Instructions for Authors

Nuova Rivista Storica

ISSN: 0029-6236 (Print)

Shortcuts

Cover Letter
Templates
General Format of Articles

Research Data and Supplementary Materials

Chemical Compounds

Data Sharing and Deposition

Suggesting Reviewers
English Editing Service
Publication Ethics
Editorial Policies
Authorship and Contribution

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Editors and Journal Staff as Authors
Conflicts of Interest
Copyright and Licensing
Repository Policy
Corrections and Retractions
Appeals and complaints
 

Authors’ Guideline

All manuscripts must be submitted via the online system. Manuscripts submitted for publication must be prepared according to the guideline given below.    

Template in MS Word: Microsoft Word template

This guideline is intended to assist authors as they prepare their manuscripts. To avoid any delay and time-consuming restructuring, the journal asks and encourages authors to read the guidelines before writing the manuscript.

The journal publishes review and research articles. All papers must be written in English or Italian, and follow a clear, concise style. The language editors may have to check the language and grammar of your submitted manuscript, and make editorial changes if deemed necessary.

Article Types

Nuova Rivista Storica publishes a range of scholarly contributions, including Research Articles, Contemporary History Articles, Historical Issues, Notes and Documents, Forum Contributions, Review Essays, Editorials, and Book Reviews.

All manuscripts must be written in English or Italian and follow a clear, rigorous, and scholarly style. Submissions may be subject to language editing to ensure clarity and consistency with academic standards.

Research Articles (Saggi)

Research Articles are full-length, original scholarly studies that make a substantial contribution to historical knowledge.

They may address any historical period or geographical area and should be grounded in critical engagement with primary sources, archival materials, or original historiographical interpretation. Contributions are expected to advance new arguments, perspectives, or methodological approaches within the field of historical research. There is no strict word limit; however, manuscripts should be analytically rigorous and appropriately concise.

Contemporary History Articles (Storia presente)

Contemporary History Articles focus on the recent past and the present, typically from the late twentieth century to contemporary developments. These contributions analyze current or recent political, social, cultural, or international phenomena through a historical lens, emphasizing their historical roots, continuities, and ruptures. Authors may combine archival research, policy documents, and first-hand testimonies, situating contemporary issues within broader historical trajectories.

Historical Issues / Case Studies (Questioni storiche)

This article type addresses specific historical problems, themes, or debates through focused inquiry or case-based analysis. Contributions are generally shorter than full Research Articles and aim to explore a well-defined question, phenomenon, or episode, often linking micro-level analysis to broader historical contexts. This section encourages exploratory, problem-oriented, and comparative approaches.

Notes and Documents (Note e documenti)

Notes and Documents present previously unpublished, rare, or little-known primary sources, such as archival documents, correspondence, official records, diaries, or institutional materials. Submissions should include a critical introduction and scholarly annotations that contextualize the sources, explain their provenance, and indicate their potential relevance for historical research. The emphasis lies on source presentation and documentation, rather than extended interpretative argument.

Forum Contributions (Forum)

Forum Contributions consist of short, focused essays by multiple authors addressing a shared historical question, event, or historiographical problem. Each contribution approaches the topic from a distinct perspective (political, social, cultural, economic, or intellectual history), fostering scholarly dialogue and debate. Forum sections are typically organized by the editorial board or by invitation, and conclude with a synthetic commentary.

Review Essays and Interpretative Surveys (Interpretazioni e rassegne)

Review Essays offer critical overviews of recent scholarship, major debates, or emerging research trends within a specific field of historical inquiry. Rather than summarizing individual works, these contributions synthesize existing literature, assess methodological and interpretative developments, and propose new directions for future research.

Editorials

Editorials are short reflective or programmatic texts written by members of the editorial board or invited scholars. They address issues relevant to the journal’s intellectual orientation, historiographical debates, or editorial initiatives.

Editorials do not present original research and are evaluated internally by the editorial team.

Book Reviews (Recensioni)

Book Reviews critically assess recently published scholarly monographs or edited volumes relevant to the journal’s scope.

Reviews should concisely present the content, methodological approach, and scholarly contribution of the work, while offering a balanced evaluation of its strengths and limitations. This section plays a key role in fostering scholarly exchange and expanding the journal’s international visibility.

Guidelines for Cover Story

We select Cover images for their scientific interest and aesthetic appeal. Authors may receive request emails for the permission of using their images as cover story by us, please send us your approval and along with the electronic files including a short legend concisely explaining the image (50-60 words).

The cover of the journal is editorial material, and as such the editors reserve the right to adapt it during the final design process or ask you to make changes to your suggestion. The editorial team will then select those images they consider most appropriate for the cover positions and contact the authors of the chosen images. No charge is required at present for Cover Story.

The cover image should be in an original, high-resolution format and editable vector graphic images are preferred.

Other requirements:

1. Image type: TIFF/PSD files are preferred

2. Design suggestion: A cover is a showcase for your research and the journal. It should be eye-catching and make people want to learn about your article.

3. Image layout: The image should have a full-page layout. Space should be available for the journal title and issue information at the top of the page, but aside from that, the full area is available for your image.

4. Copyright: Any cover must be a completely new design. It is not appropriate to use elements that are taken from third-party content, such as in previously published work, or any elements that are otherwise subject to copyright or licensing restrictions, as the license should be transferable to the journal.

Graphical Abstract

We encourage graphical abstract as it draws more attention to the online article. The graphical abstract is optional and should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: Please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files.

Cover Letter

A submitted manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter. The cover letter must clearly state that the manuscript is an original work with its own merit, has not been previously published in whole or in part, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. It should also include statements clearly indicating that all authors have read the final manuscript, have approved the submission to the journal, and have accepted full responsibilities pertaining to the manuscript’s delivery and contents. If there are any ethical, copyright, disclosure issues that come with the manuscript, please reveal them in the cover letter. In the cover letter, authors need to declare that there is no conflict of interests or disclose all the conflicts of interest regarding the manuscript submitted.

Templates

Use the Microsoft Word template to prepare your manuscript.

Authors are strongly encouraged to use either the Microsoft Word to prepare their manuscript. Using the provided template will significantly speed up the copy-editing and publication process for accepted manuscripts. The total file size for all submissions must not exceed 200 MB. If the file size exceeds this limit, please contact the Editorial Office. Accepted file formats are:

● Microsoft Word: Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word must be submitted as a single file. When using Microsoft Word, we recommend using the Microsoft Word template (each section has a predefined style, accessible via the “Styles” gallery in Word). Figures should be inserted into the main text immediately after the paragraph where they are first cited.

● Supplementary Files: These can be in any format, though it is recommended to use common, non-proprietary formats whenever possible.

General Format of Articles

Manuscripts should comprise:

Front matter: Title

Main text

Back matter: Author list, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords

Front Matter

● Title

The title should be precise, clear, and directly related to the historical subject of the study, reflecting its chronological scope, geographical context, and thematic focus. Acronyms, running titles, or abbreviated forms are not permitted.

Main Text

●  Structure and Paragraphs

Articles should be clearly structured and may be divided into numbered sections and subsections (e.g., 1.; 1.1; 2.; 2.1), while reviews may adopt a more flexible structure provided the argument is coherent. Paragraph titles should be in italics and not followed by a full stop.

● Page Layout and Typography

Pages should be uniform, with approximately 2,500 characters per page (including spaces). The main text should use font size 12, footnotes font size 10, and block quotations font size 11.

● Quotations and Punctuation

1. In-text quotations: « »

2. Quotations within quoted passages: “ ”

3. Block quotations: smaller font (11), regular typeface, indented, without quotation marks

4. Omissions in quotations: indicated by […]

5. A period follows closing quotation marks; footnote references placed before punctuation

6. Question marks and exclamation points remain inside quotation marks if part of the quotation

7. Dash (–) used as direct speech marker precedes punctuation

8. Uppercase quotation marks (“ ”) may be used for emphasis

● Language and Style

Foreign words should appear in italics, and names of peoples are always capitalized (e.g., the Tartars, the Mongols, the French).

● Bibliographic and Archival Citations

1. Author names: small capitals

2. Titles: italics

3. Publication details: (city, publisher, year, number of pages)

4. Editors/translators follow the title in parentheses

5. Multi-volume works: volume in uppercase Roman numerals, followed by page numbers

6. Journal articles: full journal title in « », volume, year, issue number, page range

7. Previously cited works: use full title or first words + cit. + page

8. Archival sources: first citation full; subsequent can use abbreviation

● Abbreviations

f./ff. = folio(s)

n.n. = unnumbered

p./pp. = page(s)

r, v = recto, verso

cfr. = compare

● Additional Conventions

ID./EAD. = idem / eadem

ibidem = same author, same work, same page

Ibid. = same author, same work, different page

Back Matter

● Author list and Affiliations

Author names and affiliations should appear here, right-aligned following the main text. At least one author must be designated as the corresponding author. Equal contributions should be indicated with a superscript (#) and the statement “These authors contributed equally to this work.” Authors not affiliated with any institution should indicate Independent Researcher, and changes to author names or affiliations after acceptance are normally not permitted.

● Abstract

Research articles should provide an abstract of 200–400 words, and review articles 150–300 words, written as a single continuous paragraph without references or footnotes. For articles written in Italian, an abstract must be provided in Italian and in English, with keywords in English. English abstracts and keywords are mandatory for all articles regardless of the language of the main text.

● Keywords

3–10 keywords that accurately reflect the content, chronological scope, and thematic focus.

Research Data and Supplementary Materials

In addition to the data, computer code, and research materials transparency guidelines, TSP encourages authors to provide supplementary materials that complement their main articles and enhance the readers' understanding of the research. These supplementary materials may include additional data, figures, tables, multimedia content, or relevant information.

1. Supplementary Materials Submission: Authors should submit supplementary materials along with their main article during the manuscript submission process. These materials should be in a separate section and clearly labeled as "Supplementary Materials."

2. Content Relevance: All supplementary materials should be directly relevant to the main research article and provide valuable additional insights or data that support or expand upon the article's findings. Supplementary materials should not duplicate information already presented in the main text.

3. File Formats: Supplementary materials can be submitted in various formats, such as Word, PDF, Excel, CSV, images (JPEG or PNG), audio (MP3), video (MP4), or any other appropriate format for the content type.

4. Supplementary Data: Authors can provide raw data or additional data that support the article's findings but are not included in the main text due to space constraints. Data should be well-organized, properly labeled, and accompanied by clear explanations of the data's context and significance.

5. Supplementary Figures and Tables: Authors may include extra figures or tables that complement those in the main article. These should be numbered separately (e.g., Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Table S1) and referred to in the main text.

Chemical Compounds

Chemical and Chemical Nomenclature and Abbreviations
Authors should provide the exact structure of the chemical compound, and if there are appeared as new chemical compounds, authors should submit the small-molecule crystallographic data to the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and deposit relevant information to PubChem. The final version of the manuscript should contain the accession codes. When possible, authors should use systematic nomenclature to identify chemical compounds, and biomolecules using IUPAC is preferred. Standard chemical and chemical abbreviations should be used.

Combinatorial Compound Libraries

The authors should include standard characterization data for a diverse panel of library components when describing the preparation of combinatorial libraries in the manuscript.    

Chemical Structures for Organic and Organometallic Compounds

Chemical structures for organic and organometallic compounds should be established through spectroscopic analysis. The authors should provide standard peak listings for both 1H NMR and proton-decoupled 13C NMR for all new compounds. Other NMR data, when appropriate, such as 31P NMR, 19F NMR, etc. should be reported. For the identification of functional groups, both UV and IR spectral data should be reported when appropriate. For crystalline materials, melting-point ranges should be included. For the analysis of chiral compounds, specific rotations should be reported. For known compounds, authors should provide detailed references.

Spectral Data

Detailed spectral data for new compounds should be provided in the Materials and methods section. The authors should explain how specific, unambiguous NMR assignments were made in the Materials and methods section.      

Crystallographic Data for Small Molecules

For crystallographic data for small molecules, authors should provide a standard crystallographic information file (CIF) and a structural figure with probability ellipsoids. The authors should check the CIF using the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) checkCIF. For the structure, the structure factors must be included either in the main CIF or in a separate CIF. Crystallographic data for small molecules should be submitted to the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC), and the accession number must be referenced in the manuscript.     

Biomolecular Materials

Manuscripts reporting new biomolecular structures should contain a table summarizing structural and refinement statistics. If suitable, high-field NMR or X-ray crystallography may also be used. For new biopolymeric materials (e.g., oligosaccharides, peptides, nucleic acids, etc.), if it is not possible for structural analysis by NMR spectroscopic methods. Authors must provide evidence of the identity based on sequence (when appropriate) and mass spectral characterization.      

Biological Constructs

Authors should provide sequencing or functional data that validates the identity of their biological constructs (plasmids, fusion proteins, site-directed mutants) upon request.  

Polymers

For new materials, as well as 1H NMR and 13C NMR, the mass spectral analysis should be used to support the identification of molecular weight. Ideally, high-resolution mass spectral (HRMS) data are preferred.  

Nanomaterials

The authors must provide a detailed characterization of both individual objects and bulk composition.

Data Sharing and Deposition

At Tech Science Press, we value open scientific exchange and believe in promoting transparency and reproducibility in research. To ensure consistency across TSP journals, authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in all submissions. For examples of acceptable statements, please refer to the templates provided in the Availability of Data and Materials section above.

Data Sharing

Researchers share their data so that other researchers can replicate and build on their published claims. We encourage authors to share the data described and discussed in their articles. Research data can be uploaded to repositories and the access information provided in a published article or appended to the article in supplementary files. Any restrictions on the availability of research materials or information must be disclosed to the editors directly at the time of submission and in the submitted manuscript. Read more about TSP’s Data Sharing Policies.1. Data sharing may be inappropriate when ethical, legal, or privacy considerations arise. In such cases, authors must clearly outline any limitations in the Data Availability Statement during manuscript submission. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that any shared data adhere to the consent obtained from participants regarding the use of confidential information.

2. Data Repositories

Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit their research data in reputable and discipline-specific data repositories. Preferred data repositories should be recognized and indexed by organizations like DataCite, re3data, or other relevant repositories in their respective fields.

3. Data Citation

Research data should be cited in the main article to give proper credit and acknowledge the efforts of data creators. Authors must properly reference the deposited data in their reference list, including the dataset's persistent identifier (DOI, accession number, etc.).

Analytic Methods (Code) Transparency

For work where novel computer code was developed, authors should release it either by depositing it in a recognized, public repository such as GitHub or uploading it as supplementary information to the publication. The name, version, corporation and location information for all software used should be clearly indicated. Please include all the parameters used to run software/program analyses.

1. Code Availability

Authors are strongly encouraged to share the computer code and software used to generate results presented in their articles. The availability of code enhances research reproducibility and allows other researchers to build upon the work.

2. Code Repositories

Authors should deposit their code and software in well-established and reputable code repositories such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or other relevant platforms. Providing a link to the code repository should be included in the Data Availability Statement.

3. Code Documentation

Authors must ensure that the deposited code is well-documented, readable, and easy to understand. Sufficient comments and explanations should be provided within the code to facilitate its usage by others.

4. Citation

Authors must provide a citation for the code in the article's reference list. Include the code's persistent identifier (e.g., DOI or URL) to facilitate proper acknowledgment and citation by other researchers.

Data Deposition and Suggested Repositories

Prior to manuscript submission, please choose the appropriate repository, below are recommended data repositories for your research:

Dataverse, Dryad, figshare, GigaScience, Mendeley Data, Zenodo

You may also visit DataCite, re3data to identify registered data repositories for your data sharing.

For journals with health research subjects, the deposition of sequence information to the community-endorsed, public repository is necessary. Accession numbers and other relevant, unique identifiers provided by the database should be included in the submitted manuscript. 

DNA and RNA Sequences: GenBank, European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), DDBJ, Protein DataBank, UniProt 

DNA Sequencing Data: Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ArrayExpress, NCBI Sequence Read Archive, ENA Sequence Versions Archive

New microarray: Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), ArrayExpress

Genetic polymorphisms: dbSNP, dbVar

Linked genotype and phenotype data: dbGaP, European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)

Protein sequences: UniProt

Flow cytometry: FlowRepository

Chemical Compound Screening and Assay Data: PubChem

Suggesting Reviewers

Authors are welcome and encouraged to suggest reviewers when they submit their manuscripts by using the submission system. Authors should make sure they are totally independent and without conflicts of interest in any way. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer.

English Editing Service  

Clear and concise language enables both the journal editors and reviewers to concentrate on the scientific content of your manuscript. In order to facilitate a proper peer review process and ensure that submissions are judged exclusively on academic merit, the journal strongly encourages authors to prepare the language of their manuscripts with the utmost care. The use of the recommended language polishing service on your manuscript does not indicate the acceptance of your manuscript for publication in the journal.

If you are an author whose native language is not English—or you have any concerns regarding the language quality of your manuscript—we recommend having your manuscript professionally edited by a qualified English-speaking researcher in your field prior to submission.

Tech Science Press offers paid language editing services, or you may choose to use an alternative service that provides a confirmation certificate.

Editorial Policies

Authorship and Contribution

Authorship

Tech Science Press follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines regarding authorship and contributions. Authorship should be based on the following 4 criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged in the acknowledgement section.

The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported, although these duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way, and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

When the work has to be conducted by a large multi-author group, it is advised that the list of authors be decided before the work starts and confirmed before the manuscript submission. All members of that group listed as authors should have met all the above four criteria for authorship with final approval of the manuscript, and should be able to take public responsibility for the work with full confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the work of all group authors. As such, they will be required as individuals to complete conflict-of-interest disclosure forms.

Submissions by any individual other than one of the listed authors will strictly not be considered. All authors will take responsibility for the content of the manuscript they submitted, and ensure they are familiar with the other authors individual contribution.  

Non-author Contributor

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a single heading (e.g. "Clinical Investigators" or "Participating Investigators"), and their contributions should be specified (e.g., "served as scientific advisors," "critically reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," "provided and cared for study patients," "participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript"). 

Alteration to Authorship

Requests made for an authorship change after submission must be made to the editorial office with an explanation for the change, include the signature of all authors, and be submitted by the corresponding author.

TSP places significant importance on maintaining the integrity and transparency of authorship contributions, and TSP journals do not accept any requests to change the first author or corresponding author during any stage of manuscript processing. Any insistence on altering the first author or corresponding author will result in the rejection of the manuscript without further review or consideration.

Please note that if you have changed affiliation during the course of the research, your new affiliation could be acknowledged in a note. TSP does not normally take requests for changes to affiliations after the acceptance of manuscripts.

Authorship issues found after publication may result in a correction. If and when the authors are unable to resolve among themselves an authorship-related dispute, TSP may raise the issue with the authors’ institution(s) and abide by its/their guidelines. 

Authorship Contribution Statement

The Author Contributions statement is mandatory for research articles, except for papers with a single author. It should represent all the authors and is to be included upon submission. All listed authors must have substantially contributed to the manuscript and have approved the final submitted version, which should include a description of each author’s specific work and contribution. We suggest the following format for the contribution statement:

“The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: Conceptualization, First-name Lastname1 and First-name Lastname2; methodology, First-name Lastname1; software, First-name Lastname1; validation, First-name Lastname1, First-name Lastname2 and First-name Lastname3; formal analysis, First-name Lastname1; investigation, First-name Lastname1; resources, First-name Lastname1; data curation, First-name Lastname1; writing—original draft preparation, First-name Lastname1; writing—review and editing, First-name Lastname1; visualization, First-name Lastname1; supervision, First-name Lastname1; project administration, First-name Lastname1; funding acquisition, First-name Lastname1. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript”.

Please turn to the CRediT role descriptors—CRediT for the term explanation.

Artificial Intelligence Policy

TSP acknowledges the evolving impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), including tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs), on scholarly publishing. In line with guidance issued by the STM Association and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), we have established the following policy to promote transparency and uphold academic integrity.

1. Use of AI in Manuscript Preparation

Authors who employ GenAI tools during the preparation of their manuscripts—for tasks such as text generation, graphical output, data analysis, study design, or interpretation—are required to declare such usage upon submission. Specific details regarding the nature and scope of AI tool usage should be disclosed in the “Materials and Methods” section. Additionally, the tool’s name and version must be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section.

Acknowledgment statement example:

“During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors utilized [tool name, version] for [brief description of use]. The authors have carefully reviewed and revised the output and accept full responsibility for all content.”

When AI tools are used solely for linguistic editing—such as grammar correction, spelling checks, punctuation, style improvements, or formatting adjustments—this falls outside the policy's requirements and does not need to be declared. This allowance applies only to editorial refinements and does not extend to generative content creation or authorship.

Authors remain fully accountable for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical compliance of all manuscript content, including any output generated or supported by GenAI tools. All materials must conform to TSP’s Publication Ethics, including but not limited to, policies concerning plagiarism, data integrity, and image authenticity.

GenAI tools cannot be cited as references, as such tools do not constitute verifiable or accountable contributors to scholarly work.

TSP reserves the right to request clarification or supporting information and will make editorial decisions in accordance with TSP’s Editorial Policies and Terms and Conditions.

2. Authorship

GenAI tools and LLMs do not fulfill TSP’s Authorship Criteria and cannot be listed as authors.

3. Use of AI in Peer Review

Peer reviewers should not employ GenAI tools for the generation or structuring of review reports. Such use may compromise confidentiality, data protection, and proprietary information. Limited application of AI for improving the linguistic clarity of a review report (e.g., grammar or punctuation) may be permitted but must be disclosed upon submission.

Under no circumstances may reviewers upload manuscripts (in full or in part), images, tables, or related materials to any AI platform, since such actions breach TSP’s Privacy Policy. Violations of this policy will result in the rejection of the review report.

4. Use of AI in Editorial Decision-Making

The Editors (including Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editors, or Editorial Board Members) are strictly prohibited from using GenAI tools in the editorial evaluation or decision-making process. Uploading any confidential manuscript materials to AI platforms constitutes a breach of TSP’s Privacy Policy.

TSP is committed to revisiting Artificial Intelligence Policy in alignment with emerging best practices from STM Association, COPE, and the wider academic community.

Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

In the circumstances where Editors or editorial staff of the journal submit their own studies to the journal, they shall not be involved in the reviewing process, and the review process must be made transparently and rigorously. Submissions authored by editors or editorial staff of the journal will be handled by another editor who has least COIs with the authors to minimize the bias.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest (COIs, also referred to as “competing interests”) may indicate the potential to influence the validity or objectivity of research. Editors, authors, and reviewers may be involved into COIs, and the journal considers it essential to identify and seek to mitigate them so as to ensure the integrity of its role in the dissemination and preservation of knowledge. Failure to declare competing interests may result in decline of a manuscript.

Authors must declare all potential conflicts of interest; if they have none to declare, they should state plainly, “The author(s) declare(s) no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study”.

In order to limit COIs, all roles involved in the peer review process must identify and declare any personal circumstances or associations that may be perceived as having such influence and acknowledge all funding sources for the work. However, COI statements relating to public funding sources, such as government agencies and charitable or academic institutions, need not be supplied.

To be specific, the journal defines a COI as any relationship that may have an impact on the authors, reviewers, or editors of a manuscript during the peer review process, on the making of editorial decisions, or generally on any stage in the path toward publication.

Thus, COIs may include (but not limited to): 

Financial COIs

• Stock or share ownership

• Patent applications

• Research grants

• Consultancies

• Royalties

Non-financial COIs

• Affiliation with the same institution;

• Personal relationships, e.g., between thesis advisers and their students, friends, family members, etc.;

• Academic relationships, e.g., among co-authors, collaborators, or competitors;

• Government employees;

• Members of the journal editorial board of a TSP journal.

COIs are not considered permanent; such relationships that have ended more than two years prior to the submission of a manuscript need not be identified as sources of potential conflict.

Authors

The journal requires a declaration from all authors of a manuscript regarding any potential COIs that could be relevant to the integrity or reliability of the scientific and professional judgment presented therein, as well as that of otherwise unassociated studies in the same journal. Potential conflict, unless already declared, will be held in confidence while the paper is under review. If the article is accepted for publication, the potential conflict of interest will be included in the acknowledgments. If there is, in fact, no conflict of interest, the authors should state plainly.

Reviewers

Reviewers should declare any COIs when they are assigned a manuscript and disclose this information to the editor, who will then assess whether they should proceed with the review process.

Editors

Editors, including Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors and Guest Editors should be aware of their own potential COIs. If the Editors have authored or coauthored the manuscripts submitted to the journal, Editors might be perceived to be influenced by the relationship. The journal expects the Editor(s) to declare any COIs or potential COIs.

Copyright and Licensing 

The journal follows TSP’s Copyright and Licensing Policy, which applies to all articles unless stated otherwise.

For subscription (pay-to-read) articles, authors complete a Journal Publishing Agreement after acceptance. Copyright is transferred to TSP, or—where Crown Copyright is asserted—an exclusive publishing and distribution license is granted to TSP.

For open access articles, the Version of Record is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). Authors (or their employer) retain copyright and grant TSP a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license to publish and identify itself as the original publisher.

For full details on author rights, self-archiving, embargo periods, copyright ownership categories, third-party material, and supplemental data, please refer to TSP’s Copyright and Licensing Policy.

Repository Policy

Tech Science Press allows authors the use of the published version, accepted version and submitted version of an article for self-archiving and/or archiving in an institutional repository (on a non-profit server) without embargo time. The published source must be acknowledged. For articles, a link to the journal home page or articles' DOI must be set.

Corrections & Retractions

TSP journals will issue corrections, and/or retraction statements, when deemed proper.

Corrections 

The journal aims to publish every article online in its final form. Upon receiving the proofs of their accepted manuscripts, authors will have an opportunity to check for errors and oversights. Occasionally, a mistake is pointed out in a published article, necessitating the issuance of a correction statement. A correction is a statement rectifying an error or an omission, Authors or readers may submit such a statement either through the journal’s online manuscript submission system, or by sending an email, along with the submission ID, to the the journal’s editorial office . A correction notice, published and linked to the corresponding article, is freely accessible to all readers.

When making corrections to the original articles, the original article both in PDF and XML versions are corrected and bi-directionally linked to and from the published amendment notice that details the original error. Any changes made to the original articles affect data in figures, tables or text, the amendment notice will reproduce the original data. If it is not possible to correct the original article in both PDF and XML versions, the article will remain unchanged but will contain links that direct to and from the published correction notice.

Author’s Correction: An Author’s Correction may be published to correct an important error(s) made by the author that affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or the journal. The Managing Editor of that manuscript will be responsible for handling the correction process.

Publisher’s Correction: A Publisher’s Correction may be published to correct an important error(s) made by the journal that affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or of the journal.

Retractions 

A retraction is a notice that a previously published paper should no longer be regarded as part of the published literature. The primary purpose of a retraction is to ensure the integrity and completeness of scholarly records by withdrawing any manuscript which is found to contain infringements of professional ethical codes, major errors, or where its main conclusion is seriously undermined as a result of new evidence coming to light.

Violations of professional ethical codes include multiple submissions without proper citations or permission, redundant publications, fake claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data, etc. Major errors cover any or all miscalculations or experimental errors, intentionally or due to honest mistakes.

The retraction will be referred to the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and the Managing Editor who have handled the paper. Retracted articles will not be removed from the printed copies of the journal (e.g., from libraries) nor from the electronic archives. Their retracted status will be indicated as clearly as possible. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the permanence and integrity of the published scientific record. When an article is retracted, in most of the cases, the original manuscript is corrected and is bi-directionally linked (to and from) the published retraction notice which details the original error. For the purpose of transparency, when corrections made to the original article affect any data, figures, tables or texts, the retraction notice will display the original data alongside the corrected version. When a correction is not possible, all existing versions of the article will remain unchanged but will contain the bi-directional links, to and from, the published retraction notice.

The notice of retraction is permanently linked to its corresponding retracted article and is freely available and accessible by all readers.
Articles may be retracted by their Author(s), by the Journal Editors, or by the Publisher, i.e., Tech Science Press. In all instances, the retraction should indicate the reason for the action as well as the entity behind the decision. A retraction made without the unanimous agreement of the authors is feasible and indicated as such.

Article Withdrawal

Article Withdrawal is only used for articles in press, which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, an articles may contain infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, and fraudulent use of data or the like. Articles that include errors or are discovered to be accidental duplicates of other published article(s), or are determined to violate our publishing ethics guidelines in the view of the editors (such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like), may be “Withdrawn” by the article author or the journal editor.

Removal of Published Content

Under special circumstances, TSP reserves the right to remove an article, book or other content from TSP’s website and submission system. Such action may be taken when:

There are evidence indicating that the published content is defamatory, infringes on intellectual property rights, privacy rights, other legal rights, or is plainly unlawful;

A court or government order requires removal of such content;

The content, if acted upon, would pose an immediate and serious risks to health. Removal may be temporary or permanent. A statement will be published explaining the decision behind the removal.

Addressing Post-publication Issues

TSP is fully committed to maintaining the integrity and completeness of the scientific record and recognizes its importance to researchers and the academic community at large. As such, TSP will thoroughly investigate concerns that are directly raised with us by authors and/or readers. Authors are strongly encouraged to address any raised issues. In the course of our investigation, we may request original raw data, and consult with experts and other scholars in the field. Depending on the seriousness of the issues, the following outcomes may ensue:

A manuscript still under consideration may be rejected and returned to the author.

A published online article, depending on the nature and severity of the issues, may result in a correction notice or a retraction notice.

Issues deemed to be serious may prompt TSP to inform the authors’ institution and related affiliations.

Our actions are driven by our dedicated aim for transparent notification to our readers and unabated commitment to the integrity of the published record, and not by any motivation to sanction individuals or attribute responsibility to specific named individuals. We may refer readers to the institutional investigations’ reports if they are publicly available. While we are committed to addressing post-publications issues and correcting the record swiftly, investigations typically take some time to reach resolutions given the complexity of the discussions, the diligence in our process and the need to obtain original data and consult with experts. We will issue and regularly update relevant Editor’s Notes and/or Editor’s Expression of Concern as interim notifications to alert our readership of any of concerns with published material.

Appeals and Complaints

TSP’s appeal and complaint procedures pertain to grievances against editorial decisions, discontent with procedural inaccuracies (such as tardiness in manuscript handling), and complaint regarding publishing ethics.

Queries of appeal and complaint must be accompanied by comprehensive justifications, and authors are requested to submit appeals and complaints in writing to TSP Feedback Center at https://ijs.tspsubmission.com/user/feedback. The editorial office will provide a prompt response upon receipt of a formal appeal or complaint, and endeavor to resolve the matter within a reasonable time frame.

Concerns regarding ethical misconducts may also be reported to TSP’s Editorial Integrity Team (https://www.techscience.com/ndetail/contact). The Editorial Integrity team adheres to COPE Guidelines, and subsequently determines a suitable course of action, authorizing editorial offices to furnish the complainant with feedback.