Editorial Policies

Peer review

Responsibility · Editors and reviewers

All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.

In single-blind review, reviewers know the authors’ identities and authors do not know the reviewers’. When double-blind review is requested, the identities of authors and reviewers are both concealed. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.

Reviewers are selected for expertise in the technology area or methodological approach of the manuscript. They assess scientific validity, methodological rigor, originality, and contribution to the field, and provide comments intended to help authors improve their work.

Editorial decisions and independence

Responsibility · Handling editors

Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.

Decisions remain independent of fees, services, memberships, and editorial roles. The article processing charge is invoiced only upon acceptance, and membership confers no advantage in the review or acceptance of a member’s own manuscripts.

Questions, complaints, and appeals about the handling of a manuscript can be directed to the editorial office at [email protected].

Conflicts of interest

Responsibility · Authors, reviewers, and editors

Authors, reviewers, and editors disclose any potential conflict of interest, including financial relationships with energy companies, institutional affiliations, and personal connections that might influence the evaluation or interpretation of a study.

Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions; those manuscripts are handled independently.

Authorship

Responsibility · Authors

Every listed author meets established authorship criteria:

• a substantial contribution to the conception of the research, data acquisition, or analysis;
• drafting or revising the manuscript;
• approval of the final version; and
• accountability for the work.

Industrial and governmental contributors to the research are acknowledged appropriately.

Research integrity

Responsibility · Authors

Submissions represent original work conducted according to established ethical standards for scientific research, and authors are responsible for the integrity of their studies.

• Data fabrication and falsification are serious violations that lead to rejection and may be reported.
• Submissions are screened for textual similarity. Similarity reports are assessed in context by the editorial team, including the nature, extent, and attribution of overlapping material.
• Duplicate submission and duplicate publication are prohibited.
• Image adjustments beyond standard processing must be disclosed and justified.

Data availability and trial registration

Responsibility · Authors

Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement.

Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.

Guidance on data archiving and permissions is available on the Data Archiving and Permissions page.

Corrections, retractions, and integrity concerns

Responsibility · Editors, with authors

Errors in published work are addressed through errata, corrections, or retractions, according to the nature and significance of the issue.

Concerns about research integrity in submitted or published articles are investigated in line with COPE guidance. Concerns can be reported confidentially to the editorial office at [email protected].

Licensing

Responsibility · Authors

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), and authors retain copyright. Full terms are set out on the Copyright and License page.

Withdrawal

Responsibility · Authors and the editorial office

Authors should contact the editorial office promptly and wait for written confirmation before submitting the work elsewhere.

Manuscripts withdrawn within 3 days of submission are not subject to a withdrawal charge.

Manuscripts withdrawn more than 3 days after submission incur a withdrawal charge equal to 30% of the journal's APC.

Authors must receive official withdrawal confirmation before submitting the manuscript to another journal.

The same terms appear in the withdrawal section of the Article Processing Charges page.