Ethic Statement

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

TECHNOMA is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published online. The journal is committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice, including plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, improper authorship, and conflicts of interest.

This statement outlines the ethical responsibilities of all parties involved in publishing an article in TECHNOMA, including authors, editors, editorial board members, peer reviewers, and the publisher. This statement is based on the principles and best practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal such as TECHNOMA is an essential part of developing a coherent, reliable, and respected body of scientific knowledge. Published articles reflect the quality of the work conducted by authors and the institutions that support them.

Peer-reviewed publications support and embody the scientific method. Therefore, all parties involved in the publication process—including authors, editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and publishers—must comply with the expected standards of ethical behavior.

TECHNOMA is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint income, sponsorship, or other commercial revenue does not influence editorial decisions.

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

The editors of TECHNOMA are responsible for deciding which submitted manuscripts should be published. Editorial decisions must be based on the validity, originality, significance, clarity, and relevance of the manuscript to the journal’s scope and readership.

Editors must comply with the policies established by the journal’s editorial board and applicable legal requirements regarding copyright infringement, plagiarism, defamation, and other publication-related matters.

In making publication decisions, editors may consult other editors, editorial board members, or peer reviewers.

Fair Play

Editors must evaluate submitted manuscripts solely on the basis of their academic and intellectual merit, originality, relevance, and contribution to the field.

Manuscripts must be evaluated without discrimination based on the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation, disability, or political philosophy.

Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts. Information regarding a submitted manuscript may only be disclosed to:

• The corresponding author;

• Assigned or potential reviewers;

• Editorial board members;

• Editorial advisers; and

• The publisher, when necessary.

Submitted manuscripts must not be shared with or discussed with unauthorized individuals.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Editors must not use unpublished information, data, interpretations, or ideas contained in a submitted manuscript for their own research or personal benefit without the authors’ explicit written consent.

Editors must withdraw from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, personal, financial, institutional, or other relationships with the authors or organizations associated with the manuscript.

When a conflict of interest exists, another qualified editor must be assigned to manage the review and decision-making process.

Handling Ethical Complaints

Editors must respond appropriately to ethical complaints concerning submitted or published manuscripts.

When necessary, the editors must investigate allegations of plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.

Appropriate actions may include contacting the authors and their institutions, issuing corrections or retractions, publishing expressions of concern, or taking other actions consistent with COPE guidelines.

Duties of Peer Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer review assists editors in making informed editorial decisions. Reviewers’ comments may also help authors improve the quality, accuracy, clarity, and relevance of their manuscripts.

Reviewers should provide constructive, evidence-based, and academically appropriate feedback.

Promptness

A reviewer who feels unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or is unable to complete the review within the required period must promptly notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Reviewers should accept review assignments only when they have sufficient expertise and time to provide a thorough and responsible evaluation.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents.

Reviewers must not share, distribute, reproduce, or discuss the manuscript with other individuals unless prior authorization has been obtained from the editor.

Information or ideas obtained through peer review must not be used for personal advantage.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews must be conducted objectively, fairly, and professionally.

Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate and unacceptable. Reviewers should clearly express their assessments and support their comments with relevant academic arguments, evidence, or references.

Reviewers should distinguish between comments that are essential for improving the manuscript and comments that merely reflect personal preferences.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published works that have not been appropriately cited by the authors.

Any statement indicating that an observation, argument, method, or finding has been previously published should be accompanied by an appropriate reference.

Reviewers must inform the editor if they identify substantial similarities or overlaps between the manuscript under review and any other published or submitted work of which they are aware.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must keep privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review confidential and must not use them for personal, professional, institutional, or financial advantage.

Reviewers must decline to evaluate manuscripts when they have conflicts of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, personal, financial, institutional, or other relationships with any of the authors, organizations, or institutions associated with the manuscript.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors reporting original research must present an accurate account of the work performed and provide an objective discussion of its significance.

Research data must be represented accurately and honestly. Manuscripts should contain sufficient details, explanations, and references to allow other researchers to understand, evaluate, and, where appropriate, replicate the research.

Fraudulent, fabricated, falsified, manipulated, or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors may be required to provide the raw data associated with their manuscript for editorial review.

Authors should retain research data for a reasonable period after publication and, whenever possible and appropriate, make the data available to qualified researchers while considering confidentiality, privacy, ethical approval, and legal requirements.

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are entirely original.

When authors use the ideas, data, methods, illustrations, tables, figures, or words of others, these materials must be appropriately cited, acknowledged, or quoted.

Plagiarism in any form is unethical and unacceptable. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying text or ideas without proper attribution;

• Paraphrasing another person’s work without citation;

• Claiming another person’s research findings as one’s own;

• Using tables, figures, or data without permission or acknowledgement; and

• Self-plagiarism or excessive reuse of previously published material without proper disclosure.

All submitted manuscripts may be examined using plagiarism-detection software.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously.

Authors should not publish manuscripts describing substantially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.

Submitting the same manuscript concurrently to multiple journals constitutes unethical publication behavior and is unacceptable.

Secondary publication may only be considered under specific circumstances, with transparent disclosure, proper citation of the original publication, and approval from the editors and copyright holders.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors must appropriately acknowledge all sources that have influenced the research and preparation of the manuscript.

Relevant publications must be cited accurately. Authors must not cite sources that they have not read or use citations solely to manipulate citation metrics.

Information obtained privately through conversations, correspondence, manuscript reviews, or discussions must not be used or reported without explicit permission from the source.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the reported study.

All individuals who have made substantial contributions must be listed as co-authors. Individuals who contributed to specific aspects of the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged as contributors.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:

• All appropriate co-authors are included in the manuscript;

• No inappropriate individuals are listed as authors;

• All co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript;

• All co-authors have agreed to submit the manuscript to TECHNOMA; and

• All authors accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work.

Changes to authorship after manuscript submission must be supported by a clear explanation and written approval from all authors concerned.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or other conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the results or interpretation of their research.

All sources of financial support, sponsorship, grants, equipment, materials, or other assistance related to the research must be clearly disclosed in the manuscript.

When no conflict of interest exists, authors should provide an explicit statement declaring that there are no conflicts of interest.

Research Involving Human Participants

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical principles, institutional regulations, and national or international guidelines.

Authors must state that ethical approval was obtained from an appropriate ethics committee or institutional review board when required.

Authors must also confirm that informed consent was obtained from participants or their legal representatives when applicable.

The privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality of participants must be protected. Identifying information must not be published unless it is scientifically necessary and the participant has provided explicit written consent.

Research Involving Animals

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international guidelines for animal welfare.

Authors must provide information regarding ethical approval and describe the procedures used to minimize animal suffering when applicable.

Hazards and Participant Safety

Authors must clearly identify any unusual hazards associated with chemicals, procedures, equipment, interventions, or research activities.

Research procedures must prioritize the safety, dignity, rights, and welfare of participants, researchers, and other individuals involved.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Authors must transparently disclose the use of artificial intelligence tools in preparing, editing, translating, analysing, or generating content for a manuscript when such use is substantial and relevant.

Artificial intelligence tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and accountability of scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for verifying all AI-assisted content, including facts, references, analyses, interpretations, and language.

Artificial intelligence must not be used to fabricate data, citations, images, results, or other research materials.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, the author must promptly notify the journal editor or publisher.

Authors must cooperate with the editor to correct, clarify, or retract the article when necessary.

When editors or publishers receive information from a third party indicating that a published work contains a significant error, the authors must cooperate with the investigation and provide relevant evidence or documentation.

Plagiarism and Research Misconduct

TECHNOMA does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, citation manipulation, duplicate submission, duplicate publication, improper authorship, or other forms of research and publication misconduct.

When misconduct is suspected, the editorial team will conduct an investigation in accordance with the journal’s policies and COPE guidelines.

Depending on the nature and severity of the violation, the journal may take one or more of the following actions:

• Reject the manuscript;

• Request revisions or clarification;

• Suspend the review or publication process;

• Retract a published article;

• Publish a correction or expression of concern;

• Notify the authors’ institutions or funding bodies;

• Prohibit the authors from submitting manuscripts for a specified period; or

• Take other appropriate ethical or legal actions.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

TECHNOMA is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.

Corrections may be published when an error affects part of an article but does not invalidate its overall findings.

A retraction may be issued when there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to misconduct, honest error, duplicate publication, plagiarism, unethical research, or other serious violations.

An expression of concern may be published when an investigation is ongoing or when available evidence is inconclusive.

All corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern will be clearly identified and linked to the original publication.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other interested parties may submit complaints regarding editorial procedures, peer-review decisions, publication ethics, or published content.

Complaints and appeals will be handled objectively, confidentially, and fairly. Whenever possible, they will be reviewed by an editor or editorial board member who was not directly involved in the original decision.

Authors may appeal editorial decisions by providing a clear academic justification and relevant supporting evidence. An appeal does not guarantee that the original decision will be changed.

Duties of the Publisher

The publisher of TECHNOMA is committed to supporting editors, reviewers, and authors in maintaining the integrity of the publication process.

The publisher must ensure that commercial interests do not influence editorial decisions and must cooperate in investigations of suspected research or publication misconduct.

The publisher is also responsible for preserving published scholarly content and supporting appropriate corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern when necessary.

Publication Ethics Compliance

By submitting a manuscript to TECHNOMA, authors confirm that they have read, understood, and agreed to comply with this Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Editors, reviewers, editorial board members, and publishers are also expected to uphold these ethical principles throughout the submission, peer-review, editorial, publication, and post-publication processes.