Public Ethics

1. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work. Text, ideas, theories, methods, equations, datasets, figures, photographs, illustrations, maps, software, models, and other materials obtained from external sources must be properly acknowledged and cited.

Plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, unattributed copying, or the misleading reuse of previously published material is unacceptable.

Accuracy and Research Integrity

Research findings must be reported accurately, honestly, and transparently. Authors must not fabricate, falsify, selectively manipulate, omit, or misrepresent environmental, experimental, numerical, statistical, field, or monitoring data.

Multiple or Concurrent Submission

Manuscripts submitted to POMIST must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Authors should disclose closely related manuscripts, conference papers, reports, preprints, theses, or previous publications that substantially overlap with the submitted work.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception, design, methodology, investigation, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the manuscript.

Guest authorship, honorary authorship, gift authorship, purchased authorship, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Corresponding Author Responsibility

The corresponding author must ensure that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript, agreed to its submission, and accepted responsibility for their contributions.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, professional, commercial, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably influence or appear to influence the research or interpretation of findings.

Funding Disclosure

All research funding, grants, industry sponsorship, equipment support, institutional support, and other relevant sources of financial assistance must be transparently acknowledged.

Errors after Publication

Authors who identify significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work should promptly inform the journal and cooperate with the editorial office in issuing an appropriate correction, clarification, or retraction.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, ethical integrity, relevance to the journal, and contribution to knowledge.

Commercial, institutional, political, financial, or personal interests must not improperly influence editorial decisions.

Fair and Impartial Evaluation

Manuscripts should be evaluated without discrimination based on nationality, geographical origin, gender, ethnicity, institutional affiliation, professional status, personal belief, or other characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

Confidentiality

Editors must protect confidential information contained in submitted manuscripts and editorial correspondence. Unpublished material must not be disclosed to unauthorized parties.

Conflict of Interest

Editors should withdraw from handling manuscripts when personal, academic, financial, institutional, or professional conflicts could reasonably compromise impartial judgment.

Peer-Review Integrity

Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate, independent reviewers and for ensuring that peer review is conducted fairly, professionally, confidentially, and without inappropriate influence.

Editorial Decisions

Acceptance, revision, resubmission, or rejection decisions should be supported by scholarly considerations. Reviewer recommendations inform the editorial decision, while final responsibility remains with the authorized editor.

3. Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for peer review are confidential scholarly documents. Reviewers must not reproduce, distribute, discuss, upload, or disclose manuscript content to unauthorized persons.

Objectivity

Reviewer evaluations should be based on scientific and scholarly considerations. Comments should be constructive, specific, respectful, and supported by appropriate reasoning.

Appropriate Expertise

Reviewers who believe that a manuscript falls substantially outside their expertise should notify the editor and decline the review where appropriate.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must disclose relationships or interests that may influence their assessment and should decline the review where impartiality could reasonably be questioned.

Misappropriation of Ideas

Data, concepts, methods, technologies, experimental designs, models, unpublished results, or other intellectual content obtained through peer review must not be used for personal, commercial, or scholarly advantage prior to publication.

Citation Ethics

Reviewers must not pressure authors to cite their own work, the journal's publications, or unrelated literature solely for the purpose of increasing citation counts.

4. Environmental Research Ethics

Environmental Responsibility

Research activities should be designed and conducted in ways that minimize unnecessary environmental harm. Experimental and field research should consider potential impacts on ecosystems, water bodies, soil, air quality, biodiversity, and local communities.

Field Sampling and Environmental Studies

Authors conducting field sampling should accurately report sampling locations, procedures, frequency, analytical methods, quality-control measures, and relevant environmental conditions.

Sampling practices should not intentionally create additional contamination or environmental disturbance beyond what is reasonably necessary for the research.

Permits and Regulatory Compliance

Research conducted in protected areas, marine environments, industrial facilities, contaminated sites, waste-management facilities, conservation zones, or other regulated locations must comply with applicable permits and regulatory requirements.

Laboratory and Chemical Safety

Research involving hazardous chemicals, toxic contaminants, biological materials, industrial waste, wastewater, nanomaterials, or other potentially harmful substances should comply with relevant laboratory safety, handling, storage, and disposal requirements.

Waste Generated by Research

Researchers should responsibly manage chemical, biological, laboratory, and experimental waste produced during research activities. Research intended to mitigate pollution should not unnecessarily generate additional environmental risks.

Human and Community Research

Research involving surveys, interviews, workers, local communities, environmental stakeholders, or other human participants should comply with applicable ethical and institutional requirements.

Environmental Claims

Claims such as sustainable, green, environmentally friendly, low-carbon, zero-waste, non-toxic, or eco-friendly should be supported by appropriate evidence and should not be used solely as promotional terminology.

Life Cycle and Sustainability Assessment

Studies claiming improved environmental sustainability should clearly describe assessment boundaries, assumptions, functional units, data sources, impact categories, and limitations where applicable.

5. Research and Publication Misconduct

Plagiarism

The unattributed use of another person's text, ideas, concepts, data, equations, figures, photographs, models, software, methods, or intellectual contributions is prohibited.

Fabrication

Inventing experiments, measurements, observations, pollutant concentrations, environmental samples, datasets, analytical results, simulation outputs, citations, or other research information constitutes serious misconduct.

Falsification

Manipulating research materials, equipment, procedures, analytical measurements, numerical inputs, photographs, datasets, graphs, environmental monitoring records, or experimental observations in a manner that misrepresents the research record is prohibited.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Substantially identical research should not be published in multiple journals without legitimate justification, transparent disclosure, and appropriate citation.

Citation Manipulation

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not participate in coercive, excessive, irrelevant, fabricated, or coordinated citation practices designed primarily to manipulate citation indicators.

Peer-Review Manipulation

False reviewer identities, fabricated reviews, manipulated reviewer contact information, compromised reviewer accounts, or coordinated attempts to improperly influence peer review are serious violations of publication ethics.

Image Manipulation

Adjustments to microscopy images, photographs, satellite imagery, maps, sensor visualizations, graphs, environmental images, or experimental figures must not obscure, remove, introduce, or misrepresent scientifically relevant information.

Data Manipulation

Selective removal, alteration, fabrication, or concealment of environmental or experimental data for the purpose of producing more favorable findings is unacceptable.

Handling Allegations

When credible concerns regarding misconduct arise, the journal may request raw data, laboratory records, analytical results, authorship documentation, ethical approvals, permissions, or other relevant materials.

Editorial action will depend on the available evidence and seriousness of the concern.

6. Post-Publication Ethics

Corrections

When an error affects part of a published article but does not invalidate its principal findings, POMIST may issue a correction or other appropriate editorial notice.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when credible questions arise regarding the reliability or integrity of a publication but sufficient evidence for a final determination is not yet available.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that its findings are unreliable because of serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, or another major breach of publication ethics.

Transparency of the Scholarly Record

Corrections, retractions, and related notices should remain clearly linked to the original publication so readers can understand the status and history of the scholarly record.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may raise legitimate concerns regarding editorial procedures, research integrity, ethical issues, or published content. Complaints and appeals should be evaluated fairly, confidentially, and on the basis of available evidence.

7. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

AI Is Not an Author

Artificial intelligence systems, large language models, chatbots, image generators, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume scholarly responsibility or accountability.

Author Responsibility

Human authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, integrity, references, calculations, environmental claims, interpretations, and conclusions of all submitted content.

Disclosure of AI Use

When generative AI or other AI-assisted tools make a substantive contribution to manuscript preparation, coding, analysis, visualization, image generation, data processing, or other research activities, authors should transparently disclose the tool and explain how it was used.

AI-Generated References and Data

Authors must independently verify AI-assisted outputs. Fabricated, inaccurate, nonexistent, or misleading references, numerical values, environmental data, pollutant concentrations, analytical results, standards, or technical claims are unacceptable.

Confidentiality in Peer Review

Editors and reviewers must not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, datasets, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial information into third-party AI systems when confidentiality and data protection cannot be assured.

Human Editorial Responsibility

Final decisions regarding manuscript evaluation, peer review, acceptance, rejection, correction, or retraction remain under human editorial responsibility and should not be delegated solely to automated AI systems.