Publishing Statement of Metal Mine
The Publishing Statement of Metal Mine includes the Publishing Ethics Statement, Open Access Statement, Legal Statement for Website Content, etc., and is intended to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the journal’s authors, readers, reviewers, editors, and users of research results. The sole official website of Metal Mine is www.jsks.net.cn, and it is also the only manuscript processing platform.
Publishing Ethics Statement
The Publishing Ethics Statement is formulated with reference to the publishing ethics norms of internationally renowned publishing groups and domestic scientific and technological journal peers, and in light of the actual situation of Metal Mine. Its purpose is to establish good professional ethics, regulate the responsibilities of everyone involved in writing, reviewing, and publishing, and provide reference for various roles such as authors, academic groups, editors, reviewers, and readers.
I. Authors and Responsibilities
1.Authorship
The authorship of a paper should truthfully reflect the work and contributions of the listed authors. Listed authors must:
(1) make substantive contributions to the paper’s design concept, experimental research, data collection, analysis of results, etc.;
(2) prepare the paper or make major revisions to important academic content;
(3) conduct a final review of and be responsible for the paper’s quality, and be accountable for the paper’s academic integrity;
(4) all listed authors must satisfy at least one of the above requirements and agree to be responsible for all aspects of their research, especially regarding integrity.
2.Conflict of Interest Disclosure
To ensure a fair and impartial evaluation of papers, protect the interests of all relevant parties, and avoid conflicts of interest, authors are obliged to:
(1) state, according to specific requirements, the source, sponsor, and author affiliations of relevant projects. ① Fund project: XXX (fund name), XXX (institution name); ② The paper uses unpublished data of XXX (organization name); ③ The authors’ affiliations should be listed directly below the authors’ names.
(2) clearly identify, if any, authors’ relatives, supervisors, or close collaborators on the editorial board, as well as any interest relationships within their institutions that may in any way affect the fair and impartial evaluation of the paper, according to the specific requirements in force: ① I, XXX (author name), hold the position of XXX (position title) at XXX (institution name); ② Editorial board member XXX is my supervisor or colleague; ③ Reviewers who should be recused.
The above requirements should be stated at the time of manuscript submission.
3.Changes in Authorship
If some authors need to be added or removed before publication, the corresponding author should promptly submit a written application to the editorial office, obtain the consent of all authors, and have them sign a letter of consent.
II. Handling Possible Misconduct
This journal always upholds strict academic ethical standards and resolutely prohibits all academic misconduct. If academic misconduct occurs during the publication process, we will actively assist relevant departments in conducting investigations. If there is sufficient evidence, punitive measures such as retraction and notification to the authors’ institutions will be taken. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:
1.Duplicate Publication
It mainly involves three forms: ① multiple submission of the same manuscript; ② papers with a high similarity rate (similarity check rate above 30%); ③ disguised duplicate publication.
2.Undisclosed Conflict of Interest
Authors are obliged to disclose all parties involved in any conflict of interest that may affect the objective evaluation of the paper. This includes interests related to economic matters (such as patent and securities holdings, consulting fees, and speaking fees), personal matters, politics, intelligence, or religion. If there is any intentional failure to disclose a conflict of interest, measures will be taken in accordance with applicable regulations.
3.Fabrication/Falsification
(1) Fabrication refers to inventing data or facts.
(2) Falsification refers to intentionally altering data and facts in order to make them appear true.
Malicious tampering with data is also included in this type of misconduct. In cases of tampering or fabrication, the editorial office will directly retract the paper and issue a warning to the authors.
4.Plagiarism
Plagiarism refers to an author publishing another person’s or existing ideas, viewpoints, data, images, research methods, linguistic expressions, etc. directly under their own name without citation or explanation, or excessively citing content from others’ published literature. In cases of plagiarism, the editorial office will directly retract the paper and issue a warning to the authors.
5.Entrusted Third-Party Submission
The editorial office does not accept entrusted submissions or third-party submissions. The sole official website of the journal is www.jsks.net.cn, and all submissions must be uploaded through the official website’s submission system. If, during editorial processing, it is found that an author has committed academic misconduct or that a paper comes from a “paper mill” or other misconduct, the resulting losses shall be borne by the author. If a manuscript has already been accepted, the article page charge will not be refunded.
III. Peer Review
1.Peer Review Process
(1) All papers must be submitted through the online submission system (www.jsks.net.cn). The editorial office then organizes reviewers from different specialties to conduct rigorous peer review (double-blind). The editorial office pays review fees to the reviewers. Papers must be prepared in strict accordance with the journal’s academic norms and format requirements.
(2) Each paper is generally processed in 1 to 3 months on average. Authors can check the review progress and results on the journal’s official website and may maintain communication with the responsible editor.
(3) Paper review is free. Metal Mine does not charge a review fee for submissions and only charges page charges for accepted papers. Page charges are uniformly remitted to the sponsor, Sinosteel Maanshan General Institute of Mining Research Co., Ltd., and invoices are issued. After publication, authors will receive remuneration in accordance with the law, and the editorial office will provide 2 sample copies.
Other norms of the review process:
(1) After a paper is successfully submitted, the system will automatically send an acknowledgment notice to the author by email.
(2) Revision comments will be sent to the author by email, and the author may also check the review comments in the review system. In principle, authors should submit the revised version through the system.
(3) External reviewers may request a second review of some papers that require revision, and the editorial office will organize peer review again based on the author’s revisions.
2.Responsibilities of Reviewers
(1) Ensure the confidentiality of the paper during the review process. Without the author’s prior permission, the detailed information of the paper must not be disclosed to anyone.
(2) Disclose all existing conflicts of interest (if any) when responding to a review invitation and submitting review comments. If a reviewer cannot provide impartial review comments, they should decline the review invitation. The reviewer’s main potential conflicts of interest are as follows: the reviewer has recently collaborated with the author on research; the reviewer works at the same institution as the author; there is direct competition, a personal conflict, or an intimate relationship between the reviewer and the author; there is a relationship or close connection between the reviewer and the author; or the reviewer has economic interests related to the paper.
(3) Destroy the paper and related supporting materials after the review is completed.
(4) Accept a review invitation only when one has professional competence in the paper’s field and can provide a reasonable review time.
(5) Do not entrust others to review without the prior permission of the editorial office.
(6) Do not be influenced by the source of the paper or the authorship.
(7) Do not require authors to cite the reviewer’s papers or papers related to the reviewer unless there is a strong academic and theoretical basis.
(8) Remove low-quality, delayed, insulting, and unconstructive review comments.
3.Review Requirements and Standards
To ensure the journal’s academic quality, writing guidelines and corresponding review requirements are provided for different types of papers. For details, see the column settings and author submission instructions on the official website of Metal Mine (www.jsks.net.cn).
IV. Complaint Mechanism
1.Objections to review comments. Authors are allowed to raise objections when sufficient information or evidence is available (such as providing additional facts, corrections, or supplementary materials, or objecting to conflicts of interest or unfair peer review). Authors are welcome to file reasonable appeals when there is sufficient evidence. The editorial office’s decision is final. Repeated complaints or complaints without factual evidence will not be accepted.
2.Complaints about editorial work. If an editor commits any professional misconduct during manuscript processing, a complaint may be filed with clear information or supporting materials, and feedback on the handling will be provided. Complaint telephone: 0555-2404666.
V. Correction Notice
If any errors are found in previously published papers, especially those that may affect the interpretation of certain data or content (excluding major errors in the main viewpoints or conclusions), regardless of the cause of the error (author or editor), a correction notice will be promptly issued in the following ways:
(1) Once an error is found, a correction notice will be promptly published on the journal’s official website and listed in the latest issue.
(2) The correction notice includes the clearly cited original text, the reason for the error, and the corrected version.
(3) The paper will be corrected on the journal’s website and database platforms.
Authors and readers are also welcome to contact the editorial office promptly if they find errors in papers or have reasonable concerns about the legality of papers.
VI. Retraction Notice
If a paper involving legal infringement, defamation, or other legal restrictions is published, or if confirmed academic misconduct occurs (for specific definitions, see “II. Handling Possible Misconduct”), a retraction notice will be promptly issued in the following ways:
(1) Once a paper is found to involve academic misconduct or legal restrictions, a retraction notice will be promptly published on the journal’s official website and listed in the latest issue.
(2) The retraction notice consists of the clearly cited original text and the reasons for retraction. Detailed evidence will be made public in the journal’s online edition.
(3) The paper will be promptly removed from the journal’s website and database platforms.
VII. Advertising
This journal strictly implements the separation of editorial and business operations. The journal accepts promotional advertisements for mining equipment, reviews the advertising content, and charges advertising fees for ordinary pages at the standard rate of RMB 3,000 per page per issue.
Open Access Statement
Metal Mine is an open access journal. All articles, once published, will be immediately and permanently available for readers to read and download free of charge.
I. User Rights
Metal Mine uses a Creative Commons license and allows third-party users to share under the Attribution (BY)-NonCommercial (NC)-NoDerivatives (ND) (CC BY-NC-ND) terms, i.e., third parties are allowed to copy, distribute, display, perform, screen, broadcast, or communicate to the public through information networks the articles published in this journal, provided that appropriate attribution is given, a link to this license is provided, and whether changes were made (to the original work) is indicated. Users may give attribution in any reasonable manner, but may not in any way suggest that the licensor endorses the user or the use. These rights are limited to non-commercial purposes and no derivative works may be created. For details, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
II. Author Rights
After a manuscript is accepted, the author needs to sign a “Copyright Transfer Agreement” with the editorial office to transfer copyright to Metal Mine. However, the author has the right to allow third parties to share their article in accordance with the Creative Commons license (such as depositing it in an institutional repository), and the author may also use it for other academic (non-commercial) purposes.
III. Publication Fees
To support open access publishing, Metal Mine charges an article publishing charge (APC), which must be paid by the author or their institution, funding project, etc. The charge is RMB 400 to 500 per thousand characters, with figures and tables converted into characters according to the standard. The editorial office has established a page charge discount policy based on paper quality, and outstanding papers may enjoy a discount.
Legal Statement for Website Content
The editorial office is legally responsible only for the sole official website of Metal Mine, www.jsks.net.cn.
Article 1 All materials published on this website are for reference only. Authors may submit manuscripts online and check manuscript status, and the journal’s publications are regularly released on this website.
Article 2 When users of this website participate in various activities held by the website, we will, with your consent and confirmation, request that you provide certain personal information through registration forms and other means, such as your name, gender, age, date of birth, education level, company details, industry, etc. Please be assured that, without your consent, we will never disclose any of your information to any third party in any way.
Article 3 When government judicial authorities require this website to disclose personal information in accordance with legal procedures, we will provide the personal information in accordance with the requirements of law enforcement agencies or for the purpose of public safety. This website shall be exempt from liability for any disclosure under such circumstances.
Article 4 This website shall not be liable for any leakage of personal information caused by users telling others their personal passwords or sharing registered accounts with others.
Article 5 This website shall be exempt from liability for any leakage, loss, theft, or tampering of personal information caused by force majeure affecting normal network operations, such as hacker attacks, computer virus intrusion or outbreak, or temporary shutdown due to government regulation.
Article 6 This website shall be exempt from liability for personal information leakage caused by other websites linked to this website and any legal disputes and consequences arising therefrom.
Article 7 If this website needs to suspend services due to system maintenance or upgrades, prior notice will be given. If service suspension is caused by line failures, hardware failures beyond the Company’s control, or other force majeure, this website shall not be liable for any inconvenience or losses caused during the suspension.
Article 8 If users of this website violate the provisions of this statement and thereby violate the laws of the People’s Republic of China, they shall be solely responsible for all consequences, and this website shall not bear any liability.
Article 9 Anyone who logs into this website in any way or directly or indirectly uses the materials on this website shall be deemed to have voluntarily accepted the constraints of this website’s statement.
Article 10 Matters not covered in this statement shall be governed by relevant national laws and regulations. If this statement conflicts with national laws and regulations, national laws and regulations shall prevail.
Article 11 This website’s statement, as well as the rights to modify, update, and finally interpret it, belong to this website.