In order to create a healthy academic publishing environment and further improve the quality of Bulletin of Soil and Water Conservation, according to the relevant laws and regulations of China, academic ethical norms, and other international requirements (such as COPE), we would like to ask all authors who submit manuscripts to our journal to fully respect and protect the intellectual property rights of others and ensure that their papers are with sufficient academic innovation or application value. We would also regulate scientific research behavior, protect the academic environment, and enhance publishing ethics and scientific integrity in the field of soil and water conservation.

For Authors

The following is a list of the major academic misconducts that have occurred frequently in recent years. Please check your articles against each of them and avoid them thoroughly so as not to adversely affect you personally and the journal.

1. Misconduct in drafting and submission

1）Falsification, fabrication, and alteration of data and research information;

2）Plagiarism in all forms, including but not limited to 'stealing' others' paper as the author's own paper (all or in parts, including text, graphs, tables, data, etc.), copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of others' paper (without attribution), claiming results from research conducted by others;

3）Submitting for consideration in another journal the same manuscripts that have been published previously as it is, or with minor modifications or adjustments;

4）Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently, or resubmitting the same manuscript within the review period to other journals.

2. Misconduct in reference and citation

1）Use without citation. For some purposes, reference or use of others' or one's own published ideas, arguments, information, data, graphs, tables, formulas, etc., without indicating their sources; mixing others' or one's own published work with one's own arguments without making clear distinctions; using others' unpublished results or parts translated from foreign language materials without indicating their sources, etc.

2）Citing literature that is not related to the content of the article.

3）Citing literature from the references of other articles without reading the original text and without verifying the content.

4）Intentionally not citing important research results or literature related to the article, or citing others' research out of context due to divergence of academic views, language barriers, etc.

3. Misconduct in Authorship

1) The author's order is not made according to the author's contribution and the level of responsibility. Secretly adding new authors, removing authors, or changing the order of authors during the reviewing process without letting the editorial office know.

2) ‘Gift authorship’- where a listed author(s) has not contributed to the manuscript, or list one as author(s) without the consent of the person (usually a person of high academic standing). Authors are required to download and fill out the Authors Contribution Form and to state each author’s contribution. All listed authors must meet the journal's criteria for authorship, i.e., all authors must have substantially participated in the research or article-related work and should have made significant contributions to the concept and design of the research, acquisition of research data, analysis and interpretation of research data, writing the article or making critical changes to important article content, etc. In case of an addition, deletion, or any change of authorship, a letter of permission signed by the corresponding author is required.

4. Academic Misconduct Prevention

According to the requirements of the National Press and Publication Administration on the academic quality of journals, and in order to prevent academic misconduct, the submission system of the journal is set up with Similarity Detection System, and Wanfang Plagiarism Detection System, which can be checked by authors after successful submission.

To prevent academic misconduct, our journal employs plagiarism detection systems from Wanfang Data and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Prior to peer review, all manuscripts will undergo plagiarism checks, and articles that are accepted for publication will be checked again before the editing process. The overall repetition rate shall be less than 30%, less than 5% for a single article. Once the manuscript passed detection and accepted by the journal, authors shall sign the Academic Integrity Commitment and Copyright Transfer Agreement.

For manuscripts found to commit academic misconduct, the journal will immediately reject the manuscript and notify the author's institution and other relevant journals. For serious cases (e.g. intentional multiple submissions), the journal will no longer accept submissions from the author.

5. Disclosure of Competing Interests

 All authors must disclose all potential conflicts of interest, i.e., when the financing / personal status/affiliation of the authors (or the authors' organization/employer) may affect the authors' decision, work, or manuscript. When a product is involved, the author should also disclose whether there is a conflict of interest against competitive products. Authors should also download and fill out the Statement of Competing Interests.

For Reviewers

Reviewers shall guarantee that they review the manuscripts accurately, objectively, and fairly on the basis of scientific quality. They should use their professional knowledge and ability to review the innovation, scientific value, and practicability of manuscripts, and give a fair evaluation on whether the research method is appropriate, whether the scientific research design is reasonable, whether the results and conclusions are accurate, and whether confidential issues are involved, so as to help editors select manuscripts. They should put forward detailed comments for problems of manuscripts to help authors make revisions.

Reviewers should respect the research achievements of authors and avoid reviewing manuscripts with competing interests. The review will only be based on academic standards instead of personal reasons. The selection of manuscripts shall not be affected by authors’ race, gender, religion, belief, social status, qualifications, and authority. The review result should be clearly stated with sufficient arguments and facts.

Reviewers shall complete comments on the manuscripts and feedback to the editorial office within a specified time. In case of any difficulty, the editorial office should be informed in time.

Reviewers shall keep confidential the content of the manuscripts strictly, and shall not release or discuss the manuscripts with other people, nor use/publish the data, opinions, and conclusions from the manuscripts.

All review comments and information must be kept confidential and not used for personal purposes.

Reviewers should avoid processing manuscripts for which they have competing interests.

For Editors

Editors shall strictly implement laws and national regulations, follow academic and publishing ethical standards, and maintain research integrity. Editors should process manuscripts in a timely and fair manner to keep publishing plans and article quality.

Editors shall respect the research results of authors and comments of reviewers, maintain the authentic records of the review, and keep confidential the data in all aspects during review and revision. Editors and editorial staff shall not disclose any information related to the submitted manuscripts except for providing necessary information to correspondence authors, reviewers, and editorial committee members as appropriate.

Editors shall select articles fairly, and the acceptance or rejection of articles can only be based on originality, significance, clarity of the article, and whether it conforms to the aim and scope of the journal.

Editors should encourage academic debate and are obliged to answer questions raised by authors against review comments and results.

Editors shall have an obligation to investigate academic misconduct and communicate with authors. Once there is an appeal from the authors, editors shall process the case timely. If necessary, editors shall publish corrections, clarifications, withdrawals, or apologies in a timely manner.

Editors shall protect the information submitted by authors and the identity information of reviewers and other relevant personnel in the editorial office during the blind review process.

Editors should avoid processing manuscripts for which they have competing interests.