, redundant, or substantially overlapping publication may constitute a breach of publication ethics where the overlap is not appropriately disclosed and justified.
2. Plagiarism and Text Recycling
Authors must appropriately acknowledge ideas, words, data, images, methods, and other material derived from external sources. Plagiarism, unattributed appropriation of ideas, and inappropriate text recycling are not acceptable.
The Journal may use plagiarism-detection or other research-integrity tools as part of its editorial assessment. Where substantial concerns arise, the manuscript may be returned, rejected, investigated, or subjected to appropriate post-publication action.
3. Fabrication and Falsification
Fabrication refers to inventing data, results, observations, participants, experiments, or other research information. Falsification includes deliberately altering, omitting, manipulating, or misrepresenting research data, methods, results, images, or analytical processes in a misleading manner.
The Journal may request original datasets, source files, laboratory records, analytical outputs, or other evidence when concerns arise. Confirmed serious misconduct may result in rejection, withdrawal, retraction, or referral to the relevant institution or authority.
4. Research Data, Images, and Figure Integrity
Figures, photographs, microscopy images, charts, graphs, and other visual materials must accurately represent the underlying evidence. Authors must not selectively manipulate, remove, duplicate, obscure, or add information in a manner that creates a misleading impression.
Routine processing that is consistent with accepted disciplinary practice may be acceptable, provided that it does not distort the underlying evidence. Material modifications should be appropriately disclosed.
5. Misconduct Investigation Procedure
The Journal takes credible allegations of research or publication misconduct seriously. Potential concerns may involve plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate publication, authorship manipulation, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, undisclosed competing interests, unethical research practices, or misuse of confidential information.
The Journal will first assess whether a concern appears sufficiently credible and substantive to require further action. Authors may be invited to provide explanations, supporting documentation, original data, or other relevant materials.
Where necessary, the Journal may seek advice from independent experts or refer the matter to an appropriate institution, employer, funder, regulator, or research-integrity authority. The Journal does not replace formal institutional investigations where the matter requires evidence or authority available only to the relevant institution.
For published articles, possible actions include a correction, clarification, Editorial Note, Expression of Concern, retraction, exceptional removal, or notification of an appropriate authority. The Journal will distinguish allegations and unresolved concerns from established findings and will seek to protect the confidentiality and rights of all parties involved.
6. Peer-Review Integrity
Reviewers and editors must maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and must not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.
Peer-review manipulation, including fabricated reviewer identities, inappropriate attempts to influence reviewer selection, falsified reviewer reports, or coordinated manipulation of the review process, is considered a serious breach of publication ethics.
Authors may suggest suitable reviewers and may identify individuals whom they believe should not review their manuscript because of a legitimate conflict of interest or other substantive concern. Such suggestions or exclusions are advisory only and do not bind the editor. The Journal independently verifies and selects reviewers and retains full editorial discretion.
7. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies
Authors may use AI-assisted tools for limited purposes such as language improvement, grammar, spelling, readability, or clarity. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and scholarly validity of all submitted content.
AI systems, including generative AI and large language models, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. AI must not replace the authors’ intellectual contribution, analysis, interpretation, or scholarly judgment. Where substantive AI assistance has been used, authors should disclose its nature and purpose in accordance with the Journal’s requirements.
AI-generated figures or images should not be used to represent scientific evidence unless their use is directly relevant to the research and is transparently disclosed. Editors and reviewers must also protect confidential manuscript information and must not upload unpublished manuscripts or confidential material to AI systems where this could result in unauthorized disclosure. Editorial decisions remain the responsibility of human editors and must not be delegated to AI.
8. Ethical Treatment of Participants and Confidential Information
Authors must protect the rights, privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of research participants. Personally identifiable or sensitive information should not be disclosed unless appropriate consent or another legitimate ethical basis exists.
Where ethical violations are identified, the Journal may request clarification or documentation and may take proportionate editorial action, including rejection, correction, Expression of Concern, or retraction.
9. Corrections and Retractions
Authors should promptly notify the Journal if they identify a significant error in their published work. The Journal may publish corrections or clarifications when an error affects the accuracy or interpretation of the scholarly record but does not invalidate the overall work.
Where findings are demonstrated to be unreliable or publication integrity has been seriously compromised, the Journal may issue a retraction or other appropriate post-publication notice. Editorial action will be guided by the seriousness of the issue and the need to maintain an accurate scholarly record.
10. Post-Publication Concerns
The Journal welcomes credible concerns regarding published articles. Such concerns should be supported by specific evidence wherever possible. The Journal will assess the concern and, where appropriate, contact the authors, seek expert advice, request supporting information, or consult the relevant institution.
Depending on the outcome, the Journal may leave the article unchanged, publish a correction or clarification, issue an Expression of Concern, or retract the article.
11. Confidentiality
Manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, unpublished data, and other confidential information obtained through the publication process must be handled appropriately.
Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose confidential information to unauthorized individuals or use unpublished information for personal or professional purposes. This obligation continues after the completion of peer review or publication.
12. Editorial Conflicts and Recusal
Editors and reviewers must withdraw from handling a manuscript where a personal, professional, financial, institutional, collaborative, or other relationship could reasonably compromise their impartiality.
Where appropriate, another qualified editor or reviewer will be appointed. Disclosure of a conflict does not automatically imply misconduct; the Journal assesses whether safeguards or recusal are necessary.
13. Corrections to the Author Record
Requests involving authorship changes after submission must be supported by an appropriate explanation and agreement from all affected authors. Significant disputes may require confirmation from the authors’ institution or another appropriate authority.
The Journal may suspend editorial processing where an unresolved authorship dispute creates uncertainty regarding responsibility for the manuscript.
14. Responsible Use of Citations
Authors are expected to cite literature that is relevant and genuinely supports the statements for which it is cited. Citation manipulation, including inappropriate citation padding, coercive citation practices, reciprocal citation arrangements intended primarily to inflate metrics, or deliberate omission of relevant literature, may be investigated as a publication-ethics concern.
15. Scholarly Record and Author Responsibility
Publication in the Journal does not relieve authors of responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, legality, and ethical conduct of their work. Authors remain responsible for their data, methods, analyses, interpretations, references, disclosures, and conclusions.
The views and conclusions expressed in published articles belong to the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Journal, its editors, Editorial Board members, or publisher. Publication should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any product, method, institution, service, policy, or opinion described in an article.
