To safeguard and improve the quality of its published articles, Journal of Instrumental Analysis (ISSN 1004-4957) applies single-anonymized peer review through a rigorous process comprising initial editorial screening, further assessment by the Editorial Office Director, external peer review, and a final review by the Editor-in-Chief. To uphold research integrity, establish standards for manuscript preparation, editorial handling, peer review, and publication, and prevent research misconduct, the journal has developed the following publication ethics guidelines. These draw on the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China, the Code of Publication Ethics for Scientific and Technical Journals issued by the China Association for Science and Technology, and other relevant national and international provisions, taking account of the journal's practices.
Editors, authors, and reviewers of Journal of Instrumental Analysis must fulfill the responsibilities below and comply with the journal's submission guidelines and other requirements.
1.Responsibilities of Authors
1) Submissions must meet the requirements set out by the journal. Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are authentic and original.
2) Authors must confirm that their manuscripts are not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere, do not duplicate previously published work or constitute fragmented publication, do not breach confidentiality, and are free of disputes over authorship or affiliations.
3) All listed authors must have made substantial contributions to the research. Other contributors may be recognized in the acknowledgments. The corresponding author must ensure that all eligible authors, and no ineligible individuals, are included in the author list, and that all authors have seen and approved the final version submitted for publication.
4) Normally, only one corresponding author should be designated. Additional corresponding authors may be allowed for properly organized multicenter or multidisciplinary collaborative research where justified, generally up to a total of two. Additional corresponding authors should normally be the research leads from the different institutions or research groups involved in the collaboration.
5) As a general principle, authors should be listed in order of their contributions. The author order must be agreed by all authors and finalized before submission. Authors and affiliations may not be changed after acceptance.
6) Authors must declare at submission whether they have any conflicts of interest. Where conflicts exist, all financial or nonfinancial interests that could influence the research findings must be disclosed.
7) Authors are responsible for correcting errors or retracting affected work, as appropriate, and must report any errors they discover in a published article to the Editorial Office.
8) Authors who disagree with reviewer comments or an editorial decision may submit a written appeal to the Editorial Office, providing a detailed explanation and response to each comment.
9) Submitted manuscripts must not involve harm to humans or animals, or contain unethical language or report unethical experiments.
10) Once an article is published, its authors remain responsible for its content. The first author bears direct responsibility, and the corresponding author shares equal responsibility, for the author order and the authenticity of the article's content.
11) A single study must not be split into multiple papers solely to increase the number of publications, whether submitted to different journals or to the same journal over time ("salami slicing").
2. Responsibilities of Editors
1) Editors must handle every manuscript fairly, impartially, and objectively.
2) Editors must maintain confidentiality, strictly protect reviewer anonymity, and keep authors' research and related information confidential.
3) Editors must provide authors with detailed revision requests or reasons for rejection.
4) Editors must not allow personal or other interests to interfere with peer review. They must safeguard reviewers' independence and ensure a fair and impartial review process.
5) When selecting reviewers, editors should, wherever possible, avoid individuals affiliated with the same institution as the authors. A listed author must never be selected to review their own manuscript.
6) Editors must respect authors' views and writing styles and obtain their consent before making substantive editorial changes that affect their scholarly arguments.
7) Where major revisions are required, editors must communicate promptly with the authors and obtain their agreement.
8) Editors must investigate research misconduct and communicate with those concerned. Effective action must be taken when misconduct is identified in a submitted or published article. Editors must hold authors and reviewers accountable for misconduct.
3. Responsibilities of Reviewers
1) Reviewers must assess manuscripts responsibly, fairly, impartially, and objectively.
2) Reviewers must keep manuscript content, author information, and related details confidential.
3) Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest with the authors, proactively disclose the conflict to the Editorial Office, and recuse themselves.
4) Reviewers must promptly notify the Editorial Office if they identify plagiarism or become aware that a manuscript is under consideration for publication elsewhere.
5) Reviewers working on similar research must not use their position to obstruct publication or unfairly disparage an author's manuscript.
6) Reviewers must not suggest or require citations to their own publications or those of their research group unless the omitted work is directly relevant and has clearly been overlooked by the authors.
7) Reviewers must return their reports within the agreed period. If they cannot meet the deadline, they must promptly inform the Editorial Office.
4. Ethics for Generative Artificial Intelligence
The journal's requirements for the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in submission and peer review are as follows:
1) GenAI cannot assume the responsibilities of authorship. GenAI systems and relevant products may not be listed as authors. GenAI cannot be cited as a source.
2) GenAI must not be used to write an entire manuscript or substantial sections such as the methods, results, or interpretation and analysis of the results. All content constituting a scientific contribution or intellectual work must be produced by the authors themselves. The Editorial Office will treat the use of GenAI to produce the main content of a manuscript as academic misconduct.
3) GenAI may be used for literature searches, identifying research topics, statistical analysis, language editing, assistance with figure preparation, and manuscript formatting checks. Authors should disclose the use of GenAI in preparing the article, beyond straightforward language correction, editing and formatting. Authors bear full responsibility for GenAI-generated content, including any resulting breach of publication ethics or infringement of rights.
4) GenAI may assist with the Editorial Office's routine work to improve efficiency and reduce workload. However, it must not be used to assess manuscripts or make acceptance decisions; these tasks must be performed personally by the responsible editors. Communication with authors must likewise be handled by editorial staff and must not be delegated to GenAI.
5) Manuscripts and related supplementary materials must not be uploaded to publicly available GenAI platforms during peer review, to prevent infringement of rights, breaches of privacy, and disclosure of confidential information.
6) If an author violates the journal's GenAI policy in preparing a manuscript, the Editorial Office will reject the manuscript or retract the article, as applicable. Authors responsible for serious violations will be barred from future submissions. Reviewers who violate the policy and cause disclosure of information, infringement of rights, or other adverse consequences will be held accountable and barred from reviewing for the journal in the future.
