1. Review Policy

The journal adopts a double-blind peer review system for manuscript evaluation. The review process is as follows:

·   Initial Review: An initial review of the manuscript will be conducted by the editor. Manuscripts lacking originality, suspected of academic misconduct, containing serious scientific flaws, lacking valuable information, or not within the journal's scope will be rejected.

·   External Review: A minimum of two external reviewers will be invited to conduct peer review on the manuscript. If there are any disputes among the reviewers, additional reviewers will be invited to review the manuscript

·   Final Review: The Editor-in-Chief conducts a conclusive assessment of the manuscript based on the external reviewers' comments. The Editor-in-Chief will determine whether to accept the manuscript or not.

·   After acceptance, manuscripts will undergo editing, processing, and publication procedures.

For more details please refer to: Journal Workflow.

Manuscripts submitted for special issues undergo the same review and editorial process as regular submissions, and the final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the entire content of the journal, including special issues. When publishing special issues, the editorial department invites authoritative experts in the field to serve as guest editors. The responsibilities of guest editors include proposing topics, soliciting manuscripts, organizing peer review, and resolving any issues that arise during the publication of the special issue. The work of guest editors is supervised by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal to ensure the fairness of manuscript review.

2. Submissions from EBMs/Editors/Guest Editors/Guest (deputy) Editors-in-Chief

Submissions from Editorial Board Members (EBMs)/ editors / guest editors / guest (deputy) editors-in-chief must also follow all the journal's review procedures strictly. Reviews of these manuscripts will be conducted independently of relevant EBMs, editors, guest editors, guest (deputy) editors-in-chief and their research teams. Furthermore, they must avoid participating in the review of manuscripts from authors with whom they have a competitive, collaborative relationship or other kind of conflict of interest.

3. Appeals and Feedback

If the author has objections to the review comments or results, he/she may submit a written appeal to the editorial department and send it to the journal's email address. The author must provide a detailed explanation for each of the review comments. The editorial department will review the appeal promptly and provide feedback to the author. Please note that normally only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript.

4. Academic Misconduct Detection & Handling.

The editorial department detects plagiarism during the initial review. The overall repetition rate must be below 15%.

The Academic Misconduct Literature Checking System (AMLC) developed by CNKI will be applied on Chinese Manuscripts. The iThenticate system will be applied on English Manuscripts.

The journal strictly prohibits any kind of academic misconduct behaviors such as multiple submissions, duplicate publication and plagiarism. If any academic misconduct is detected, the manuscript will be rejected. In the meantime, the author's institution and other relevant journals will be notified. The author's future manuscripts will not be accepted anymore.

If the author of the suspected academic misconduct is affiliated with Liaoning University of Petrochemical Technology, he/she will be subject to university sanctions in accordance with the regulations of the university (please refer to the Code of Academic Ethics of Liaoning University of Petrochemical Technology (Trial)), in addition to the above penalties.

5. Correction and Retraction

The journal usually does not publish corrections or retractions to published articles. However, should it be necessary, the journal will issue corrections or retractions under the following circumstances:

- Correction: If a published article is found to contain unintentional scientific errors that do not significantly affect the results and conclusions of the article, the editorial department will publish a correction notice in the journal as soon as possible. This notice will detail the changes made to the original article and indicate the source of the article. The journal shall release a corrected version of the article, clarifying all the modifications made to the original article and indicating the date of update. The earlier version will also be archived and accessible to readers. However, when citing the article, reference must only be made to the latest edition.

- Retraction: If a published article is found to contain significant scientific errors that render the conclusions and results untrustworthy, it will be retracted by the journal. In addition, if an article is suspected of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism or data fabrication, the editorial department will investigate and issue a statement to readers detailing the risks associated with the article. The results of the investigation will be made public after it is completed. If academic misconduct is proven, the editorial department will retract the article and publish a notice of retraction.

6. Advertising

The journal does not publish commercial advertisements. All articles, as well as our official website and other platforms, are free from advertising. The review and acceptance decisions for manuscripts are not influenced by any commercial factors.