Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
The Journal of Ancient Chinese Arts and Crafts (JACAC) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. This policy outlines the responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, and is guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
1. Research Misconduct
Research misconduct is defined as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, reviewing, or reporting research results.
- Fabrication: Manufacturing data or results and recording or reporting them as genuine.
- Falsification: Manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data, such that the research record does not accurately reflect the findings.
- Plagiarism: Appropriating another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit. (See the separate Plagiarism Policy for full details.)
2. Duties of Authors
- Originality and Accuracy: Authors must ensure that their submitted work is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration by another journal. Data must be accurately reported and verifiable.
- Authorship: Authorship should be limited to those who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research. All listed authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission. Gift authorship and ghost authorship are prohibited.
- Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial conflicts of interest that could influence their research. All sources of funding must be acknowledged.
- Ethical Approval: Research involving human subjects, animals, or cultural heritage materials requiring special permissions must include a statement of ethical approval from an appropriate institutional review body.
- Data Access and Retention: Authors should be prepared to provide raw data associated with their manuscript upon request and retain such data for a reasonable period after publication.
- Corrections and Retractions: Authors who discover significant errors in their published work should notify the editor promptly and cooperate with the journal to publish a correction or retraction.
- Use of Artificial Intelligence: Authors must disclose the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large language models, in any stage of the research or manuscript preparation. AI tools may not be listed as authors. Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all content.
3. Duties of Editors
- Fair and Impartial Evaluation: Editors evaluate manuscripts on their scholarly merit without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
- Confidentiality: Editors must treat all submitted manuscripts and related correspondence as confidential. Information about a submitted manuscript may not be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher.
- Conflicts of Interest: Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a personal, financial, or professional conflict of interest.
- Publication Decisions: Editors are responsible for deciding which manuscripts to publish based on the reviewers’ evaluations, the journal’s scope, and applicable ethical and legal requirements.
- Misconduct Investigation: Editors must take appropriate action when ethical complaints or allegations of misconduct are raised, following COPE guidelines.
4. Duties of Reviewers
- Constructive Evaluation: Reviewers should provide objective, constructive, and detailed feedback that assists authors in improving their manuscript and supports editorial decision-making.
- Confidentiality: Manuscript content is strictly confidential. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use information from the manuscript before its publication.
- Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers must disclose any conflicts of interest and decline to review manuscripts when such conflicts exist.
- Timeliness: Reviewers should complete their reviews within the agreed-upon timeframe and notify the editor promptly if they are unable to do so.
- Alertness to Misconduct: Reviewers should alert the editor to any concerns about ethical violations, including plagiarism, data fabrication, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
5. Duties of the Publisher
- Guardianship of the Scholarly Record: MSPL is committed to ensuring the integrity of the scholarly record. The publisher supports editors in investigating allegations of misconduct, implements appropriate corrections or retractions, and maintains transparent policies and procedures.
- Peer Review Support: MSPL ensures that the peer review process is rigorous, fair, and confidential.
- Accessibility and Preservation: The publisher ensures long-term accessibility and preservation of published content through archiving partnerships.
6. Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication
Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is prohibited. Manuscripts that substantially overlap with previously published work by the same authors must be disclosed at the time of submission.
7. Citation Manipulation
Excessive self-citation intended to inflate citation metrics and coercive citation practices are prohibited. Citations must be based on scholarly relevance.
8. Handling Misconduct
JACAC follows COPE guidelines for handling allegations of misconduct. Upon receiving a complaint or identifying a potential violation, the editorial team will investigate the matter confidentially and take appropriate action, which may include manuscript rejection, article retraction, notification of authors’ institutions, and/or a submission ban.
Before publication, manuscripts found to violate ethical standards will be rejected, and authors may be placed on a submission blacklist. After publication, articles found to involve misconduct will be retracted, and a public retraction notice will be issued.
For further information, please refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org
