Publishing Ethics
To strengthen academic integrity, standardize manuscript submission, review, and publishing procedures, and combat academic misconduct, Xinjiang Oil & Gas adheres to publishing ethics recognized by international organizations such as COPE. Editors, authors, and reviewers are expected to fulfill the following responsibilities:
I. Responsibilities of Editors
1. Editors shall handle all submissions fairly and impartially, making acceptance or rejection decisions based on the journal’s scope, the originality, and academic value of the manuscript. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening should be promptly recorded and sent for review; manuscripts that pass the final review should be promptly processed and published.
2. During the editorial and publication process, editors should comply with publishing standards while respecting the author’s viewpoints and writing style. Substantive revisions to academic viewpoints shall be made only with the author’s consent.
3. The journal adopts a double-blind review system and retains complete peer-review records. Editors are responsible for keeping confidential the identities of authors and reviewers, authors’ research findings, and all materials related to manuscript handling.
II. Responsibilities of Authors
1. Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously, nor publish manuscripts describing the same research in multiple journals.
2. Manuscripts must comply with the journal’s instructions. Authors shall ensure the work is original, free of plagiarism, data fabrication, and other forms of academic misconduct, and does not contain classified or confidential information. All data sources must be clearly identified, and other scholars’ work must be properly cited.
3. All listed authors must meet the journal’s authorship criteria. Authors must not add or remove authors arbitrarily.
4. Funding information relevant to the research must be stated in the manuscript; irrelevant funding sources must not be included.
5. Authors should respect reviewers’ comments. If disagreements arise, authors may submit a written response to the editorial department and provide detailed explanations for each contested comment.
6. The first author or corresponding author must sign a confidentiality agreement, and all authors must sign the copyright transfer agreement.
III. Responsibilities of Reviewers
1. Reviewers should complete manuscript reviews on time. If unable to do so, they should promptly notify the editorial department and withdraw from the review.
2. Reviews must be objective, impartial, and scientifically accurate, with arguments supporting the reviewer’s opinions.
3. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality and shall not misuse the authors’ research results.
4. Reviewers shall verify the authenticity of data, figures, and sources. If plagiarism or duplicate submission is suspected, reviewers shall notify the editor.
5. Reviewers must recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest with the authors, funding sources, or other related parties.
IV. Rejection, Retraction, and Corrections
1. The editorial department conducts two rounds of academic misconduct checks: before peer review to confirm content has not been published (including conference papers, journal articles, theses, etc.), and again before final review for reconfirmation.
2. If a manuscript is found during peer review to substantially duplicate published work or reuse data/figures, the manuscript will be rejected.
3. If, after online or print publication, a manuscript is confirmed to involve plagiarism, data fraud, confidentiality breaches, or similar misconduct, the editorial department will retract the paper, issue a retraction notice, notify the authors and their institution, request databases to remove online versions, and terminate dissemination.
4. If parts of a manuscript are found to be misleading (especially due to honest errors), or if the authorship list is incorrect (e.g., omission of qualified authors or inclusion of unqualified authors), the editorial department will consider issuing a correction.
V. Advertising Policy
Xinjiang Oil & Gas does not currently accept advertisements. Neither the journal nor its website will publish any commercial advertisements.
VI. Intellectual Property Protection and Open Science
The editorial department respects intellectual property rights and requires editors, authors, and reviewers to do the same. Any potential infringement must be avoided; third parties must also respect the journal’s intellectual property and shall not infringe it.. Under proper intellectual property protection, the journal encourages open science practices, including the publication and sharing of research data when appropriate. Shareable data may include raw data, observation records, and experimental results. The journal also encourages authors to share software, codes, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other relevant materials. Authors may upload such materials to accessible third-party repositories and provide links in the manuscript as attachments at the end of the article.
VII. Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) must not be used to write an entire paper or any of its significant sections (e.g., Methods, Results, and Analysis). All scientific contributions and intellectual work must be carried out by humans. This journal does not accept listing GenAI or its team as an author or citing it as a source of information. If GenAI is used, authors must provide a detailed explanation of how it was employed and take full responsibility for any content generated by GenAI, including any breaches of publication ethics or copyright infringement. The editorial department prohibits the use of GenAI in manuscript evaluation, decision-making, or communication with authors. During the review process, manuscripts and supplementary materials will not be uploaded to any public GenAI platform to avoid risks of copyright infringement, privacy breaches, and confidentiality violations. All use of automated tools must be supervised by humans, and the editorial department will ensure checks for text similarity, image manipulation, or undisclosed AI usage.