To strengthen the academic integrity of Energy Environmental Protection, regulate the processes of manuscript writing, submission, review, and publication, and resist unethical academic behavior, the journal has formulated the following ethical guidelines for authors, peer reviewers and editors based on the Copyright Law, domestic and international publishing ethics guidelines, Academic Publishing Specification: Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals (CY/T 174-2019) and the practical situations of the journal. For more detailed information, please refer to the official websites of the National Press and Publication Administration, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and the European Association of Science Editors (EASE).

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are obliged to declare that their manuscripts do not involve any state secrets and do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.

Authors should adhere to the "five prohibitions" principle for manuscripts: No third parties are allowed to write the manuscript on behalf of the author; no third parties are allowed to submit the manuscript on behalf of the author; no third parties are allowed to modify the content of the manuscript; providing false information about peer reviewers is prohibited; and non-substantial academic contributors should not sign manuscripts.

Authors should declare their specific contributions to the research, as well as any potential conflicts of interest involving the research. A potential conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author's institution or employer) has financial or personal relationships or institutions that could influence the research or the content of the manuscript. When products are mentioned in the manuscript, authors should also disclose conflicts of interest with products that compete with those mentioned in their manuscript. At the time of submission, authors are required to fill out and submit the "Declaration of Author Contributions and Conflicts of Interest", which is available in the Download Center.

Authors must strictly eliminate the following acts of academic misconduct:

1. Multiple Submission

This includes: submitting the same manuscript, or multiple manuscripts with only minor differences, to more than one journal at the same time; submitting the manuscript to another journal within the agreed reply period of the first submission; submitting the manuscript to other journals before receiving formal notice of rejection from a journal; and slightly modifying a manuscript before receiving a response from the first journal or within the agreed period, and then submitting it to another journal.

Authors need to ensure that their manuscripts have not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere, and that the content has not been previously published in any other publication or media in any language. They must ensure not to submit the manuscript to another journal before receiving a rejection notice from the editorial department.

2. Plagiarism

Authors are obligated to ensure the originality of their submitted manuscripts (except for reviews), which should not contain any falsified, deceptive, or plagiarized content. Plagiarism refers to the act of using, rewriting, or directly copying others' work without the original creator's consent, without citing the source or acknowledging, or without any explanation, and publishing it under their own name. Forms of plagiarism include directly reposting and rewriting someone's work, and may involve ideas, data, images, audio, original research (experimental) methods, textual expressions, unpublished results, or the entire work. Our journal strictly prohibits any acts of plagiarism.

To avoid being accused of plagiarism, authors should ensure that all referenced literature is clearly cited and listed in the reference list. If third-party materials are used in the manuscript, a clear statement should be given, and necessary permissions should be obtained in accordance with copyright laws to avoid infringing on others' intellectual property rights.

3. Improper Authorship

Authorship is limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to research work and should make significant contributions in at least one of the following areas: research philosophy and design, acquisition of research data, analysis and interpretation of research data, writing articles or making critical modifications to important article content, etc.

Significant contributors must be listed as co-authors or corresponding author. Other contributors, such as those providing funding, advice, or other types of support, should be acknowledged in the acknowledgement section. Unreasonable authorship should not be added arbitrarily.

Authors must obtain authorization and consent from all co-authors before submitting their manuscript. Once submitted, the list of authors should not be changed without permission.

4. Duplicate Publication

Authors should not resubmit previously published articles or present published data as new. Exceptions are made only if the previous work is explicitly cited and adequately referenced.

5. Falsification and Fabrication

This refers to data or conclusions not derived from actual experiments or research, and falsely claiming funding sources, peer reviews, or other information. Under no circumstances should researchers fabricate data; nor should they alter, select, omit, or add to records in a way that distorts their original meaning.

If the manuscript is suspected of fabrication, the editorial department may request the original data for verification. Furthermore, the journal encourages authors to share their original research data, observations, results, as well as the software, codes, models, and algorithms used in their research. Authors are encouraged to upload these materials to a reliable, open-access repository (such as Science Data Bank) and provide a link to this at the end of their manuscript.

Authors are strictly prohibited from engaging in any forms of academic misconduct mentioned above. The journal takes a strict stance against all forms of academic misconduct. If misconduct is detected before publication, the submission will be rejected. If misconduct is found in an article after its publication, the article will be retracted. In cases of severe misconduct, such as multiple submissions within the agreed review timeframe, the journal will notify peer journals of the situation and will not accept submissions from the author(s) for a period of five years.

Responsibilities of Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers should ensure the scientific and accurate review of manuscripts, and be able to make objective and fair evaluations. They should also maintain strict confidentiality about the review process, respect the research achievements of authors and avoid manuscripts that have an interest relationship with them.

1. Reviewers should adhere to the principles of fairness, justice, confidentiality, and timeliness. Utilizing their professional knowledge and abilities, they should assess the originality, scientific merit, and practicality of the manuscripts. Reviewers should fairly evaluate the appropriateness of research methods, the reasonableness of the research design, and the accuracy of results and conclusions. They should also identify any potential breaches of confidentiality to assist the editors in making decisions about the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts. Reviewers should provide detailed suggestions for corrections to help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts.

2. Reviewers should only evaluate manuscripts on scholarly grounds, without making personal judgments or engaging in personal attacks. Decisions about manuscripts should not be influenced by the authors' race, gender, religion, beliefs, or their status, qualifications, and authority. Reviewers must clearly express their opinions with sufficient evidence and facts.

3. Reviewers should complete their reviews on time and submit feedback to the editorial department within the specified deadline. If unable to meet the deadline, reviewers should inform the editorial department and return the manuscript, and may recommend another reviewer. Without the consent of the editorial department, reviewers must not delegate the review to their students, colleagues, or others.

4. All review comments and information must remain confidential and must not be used for personal purposes. Reviewers should not share, discuss with others, or use the data, ideas, or conclusions from the manuscripts they review. If they wish to use any information, they must obtain consent from the authors.

5. During the review process, if reviewers find that the manuscript under review has content that is identical or similar to previously published work, they should inform the authors about the similarities or repetitiveness in relation to their knowledge and understanding. If reviewers encounter a manuscript that they have previously reviewed, they are obligated to inform the editorial department.

6. Reviewers should not review manuscripts where there may be a conflict of interest due to competitive or collaborative relationships with the authors, their institutions, or companies.

7. When reviewers find the research that they are reviewing is similar to their own, they shall not use the convenience of the reviewer to suppress or belittle the author's manuscript.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must strictly adhere to relevant national laws and regulations, uphold academic publishing ethics and standards. Editors must handle all submissions promptly and fairly, respect the research achievements of authors and the opinions of peer reviewers. They must maintain confidentiality of authors' and reviewers' information and avoid accepting manuscripts for personal reasons.

1. Editors are responsible for all editorial processes of the journal, including continuously promoting the journal's development and ensuring that manuscripts are published on time and of high quality. Editors must comply with the policies set by the journal's editorial board, and adhere to legal norms regarding defamation, infringement, and plagiarism when selecting manuscripts.

2. Editors must maintain the authenticity of review records and are responsible for the safekeeping and confidentiality of all materials related to reviews and revisions. Except for providing necessary information to corresponding authors, reviewers, or editorial board members as deemed appropriate, editors and editorial staff must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to others.

3. Editors must impartially select manuscripts. The acceptance or rejection of manuscripts should be based solely on the originality, importance, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope and aims.

4. Editors must respect the authors' viewpoints and writing styles, and any key modifications related to academic perspectives made to the manuscripts must be approved by the authors.

5. Editors must eliminate all commercial needs and exchanges of interests that are detrimental to academic ethics.

6. Editors have a duty to investigate and communicate about unethical academic behaviors. If any ethical complaints are received concerning submitted manuscripts or published articles, editors must take effective action. If necessary, corrections, clarifications, retractions, or apologies should be published promptly. Editors are also responsible for pursuing accountability for any misconduct by authors or reviewers.

7. Editors must ensure that information from submitted manuscripts is not used for their own research or provided to others for their use. They must also protect the anonymity of reviewers and other relevant editorial staff during the double-blind review process.

8. Editors are encouraged to foster academic debate and are obligated to respond to authors' disagreements with reviewer comments. Editors should consider publishing negative results obtained from scientifically rigorous research to avoid unnecessary duplication of research by other scholars.

9. Editors are responsible for preventing practices such as multiple submissions and duplicate publications. They must check for plagiarism and review both initial submissions and manuscripts about to be published.

10. Editors have a duty to remind authors of potential copyright and intellectual property issues that may arise from changes in authorship, institutions, and the order of these entities.

11. Editors must ensure fair and reasonable peer review of submitted manuscripts. If any conflicts of interest or collaborative relationships arise between the authors, their institutions, or companies due to competition or cooperation, editors must propose the replacement of reviewers, with the Editor-in-Chief or other members of the editorial board taking responsibility for the manuscript review.

Additional Publication Ethics Guidelines

In addition to the publication ethics requirements set forth for authors, peer reviewers, and editors of the journal, other important ethical requirements and policies are as follows:

1. Corrections and Retractions

Corrections or retractions of officially published articles will be made by the journal when necessary:

(1) Corrections: If a published article is found to have unintentional scientific errors that do not significantly affect the results and conclusions of the article, the editorial department will promptly publish a correction notice in the journal. This notice will detail the changes made to the original article and will cite the article's source. A new version of the article with corrections will be published, detailing changes made to the original article and noting the update date. When citing, please refer to the most recent version of the article.

(2) Retractions: For articles that have been formally published, if serious scientific errors are discovered that render the results and conclusions unreliable, the editorial department will proceed with a retraction. Additionally, if a published article is suspected of plagiarism, fabrication, or other forms of academic misconduct, the editorial department will initiate an investigation and publish a statement to inform readers of the potential risks associated with the article. Once the investigation is concluded, the results will be made public. If it is confirmed that the article engaged in academic misconduct, the editorial department will proceed with a retraction.

2. Advertising Ethics

The journal does not publish any commercial advertisements. All articles in this journal, as well as its official website and other platforms, do not contain any advertising content. The review or acceptance of any manuscript is not influenced by any commercial factors.

3. Comments and Feedback

If authors, readers, or any experts have any comments about the publication ethics of the journal, or any comments on articles published in the journal, they may send their comments to the journal's email. Upon receipt, the editorial department will process them as soon as possible and provide feedback as appropriate. We welcome the active supervision of our readers and authors and encourage them to provide comments and suggestions to the editorial department to help create a positive academic environment.