Publishing Ethics of CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research

CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research (CAAI AIR) is an Open Access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, published by Tsinghua University Press, released exclusively on SciOpen. The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and subscribes to its principles on how to deal with acts of misconduct thereby committing to investigate allegations of misconduct in order to ensure the integrity of research.

The journal may use plagiarism detection software to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed (see Redundant publications and plagiarism below).

Content published in this journal is peer reviewed (see Peer Review and Fair Editing below).

All papers submitted to the journal should list the names of every author, who made a significant contribution towards the research and the presentation of the academic paper. All such contributors are to be listed as authors and co-authors, in a manner determined and decided by the authors. Any changes to the list and its order should be communicated to the journal editorial team.

The practice of adopting “gift authors”, who are individuals listed as authors despite making no significant contribution to the research, and “ghost authors”, who have contributed to the research but are not listed as co-authors, is not permitted. Where an issue of authorship, including ghost and gift authors, is suspected, these matters will be handled accordingly by the editorial team.

All other contributors providing some assistance and support, but not deemed significant for the purposes of authorship, should be listed in the Acknowledgements section of the paper.

Authors are to submit original research for publication; this requires that there be no previous or concurrent publication of the same article and its findings. As such, an author may not submit his or her research to multiple journals at the same time, and instead should wait for the final decision on the paper before submitting the research to another journal. Where an author is found to have made simultaneous submissions, the paper will be automatically rejected. The author’s institution will be notified and the author will be barred from submitting papers to this journal as well to future TUP publications.

Authors may use works of their own that have been published previously, provided the previous article is properly cited, and differs in some way from the current study.

Authors should gain the appropriate permission prior to publication where the research paper incorporates various figures, tables, and images.

The journal uses iThenticate to check the similarity of submissions and existing documents.

This journal relies on being an unbiased and fair resource for academic research. To this end, all contributors, authors, editors and reviewers are to disclose any potential conflict of interest that might hinder an honest and effective review and publication.

A conflict of interest may be deemed to exist where a party is unduly influenced to take action, or refrain from taking action, concerning the research, based on a personal or financial interest. A party unduly influenced may, for example, try to manipulate the research to produce a certain result, to ensure that the research receives a negative review and therefore is not published, or provide a positive review where it is not reasonable to do so.

For the author, conflicts of interest are to be disclosed when the paper is submitted to the journal, stating fully the personal, institutional, and financial interests and support which might influence the research. This will be taken into account by the editorial team. A reviewer assigned to a paper should disclose any personal, financial, or intellectual interests that would render them unable to fulfil their duties fairly and without undue influence. In this case, the editor will select an alternative reviewer for that paper.

This publication follows a double-blind review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author, vice versa, as stipulated in the journal’s review policy, with reviewers carefully selected based on their expertise in the research field. Reviewers play an essential part in the publication of academic research and therefore should conduct their review as timely as possible, while using respectful and academic language in their reviews and comments, providing reasons for their statements as well as refraining from personal attacks against authors.

Fair editing and review require that manuscripts be evaluated based on their contribution to the science, and without regard to personal differences. Where a reviewer has been assigned to a manuscript, but is unable to fulfil this obligation for any reason, the reviewer is required to notify the journal editorial team.

All contributions are initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. Editors are excluded in the peer-review process of papers which are written by themselves or their family members or colleagues, and which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal’s usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.

While reviewers may offer ideas and suggest a certain direction within the research, reviewers may not require an author to cite or refer to a certain publication as a condition for paper acceptance and thereby, publication.

Reviewers owe a duty of confidentiality in respect to the manuscripts they are assigned. They may not communicate their review comments to parties other than the journal editorial team. Reviewers are prohibited from using the manuscripts, and their findings, for their own personal use and research, without consulting with the relevant authors. Where a reviewer is found to have appropriated an author’s work, they thereby breach the duty of confidentiality.

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article or the errors are found by the reviewers or the readers. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature depends on the nature of the error. The outcome may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Upon request, authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud, the journal and/or publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the journal’s and/or publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:
  - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article;
  - an expression of concern may be placed with the article;
  - in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern, or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted”, and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed.
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record. 

With the widespread use of images to display scientific research data, authors should ensure that such images are not distorted from the original. It is generally not permitted to change, add or remove elements from an image, nor to obscure these elements. Minor adjustments are accepted where they are made to allow for better visibility. In this case, the Journal editorial team should be made aware of the changes, or they should be expressly noted in the paper itself.

Authors will have chance to double check symbols, formulas, and figure legends before final publication, for these may accidentally have been changed during typesetting. After final publication, substantial changes in content such as new results and corrected values are not allowed without the approval of the Editor-in-Chief. Erratum might be needed for further corrections.

The publisher is committed to the permanent availability and preservation of the published content in CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research.

CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research is a subsidized Open Access journal where Tsinghua University Press bears the publishing costs incurred by the journal. Authors are not required to pay any APC for Open Access publication. All articles included in the journal are copyrighted to the authors. The Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) shall apply to all articles published in CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research.

All advertisements are subject to approval of Tsinghua University Press which reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. 

Statements in advertisements should carry no direct or implied disparagement of another product. There should be no statements that are misleading, exaggerated, or contrary to proven facts. Advertisements may not be indecent, obscene, or defamatory.

The principle of maintaining editorial independence from commercial influence underlies decision making. Editorial decisions are not influenced by advertising.

Advertisements must be clearly identifiable as advertisements and clearly distinguishable from editorial content. Tsinghua University Press will not publish advertisements in the form of editorial content.