Editorial, Author & Reviewer Responsibilities

• Ensure fair, unbiased, and timely peer review.
• Maintain confidentiality of submissions.
• Make editorial decisions based on scholarly merit and relevance.
• Address allegations of misconduct using COPE flowcharts.
• Disclose conflicts of interest and recuse when necessary.

• Submit original work free of plagiarism or data fabrication.
• Accurately represent authorship and contributions.
• Disclose all conflicts of interest.
• Obtain ethical approvals for studies involving humans or animals.
• Provide data availability statements and share data when possible.

• Evaluate manuscripts objectively and confidentially.
• Declare any conflicts of interest.
• Provide constructive feedback within the agreed timeframe.
• Avoid using unpublished data for personal advantage.

Misconduct, Retractions & Oversight

Science Act investigates all allegations of misconduct, including:

• Plagiarism
• Data falsification or fabrication
• Duplicate publication
• Authorship disputes
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest

We follow COPE’s flowcharts and recommendations to guide our decisions. Proven misconduct may result in rejection, retraction, or notification to institutions.

Science Act follows COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. Retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern are issued when:

• Findings are unreliable
• Ethical breaches are confirmed
• Errors significantly affect interpretation

All notices are clearly labeled and linked to the original article.

Authors are encouraged to share datasets in public repositories, include data availability statements, and follow FAIR data principles when applicable.

All parties must disclose financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence their work. Science Act publishes conflict of interest statements with each article.

Science Act reserves the right to:

• Request documentation of ethical approvals
• Audit data and methodology
• Reject submissions that violate ethical standards

COPE Alignment

Science Act follows the COPE Core Practices:

https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

We use COPE flowcharts to guide decisions:

https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts

Open Research Commitment

“Open research is not a distant vision — it is the foundation of modern scholarly communication.”

At Science Act, we believe that scientific progress accelerates when knowledge is openly shared, transparently documented, rigorously verified, and fully reproducible. Removing barriers to access ensures that research outputs can be used by anyone, anywhere, fueling discovery, innovation, and global collaboration.

Our dedication to advancing open scholarship is built on three pillars designed to give authors and readers the strongest possible publishing environment:

Science Act is dedicated to accelerating global research discovery by championing open access, open data, and transparent research practices. Our commitment is strengthened through active participation in, or alignment with, the following leading international initiatives:

• International Science Council – World Data System — Applied for Membership
• FORCE11 FAIR Data Principles — Endorsed
• STM Brussels Declaration — Committed to open and responsible research
• Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC) — Committed to open citation data
• CHORUS — Committed to open and compliant research
• Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA) — Committed to open abstracts