Publishing Policies

About the Publisher

Mason Publishing Group is an independent academic publisher dedicated to advancing scholarly communication and promoting open science across a broad range of disciplines. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of publishing integrity, ethical conduct, and editorial excellence in all our journals and publications.

Our mission is to provide a trusted, efficient, and accessible publishing platform for researchers worldwide, facilitating the dissemination of rigorous, impactful, and reproducible research. Through our commitment to open access and transparent peer review, we aim to serve the global academic community by ensuring that high-quality research reaches the widest possible audience.

We publish a diverse portfolio of peer-reviewed journals spanning the physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Our editorial practices are guided by the principles and best practices established by leading industry bodies, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).

All journals published by Mason Publishing Group operate under a framework of strict editorial independence, ensuring that publication decisions are based solely on the scientific merit, originality, and significance of the submitted work.

Publication Ethics

Mason Publishing Group is a member of and adheres to the guidelines and principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to comply with the ethical standards outlined in the COPE Core Practices and relevant flowcharts. For further guidance, please visit: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

General Principles

Editorial Independence: Editors-in-Chief have full authority over the editorial content of their journals. Publication decisions are made based on academic merit, free from commercial influence or external interference.
Confidentiality: All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff are obligated not to disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the publisher, as appropriate.
Fairness and Objectivity: Peer review and editorial decisions are conducted impartially, without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
Diligence: All parties involved in the publication process — editors, authors, and reviewers — are expected to act with diligence and responsibility in fulfilling their roles.
Data and Source Transparency: Authors are expected to provide accurate and complete accounts of their research, including data, methodologies, and sources, to enable reproducibility and verification.

For detailed guidance on specific ethical issues (e.g., plagiarism, duplicate submission, fabrication/falsification, image manipulation), authors, reviewers, and editors are referred to the COPE Core Practices and the relevant sections in this policy document.

All allegations of misconduct will be investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines, and appropriate actions will be taken, which may include corrections, retractions, or bans on future submissions.

Peer Review

All journals published by Mason Publishing Group operate a double‑blinded peer review process as standard, unless otherwise specified on the journal's homepage.

For a comprehensive description of the peer review policy, including the review process, reviewer responsibilities, and benefits, please refer to the "For Reviewers" page on the relevant journal's website.

Key principles of our peer review process are summarized below:

Initial Screening: All submissions are initially assessed by the journal's editorial team for suitability, originality, and alignment with the journal's scope.
Independent Review: Manuscripts deemed suitable are sent to a minimum of two independent, expert reviewers for a rigorous assessment of scientific quality, validity, and significance.
Objectivity and Confidentiality: Reviews are conducted objectively and confidentially. Reviewers must not use information obtained during the review process for their own or others' advantage.
Timeliness: Reviewers are expected to provide their reports within the agreed timeframe. Editors actively manage the process to ensure efficient and timely decisions.
Editorial Decision: Final decisions on acceptance, revision, or rejection are made by the journal's editors, based on the reviewers' reports, editorial judgment, and the journal's policies.

For special issues and article collections, the peer review process follows the same rigorous standards. Guest editors handle the review process but final acceptance decisions are made by the journal's editor-in-chief, who oversees the entire process to ensure ethical standards are maintained.

Appeals: Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision may submit a formal appeal request to the Editor-in-Chief. Only one appeal per submission will be considered, and the appeal decision will be final.

Complaints & Appeals

Mason Publishing Group takes all complaints and appeals seriously and is committed to resolving them promptly, fairly, and transparently.

Scope

Complaints may relate to, but are not limited to:

Editorial decisions (see also "Appeals" below);
Delays in the peer review or publication process;
Concerns about the ethical conduct of authors, reviewers, or editors;
Issues with published content (e.g., errors, misconduct);
Service quality from the editorial office or publisher.

Procedure

Initial Contact: All complaints should first be directed to the editorial office of the relevant journal via email to editorialoffice@masonpublish.org. Please include the full details of the complaint, supporting evidence, and any relevant manuscript ID.
Acknowledgment: The editorial office will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 5 working days and provide an estimated timeline for resolution.
Investigation: The complaint will be investigated by the journal's editorial team, in consultation with the publisher's ethics committee where appropriate. The investigation will be conducted in accordance with COPE guidelines and internal procedures.
Resolution: A formal response will be provided to the complainant within 30 working days of acknowledgment. If the matter requires more time, the complainant will be informed of the delay and the revised timeline.
Escalation: If the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution, the matter may be escalated to the publisher's senior management at editorialoffice@masonpublish.org for final review.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors may appeal a decision to reject a manuscript only if they believe the decision was made based on a clear factual error, misunderstanding, or procedural irregularity. Appeals based solely on a difference of opinion regarding the significance or novelty of the findings will not be considered.

Appeals must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief within 14 days of the decision date.
The appeal should include a detailed justification and any new evidence or clarifications.
The Editor-in-Chief will review the appeal, and a final decision will be communicated within 30 days.
Only one appeal per submission is permitted, and the appeal decision is final.

Corrections & Retractions

Mason Publishing Group is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. When errors are identified in published articles, we will take appropriate action in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Corrections

A correction (or corrigendum) will be issued when a significant error is identified in a published article that does not affect the overall scientific validity or conclusion of the work, but requires clarification (e.g., a mistake in a figure, table, or author affiliation).

Corrections are published with a link back to the original article and are freely accessible.
The original article will be updated with a cross-reference to the correction notice.

Retractions

A retraction will be considered in cases of serious ethical or scientific misconduct, including but not limited to:

Evidence of data fabrication or falsification;
Plagiarism or self-plagiarism;
Duplicate publication (i.e., publishing the same work in multiple journals);
Authorship disputes that cannot be resolved;
Major errors that invalidate the findings or conclusions;
Violation of ethical research standards (e.g., lack of informed consent, unethical animal/human experimentation).

Retractions are issued in accordance with COPE guidelines. The retraction notice will be clearly labelled and linked to the original article. The original article will remain online with a watermark indicating it has been retracted.

Author Correction Requests

Authors who identify an error in their published work should contact the editorial office immediately at editorialoffice@masonpublish.org. The editorial team will assess the nature of the error and determine the appropriate action.

Authorship

Mason Publishing Group follows the authorship guidelines established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). For a full description of our authorship policy, please refer to the "For Authors" page on the relevant journal's website.

Key Principles

Substantial Contributions: All authors must have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; and have drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content; and have approved the final version to be published.
Accountability: All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Corresponding Author: One author is designated as the corresponding author, responsible for communication with the journal during submission, peer review, and after publication.

Changes to Authorship

Any changes to authorship (addition, deletion, or rearrangement) must be made prior to acceptance and require:

Written approval from all authors (including those being added or removed);
A formal request to the journal editor, with a clear justification for the change.

After acceptance, authorship changes are permitted only in exceptional circumstances and require the editor-in-chief's approval. Any approved post-acceptance changes will result in a corrigendum. Unauthorized authorship changes may lead to rejection or retraction.

AI and Authorship

Authors must not list or cite generative AI or AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author on the manuscript. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans. For further details, refer to the AI Use section below.

Conflicts of Interest

All parties involved in the publication process — authors, reviewers, and editors — are expected to disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could influence or bias their work or decisions.

For Authors

Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest at the time of submission. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Employment or consultancies with organizations that may benefit from the publication;
Stock ownership or honoraria;
Patent applications or registrations;
Grants or other funding from sources with a vested interest in the outcome.

The Declaration of Interests tool should be completed during submission.

For Reviewers

Reviewers must recuse themselves from reviewing a manuscript if they have a conflict of interest, including:

A recent or ongoing collaboration with the authors;
A personal or professional relationship that could bias their evaluation;
Financial or competitive interests in the outcome.

Reviewers who are unsure whether a conflict exists should contact the editorial office for guidance.

For Editors

Editors are not involved in making decisions about papers:

They have written themselves;
Written by family members or colleagues;
Relating to products or services in which they have an interest.

Such submissions are handled independently by another editor, following the journal's usual peer review procedures.

Copyright & Licensing

Copyright

Authors retain the copyright to their published work and grant Mason Publishing Group a license to publish. All articles published in our journals are made available under the terms of a Creative Commons license.

Open Access Licensing

Mason Publishing Group is committed to open access publishing. Unless otherwise specified, all articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) or an equivalent open license that allows:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Licensing details are clearly stated on the individual journal's website and within each published article.

Author Rights

Authors are permitted to:

Post their accepted manuscripts to institutional repositories, personal websites, or social networks, provided full citation to the published version is given;
Reproduce figures, tables, and excerpts from their own published work in subsequent publications, with appropriate acknowledgment.

Permissions

For any use of third-party copyrighted material (including figures, tables, or text excerpts), authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder and provide appropriate attribution in the manuscript.

Privacy

Mason Publishing Group is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all individuals involved in the publication process.

Collection and Use of Personal Data

Authors: Personal data (names, affiliations, email addresses, ORCID IDs) are collected for the purposes of submission, peer review, publication, and indexing. This information is used in the published article and may be shared with indexing and abstracting services.
Reviewers: Personal data (names, affiliations, email addresses) are collected to manage the peer review process and to provide reviewer recognition (e.g., certificates, Reviewer Board membership). Reviewers' identities are kept confidential in double-blinded review processes.
Editors and Editorial Board Members: Personal data are collected for journal governance and communication purposes and may be published on the journal's website.

Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against unauthorized access, loss, or misuse. Data are accessible only to authorized personnel on a need-to-know basis.

Data Retention

Personal data are retained only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected, or as required by legal, regulatory, or archival requirements.

User Rights

Individuals have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of their personal data, subject to legal and contractual obligations. Inquiries should be directed to editorialoffice@masonpublish.org.

AI Use

Mason Publishing Group recognizes the growing role of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in research and writing. We expect all uses of such tools to be transparent, accountable, and consistent with our ethical standards. For the full policy, please refer to the "For Authors" page.

Policy Summary

In Scientific Writing:

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies may be used only to improve readability and language, and must be applied with human oversight and control.
Authors are fully responsible and accountable for all content generated with AI assistance.
The use of such tools must be declared in a specific section of the manuscript (e.g., Declaration of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process).
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

In Figures, Images, and Artwork:

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts is not permitted.
The only exception is when AI is part of the research design or methodology (e.g., in biomedical imaging). In such cases, this must be described in detail in the methods section, including the name and version of the tool.
The use of generative AI for graphical abstracts or cover art is not permitted unless prior permission has been obtained from the journal editor and publisher.

Declaration Requirement:

Authors must add a declaration at the end of the manuscript when first submitted, using the following format:

Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.

If no AI tools were used in the writing process, no declaration is required.

Contact

For general inquiries, policy questions, or complaints, please contact the Mason Publishing Group editorial office:

Email: editorialoffice@masonpublish.org

Postal Address:
Mason Publishing Group
[Please insert full postal address here]

For journal-specific inquiries (e.g., submissions, special issues, editorial matters), please refer to the contact details provided on the relevant journal's homepage.

This policy is reviewed annually and updated as necessary to reflect evolving best practices and industry standards. All policies are subject to the applicable laws and regulations of the jurisdiction in which Mason Publishing Group operates.