PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The Advances in Sustainable Water & Environmental Technologies (ASWET) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures to prevent publication malpractice. The journal expects all parties involved in the publication process, including editors, reviewers, authors, and the publisher, to uphold integrity, transparency, and professionalism in scholarly publishing. ASWET follows recognized ethical standards in journal publishing and is committed to handling ethical concerns, corrections, and retractions fairly and appropriately.

EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Editors are responsible for making publication decisions based on the manuscript’s originality, scientific quality, relevance, and reviewers’ comments. Editors must evaluate manuscripts fairly and without discrimination based on race, gender, nationality, religion, institutional affiliation, or political belief. They must maintain the confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and avoid handling papers where conflicts of interest exist. Editors are also responsible for taking appropriate action in cases of suspected misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate submission, data falsification, or authorship disputes.

REVIEWER RESPONSIBILITIES

Reviewers support editors in making publication decisions and improving manuscript quality through constructive and scholarly feedback. Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential documents, review them objectively, and avoid personal criticism of authors. They should identify relevant uncited work and alert editors to any similarity or overlap with other published material. Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist.

AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors must submit original work and present their research honestly, accurately, and clearly. Plagiarism, duplicate submission, data fabrication, and other unethical practices are strictly prohibited. Authors should ensure that all listed authors have made significant contributions to the work and have approved the final manuscript. Proper acknowledgement of sources must always be given, and all conflicts of interest and funding sources must be disclosed. If significant errors are found after publication, authors must promptly inform the journal and cooperate in issuing corrections or retractions.

PUBLISHER RESPONSIBILITIES

The publisher supports the editors in maintaining ethical publishing standards and takes appropriate action in cases of proven misconduct, including correction, retraction, or withdrawal of articles where necessary. The publisher is committed to preserving the integrity, accessibility, and long-term availability of published content.

AI USE IN PUBLICATIONS

ASWET allows the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools only for limited purposes such as language editing, grammar improvement, formatting, or coding assistance. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted content. AI tools must not be used to fabricate or falsify data, generate misleading conclusions, manipulate images, or create false citations. AI tools cannot be listed as authors. Any significant use of AI in manuscript preparation must be disclosed appropriately in the manuscript.

An example statement is:

“The authors used [name of AI tool] for [specific purpose, e.g., language editing, outline development, coding assistance, or data organization]. All outputs were reviewed, verified, and edited by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the content of this manuscript.”

COMPLAINTS, CORRECTIONS, AND RETRACTIONS

ASWET takes allegations of ethical misconduct seriously and will investigate them fairly and confidentially. Where necessary, the journal may publish a correction, expression of concern, or retraction to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

ASWET is committed to promoting integrity, transparency, accountability, and fairness in scholarly publishing. All participants in the publication process share responsibility for maintaining the journal's quality, credibility, and ethical standards.