IJMECS is committed to the integrity, transparency, independence, and reliability of the scholarly record. Authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, Guest Editors, editorial staff, and the publisher must follow the ethical requirements stated on the journal website.
The journal's procedures are informed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. Reference to these organizations does not imply membership unless membership is explicitly stated and independently verifiable.
COPE Core Practices: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity: https://allea.org/code-of-conduct/
Research involving human participants should comply with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki where applicable: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki/
Double-blind External Peer Review
IJMECS operates a double-blind external peer-review process. The identities of authors are concealed from reviewers, and reviewer identities are concealed from authors.
Every primary research article and review article that passes editorial screening is evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers. External reviewers are not current members of the IJMECS Editorial Board or employees of MECS Press and must have relevant expertise and no conflict of interest with the authors or manuscript.
Editorial Board members oversee and manage the editorial process but do not replace either of the two required external reviewers. Reviewers provide recommendations; the final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief or an authorized Associate Editor who has no conflict of interest.
Editorial decisions are based on academic quality, validity, originality, relevance, ethical compliance, and the adequacy of peer review. Fees, subscriptions, sponsorship, institutional relationships, and other commercial considerations do not influence reviewer selection or editorial decisions.
Ethical Responsibilities of Authors
Authors must:
(1) report their research honestly, accurately, completely, and transparently;
(2) submit original work and cite all sources appropriately;
(3) not submit the same or substantially similar manuscript to more than one journal or conference at the same time;
(4) describe methods and materials in sufficient detail to permit evaluation and, where possible, replication;
(5) preserve the integrity of data, images, analyses, citations, and conclusions;
(6) obtain all required ethics, regulatory, institutional, and legal approvals before beginning the research;
(7) obtain informed consent and consent for publication where applicable;
(8) disclose all funding and all financial and non-financial conflicts of interest;
(9) identify the contributions of all authors and other contributors accurately;
(10) protect confidential, private, proprietary, culturally sensitive, or legally restricted information;
(11) retain supporting records and make them available for reasonable editorial or integrity review, subject to ethical and legal restrictions;
(12) disclose material use of generative-AI or AI-assisted tools; and
(13) promptly notify the journal if they discover a significant error or ethical concern in a submitted or published work.
Human-participant Research and Informed Consent
Research involving human participants, human data, human biological material, or identifiable personal information must have prior approval from an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board, unless a documented exemption applies.
The manuscript must state:
(1) the name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board;
(2) the approval or protocol number, where available;
(3) the ethical guideline or legal framework followed; and
(4) whether informed consent was obtained or formally waived by the responsible authority.
Authors must obtain voluntary informed consent before participation unless an authorized ethics body has approved a waiver. Consent must be documented in a manner appropriate to the research and jurisdiction.
Consent for participation does not necessarily include consent for publication. When a person may be identified from text, images, audio, video, case details, or other information, authors must obtain specific consent for publication unless a lawful and ethically approved exception applies.
Research involving animals must have prior approval from the appropriate institutional or national authority and must comply with applicable animal-welfare laws and standards.
The manuscript must identify the approving authority, approval number where available, and the relevant welfare standard. Authors should report animal species, numbers, housing, procedures, anesthesia or analgesia, humane endpoints, and steps taken to reduce harm and unnecessary use where relevant.
Privacy, Confidentiality, and Vulnerable Populations
Authors must protect participants' privacy and confidentiality and minimize collection and publication of identifying information. Direct identifiers should be removed unless scientifically necessary and specifically consented to.
Research involving children, persons with impaired decision-making capacity, economically or socially vulnerable groups, or populations exposed to increased risk requires appropriate safeguards. Consent must be obtained from legally authorized representatives where required, and assent should be obtained from participants capable of providing it.
Ethical research must avoid discrimination, coercion, exploitation, and unnecessary harm.
Authorship is limited to individuals who:
(1) made a substantial scholarly contribution to the conception, design, conduct, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the work;
(2) drafted the manuscript or critically revised it for important intellectual content;
(3) approved the submitted and final versions; and
(4) agree to be accountable for the integrity of their contribution and the work as a whole.
Contributors who do not meet all authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission. Honorary, guest, gift, purchased, and ghost authorship are prohibited.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the author list and order are accurate, all authors approve submission, and all required declarations are complete.
Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must include:
(1) a written explanation;
(2) the written agreement of all listed and affected authors; and
(3) an updated contribution statement.
Requests made after acceptance are considered only in exceptional circumstances and may delay publication. The journal may investigate suspected authorship manipulation and may contact authors' institutions where necessary. Changes made after publication require a transparent correction notice.
Conflicts of Interest and Funding
Authors, reviewers, editors, Editorial Board members, and Guest Editors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence their work or judgment.
Relevant interests may include employment, consultancy, stock ownership, honoraria, patents, grants, paid testimony, personal relationships, institutional competition, academic rivalry, political or religious commitments, and recent collaboration.
Authors must identify all funding sources and describe the funders' roles in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and the decision to submit. If a funder had no role, this should be stated.
An editor or reviewer with a conflict must decline or be removed from the assignment. Undisclosed conflicts discovered before or after publication are investigated and may require rejection, correction, an expression of concern, or retraction depending on their effect.
Data, Materials, and Reproducibility
Authors should make data, code, protocols, instruments, and other materials supporting the results available in a trusted repository where ethically, legally, and practically possible.
Every research article should include a data-availability statement explaining where supporting data may be accessed or why access is restricted. Restrictions based on consent, privacy, security, law, Indigenous or community rights, commercial confidentiality, or third-party ownership must be described accurately.
Authors must retain sufficient records to permit verification of the work and must respond to reasonable editorial requests for data or documentation. Confidential materials are handled securely and are used only for the stated integrity purpose.
Ethical Responsibilities of Editors
Editors must:
(1) evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on relevant academic and ethical criteria;
(2) protect author and reviewer confidentiality under the journal's double-blind policy;
(3) disclose and avoid conflicts of interest;
(4) select qualified, independent external reviewers;
(5) ensure that every research and review article receives at least two substantive external reports;
(6) prevent coercive citation, discriminatory treatment, retaliation, and commercial interference;
(7) investigate credible ethical and integrity concerns fairly and promptly;
(8) maintain appropriate records of review and decisions;
(9) issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when necessary; and
(10) recuse themselves from manuscripts submitted by themselves, close collaborators, colleagues from the same institution, or persons with whom they have another relevant conflict.
Reviewer recommendations are advisory. The Editor-in-Chief or an authorized Associate Editor makes the final decision. The publisher may provide administrative, technical, legal, and integrity support but does not determine acceptance for commercial reasons.
Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers must:
(1) accept assignments only when they have appropriate expertise and sufficient time;
(2) disclose conflicts of interest before reviewing;
(3) keep manuscripts, data, reports, and correspondence confidential;
(4) not attempt to identify or contact authors;
(5) provide objective, evidence-based, constructive, and sufficiently detailed reports;
(6) avoid personal, discriminatory, hostile, or defamatory remarks;
(7) not use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage;
(8) identify relevant uncited work without coercing unnecessary citations;
(9) report suspected plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, unethical research, image manipulation, duplicate publication, or compromised review; and
(10) not upload a manuscript or confidential review material to a generative-AI or other third-party system that does not guarantee confidentiality.
Research and Publication Misconduct
Research and publication misconduct includes fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, unauthorized duplicate publication, inappropriate image manipulation, authorship manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, and deliberate interference with editorial independence.
Allegations are assessed confidentially, fairly, and in proportion to the available evidence. Authors and other affected parties are normally given an opportunity to respond. The journal may consult independent experts, institutions, funders, ethics committees, or legal advisers where necessary.
The journal does not automatically impose permanent blacklisting. Any restriction on future submissions must be justified, proportionate, time-limited where appropriate, and based on a documented finding rather than an allegation alone.
Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
All manuscripts may be screened using iThenticate or another appropriate similarity-checking service. Similarity reports are interpreted by qualified staff and editors; no single percentage automatically establishes plagiarism.
Plagiarism includes presenting another person's words, ideas, data, images, methods, or results without appropriate attribution. Duplicate publication includes publishing substantially the same work more than once without transparent cross-reference, permission, or justification. Text recycling is assessed according to its extent, location, attribution, and effect on the originality of the work.
Confirmed cases may result in revision, rejection, correction, expression of concern, retraction, or notification of relevant institutions depending on severity.
Fabrication, Falsification, and Image Manipulation
Fabrication is making up data, participants, results, or records. Falsification is manipulating materials, equipment, processes, images, data, or analyses, or omitting information so that the research is misrepresented.
Images may be adjusted only when the adjustment applies appropriately to the whole image and does not obscure, remove, introduce, or misrepresent information. Authors must retain original image and data files and provide them when reasonably requested for integrity review.
Citations must be relevant, accurate, and sufficient to represent the state of knowledge. Selective omission of contradictory evidence, excessive self-citation, citation cartels, fabricated references, and coercive citation are prohibited.
Editors and reviewers must not request citations to their own, the journal's, or an institution's publications unless they are academically relevant and the reason is clearly justified.
IJMECS does not tolerate fabricated reviewer identities, false email accounts, peer-review rings, undisclosed involvement of agencies or paper mills, unauthorized access to review systems, or attempts to influence reviewers or editors improperly.
The journal verifies reviewer identities when necessary and monitors unusual email, authorship, submission, citation, and review patterns. A manuscript may be paused or rejected while concerns are investigated. Confirmed manipulation in a published article may result in correction, expression of concern, or retraction.
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative-AI and AI-assisted tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot approve the work, disclose conflicts, or accept responsibility for its integrity.
Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, confidentiality, permissions, citations, and integrity of all content. Generative AI must not be used to fabricate or deceptively manipulate data, images, citations, results, or conclusions.
Material use of generative AI in manuscript preparation must be disclosed in a dedicated statement naming the tool and explaining its purpose. Routine spelling or grammar checking that does not generate substantive content need not normally be declared.
Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts or review material to a third-party AI service without authorization and adequate confidentiality protection.
Potential violations are assessed according to their seriousness and may lead to clarification, revision, correction, rejection, expression of concern, or retraction. AI use does not automatically result in deletion of an article.
Complaints may concern editorial conduct, reviewer conduct, administrative service, conflicts of interest, publication ethics, peer-review integrity, or a published article. Complainants are not required to contact the corresponding author before reporting a concern to the journal.
Administrative complaints may be sent to ijmecs@mecs-press.org. Confidential ethics and integrity concerns may be sent to integrity@mecs-press.org.
The person handling a complaint must have no conflict of interest. Complaints are acknowledged, assessed objectively, and investigated in proportion to their seriousness. Relevant parties may be invited to respond, and confidentiality is protected as far as possible while permitting a fair process. Anonymous complaints are considered when they provide sufficient specific and credible information.
Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they identify a material factual or procedural error. An appeal must provide clear grounds and supporting evidence. Mere disagreement with academic judgment is not sufficient. Appeals are considered by the Editor-in-Chief or another senior unconflicted editor who was not involved in the original decision. An independent expert may be consulted.
Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions
The journal preserves the integrity of the scholarly record through transparent post-publication notices.
Corrections
A correction is issued when an otherwise reliable article contains an error affecting interpretation, attribution, or metadata but not invalidating its central findings. The correction is freely accessible and linked bidirectionally to the article. The original record is preserved, and the corrected version identifies the changes made.
Expressions of Concern
An expression of concern may be published when serious questions exist but an investigation is incomplete, delayed, or inconclusive. It is linked to the article and updated when the matter is resolved.
Retractions
(1) A retraction may be considered when:
(2) findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct;
(3) plagiarism or unauthorized duplicate publication is confirmed;
(4) research was conducted or reported unethically;
(5) authorship, citation, or peer review was materially manipulated;
(6) data or images were fabricated or falsified; or
(7) another serious problem makes the article unreliable.
Retracted articles remain permanently available as part of the scholarly record and are clearly marked "Retracted" on every available version. A freely accessible retraction notice is published and linked bidirectionally to the article. The notice identifies the article, explains the reason for retraction, and states who initiated it. Bibliographic metadata are retained and updated.
Retraction corrects the literature; it is not intended to punish authors. Final decisions on corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or an authorized independent editor. Where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict, another unconflicted senior editor is appointed.
Authors retain copyright in their articles. IJMECS content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The license permits use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is supplied, and changes are indicated.
Authors must obtain permission for third-party material not covered by the article's license. Intellectual-property disputes are investigated fairly, and all affected parties are given an opportunity to respond.
General editorial and administrative queries: ijmecs@mecs-press.org
Confidential ethics, integrity, and misconduct concerns: integrity@mecs-press.org