Policies

All Sciendor journals are fully open access. Every article is free to read, download, copy, distribute and print from the day it is published, without registration, subscription or embargo.

Articles are published under the CC BY 4.0 licence unless the article states otherwise. Authors retain copyright in their work and grant the journal the right to publish it; readers may reuse the work for any lawful purpose provided the original article is properly cited.

The licence that applies to an individual article is always stated on the article page, in its PDF and in its metadata. Where a journal applies an article processing charge, the charge, any waiver and the point at which it is invoiced are published on that journal’s own pages; payment never influences an editorial decision.

Every research manuscript is first screened by the journal’s editorial office for scope, completeness and basic integrity. Manuscripts that pass screening are sent to independent reviewers with expertise in the field.

• Smart Technologies and Computational Research — double-blind peer review, with 2 completed reviews required before a decision.
• AI Data Science and Intelligent Systems — double-blind peer review, with 2 completed reviews required before a decision.
• Applied Social Science Research — double-blind peer review, with 2 completed reviews required before a decision.

The outcome of a review round is not left to discretion: it follows from the reviewers’ recommendations, applied in this order.

1. If any reviewer rejects the manuscript, it is rejected.
2. Otherwise, if any reviewer asks for a major revision, the author resubmits the full manuscript.
3. Otherwise, if any reviewer asks for a minor revision, the author answers the reviewers' queries.
4. Only when every reviewer accepts is the manuscript accepted as it is.

Reviewers’ identities are never disclosed to authors, and editors never handle a manuscript on which they are an author. Reviewers are asked to declare any competing interest and to decline an invitation where one exists.

Sciendor journals follow the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Authors are expected to submit original work that has not been published elsewhere and is not under consideration by another journal; to credit every contributor accurately, using the CRediT taxonomy; to declare funding and competing interests; and to confirm ethical approval and informed consent where the research requires them.

Suspected misconduct — including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, undisclosed competing interests, authorship disputes and manipulation of peer review — is investigated by the journal’s editors following COPE guidance. Concerns may be raised in confidence with the journal’s editorial office or with the publisher at [email protected].

The published record is permanent. Articles are never silently altered or removed; when an error or a concern comes to light, the journal publishes a notice that is linked to the article, shown on its page and PDF, and included in its metadata. The notices used are:

• Retraction — the article is marked as retracted and remains available with the notice.
• Correction / erratum — a published correction of an error that does not invalidate the findings.
• Expression of concern — an interim notice while serious concerns about the article are investigated.

Grounds on which an article may be retracted include:

• Plagiarism
• Data fabrication or falsification
• Duplicate or redundant publication
• Unreliable findings / major error
• Ethical violation or missing approval
• Undisclosed conflict of interest
• Authorship dispute
• Author request
• Compromised peer review

Authors are asked to include a data availability statement explaining where the data, code and materials underlying their findings can be obtained, and on what terms. Data should be deposited in a recognised public repository wherever ethical and legal constraints allow, and cited in the reference list. Where data cannot be shared, the statement should explain why.

Posting a preprint of a manuscript on a non-commercial preprint server before or during submission does not prevent its consideration. Authors should disclose the preprint when submitting and, after publication, update it to link to the published article. Where review is double-blind, the manuscript submitted for review must itself be anonymised.

Every published article has a permanent web address in its journal and, where the journal registers them, a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Authors’ ORCID iDs are displayed and included in metadata.

Article metadata is made openly available in standard forms — JATS XML, Crossref deposits, Dublin Core and Highwire citation tags, and an OAI-PMH interface with one set per journal — so that libraries, archives and indexing services can harvest, cite and preserve the record.