Publication Ethics & Malpractice Statement

Environment and Energy Informatics (EEI) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and preventing publication malpractice at all stages of the editorial and publishing process. The journal expects editors, authors, reviewers, and the publisher to uphold the principles of honesty, integrity, transparency, accountability, fairness, and academic responsibility.

The journal follows ethical publishing principles consistent with the COPE Core Practices and other internationally recognized standards of scholarly publishing. All parties involved in the submission, review, editing, and publication of manuscripts are expected to adhere to this policy.

Detailed policies relating to peer review, reviewer responsibilities, and the use of artificial intelligence tools are provided separately on the journal website under the relevant policy pages.

1. General Principles

Environment and Energy Informatics publishes original scholarly work in environmental informatics, energy informatics, sustainability analytics, digital systems, and related interdisciplinary fields. The journal is committed to:

• maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record;
• ensuring fairness, confidentiality, and academic independence in editorial handling;
• preventing plagiarism, duplicate publication, data falsification, citation manipulation, image manipulation, and other forms of misconduct;
• promoting transparency in authorship, funding, conflicts of interest, and research ethics; and
• addressing ethical concerns promptly, fairly, and responsibly.

The journal reserves the right to investigate ethical concerns relating to submitted, accepted, or published manuscripts and to take appropriate editorial action where necessary.

2. Duties of Editors

2.1 Editorial Responsibility

Editors are responsible for the academic quality and ethical oversight of the manuscripts handled by the journal. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, relevance to the journal’s scope, clarity, methodological soundness, reproducibility where relevant, and ethical compliance.

2.2 Fair and Unbiased Assessment

Editors evaluate submissions without discrimination based on race, gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, religion, political views, or other personal characteristics of the authors. Manuscripts are assessed solely on academic and ethical grounds.

2.3 Confidentiality

Editors and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Information about a manuscript must not be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate for the editorial process.

2.4 Conflict of Interest

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest arising from personal, professional, institutional, collaborative, or financial relationships with the authors, institutions, or funding bodies connected with the manuscript.

2.5 Ethical Oversight

Editors are responsible for responding appropriately to allegations of misconduct, ethical irregularities, authorship disputes, plagiarism, duplicate publication, image manipulation, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or unreliable findings. Where necessary, the journal may seek clarification from authors, institutions, reviewers, or other relevant parties before taking editorial action.

2.6 Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by commercial interests, advertising considerations, sponsorship arrangements, or institutional pressure.

3. Duties of Authors

3.1 Originality

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts are original and have not been copied, plagiarized, or inappropriately derived from the work of others. Proper acknowledgement must be given whenever the work, ideas, data, words, figures, methods, software, code, or interpretations of others are used.

3.2 Exclusive Submission

A manuscript submitted to Environment and Energy Informatics must not be under consideration elsewhere at the same time. Authors must not submit the same manuscript, or substantially similar work, to more than one journal simultaneously.

3.3 Avoidance of Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not publish the same research in more than one journal or primary publication without appropriate editorial disclosure and justification. Duplicate publication and redundant publication are unethical and unacceptable.

3.4 Accurate Reporting

Authors must present their findings truthfully, clearly, and without fabrication, falsification, selective misrepresentation, or inappropriate manipulation. Data, models, code-based outputs, methods, results, and interpretations must be reported accurately and transparently.

3.5 Authorship

Authorship must be limited to those who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, data analysis, modelling, interpretation, or writing of the work. All listed authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that:

• all eligible contributors are appropriately listed as authors;
• no inappropriate, honorary, or guest authors are included;
• all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript; and
• all authors agree to the submission and publication process.

3.6 Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors must properly cite relevant prior research and acknowledge all sources that influenced the submitted work. Citation should be based on genuine scholarly relevance and not on attempts to manipulate citation counts or journal metrics.

3.7 Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, the work or its interpretation.

3.8 Funding Disclosure

Authors must clearly disclose all sources of financial support for the research and publication of the manuscript.

3.9 Data Integrity

Authors are responsible for the integrity, accuracy, and reliability of the data, models, software outputs, figures, and analyses presented in the manuscript. Where necessary, authors may be asked to provide supporting data, code, permissions, approvals, clarifications, or documentation for editorial assessment.

3.10 Ethical Compliance in Research

Where research involves humans, animals, surveys, interviews, field participation, personal data, sensor-derived human data, or other regulated procedures, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with relevant ethical, institutional, and legal requirements. Necessary approvals, permissions, and consent statements must be provided where applicable.

3.11 Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

Any use of artificial intelligence or machine-assisted tools in the preparation of a manuscript must comply with the journal’s separate AI Use Policy. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and appropriateness of all submitted content. Artificial intelligence tools must not be listed as authors.

3.12 Post-Publication Responsibility

If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted or published work, they must promptly inform the journal and cooperate fully in correcting or retracting the article where necessary.

4. Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers play an essential role in safeguarding the quality and integrity of scholarly publication. Reviewers are expected to provide fair, objective, timely, and confidential evaluations of manuscripts.

Detailed expectations for reviewers, including confidentiality, objectivity, conflicts of interest, and constructive reporting, are provided separately on the journal’s Reviewer Guidelines page.

5. Duties of the Publisher

The publisher supports the editors in maintaining high standards of publication ethics and good editorial practice. The publisher is committed to:

• supporting editorial independence;
• maintaining ethical publishing policies;
• ensuring transparency in journal operations;
• facilitating correction of the scholarly record where needed; and
• preserving published content responsibly.

The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions concerning the acceptance, revision, or rejection of manuscripts.

6. Plagiarism and Similarity

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. This includes, but is not limited to:

• direct copying without attribution;
• close paraphrasing without acknowledgement;
• mosaic plagiarism;
• misappropriation of data, code, models, figures, tables, or ideas; and
• self-plagiarism or redundant reuse of previously published material without proper disclosure.

All submissions may be subject to editorial similarity assessment and other ethical checks. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism or unethical overlap may be rejected, returned for explanation, or subjected to further investigation.

Where plagiarism or serious overlap is identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the nature and severity of the case.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest must be disclosed by all participants in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, and editors.

A conflict of interest may arise from:

• financial relationships;
• institutional affiliations;
• collaborative or competitive academic relationships;
• personal relationships; or
• any other circumstance that may compromise objective judgment.

Undisclosed conflicts of interest may result in rejection of a manuscript, withdrawal of editorial handling, correction, or retraction, as appropriate.

8. Citation Integrity

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not engage in citation manipulation. Citations should be included only where they are genuinely relevant to the scholarly content of the manuscript.

The journal does not permit:

• coercive citation;
• excessive self-citation without justification;
• inclusion of irrelevant references for metric advantage; or
• attempts to manipulate journal-level or author-level citation indicators.

9. Research and Publication Misconduct

Research and publication misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• plagiarism;
• duplicate submission;
• duplicate publication;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• misleading or selective reporting;
• image manipulation;
• code or model misrepresentation;
• unethical research practices;
• inappropriate authorship attribution;
• undisclosed conflicts of interest;
• citation manipulation; and
• deliberate interference with the peer review or editorial process.

Where allegations of misconduct are raised, the journal will assess the matter carefully and may request explanations, raw data, code, ethical approvals, institutional clarifications, permissions, or other relevant documentation. The journal reserves the right to take appropriate editorial action based on the findings of the investigation.

10. Complaints and Appeals

10.1 Appeals

Authors who believe that a manuscript decision was affected by a serious procedural error or misunderstanding may submit a written appeal to the editorial office. Appeals must be reasoned, evidence-based, and respectful in tone. The journal may seek further internal review or independent advice before making a final determination.

10.2 Complaints

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, ethical practices, or publication procedures will be handled seriously, fairly, and confidentially. The journal will review the matter and, where appropriate, take corrective action.

Submission of a complaint or appeal does not guarantee reversal of a decision, but all valid concerns will be considered carefully.

11. Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

11.1 Corrections

If a published article contains an error that does not invalidate its central findings but requires clarification, the journal may publish a correction or corrigendum.

11.2 Retractions

An article may be retracted where there is clear evidence of serious ethical breach or unreliability, including but not limited to:

• plagiarism;
• duplicate publication;
• fabricated or falsified data;
• serious authorship misconduct;
• unethical research; or
• major error that renders the findings unreliable.

Retraction notices will be clearly linked to the original article. The original article may remain accessible as part of the scholarly record but will be clearly marked as retracted.

11.3 Expressions of Concern

Where serious concerns are raised about a published article but the investigation is ongoing or inconclusive, the journal may issue an expression of concern pending final resolution.

12. Integrity of the Scholarly Record

The journal is committed to preserving the accuracy, transparency, and permanence of the scholarly record. Any post-publication updates, including corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern, will be handled transparently and linked to the original publication wherever possible.

13. Related Policies

For more detailed guidance, please also refer to the journal’s separate pages on:

• Peer Review Policy
• Reviewer Guidelines
• AI Use Policy
• Author Guidelines
• Copyright and Licensing Policy

14. Policy Review

This Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement may be revised periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing standards, editorial policy, and good publication practice. Authors, reviewers, and editors are encouraged to consult the most recent version available on the journal website.

Contact for Ethical Concerns
Questions, complaints, or concerns relating to publication ethics, editorial conduct, or possible misconduct may be addressed to the editorial office of Environment and Energy Informatics through the official contact information provided on the journal website.