Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Green Manufacturing (IJAIGM) is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record and to upholding high standards of ethical publishing for authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher. The journal expects all parties involved in the submission, peer review, editorial handling, publication, and post-publication discussion of manuscripts to act responsibly, transparently, and ethically. This policy is developed with reference to internationally recognized principles of publication ethics and best practices in scholarly publishing.

1. Policy on Authors and Contributors

Authors submitting to the journal must ensure that their work is original, accurate, and has not been published elsewhere or submitted simultaneously to another journal. Manuscripts must properly acknowledge the work of others through appropriate citation and referencing.

Authorship should be limited to those who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception or design of the work; the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the drafting and critical revision of the manuscript. All listed authors must approve the submitted version and agree to its submission and possible publication. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be justified in writing and approved by all authors and the editorial office.

The use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted tools does not qualify such tools for authorship. Authors remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, originality, and integrity of their submissions.

2. Policy on Complaints and Appeals

The journal provides a transparent mechanism for handling complaints, appeals, and ethical concerns related to editorial decisions, peer review, publication ethics, or the conduct of authors, reviewers, editors, or the publisher.

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by submitting a reasoned written explanation to the editorial office. Complaints concerning editorial handling, delays, reviewer conduct, or suspected ethical breaches should also be addressed to the editorial office. All complaints and appeals will be reviewed fairly, confidentially, and in a timely manner. Additional expert advice may be sought where necessary.

The journal reserves the right to request supporting evidence, conduct internal review, and issue appropriate outcomes, including clarification, correction, rejection, retraction, or other editorial action where warranted.

3. Policy on Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could be perceived as influencing the results, interpretation, or presentation of their work. Such disclosures should be made at the time of submission.

Reviewers must decline review invitations if they have conflicts of interest with the authors, institutions, or subject matter of the manuscript. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest and ensure that alternative editorial arrangements are made.

Where relevant, declarations of competing interests may be published alongside accepted articles.

4. Policy on Data Sharing and Reproducibility

The journal supports transparency, reproducibility, and the responsible sharing of research data, code, models, and methodological details where appropriate.

Authors are encouraged to retain, organize, and, where possible, share the data, software, source code, algorithms, model parameters, and other materials necessary to verify and reproduce the findings reported in the manuscript. Where data or code cannot be openly shared due to legal, ethical, commercial, privacy, or security constraints, authors should clearly state the reason.

Authors may be asked to provide underlying data or supporting materials during editorial evaluation, peer review, or post-publication investigation. Failure to provide data that substantively support the reported findings may lead to rejection, correction, or retraction, as appropriate.

5. Policy on Ethical Oversight

Research submitted to the journal must comply with applicable ethical, legal, and institutional requirements. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their research has been conducted responsibly and, where relevant, has received appropriate ethical approval or oversight.

For studies involving human participants, personal data, surveys, interviews, or sensitive information, authors must confirm that appropriate ethical review, informed consent, and data protection requirements have been satisfied. For studies involving animals, authors must confirm compliance with applicable animal welfare and ethical standards. For studies involving industrial, proprietary, or confidential data, authors must ensure that publication does not violate legal, contractual, or confidentiality obligations.

The journal may request ethics approval documentation, consent statements, or other supporting information during editorial assessment.

6. Policy on Intellectual Property

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts do not infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, database right, privacy right, confidentiality obligation, or other intellectual property right of any third party.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any copyrighted material, including figures, tables, images, questionnaires, datasets, or substantial text excerpts, where such permission is required. Proper acknowledgement of third-party content must be provided.

Copyright and licensing arrangements for published articles are governed by the journal’s copyright and license policy. Authors retain responsibility for the lawful use of all materials included in their manuscripts.

7. Policy on Post-Publication Discussion and Corrections

The journal recognizes that scholarly communication may continue after publication. Readers, authors, and other stakeholders may raise concerns, comments, or requests for clarification regarding published content.

Where necessary, the journal may issue a correction, erratum, corrigendum, expression of concern, retraction, or other editorial notice in order to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record. Such actions may be taken in response to honest error, authorship dispute, unreliable findings, ethical concerns, or confirmed misconduct.

The journal welcomes responsible post-publication discussion and will evaluate all substantiated concerns in accordance with its editorial and ethical procedures.

8. Duties of Authors

Authors are expected to:

• submit original and accurate work;
• avoid plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate image manipulation;
• avoid duplicate submission and redundant publication;
• properly acknowledge all sources;
• ensure that all authors meet authorship criteria;
• disclose conflicts of interest;
• cooperate with the journal during peer review and post-publication investigations;
• correct significant errors promptly if discovered after publication.

9. Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers are expected to:

• provide objective, constructive, and timely evaluations;
• treat manuscripts as confidential documents;
• not use unpublished information for personal advantage;
• disclose conflicts of interest and decline review where appropriate;
• identify relevant published work not cited by the authors where possible;
• alert the editor to suspected ethical problems, substantial overlap, or possible misconduct.

10. Duties of Editors

Editors are expected to:

• make editorial decisions fairly, independently, and on academic merit;
• ensure a fair, unbiased, and timely peer review process;
• preserve the confidentiality of submissions and reviewer identities where applicable;
• avoid handling manuscripts where they have conflicts of interest;
• respond appropriately to ethical concerns, appeals, and complaints;
• take reasonable steps to correct or retract the scholarly record when necessary.

11. Duties of the Publisher

The publisher supports editorial independence and is committed to preserving the integrity of the scholarly record. Commercial interests, publication fees, or other business considerations must not influence editorial decisions. The publisher works with editors to address ethical concerns, implement corrective actions where required, and maintain transparent journal policies.

12. Plagiarism, Misconduct, and Editorial Action

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, duplicate submission, fabricated or falsified data, manipulated peer review, undisclosed conflicts of interest, unethical research practices, or other forms of publication misconduct.

If misconduct is suspected before or after publication, the journal may conduct an investigation, request explanations and evidence, contact relevant institutions where appropriate, and take editorial action including rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or temporary or permanent submission restrictions.

13. Contact for Ethical Concerns, Complaints, and Appeals

Questions, complaints, appeals, and ethical concerns related to submissions or published articles should be sent to the journal’s editorial office or designated ethics contact listed on the journal website.

14. Policy on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

The journal recognizes that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and AI-assisted technologies may be used in limited and appropriate ways during research preparation and editorial administration. However, their use must not compromise authorship responsibility, research integrity, confidentiality, or editorial independence.

14.1 Authorship and Responsibility

GenAI tools, chatbots, or AI systems cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of a manuscript, because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or legal accountability of scholarly work. All responsibility for the submitted content remains with the human authors.

14.2 Acceptable Author Use

Authors may use GenAI or AI-assisted tools only for limited support purposes, such as language improvement, grammar correction, formatting assistance, literature organization, code debugging support, or preliminary idea exploration, provided that such use does not replace the authors’ own scientific judgment and original intellectual contribution.

14.3 Unacceptable Author Use

Authors must not use GenAI to generate the core scholarly content of a manuscript, including but not limited to the main scientific arguments, research design, methodology, results, interpretation, discussion, or conclusions, without full human verification and responsibility. Manuscripts whose essential scholarly contribution is generated primarily by AI may be rejected or retracted if such use is found to violate the journal’s ethics standards.

14.4 Disclosure

Where GenAI or AI-assisted tools have been used in a meaningful way in the preparation of the manuscript, authors should disclose such use appropriately in the manuscript or during submission. Authors remain fully responsible for verifying the accuracy, originality, citations, legality, and appropriateness of all AI-assisted content.

14.5 Reviewer and Editor Use

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, supplementary files, reviewer reports, or any confidential editorial materials to publicly available GenAI platforms or other external AI tools that may compromise confidentiality, copyright, privacy, or data security. Editors may use AI-assisted tools only for limited administrative support and must not rely on GenAI to make editorial decisions, peer review judgments, or final acceptance or rejection decisions.

14.6 Editorial Action

If the journal determines that the use of GenAI has violated its publication ethics, confidentiality requirements, authorship standards, or research integrity principles, the journal may take editorial action, including rejection, correction, retraction, reviewer removal, or other appropriate measures.