Editorial Policies

The journal aligns with the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and adheres to the recommendations outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for ethical practices in the conduct, reporting, editing, and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. It also follows the GPP3 guidelines concerning authorship. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors confirm that they have reviewed and agreed to its content and ensured that it complies with the journal's established policies.

The journal does not accept adverts from third parties.

Affiliations

All authors are required to provide accurate affiliations to acknowledge the institutions where the research or academic work was conducted, approved, or supported. For non-research articles, authors should specify their current institutional affiliation. If an author has changed institutions before the article’s publication, they should mention the affiliation associated with the work and include a note indicating their current affiliation. Authors without a relevant institutional affiliation should declare their independent status.

Appeals and Complaints

The journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) standards regarding appeals against editorial decisions and concerns about the management of the peer review process. We encourage legitimate appeals to editorial decisions, but such appeals must be supported by compelling evidence or new data/information that directly addresses the feedback provided by the editor and reviewers.

Acknowledgment

Contributors who were involved in the development of the manuscript but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be recognized in the acknowledgments. Additionally, any organization that provided financial support or other resources should be appropriately acknowledged.

Authorship

Including authors’ names on an article serves to appropriately credit individuals who have made substantial contributions to the work and to maintain transparency regarding responsibility for the content's integrity. Authors must meet the following criteria to qualify for authorship:

Played a significant role in the reported work, such as contributing to the study's conception, design, execution, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation, or a combination of these activities.
Participated in drafting, substantially revising, or critically reviewing the manuscript.
Agreed on the journal to which the manuscript is submitted.
Reviewed and approved all versions of the manuscript, including during submission, revisions, final acceptance, and any major changes at the proofing stage.
Accepted responsibility for the content and agreed to address any issues related to the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

Any changes to authorship, either before or after publication, must be approved by all listed authors, including those being added or removed. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining this agreement and providing a detailed explanation for the change. If changes are required after publication, they will be addressed through a post-publication notice. All authorship changes must align with the journal’s authorship criteria, and substantial modifications to the authorship list post-acceptance may be denied if sufficient justification and evidence of contributions are not provided.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship should be granted based solely on meaningful contributions to the following three aspects:

Conceptualizing and designing the study, acquiring data, or analyzing and interpreting the data.
Drafting the manuscript or critically revising it for significant intellectual content.
Providing final approval of the version to be published.

Merely obtaining funding, collecting data, or providing general supervision of the research group does not qualify for authorship. Each contributor must actively participate in the work to the extent that they can take public responsibility for specific sections of the manuscript.

The order of authors should reflect their relative contributions to the study and manuscript. Changes to the authorship order after submission require written consent from all contributors. The journal may limit the number of authors based on the type of manuscript, its scope, and the number of institutions involved. If the number exceeds the prescribed limit, a justification must be provided.

Contribution Details

Authors must specify their contributions under categories such as concept, design, data acquisition, analysis, manuscript drafting, and review. These details will be published alongside the article. At least one author should act as the guarantor, taking overall responsibility for the integrity of the work.

Citation Practices

All claims in research and non-research articles must be supported by accurate, timely, and verified references, preferably from peer-reviewed literature. Avoid excessive self-citations or coordinated citations among authors, as this constitutes citation manipulation, which is considered unethical.

For non-research articles like Reviews or Opinions, ensure the citations provide an impartial and comprehensive overview of the topic without favoring any specific group, organization, or journal. If uncertain about the appropriateness of a citation, consult the journal's editorial office.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors and co-authors must declare any competing interests related to the article. These include:

Financial interests: Monetary relationships with organizations that could influence the research or its interpretation.
Non-financial interests: Professional, legal, or personal associations that could create a perceived conflict.

Any relationships involving authors, their employers, sponsors, or close associates that could potentially affect the research must be disclosed. Transparency is crucial to ensure ethical integrity and avoid perceived biases.

All authors submitting a manuscript to the journal must complete a declaration of competing interests, which will be included in the Disclosure section at the end of the article. Authors uncertain about whether to disclose a competing interest should consult their institution or the journal Editor for guidance.

If no competing interests exist, the article will include the following statement: "The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

Sponsorship of Clinical Trials Authors affiliated with pharmaceutical companies or organizations sponsoring clinical trials must disclose this as a competing interest. Furthermore, they are required to adhere to theGood Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines, which provide a framework for maintaining ethical and responsible publication standards in such cases.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Occasionally, it becomes necessary to make updates to a published article. These updates are carefully reviewed by the Editor and executed in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines to maintain transparency and uphold the integrity of the scholarly record.

Types of Post-Publication Notices

Any changes made to an article will be accompanied by a permanent post-publication notice linked to the original article. These notices can take the form of:

Corrections: A correction notice is issued when errors or omissions occur that may affect the article's interpretation but do not compromise its scholarly integrity. Common examples include mislabeled figures or missing disclosures of funding or competing interests. The journal uses two types of correction notices:
- Corrigendum: For errors introduced by the authors.
- Erratum: For errors introduced by the publisher.
Retractions: Retractions address significant errors (e.g., in analysis or methodology) that invalidate the article’s conclusions or when misconduct occurs (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication). Retractions adhere to COPE guidelines and may also be requested by authors or their institutions if justified. Key points about retractions:
- The retraction is clearly linked to the original article.
- The article is marked as "Retracted" in both HTML and PDF formats.
- A clear explanation is provided for the retraction.
- The party requesting the retraction (authors, Editor, or institution) is explicitly identified.
The goal of retractions is to correct the literature, not to punish authors. Authorship disputes are generally resolved with a corrigendum, provided the institutions support the changes.
Expressions of Concern: An Expression of Concern is issued when there are unresolved, serious concerns (e.g., alleged misconduct) and the investigation is either inconclusive or delayed. Once the investigation concludes, a Retraction or Correction notice may follow. All notices remain as part of the permanent record.
Removals: In extremely rare cases, a Removal notice is issued when issues cannot be resolved through a Retraction or Correction. This may occur for content that is defamatory, infringes legal rights, or is subject to a court order. If an article is removed, a notice is issued in its place.

Timeliness and Integrity

Efforts are made to address inaccuracies promptly to minimize the impact of erroneous publications. Corrections, retractions, and other notices are designed to ensure the credibility and reliability of the academic record.

Consent for Publication

For manuscripts containing details or images of an individual, written informed consent must be obtained prior to publication. This includes consent from the individual or, in the case of minors (under 18), their parent or legal guardian. If the individual is deceased, consent must be acquired from their next of kin.

The consent must specifically cover the publication of details/images under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which makes the content freely accessible online. A statement confirming that informed consent was obtained must be included in the manuscript.

Authors can use the provided consent form or a form from their institution or region, provided it includes the following:

A declaration that the details/images will be freely accessible on the internet.
Acknowledgment that the material may be viewed by the general public.

Consent forms must be available to the Editor upon request and will be treated confidentially.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to the journal are considered confidential materials. They are only shared with individuals directly involved in their processing and preparation for publication, such as:

Editorial staff
Corresponding authors
Potential and actual reviewers
Editors

In cases of suspected misconduct, the manuscript may be disclosed to members of the journal’s ethics committees or relevant institutions/organizations to facilitate the resolution of the issue. All disclosures are handled in accordance with Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, and appropriate COPE flowcharts are followed when necessary.

Copyright Policy

Who Can Submit?

Submissions to the Al-Farahidi Expert System Journal are open to anyone who either owns the copyright to the work or has been authorized by the copyright owner(s) to submit it for consideration. Authors typically hold the initial copyrights to their works before publication. However, exceptions may occur outside the academic sphere if authors have previously agreed, as part of their employment terms, to transfer copyright ownership to their employer.

User Rights

The Al-Farahidi Expert System Journal operates as an Open Access journal, granting users the following rights to published articles, subject to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0):

Read, download, and copy.
Distribute and print.
Search or link to the full texts.

The license ensures that:

Users can copy, share, transform, or build upon the content, even for commercial purposes.
Proper attribution is provided to the original author(s) and the source.

For further details, refer to the full license: CC BY 4.0 License.

Open Access Policy

As an Open Access journal, Al-Farahidi Expert System Journal ensures free and unrestricted access to its content under the CC BY 4.0 license. This policy allows users to utilize articles for various purposes, including adaptation and commercial use, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the original source.

Visit the full license details here: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Author Rights

Authors will retain copyright alongside scholarly usage rights, and the Publisher will be granted publishing and distribution rights.

Data Falsification and Fabrication

Definition and Consequences

Deliberate manipulation or fabrication of data is a severe form of academic misconduct. Such actions intentionally mislead others, compromise the integrity of the scholarly record, and result in long-term, wide-reaching consequences.

Author Responsibilities

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must:

Ensure all data included in the manuscript is accurate and reflects the research honestly.
Retain all raw data associated with the manuscript to assist with verification during the review process.

If requested, authors must produce the original data. Failure to do so may result in the manuscript being rejected or, in the case of a published article, retracted.

Data Sharing Policy

The Journal promotes transparency, reproducibility, and the advancement of knowledge by encouraging authors to share their research data. While respecting ethical and legal considerations, authors should make data publicly accessible whenever possible, enabling verification of results and reuse for further research.

Data Availability Statements

Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscript, indicating where the data supporting the study’s findings can be accessed or explaining why it cannot be shared. Examples include:

Public Repository: The datasets generated and/or analyzed in this study are available in the [repository name] at [persistent link].
Available on Request: The datasets generated and/or analyzed in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
No Data Available: No datasets were generated or analyzed during this study.

Desk Rejection Policy

Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review for the following reasons:

The study’s scope or topic is irrelevant to the journal.
Violations of ethical standards, such as plagiarism exceeding a 20% similarity index.
Insufficient impact or lack of novel contributions to the field.
Flaws in the study design.
Unclear study objectives.
Poor organization or missing components in the manuscript.
Writing issues, including grammatical errors.
Non-compliance with submission guidelines.

Duplicate Submission/Publication

Authors must confirm that their manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Submitting the same work to multiple journals is considered misconduct. If a secondary submission (e.g., a translated version) is necessary, authors must:

Obtain permission from the original publisher and copyright holder.
Inform the receiving journal’s Editor.
Clearly indicate to readers that the article is a translation, citing the original source.

Funding Declaration

Authors must disclose all funding sources and detail the role of sponsors, if any, in study design, execution, and manuscript preparation. If sponsors are not involved, this must also be stated.

Images and Figures

General Guidelines

Use only images and figures that add value to the research.
Avoid purely illustrative content without scholarly significance.

Permissions and Copyright

Obtain written permission for third-party materials, including text, figures, and data.
Include a statement confirming permissions in the figure legend, and cite the original source even when re-use is unrestricted.

Ethical Considerations

Adhere to cultural sensitivities regarding images (e.g., human remains).
Ensure proper ethical approval where required.

Modifications and Integrity

Images must accurately reflect the original content. Any modifications must:
Be minor and uniformly applied to the entire image.
Be fully explained in the manuscript and figure legend.
Avoid altering scientific interpretations.
Provide details on image processing methods, software (including version), and modifications.

Authors must retain the original, unedited images and make them available to the journal upon request.

Misconduct

The journal takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action, in accordance withCOPE guidelines, to protect the integrity of the scholarly record. Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

Affiliation misrepresentation
Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
Citation manipulation
Duplicate submission/publication
“Ethics dumping”
Image or data manipulation/fabrication
Peer review manipulation
Plagiarism
Text-recycling/self-plagiarism
Undisclosed competing interests
Unethical research

Duplicate Submission

Manuscripts that are found to have been published elsewhere, or to be under review elsewhere, will incur duplicate submission/publication sanctions. If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.

Citation Manipulation

Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Submitted manuscripts that are found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including the manipulation of images, will incur data fabrication and falsification sanctions.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

Redundant Publications

Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles.

Image Manipulation

Where deliberate action has been taken to inappropriately manipulate or fabricate an image. This is a serious form of misconduct designed to mislead others and damage the integrity of the scholarly record with wide-reaching and long-term consequences. The journal expects all images contained within manuscripts to be accurate and free from manipulation. Specific features within an image may not be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced without adequate notification of what the alteration is. Adjustments to the brightness, contrast, or color balance of an image are acceptable if they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent information present in the original. Grouping images from different parts of gels, western blots, or microscope images must be made explicit in the arrangement of the figure or the text of the figure legend. If the original, unedited images cannot be produced on request, acceptance of a manuscript or paper may be declined or retracted.

Publication Ethics

The journal and its editorial board fully adhere to and comply with the policies and principles of theCommittee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

The editorial board of the journal is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published. Members of the board confer and refer to reviewer recommendations in making this decision, constrained by legal requirements related to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Editorial decisions are not affected by the origins of the manuscript, including the nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, race, or religion of the authors.

Confidentiality, Disclosure, and Conflicts of Interest

During the review process, editors must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and other editorial advisers. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's, reviewer’s, or any other reader’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Readers should be informed about who has funded the research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was.

Author Relations

Editors strive to ensure that peer review at the journal is fair, unbiased, and timely. The journal has established policies for handling submissions from editorial board members to ensure unbiased review. Author instructions provide guidance about the criteria for authorship.

Reviewer relations

The Journal encourages reviewers to comment on ethical questions and possible misconduct raised by submissions (e.g. unethical research design, and inappropriate data manipulation), and to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism. Reviewers’ comments should be sent to authors in their entirety unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks. Contributions of reviewers to the journal are regularly acknowledged and cease to use reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor quality, or late reviews.

Quality assurance

Editors should take all reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing that different sections have different aims and standards. Editors should seek assurances that the research they publish has been approved by an appropriate body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board) where one exists. Editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work with their publishers to handle potential breaches of laws and conventions. Errors, inaccurate, or misleading statements must be corrected promptly and with due prominence.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Reviewers assist the editorial board in making editorial decisions. Reviews should be conducted objectively, and observations should be formulated clearly with supporting arguments so that authors can use them for improving the paper. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate.

Qualification of Reviewers

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse themselves from the review process. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. References to the ideas of others should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call the editor's attention to any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors must provide an accurate and objective account of their research, including a clear discussion of its significance. All underlying data must be accurately represented in the manuscript. Authors should:

Be prepared to provide public access to raw data associated with the paper.
Retain the data for at least two years post-publication.

Making fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements is considered unethical and is strictly prohibited.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Concurrent Publication

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their work is entirely original. Proper acknowledgment must be given for any work or words of others used in the manuscript. The following are unacceptable:

Plagiarism in any form.
Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals at the same time.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial or substantive conflicts of interest that could influence the results or interpretation of their work. Additionally, all sources of financial support for the research must be explicitly mentioned in the manuscript.

Authorship of the Paper

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring:

Only individuals who have made significant contributions to the research are listed as co-authors.
All co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and agreed to its submission.
Those who contributed substantively but do not meet authorship criteria are appropriately acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If an author identifies a major error or inaccuracy in their published work, they are obligated to:

Notify the journal editor immediately.
Cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the publication as necessary.

These duties ensure the integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct of the research and publication process.

Peer Review Process

All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous peer review process to ensure academic excellence. Key aspects of the process include:

Double-Blind Peer Review:
- Reviewers remain anonymous to the authors.
- Authors’ identities are also anonymized for the reviewers.
Editorial Decision:
- The editorial board makes the final decision on acceptance or rejection based on peer reviewers' recommendations.
Special Cases:
- Submissions with significant ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications may be referred to external experts or additional editors by the Research Integrity team.
- Actions in such cases could include recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, further editorial assessment, or declining the submission.

Plagiarism Policy

The journal maintains a zero-tolerance policy against plagiarism, including:

Direct Plagiarism: Using others’ ideas, words, or work without proper acknowledgment.
Self-Plagiarism: Republishing one’s own work in whole or part, in the same or a different language, without appropriate citation.
Duplicate/Redundant Publication: Submitting the same manuscript to multiple outlets simultaneously.

Exceptions:

Content shared in a preprint archive is not considered duplicate publication.

Evaluation Process:

All manuscripts are screened for plagiarism using advanced plagiarism detection software.
Manuscripts with an unacceptable similarity index are immediately rejected.

Responsibilities:

The corresponding author must oversee the manuscript throughout the review and publication process, acting on behalf of all co-authors.

These measures ensure the integrity and originality of all published content.

Preprints Policy

Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time. If accepted for publication, we encourage authors to link from the preprint to their formal publication via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc, etc., with their accepted manuscript.

Protection of Patients' Rights to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.
If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity or a description that has an obvious indication of the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript.

Research Ethics and Consent

Studies in Humans, Animals, and Plants

All original research papers involving humans, animals, plants, biological material, protected or non-public datasets, collections, or sites, must include a written statement under an Ethics Approval section including the following:

The name of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s) involved.
The number or ID of the ethics approval(s).
A statement that human participants have provided informed consent before taking part in the research.

Research involving animals must adhere to ethical standards concerning animal welfare. All original research papers involving animals must:

Follow international, national, and institutional guidelines for the humane treatment of animals.
Receive approval by the ethics review committee at the institution or practice at which the research was conducted and provide details on the approval process, names of the ethics committee(s) or institutional review board(s) involved, and the number or ID of the ethics approval(s) in the Ethics Approval section.
Provide justification for the use of animals and the species selected.
Provide information about housing, feeding, and environmental enrichment, and steps taken to minimize suffering.
Provide the mode of anesthesia and euthanasia.

Research that does not meet the above-listed requirements regarding ethical approval and animal welfare will be rejected.

Research Involving Humans

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance withThe Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should align with theRecommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age, and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Approval must have been obtained for all protocols from the authors’ institutional or other relevant ethics committee (Institutional Review Board, IRB) to ensure that they meet national and international guidelines. Details of this approval must be provided when submitting an article, including the institution, review board name, and permit number(s). Ethics approval must be obtained before the research is conducted; retrospective approval can usually not be obtained and it may not be possible to publish the study.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

Research Involving Animals

All animal experiments should comply with theARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Experiments involving vertebrates or regulated invertebrates must be carried out within the ethical guidelines provided by the authors’ institution and national or international regulations. Where applicable, a statement of ethics permission granted or animal licenses should be included. In all cases, a statement should be made to confirm that all efforts were made to ameliorate any suffering of animals, and details of how this was achieved should be provided.

Research Involving Plants

Studies on plants must be carried out within the guidelines provided by the authors’ institution and national or international regulations. Where applicable, a statement of permissions granted or licenses should be included. Authors should comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Special Issue Policy

Manuscripts for special issues are submitted through the journal’s online submission system and undergo an initial screening by the Guest Editors to ensure they fit the scope and meet basic quality standards. The manuscripts then undergo a double-blind peer review process, with reviewers selected based on their expertise. Authors revise their manuscripts based on reviewer feedback and resubmit for further review if necessary. The Guest Editors recommend acceptance or rejection of manuscripts, with final approval from the Editor-in-Chief. Accepted manuscripts are formatted, proofread, and published according to the journal’s guidelines. The special issue is promoted through the journal’s distribution channels, and post-publication metrics and feedback are monitored to inform future special issues.

What is the review process and what are the guidelines for special issues?

All submissions, including those submitted to special issues follow the same submissions process and author guidelines as any issue of FSEJ journal Potential authors are encouraged to review all submission guidelines and follow the process as outlined. Special issues are reviewed and published in the same manner as every issue of the journal. Special issue topics are determined by the editorial team and a call for submissions for special issues is typically included in the current year's special issue release.

Publication Timing & Review Process

Submissions to FSEJ are accepted on an ongoing basis and should follow the requested submission types and adhere to the full author guidelines outlined here. The journal publishes two times annually with general issues in January and July of each year. Submissions are considered for publication in a pending issue once deemed ready for publication, not necessarily based on date of submission. All issues of FSEJ, including the special issues, follow the same editorial and review process and adhere to the guidelines included here. We encourage and welcome your submission.

Standards of Reporting

Comprehensive Reporting:

Authors should provide detailed descriptions of their research rationale, protocols, methodologies, and analyses to ensure that the research can be verified and reproduced by others.

Use of Third-Party Material

Authors must secure the necessary permissions to reuse third-party materials in their manuscripts, including but not limited to:

Text, illustrations, photographs, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, or musical notation.

Exceptions:

Short extracts or limited use of materials for criticism or review purposes may not require formal permission.

Responsibility:

If authors include materials they do not own the copyright to and that are not covered under informal agreements, written permission must be obtained from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing

This policy pertains specifically to the writing process, not the use of AI for data analysis or research insights.

Guidelines for Authors:

Appropriate Use:
- AI tools may be used to improve language and readability but should not replace essential authoring tasks, such as generating scientific insights or drawing conclusions.
- All work must remain under human oversight, with careful review and editing to ensure accuracy.
Accountability:
- Authors are responsible for the content they produce, as AI may generate content that is authoritative-sounding but incorrect, incomplete, or biased.
Disclosure:
- Authors must disclose any use of AI or AI-assisted tools in the manuscript, and this will be noted in the published work to promote transparency and trust.
Authorship:
- AI cannot be attributed as an author or co-author, as authorship requires fulfilling tasks that only humans can undertake, such as addressing questions about the work's accuracy, approving final versions, and ensuring originality.

Use of AI in Peer Review

The journal does not permit the use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies (e.g., ChatGPT) for peer review due to concerns about protecting authors' rights and maintaining research confidentiality.

Policy Evaluation:

The journal is actively exploring compliant AI tools and may update this policy in the future as advancements are made.

These policies are designed to uphold the integrity, originality, and transparency of the academic publication process while adapting to emerging technologies responsibly.