Publication Policies

Contents

1. Publication Policy
2. Authorship and Contributor Changes
3. Unethical Practices and Research Misconduct
4. Similarity Screening and Plagiarism Control
5. Peer Review Policy
6. Open Access Policy
7. Article Processing Charges
8. Copyright and Licensing Terms
9. Article Withdrawal Policy
10. Complaints and Appeals Procedure
11. Advertising and Direct Marketing Policy
12. Editorial and Reviewer Responsibilities
13. Archiving and Long-Term Preservation Policy
14. Open Citation Standards
15. Supplementary Material and Special Issues Policy

1. Publication Policy

Tethys Environmental Science strives to adhere to global standards of ethical publishing and integrity in scholarly communication. The journal’s practices align with the principles promoted by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME.

Submissions must fit the journal’s scope, present original research, and be approved by all listed authors.

2. Authorship and Contributor Changes

Any changes to authorship after submission require written consent from all originally listed authors to ensure fair attribution and prevent disputes.

3. Unethical Practices and Research Misconduct

Unethical practices include plagiarism, duplicate submission, fraudulent authorship, data fabrication, salami slicing, copyright violations, and unmanaged conflicts of interest.

Articles violating ethical norms may be rejected, withdrawn, or corrected.

4. Similarity Screening and Plagiarism Control

All manuscripts are screened using similarity detection tools. Substantial overlap or self-plagiarism without citation may result in revision requests or rejection.

5. Peer Review Policy

Tethys Environmental Science is committed to maintaining high standards of academic quality and research integrity through a transparent and rigorous peer review process. The journal applies a structured evaluation system to ensure that all published articles meet scientific, ethical, and professional standards.

Peer Review Model

The journal employs a single-blind peer review model, in which reviewers remain anonymous while authors’ identities are known to reviewers. Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with expertise in the relevant field.

Initial Editorial Assessment

Upon submission, manuscripts undergo an initial screening by the editorial office to determine:

• Compliance with the journal’s aims and scope
• Basic scientific quality and clarity
• Adherence to formatting and ethical requirements
• Absence of significant similarity or plagiarism

Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be rejected without external review.

Reviewer Selection

Reviewers are selected based on their academic expertise, research experience, and publication record. The editorial team ensures that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the authors or the submitted work.

External reviewers are invited from national and international research communities to maintain objectivity and diversity of perspectives.

Review Criteria

Reviewers are asked to evaluate manuscripts according to the following criteria:

• Scientific originality and contribution to the field
• Methodological soundness and validity of results
• Clarity of presentation and organization
• Relevance to environmental science and journal scope
• Ethical compliance and transparency

Constructive feedback is encouraged to help authors improve their manuscripts.

Confidentiality and Objectivity

All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use any part of the manuscript for personal advantage.

Reviews must be conducted objectively and respectfully, without personal criticism or discriminatory language.

Decision Process

Based on reviewer reports, the Editor-in-Chief or assigned Associate Editor makes one of the following decisions:

• Accept
• Minor revision
• Major revision
• Reject

Final decisions are based on scientific merit, reviewer recommendations, and editorial judgment.

Revision and Resubmission

Authors receiving revision requests must submit a revised manuscript along with a detailed response to reviewer comments.

Revised submissions may be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation if necessary.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers and editors must disclose any conflicts of interest that could influence their evaluation. If a conflict is identified, the manuscript will be reassigned to another qualified reviewer or editor.

Ethical Oversight

If ethical concerns arise during peer review, such as suspected plagiarism, data manipulation, or authorship disputes, the editorial office will investigate in accordance with established ethical guidelines and may request clarification or documentation from the authors.

Timeliness and Efficiency

The journal strives to conduct the peer review process efficiently and fairly. Reviewers are requested to complete their evaluations within a reasonable time frame to ensure timely editorial decisions.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently and are not influenced by the authors’ institutional affiliations, nationality, gender, or external commercial interests.

Acknowledgement of Reviewers

Tethys Environmental Science recognizes the valuable contribution of reviewers to the scientific community and may acknowledge their service periodically, while maintaining reviewer confidentiality.

6. Open Access Policy

The journal follows a full open access model. All content is freely available and may be reused with proper attribution.

7. Article Processing Charges

Tethys Environmental Science does not charge submission fees or article processing charges.

8. Copyright and Licensing Terms

Authors retain copyright of their work. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.  Please visit for more details at the relevant page of Copyright and Licensing

9. Article Withdrawal Policy

Articles in Press may be withdrawn prior to publication due to errors, duplication, or confirmed misconduct. Withdrawn articles are replaced with an official notice.

10. Complaints and Appeals Procedure

Complaints must be submitted in writing within 12 months of publication. Editorial leadership investigates and responds appropriately.

11. Advertising and Direct Marketing Policy

The journal does not accept advertising or engage in direct marketing, ensuring editorial independence.

12. Editorial and Reviewer Responsibilities

Editors and reviewers evaluate manuscripts objectively, maintain confidentiality, avoid conflicts of interest, and report ethical concerns.

13. Archiving and Long-Term Preservation Policy

Tethys Environmental Science is committed to ensuring the long-term accessibility, preservation, and integrity of all published content. The journal recognizes the importance of safeguarding scholarly records against technological failure, data loss, and changes in digital formats.

To achieve this objective, the journal implements multiple archiving strategies that guarantee permanent availability of its publications.

All published articles are stored in secure digital repositories that support long-term preservation and stable access. These repositories ensure that journal content remains accessible even in the event of system failure or journal discontinuation.

The journal collaborates with recognized archiving platforms to maintain redundant and distributed backups of published materials.

Tethys Environmental Science deposits its published content in trusted external repositories such as:

• Zenodo (https://zenodo.org)
• Open Archives Initiative (https://www.openarchives.org/)
• Institutional and subject-based repositories where applicable

These platforms provide persistent identifiers and ensure durable access to scientific literature.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to archive the final published version of their articles on personal websites, institutional repositories, and academic networks, provided that proper citation and a link to the official journal version are included.

Self-archiving supports knowledge dissemination while preserving the integrity of the version of record.

Article metadata, including titles, author information, abstracts, keywords, and references, are preserved alongside full-text content to ensure discoverability and accurate indexing in scholarly databases.

Persistent identifiers such as DOIs (where applicable) are maintained to guarantee stable linking and citation.

All articles are stored in standardized digital formats (PDF and XML) to support long-term readability and compatibility with future technologies.

Regular checks are conducted to verify file integrity and accessibility.

The journal’s editorial team is responsible for monitoring preservation procedures and ensuring that archiving practices remain aligned with international standards for digital scholarly preservation.

Periodic reviews of archiving methods are conducted to improve reliability and compliance with best practices.

In the event that Tethys Environmental Science ceases publication, all archived content will remain publicly accessible through designated preservation services and repositories.

14. Open Citation Standards

The journal follows I4OC-compliant open citation standards to enhance transparency and scholarly connectivity.

15. Supplementary Material and Special Issues Policy

Supplementary materials and special issues are subject to the same ethical standards, originality requirements, similarity screening, and peer review as regular articles.