Editorial Policies

AEBJ is committed to ensuring integer and ethically sound publishing. We therefore closely follow the suggestion of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as laid out in the COPE guidelines (Promoting integrity in scholarly research and its publication | COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics).

The journal does not accept adverts from third parties.

Affiliations

You and your co-authors are required to list all applicable affiliations to indicate where the research or scholarly work was authorized, supported, or conducted.

For non-research articles, your current institutional affiliation must be listed.
If you change institutions before the article is published, you should mention the affiliation where the work was done, along with a note about your current institution.
If you do not have a relevant institutional affiliation, you should specify your independent status.

Appeals and Complaints

The journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines regarding appeals against editorial decisions and complaints about the management of the peer review process. We welcome legitimate appeals, but you will need to provide substantial evidence or new information addressing the comments made by the editor and reviewers.

Acknowledgments

Individuals who contributed to the article in ways such as supervision, funding acquisition, study design, data collection, analysis, technical support, or formatting, but do not qualify for authorship, should be named and affiliated in the "Acknowledgments" section. It is the responsibility of the authors to notify and gain permission from these individuals and share the article with them to verify the context in which their contributions are recognized. Groups who contributed significantly but do not meet authorship criteria can be listed under relevant headings, such as “participating investigators,” with a description of their role (e.g., “scientific advisors” or “data collection”). As their endorsement of the findings might be implied, these individuals must provide written consent to be acknowledged. Any use of AI tools or similar technologies for content generation must be explicitly acknowledged in the article. Authors are responsible for ensuring the validity, originality, and integrity of their work and are expected to use such tools ethically and in line with the journal’s authorship and publishing policies.

Authorship

Listing authors in an article is crucial for recognizing those who have made significant contributions and ensuring transparency regarding responsibility for the content’s integrity. All authors included must meet the following criteria:

Contributed significantly to the work, whether in conception, design, execution, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or a combination of these.
Played a role in drafting, substantially revising, or critically reviewing the manuscript.
Agreed on the chosen journal for submission.
Reviewed and approved all versions of the manuscript, including the initial submission, revisions, the final accepted version, and any major changes made during proofing.
Accepted responsibility and accountability for the article's content and are willing to address any questions regarding its accuracy or integrity.

Any changes to authorship, whether before or after publication, must be agreed upon by all authors, including those being added or removed. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining approval from all co-authors and explaining why the change is needed. Post-publication authorship changes will be documented through a formal notice. All changes must meet authorship criteria, and requests for major adjustments after acceptance may be rejected if contributions cannot be adequately justified.

Authorship Criteria

Credit for authorship should only be based on substantial contributions to the following:

Conception and design of the study, acquisition, or analysis and interpretation of data.
Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be published.

Simply securing funding or collecting data does not warrant authorship, nor does the general supervision of a research group. Every contributor should have been involved enough to take responsibility for the relevant portions of the manuscript. The order of authors should reflect the level of contribution to the study and manuscript preparation. Changes to the order of authors should be finalized before the manuscript moves to the production phase, which occurs after the final submission. The journal may limit the number of authors based on the type of manuscript, scope, and institutions involved. Justification is required if the number of authors exceeds these limits.

Contribution Details

Contributors should clearly outline the specific roles each of them played in the manuscript's development. Contributions should be categorized under areas such as conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing-original draft, writing-review & editing, or other. All authors listed must have made meaningful scientific contributions to the research and approved the content. Everyone who contributed significantly, including students and lab technicians, must be acknowledged.

Citations

Both research and non-research articles must include citations of relevant, up-to-date, and reliable literature (preferably peer-reviewed) to back any claims made. Excessive self-citation or reciprocal citation arrangements between author groups are discouraged, as they may be viewed as citation manipulation, a form of misconduct. For guidance on this, refer to the COPE guidance on citation manipulation. If you are the author of a non-research article (e.g., a Review or Opinion), ensure your citations reflect a balanced and comprehensive overview of the field, without unfair bias toward a specific research group, institution, or journal. If you're uncertain about citing a particular source, it is advisable to contact the journal's editorial office for guidance.

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

You and your co-authors are required to disclose any competing interests that may be relevant to or could be perceived as relevant to the article.

Competing interest arises when you (or your employer, sponsor, or family/friends) have financial, commercial, legal, or professional ties with organizations or individuals that might influence the research or its interpretation.
Competing interests can be either financial or non-financial. To maintain transparency, you should also disclose any relationships that could be perceived as a conflict of interest by others.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

In some cases, changes to an article may be needed after its publication. These changes are made only after careful review by the editor, following the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Any necessary revisions will be linked permanently to the original article through a post-publication notice. This may take the form of a correction, an expression of concern, a retraction, or, in rare cases, a removal. These measures are taken to ensure that the scholarly record remains transparent and accurate.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential material. Academic Journals will not share manuscripts with anyone except those involved in the processing and preparation for publication, such as editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential and actual reviewers, and editors. However, if misconduct is suspected, the manuscript may be disclosed to members of the journal's ethics committees or institutions/organizations that require it to address the issue. The Journal will follow the appropriate COPE guidelines when necessary.

Data Falsification/Fabrication

The intentional manipulation or fabrication of data is a serious form of misconduct that misleads others and undermines the integrity of the scholarly record, with significant and long-lasting consequences. Authors submitting manuscripts must ensure that all data included is accurate and a true reflection of their work. Authors are also expected to retain all raw data used in their manuscripts to assist in the evaluation process. If the original data cannot be provided upon request, the manuscript's acceptance or the published paper may be withdrawn or retracted.

Data Sharing Policy

We encourage and support researchers in sharing their data when appropriate and as early as possible, improving submission processes to facilitate this.

Our goal is to standardize and align author data guidelines where feasible, making it easier for researchers to understand how and where to store and share their data, enabling optimal access and reuse.
We help researchers meet data management requirements by supporting data availability statements and promoting transparency.
We develop tools and services that assist researchers in discovering, using, and reusing data for further research, such as enabling two-way links between datasets and publications through permanent standard identifiers.
Researchers are encouraged to properly cite shared data, with recognition given for sharing, thus promoting proper data citation practices.
We collaborate with the scientific community to establish data review processes that ensure published data is valid, well-documented, and reusable.
We support the publication of research data as a peer-reviewed output, promoting data reusability and offering authors additional ways to receive credit for their contributions.

Desk Rejection Policy

The topic / scope of the study is not relevant to the field of the Journal.
There are publication ethics problems, non-adherence to international standard guidelines, and plagiarism (set at a similarity index of higher than 20 percent).
The topic does not have a sufficient impact, nor does it sufficiently contribute new knowledge to the field.
There are flaws in the study design.
The objective of the study is not clearly stated.
The study of the organization is problematic and/or certain components are missing.
There are problems in writing or a series of infelicities in the style of grammar.
The manuscript does not follow the submission guidelines of the Journal.

Duplicate Submission/Publication

Authors must declare at the time of submission that the manuscript is not under review elsewhere. Detecting a duplicate submission or publication is typically regarded as intentional. This includes articles previously published in another language. Manuscripts found to have been either previously published or under review elsewhere will be subject to penalties for duplicate submission/publication. If authors use their prior work or work under review as a basis for a new submission, they must properly cite it and demonstrate how the new submission contributes original insights beyond the previous work.

Funding

Authors are required to disclose all sources of funding, including financial support, within the manuscript. They should explain the sponsor's role, if any, in various stages of the research, from study design to manuscript submission. If the sponsor had no involvement, this should also be stated. Ensure this information aligns with the funder's requirements.

Images and Figures

Images and figures should only be included if they are directly relevant and add value to the work presented. Avoid using purely illustrative content that does not enhance the scholarly work. As part of the Journal Author Publishing Agreement, authors must secure written permission for any third-party material used in the manuscript. This includes proprietary text, images, tables, data, and supplemental materials.

Misconduct

The journal is committed to addressing all types of misconduct seriously and will take appropriate measures, following COPE guidelines, to maintain the integrity of scholarly work. Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

Misrepresentation of affiliation
Copyright violations or use of third-party material without proper permission
Manipulation of citations
Duplicate submission or publication
“Ethics dumping”
Fabrication or manipulation of data and images
Manipulation of the peer review process
Plagiarism
Reuse of text (self-plagiarism)
Failure to disclose conflicts of interest
Unethical research practices

Citation Manipulation

Manuscripts that include citations primarily aimed at artificially increasing citations to the authors' work or boosting citations for a particular journal will face sanctions for citation manipulation.

Image Manipulation

Intentional image manipulation or fabrication to deceive others is a serious form of misconduct that can compromise the scholarly record. Images must be presented accurately without inappropriate alterations. Acceptable adjustments, such as modifying brightness or contrast, are allowed if they don't obscure or misrepresent information. Combining images from different sources must be clearly explained in the figure or its legend. If the unaltered original images cannot be provided upon request, the manuscript may be rejected or retracted.