Publication Ethics and Malpractices Statement

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In order to strengthen the academic integrity construction of Coal Geology & Exploration, standardize the process of writing, editing and publishing papers, resist academic misconduct and provide correct suggestions when discovering the existence of academic misconduct in the author’s articles, this journal specifies the ethics statement for the authors, peer reviewers and editors according to the Copyright Law, publication ethics at home and abroad, CY/T 174—2019 Academic Publishing Specification-Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals and other relevant provisions, for the reference of contributors. For more details, please refer to the official website of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://www.publicationethics.org/) and publication ethics standards formulated by European Association of Science Editors (EASE), National News Publication Bureau and other institutions.

1. Publication Ethics for Authors

The author is obliged to state that the paper does not involve state secrets or any infringement related to intellectual property.

The author should abide by the principle of “Five Prohibitions”: The paper shall not be written by the third party; the paper shall not be submitted by the third party; the content of the paper shall not be modified by the third party; the false peer reviewer information is not allowed; and the non-substantial academic contributor is not allowed to affix his signature on the paper.

The citing sources have been clearly indicated in the cited references and a list has been made in the form of bibliographic references. The units and individuals that provide scientific support and consultation for this paper are listed in the acknowledgement. The author shall respect the revision opinions of reviewers and editors and agree that the property right (including the use right of various media and media publications), exclusive right to use and exclusive agency of the copyright of this paper are granted to the Editorial Office of Coal Geology & Exploration after the paper is published.

The author must put an end to the following academic misconducts:

1) Duplicate submission

It is the author’s duty to ensure the originality of the submitted paper(except for the summary) without any forgery, deception or plagiarism, ensure that no paper is submitted more than once, and its content has not been published in any other journals or media in any other language, and ensure that such paper will not be submitted to other journals before the receipt of the rejection slip of the Editorial Office.

2) Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the most common violation of publication ethics. It refers to the intentional use of other’s works by the author without the consent of the original author and in the form of reference or acknowledgement. Plagiarism includes direct copying and rewriting of other’s works, including opinions, data, pictures, audios, methods, words, and unpublished achievements or works. No plagiarism is allowed.

During the preliminary review, before acceptance publication, Coal Geology & Exploration uses AMLC, a checker software provided by China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), to screen the repetition rate of the papers, and the editorial board will conduct targeted investigation for any problems raised by the software. If academic misconduct such as plagiarism or data fraud is found after the paper is published, the paper will still be withdrawn. 

3) Inappropriate authorship

The authorship is limited to those who have made significant contributions to the research work; the significant contributors shall be listed as the co-authors or corresponding authors, and the authors who have made significant contributions shall have their authorships, as well as the other persons participating in the research work shall be listed in the acknowledgement. It is not allowed to add unreasonable authors at will. The contributors shall obtain the authorization and consent of the co-authors before they can contribute, and submit the copyright authorization letter signed by all the authors.

4) Repeated publication

The author shall not intentionally republish the published paper, or submit the published data as the original materials again, except when the author explicitly informs and moderately quotes.

5) Forgery and falsification

Data or conclusions are not obtained from experiments or studies, and funds, review opinions and relevant information are not actually obtained, but are forged and falsified by the author. In any case, the researchers shall not make a forgery.

2. Publication Ethics for Peer Reviewers

Ensure scientific and accurate review of manuscripts, and objective and fair evaluation. Strictly keep the contents of the review confidential and respect the author’s research results. Avoid manuscripts of interest.

1) Reviewers should adhere to the principles of fairness, justice, confidentiality and timeliness and use their own professional knowledge and abilities to review the originality, scientificity and practicability of the manuscript; give a fair evaluation on whether the research methods are appropriate, scientific research design is reasonable, results and conclusions are accurate and whether there is a breach of confidence so as to help editors to judge the selection of manuscripts; and provide detailed modification suggestions on the existing problems of the manuscripts to help the author improve the manuscript quality.

2) Reviewers shall give an academic evaluation for the manuscripts, instead of personal evaluation and personal attack. The selection of manuscripts is not affected by the ethnicity, gender, religion, belief and status, qualification and authority of the contributor. Reviewers shall clarify their own views clearly with sufficient arguments and facts.

3) Reviewers shall fill in the review comments on the reviewed manuscripts on time and feed back to the Editorial Office within the specified time. If the reviewer fails to do so, he/she shall explain the reasons and return the manuscript. The reviewers can be recommended. Without the consent of the Editorial Office, the reviewers shall not entrust their own students, colleagues and others to review the manuscripts on their behalf.

4) All review opinions and information shall be kept confidential and shall not be used for personal purposes, or circulated or discussed by others. The data, opinions and conclusions in the reviewed manuscript shall not be used or published. If needed, the consent of the author shall be obtained.

5) During the review process, if the reviewer finds that there are the same or similar contents between the reviewed paper and published paper, he/she shall explain the similarity or repeatability between the submitted paper and published paper and data to the author as per his/her knowledge cognition category. The reviewer is obliged to report the situation to the Editorial Office in case of any manuscript that has been reviewed.

6) Reviewers shall not review articles with conflict of interest incurred by competition and cooperation with author, unit and enterprise.

7) When the reviewer finds that the research the author is engaged in is similar to his/hers, he/she shall not suppress or disparage the author’s paper by taking advantage of the review.

3. Publication Ethics for Editors

Strictly implement the relevant national laws and regulations, and abide by the academic publication ethics and norms. Handle all manuscripts in a timely and fair manner, respect the author’s research results and respect the opinions of reviewers. Keep the information of authors and reviewers confidential and avoid manuscripts of human relations.

1) Editors shall be responsible for all editing links of the journal, including continuously promoting the development of the journal and ensuring the high-quality and on-time publication of manuscripts. Editors shall abide by the relevant policies formulated by Journal Editorial Board and follow the relevant laws and regulations concerning defamation, infringement and plagiarism to select articles.

2) Editors shall keep the authenticity of the review records and have the obligation to keep and keep confidential the materials in each link of review and revision. In addition to the provision of necessary information for corresponding authors, reviewers and members of Editorial Board according to the circumstances, editors and members of Editorial Office shall not disclose any information related to the submitted paper to others.

3) Fair selection of manuscripts, acceptance or rejection of articles can only be based on the originality, importance, clarity and conformity with the purpose and scope of the journal.

4) Editors shall respect the author’s point of view and writing style, and shall obtain the consent of the author for key amendments including academic views.

5) Editors shall put an end to all business needs and interest exchanges that are detrimental to academic ethics.

6) Editors are obliged to make a survey and communication on academic misconduct. Once an academic moral appeal for the submitted or published paper occurs, the editor must take effective measures. If necessary, corrections, clarifications, withdrawals or apologies shall be published in public in a timely manner. Editors are obliged to hold authors and reviewers responsible for their improper behaviors.

7) Editors shall ensure that the information submitted by the author shall not be used for the editor’s research or for other’s research; ensure that the identity of the reviewer and other relevant personnel of the Editorial Office is protected during the blind review process.

8) Editors shall encourage academic controversy and have the obligation to respond to the author’s different opinions against the reviewers’. Editors shall consider the publication of negative results obtained by scientific and rigorous research to avoid repeated unnecessary research by other scholars.

9) Editors are responsible for avoiding academic misconducts such as duplicate submission and repeated publication and shall check and review the newly submitted papers and the papers to be published.

10) Editors are obliged to remind the author of possible copyright and intellectual property problems after the change of signature, unit and order.

11) Editors shall ensure that the evaluation of papers is fair and reasonable. In case of any conflict of interest or cooperative relationship with the relevant author, unit or enterprise due to competition or cooperation, the editor must propose to replace the reviewer and the editor in chief or other members of the Editorial Board shall be responsible for the review of papers.

4. Review Statement 

In order to ensure the academic quality of the journal, Coal Geology & Exploration shall strictly implement the system of peer review and “triditing system”.

(1) Double-blind peer review. Peer review is the most important measure to ensure the academic quality of papers. All manuscripts are sent to at least two peer experts for review after the initial evaluation by the editorial board. The scientificity, innovation and practicality of the paper are mainly assessed. The approach of dual-anonymous peer review is adopted, to ensure that the peer reviewers can examine the manuscripts in an impartial and objective manner..

(2) Triditing system. All manuscripts are subject to preliminary review by the responsible editor, review by the professional editor, and final review by the chief editor, and controversial papers are determined by the editorial board after discussion with peer review experts. 


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