1. Review Process

The manuscript review process of the journal includes the following steps:

(1) Initial Review:After a manuscript is submitted to the journal, the editor will conduct an initial review, focusing on evaluating whether the topic and writing quality of the submission meet the journal's basic requirements.

(2) Peer Review:For manuscripts that pass the initial review, the editorial office selects 2~3 independent experts in the relevant field to conductthe peer review. The journal employs a double-blind peer review system, and the editorial office will not disclose the identities of authors and reviewers to each other. When selecting reviewers, the editorial office will ensure thatauthors and reviewers are from different institutions.

(3) Manuscript Revision: After peer review, authors must revise the manuscript according to the reviewers' comments, respond to the comments point by point, and submit a revised manuscript for another round of review. This process is repeated until the reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript or it is ultimately rejected.

(4) Final Review: Manuscripts that successfully pass the peer review process will undergo a final review by the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members. The final decision on acceptance is made by the Editor-in-Chief, who is responsible for the entire content of the journal.

The review process described above applies to all submissions, including those for special issues. Manuscripts submitted for special issues undergo the same review process as other manuscripts, with the final decision on acceptance made by the Editor-in-Chief.

For certain special issues, the editorial office may select and invite leading experts in relevant fields to serve as guest editors. Their role is to assist the editorial office in soliciting submissions, organizing the review of manuscripts, etc. The work of the guest editorswill be supervised by the editorial office and the Editor-in-Chief to ensure the fairness of the review process.

2. Processing for In-house Submissions

Submissions from the journal's Editorial Board Members (EBMs), editors, and guest editors are also subject to the journal's full review process. Peer review is independent of the submitting EBM, editor, guest editor, and their research groups. In addition, during manuscript processing, the journal will avoid, to the extent possible, the involvement of EBMs, editors, and guest editors in the review of papers by themselves, their family members, colleagues, and other authors with whom they have a conflict of interest.

3. Author Appeals

Authors who disagree with the review results may submit a written appeal to the editorial office. The appeal must include detailed explanations and responses to each of the reviewers' comments and should be sent to the journal's email address. Upon receipt of the appeal, the editorial office will promptly review the appeal and notify the author of the outcome. Please note that only one appeal per manuscript will be accepted.

4. Academic Misconduct

The editorial office screens all submissions for plagiarism using the Paper Similarity Detection System of Wanfang Data. The similarity rate must not exceed 15%, otherwise the manuscript will be rejectedimmediately.

The journal strictly prohibits any form of academic misconduct, including but not limited toplagiarism,multiple submissions, and duplicate publication. For papers involving academic misconduct, if it is still under review, the editorial office will reject it immediately; if it has been published in the journal, the editorial office will retract the article and notify the relevant databases to remove it.

5. Correction & Retraction

Corrections or retractions of officially published articles will be made by the editorial office when necessary:

(1) Correction: If a published article is found to have unintentional scientific errors that do not significantly affect the results and conclusions of the article, the editorial office will promptly publish a correction notice in the journal. This notice will detail the changes made to the original article and will cite the source of the article. A new version of the article with corrections will be published, detailing the changes made to the original article and the date of the update. When citing, please refer to the most recent version of the article.

(2) Retraction: For articles that have been formally published, if serious scientific errors are discovered that render the results and conclusions unreliable, the editorial office will proceed with a retraction. In addition, if a published article is reported for academic misconduct, the editorial office will initiate an investigation. Once the investigation is complete, the results will be made public. If it is confirmed that the article involved misconduct, the editorial office will retract the article and notify the relevant databases to remove it.