Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement define ethical standards in the journal Applied Engineering Letters. It is intended to publish original scientific papers, without violating any rights (author’s, publishing, scientific, state, human, etc.). The Applied Engineering Letters publication ethics encourages integrity in research and peer review process and prohibits any malpractices regarding publication. For all broader interpretations of ethical rights than those listed below, the Editorial Board of the journal will apply internationally accepted ethical principles in the area of Publishing Ethics by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We fully adhere to its Core Practices that apply to all involved in publishing scholarly literature: editors and journal teams, publishers, and institutions; also and Guidelines intended to advise editors and publishers on expected publication ethics practices.

The journal Applied Engineering Letters is dedicated to following best practices on ethical matters, errors, and retractions. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the important responsibilities of the Editorial Board. Any kind of unethical behavior is not acceptable, and the journal Applied Engineering Letters does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. Authors submitting articles to the journal affirm that manuscript contents are original. Furthermore, they warrant that their article has neither been published elsewhere in any language fully or partly nor is it under review for publication anywhere.

Plagiarism
The journal Applied Engineering Letters is committed to publishing only original material, i.e., material that has neither been published elsewhere nor is under review elsewhere. In scientific publishing, plagiarism arises when the author uses the scientific material of another author without permission, credit, or acknowledgement. Plagiarism, where someone assumes another’s ideas, words, or other creative expression, clearly violates scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law. All papers are checked for plagiarism by the specialised software. Every paper that shows obvious signs or indications of plagiarism will be automatically rejected. For more information about Plagiarism, visit the Plagiarism section.

Duplicate Submission
The manuscripts published in identical form in other places, will not be published in the journal Applied Engineering Letters. In case the manuscript satisfies the software’s control on plagiarism, and subsequently, it turns out that it has already been published in another journal, it will be retracted from publication in the journal Applied Engineering Letters by the journal’s Retraction policy. If authors have used their own previously published study, or study that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous paper and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work.

Redundant Publication
Redundant publications involve an inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles and this is not acceptable.

Citation Manipulation
Submitted manuscripts that are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, will incur citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification
Submitted manuscripts that are found to be expressed substances in them (originality of the method, research results, conclusions, tables, figures, etc.) arbitrarily listed or falsified, will be treated as a falsification. In accordance with the Retraction Policy of the journal Applied Engineering Letters Editorial Board, these manuscripts will be discarded.

Use of Large Language Models and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
Applied Engineering Letters, in its work, conform to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations on chatbots, ChatGPT and scholarly manuscripts and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s position statement on Authorship and AI tools, adheres to the following recommendations:

• AI bots such as ChatGPT cannot be considered authors when submitting papers. They cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot understand the role of authors or take responsibility for the papers.
• Authors must clearly indicate the use of tools based on large language models and generative AI in the manuscript (which tool was used and for what purpose), preferably in the methods or acknowledgements sections.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of any content generated by tools based on large language models and generative AI and they must ensure that the cited references are correct and that the submission is free from plagiarism.
• Editors and Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the peer review process. Editors must not share information about submitted manuscripts or peer review reports with any tools based on large language models and generative AI. Reviewers must not use any tools based on large language models and generative AI to generate review reports.

Authorship and Acknowledgement
All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution to the research. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be given. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians. Authors should properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript.

Hazards and Human or Animal Subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that has any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript. Manuscripts containing information related to human or animal use should clearly state that the research has complied with all relevant international guidelines and institutional policies.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should, at the earliest stage possible, disclose any financial or non-financial conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by anyone who has a view of the manuscript while handling it without the express written consent of the author.

Fair Play
All manuscripts will be reviewed based on intellectual content without regard for age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, country of origin, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality
All manuscripts submitted for peer-review are kept strictly confidential. The Editor-in-Chief and any Editorial Staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, as appropriate. At no time will Editors or reviewers utilize submitted materials without the consent of the authors.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works
When a significant error or inaccuracy has been discovered in a published work (with or without the author notifying it), the journal Editors will cooperate with the author to retract or correct the paper accordingly. If a correction is deemed appropriate, the Editors reserve the right to correct the published material and include a dated erratum.

Retraction Policy
The aim of the Retraction policy in the journal Applied Engineering Letters is to regulate the legal obligations of the publisher or the protection of the copyright holder and author. The main purpose of retractions is to correct the literature and ensure its integrity rather than to punish authors who misbehave. The retraction policy of the Editorial Board is based on the fact that minor errors in the manuscript submission can be substantially corrected and after the publication, while due to heavy abuse, manuscripts can be discarded. For more information about the Retraction Policy, visit the Retraction Policy section.

Sanctions
In case of non-compliance with any of the above-mentioned policies in the journal Applied Engineering Letters, the following sanctions will be applied:

• Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript.
• Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to the journal by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript.
• Prohibition against all of the authors who have grossly violated the publishing ethics for any new submissions to the journal for a minimum of two years.
• Prohibition against all of the authors who have grossly violated the publishing ethics from participating in any of the matters that concern the journal (Reviews, Editorial Board, etc.) for a minimum of two years.

In cases where the violations of the policies are found to be particularly egregious, the Editorial Board reserves the right to impose additional sanctions beyond those described above.

Additional Information
For more information on Publication Ethics, visit the other subsections within the Publication Ethics section.