Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, academic integrity, editorial responsibility, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing. The journal seeks to ensure that all published work is original, reliable, properly credited, ethically prepared, and evaluated through a fair peer-review process.
This statement applies to authors, reviewers, editors, editorial board members, and all individuals involved in the submission, evaluation, editing, publication, correction, and archiving of manuscripts submitted to the journal.
Editorial Responsibility
The editors of Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) are responsible for maintaining the scholarly quality, integrity, and academic relevance of the journal. Editorial decisions are based on the manuscript’s originality, clarity, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal’s scope, ethical compliance, and contribution to materials science and engineering education.
The journal follows a single-blind peer-review process. Editors are responsible for assigning suitable reviewers with appropriate expertise and for ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, objectively, and confidentially. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by the authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, political opinion, ethnicity, personal background, or other non-academic factors.
Editors must maintain confidentiality throughout the editorial and review process. Submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and unpublished data must not be disclosed to unauthorized persons. Editors and editorial staff must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts for personal, academic, professional, or financial advantage.
Editors must avoid conflicts of interest. If an editor has a personal, professional, institutional, financial, or academic conflict related to a manuscript, the manuscript should be handled by another qualified editor or editorial board member.
Responsibilities of Authors
Authors submitting manuscripts to Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) are expected to follow the highest standards of academic honesty and responsible research reporting. Manuscripts must present original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal, book, conference proceeding, website, or publication outlet at the same time.
Authors must ensure that all submitted work is accurate, complete, and properly documented. Research methods, data, findings, interpretations, quotations, figures, tables, and references must be presented honestly and without fabrication, falsification, manipulation, or misleading representation.
Authors are responsible for ensuring that all sources used in the manuscript are properly cited. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplicate publication, redundant publication, unattributed text reuse, improper paraphrasing, and inappropriate use of previously published material are unacceptable.
All listed authors must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution to the manuscript. Authorship should be limited to individuals who contributed substantially to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, writing, or revision of the work. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript before submission. The corresponding author must also ensure that all co-authors agree to the submission, authorship order, and publication of the manuscript.
Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, professional, or academic conflicts of interest that could influence or appear to influence the research, interpretation, or presentation of the manuscript. Sources of funding, sponsorship, technical support, or institutional assistance should be clearly stated where applicable.
If authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their submitted, accepted, or published work, they must promptly inform the journal and cooperate with the editors to issue a correction, clarification, or retraction when necessary.
Originality, Plagiarism, and Duplicate Publication
Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) requires all submissions to be original and properly referenced. The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, text recycling, duplicate submission, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, or any form of academic misconduct.
Manuscripts may be checked for similarity or plagiarism during the editorial process. If plagiarism, substantial overlap, or unethical reuse of previously published material is detected, the manuscript may be rejected. If misconduct is discovered after publication, the journal may issue a correction, expression of concern, or retraction, depending on the seriousness of the case.
Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Any prior dissemination of the work, including conference papers, preprints, reports, thesis chapters, institutional repositories, or online materials, should be clearly disclosed at the time of submission where relevant.
Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools
Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) recognizes that artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI, language models, grammar tools, translation tools, image-generation tools, and data-analysis tools, may be used responsibly to support academic writing and research preparation. However, the use of such tools must be transparent, ethical, and fully controlled by the authors.
AI tools must not be listed as authors. Authorship requires human responsibility, accountability, ethical judgment, and the ability to approve the final manuscript. Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to the journal, including text, data, citations, images, tables, interpretations, and conclusions produced or assisted by AI tools.
Authors who use AI tools in the preparation of a manuscript should disclose their use clearly in the manuscript, preferably in the acknowledgements, methods section, or a separate disclosure statement. The disclosure should describe the name of the tool, the purpose for which it was used, and the extent of its contribution.
AI tools must not be used to fabricate data, generate false references, create misleading images, alter results, invent peer-review reports, manipulate citations, or produce content that misrepresents the authors’ original work. Authors must carefully verify all AI-assisted text, references, calculations, translations, summaries, figures, and interpretations before submission.
The use of AI tools does not reduce the authors’ responsibility for originality, accuracy, ethical compliance, proper citation, and scholarly integrity. Any AI-assisted content that contains plagiarism, false information, biased interpretation, unsupported claims, or fabricated references remains the responsibility of the authors.
Reviewers and editors must treat submitted manuscripts as confidential documents. Reviewers should not upload unpublished manuscripts, figures, data, or confidential peer-review materials into external AI tools unless such use is explicitly permitted by the journal and does not violate confidentiality, privacy, copyright, or data-protection requirements.
AI tools may assist with language improvement or administrative efficiency, but they must not replace independent editorial judgment, expert peer review, or human responsibility in publication decisions.
Ethics for Human Participants and Human Data
Manuscripts involving human participants, student participants, teachers, interviews, surveys, classroom observations, educational interventions, learning analytics, institutional records, personal information, or human-derived data must comply with appropriate ethical standards.
Authors must state whether ethical approval was obtained from a recognized institutional review board, ethics committee, university authority, or other appropriate body. If formal ethical approval was not required, authors should explain the reason clearly in the manuscript.
Research involving human participants should be conducted with informed consent where required. Participants should be informed about the purpose of the study, the nature of their involvement, the use of collected data, confidentiality arrangements, and their right to withdraw where applicable.
For educational research involving students, authors must take particular care to avoid coercion, pressure, or unfair disadvantage. Participation should not affect grades, academic standing, access to instruction, or institutional treatment unless the study has been ethically approved and safeguards are in place.
Personal data must be handled responsibly and confidentially. Authors should anonymize or de-identify participant information wherever possible. Manuscripts must not include identifiable personal details, images, quotations, student records, or sensitive information unless explicit permission has been obtained and publication is ethically justified.
Authors are responsible for complying with applicable institutional, national, and international requirements for privacy, consent, and data protection.
Ethics for Animal Research and Animal Data
If a manuscript involves animals, animal-derived materials, animal data, biological testing, or experiments using animal models, authors must confirm that the work was conducted in accordance with applicable ethical, institutional, national, and international guidelines for the care and use of animals in research.
Authors must state whether approval was obtained from an appropriate animal ethics committee, institutional animal care committee, or equivalent authority. Where approval was not required, the manuscript should clearly explain the reason.
Animal research should be designed to minimize harm, distress, and unnecessary use of animals. Authors should follow accepted principles of responsible animal research, including replacement, reduction, and refinement where applicable.
Manuscripts should provide sufficient ethical and methodological information, including the species used, source of animals or animal-derived materials, approval details, and relevant welfare considerations, where appropriate to the nature of the study.
The journal may reject manuscripts if there is evidence that animal research was conducted without appropriate ethical approval, proper care, lawful permission, or responsible reporting.
Ethics for Plant Research, Environmental Samples, and Biological Materials
Manuscripts involving plants, plant materials, environmental samples, biological specimens, genetic resources, microorganisms, natural materials, or field-collected samples must comply with applicable ethical, institutional, national, and international requirements.
Authors should ensure that plant and biological materials were collected, transported, studied, and reported lawfully and responsibly. Where required, authors must obtain collection permits, institutional approval, land-access permission, biodiversity authorization, or other relevant approvals before conducting the research.
Research involving protected species, endangered plants, rare biological materials, indigenous resources, traditional knowledge, or genetic resources must be conducted with appropriate permission and respect for applicable legal and ethical requirements.
Where relevant, manuscripts should identify the source, origin, species, collection location, voucher specimen, repository, or accession information for plant or biological materials. Authors should avoid practices that damage ecosystems, threaten biodiversity, or violate conservation regulations.
If the research uses biological data, genetic data, environmental data, or traditional knowledge, authors must report the data responsibly and respect applicable rules on access, benefit sharing, confidentiality, and community permissions where relevant.
Research Integrity and Data Accuracy
Authors are responsible for the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the research presented in their manuscripts. Data, methods, results, and conclusions must be reported clearly and honestly. Selective reporting, misleading interpretation, inappropriate statistical use, unsupported claims, or concealment of relevant results are not acceptable.
Where applicable, authors should retain research data and be prepared to provide clarification if questions arise during peer review or after publication. The journal encourages transparency in research reporting, appropriate data documentation, and responsible presentation of evidence.
Figures, tables, images, graphs, and other visual materials must accurately represent the original data or observations. Any adjustment to images or data presentation must not mislead readers or change the interpretation of the findings.
Peer-Review Ethics
The peer-review process is central to the quality and credibility of Journal of Materials Education (Electronic). Reviewers are expected to provide fair, constructive, timely, and objective evaluations of manuscripts.
Reviewers should assess manuscripts based on scholarly quality, relevance, clarity, originality, methodology, accuracy, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field. Personal criticism of authors is not acceptable. Review comments should be professional, respectful, evidence-based, and useful to both authors and editors.
Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents. They must not share, copy, distribute, discuss, or use the content of a manuscript before publication. Reviewers must not use unpublished information from a manuscript for personal research, teaching, publication, professional benefit, or competitive advantage.
Reviewers should decline a review invitation if they feel unqualified to assess the manuscript, are unable to complete the review within the required time, or have any conflict of interest with the authors, institutions, funding bodies, or subject matter of the manuscript.
If reviewers identify possible plagiarism, duplicate publication, ethical concerns, citation problems, data issues, AI misuse, image manipulation, or major errors, they should inform the editor confidentially.
Conflicts of Interest
All participants in the publication process, including authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial board members, must disclose any conflicts of interest that may affect or appear to affect their judgment.
Conflicts of interest may include financial relationships, employment, consultancy, institutional affiliation, academic competition, personal relationships, funding arrangements, intellectual property interests, or other circumstances that could influence the evaluation or publication of a manuscript.
Disclosure of a conflict of interest does not necessarily prevent publication. However, transparency allows the journal to manage the editorial and peer-review process fairly and responsibly.
Use of Copyrighted Material
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any copyrighted material used in their manuscripts, including figures, tables, images, long text extracts, teaching materials, questionnaires, diagrams, photographs, or other protected content.
Any reproduced material must be properly credited according to the terms of permission granted by the copyright holder. The journal may request evidence of permission before publication.
Authors must also ensure that materials taken from open access sources are used in accordance with the relevant license terms.
Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern
Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record. If errors are identified after publication, the journal will take appropriate action depending on the nature and seriousness of the issue.
Minor errors that do not affect the findings or conclusions of the article may be corrected through a correction notice. Serious errors, unreliable findings, plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, unethical research, AI misuse, image manipulation, authorship misconduct, or other forms of publication malpractice may lead to an expression of concern or retraction.
Retractions are issued when published work is found to be seriously flawed, unreliable, unethical, or in violation of publication standards. A retraction notice will clearly identify the article and explain the reason for retraction while preserving the transparency of the publication record.
Complaints and Appeals
Authors have the right to submit a respectful and evidence-based appeal if they believe that an editorial decision was made in error. Appeals must clearly explain the reason for disagreement and provide a scholarly response to the editorial or reviewer comments.
The journal will review appeals carefully, but submission of an appeal does not guarantee a change in decision. The final decision rests with the editorial leadership of the journal.
Complaints regarding editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, conflicts of interest, AI misuse, human or animal research ethics, plant or environmental data ethics, or published content will be handled seriously and confidentially. The journal may seek clarification from authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other relevant parties where necessary.
Open Access and Licensing Ethics
From 2024 onward, Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) operates as a Diamond Open Access journal. The journal does not charge readers for access and does not require authors to pay article processing charges, submission fees, or publication fees for accepted manuscripts.
All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, share, adapt, and build upon the published work, provided that proper credit is given to the original author(s), the journal, and the source of publication.
The journal’s open access model supports ethical, inclusive, and equitable access to scholarly knowledge in materials science and engineering education.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by commercial interests, institutional pressure, personal relationships, political considerations, or financial factors. The journal is committed to protecting the independence of editors and reviewers in the evaluation of submitted manuscripts.
The acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is based only on academic quality, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, clarity, and contribution to the field.
Ethical Oversight
The journal reserves the right to investigate suspected ethical violations at any stage of the publication process. This includes concerns identified before submission, during peer review, after acceptance, or after publication.
Possible ethical concerns include plagiarism, duplicate submission, authorship disputes, data manipulation, undeclared conflicts of interest, inappropriate peer-review conduct, misuse of copyrighted material, false statements, unethical research involving humans, animals, plants or biological materials, AI misuse, citation manipulation, and other forms of publication misconduct.
When necessary, the journal may contact authors, reviewers, editors, institutions, ethics committees, or other relevant parties to clarify ethical concerns. Manuscripts found to violate publication ethics may be rejected, corrected, or retracted.
Commitment to Responsible Publishing
Journal of Materials Education (Electronic) is committed to promoting responsible scholarly communication in materials science and engineering education. The journal supports fairness, transparency, confidentiality, accountability, academic integrity, ethical research conduct, responsible use of technology, and open access to knowledge.
By submitting a manuscript, serving as a reviewer, joining the editorial board, or participating in the journal’s publication process, individuals agree to follow the ethical principles described in this statement.