Publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is a crucial building block in the general network of knowledge. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to set and agree upon the standards of expected ethical behavior and strictly follow them to avoid any form of publication malpractice. For this purpose, the publisher of the journal Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal (SMIJ) has set the following principles of Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement.

Authors’ Responsibilities

The authors need to ensure that:

• The submitted article is original.
• The submitted article does not contain any statement/information that is intentionally misleading or inaccurate.
• All authors are aware of the full content of the submitted article prior to the submission. The content represents their own contributions, and the authorship is limited to those who have made a significant contribution.
• The submitted article has not been previously published. An exception can be made for papers published at a conference by the Authors themselves, however a significant modification and extension of the already published work must be done in order to justify publication in SMIJ.
• The work presented in the submitted article is not being considered for publication elsewhere in any form, and neither will be submitted for such consideration while under review by SMIJ.
• The submitted article does not violate any privacy right and neither infringes any intellectual property rights or any other rights of any kind of person or entity. The same is valid for any duty of confidentiality, which the author(s) may owe to a third party. The submitted article does not contain any material or instructions that might cause harm or injury.
• If any portions of the work are owned or controlled by a third party, permission has been obtained and included with the submitted article for the right to use and authorize use in print and online formats.
• Any conflict of interest is disclosed by authors or they declare no conflict of interest (for more information, refer to Conflict of Interest Policy).

Editor’s Responsibilities

The Editor together with the members of the Editorial Board are responsible for:

• Ensuring unbiased double-blind peer review process for each submitted paper regardless of the author’s race, citizenship, age, gender, political or any other orientation.
• Selecting suitable reviewers and evaluating submitted manuscripts exclusively based on their academic and intellectual merit, the quality of research conducted and presentation of the research.
• Making final decisions about the paper to be published in the journal
• Ensuring that new Editorial Board members and Guest Editors are provided with guidelines on how to handle manuscripts and what is expected from them in the journal.
• Ensuring that unpublished materials are not used in the research of the Editor or any other third side.
• Appropriate reactions in case of ethical complaints and suitable resolution of potential problems.
• Publishing corrections, retractions and similar, when needed.

Guest Editor’s Responsibilities

Guest Editors are responsible for:

• Deciding about the topic of special/thematic issues and ensuring that the submitted papers fits into the predefined topic.
• Ensuring that suitable reviewers are selected for the papers submitted to the special/thematic issues.
• Setting time frames for paper submission, review process, revision and publication.

Reviewer’s Responsibilities

Reviewers need to ensure that:

• Their expertise enables them to make an objective assessment of the submitted paper and, in case the manuscript has merits for publication, the reviewers provide the authors with recommendations that assist them to improve their manuscript.
• In case the reviewer does not feel qualified to review a paper, or cannot provide a timely review, the Editor should be immediately informed on that.
• Reviews are done objectively assessing the scientific content and technical aspects of the submitted manuscript.
• Editor is informed on copyright infringement or plagiarism, if the reviewer is aware of any.
• Editor is informed on any kind of conflict of interest the reviewer might have in reviewing the manuscript.
• The work and data presented in the submitted manuscript must be treated confidentially.

Publisher’s Responsibilities

Sciences Force Publisher provides practical support to the Editor and Editorial Board, but ensures the autonomy of decisions at the same time. Sciences Force Publisher protects the intellectual property and copyright and ensures the publishing standards and good practice described above are maintained.