Determination and Handling of Papers Involved in Academic Misconduct

To promote the academic ethics of sci-tech journals and research integrity, protect the rights and interests of readers and authors, maintain our quality and reputation, Petroleum Reservoir Evaluation and Development strictly follows the editorial and publishing process, strictly conducting multiple checks and screenings of all submitted papers. For papers found to involve academic misconduct, the editorial department will retract the paper and take serious action as appropriate. The specific determination process and measures are announced as follows:

1.       The determination process of academic misconduct

The "Academic Misconduct Literature Check" system developed by CNKI will be adopted to check the paper. At the same time, we collect clues provided in peer review and use China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database to check full text articles to identify whether there is plagiarism, forgery, tampering, improper authorship, multiple submissions, or other misconducts. The editorial department will, with a cautious approach, invite experts in relevant research fields or the editorial board to review and confirm papers with a high similarity rate.

2.      Scope of papers to be checked

1)  All submitted papers, papers ready for acceptance and accepted papers;

2)  Published papers reported for suspected academic misconduct.

3.       Criteria for determining academic misconduct

"Academic Misconduct Literature Check" system of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) is used to test the papers. If the repetition rate is more than 10%, the editorial department will submit the paper together with the comparison paper to reviewers or the editorial board to determine the nature and form of the duplication of the paper and prepare the "Determination and Handling Report on the Similarity between the Paper and Comparison Paper".

The criteria for identifying a paper as an academic misconduct are as follows:

1) Authors copy the results of others without change or with minimal change.

2) Authors change the type of others' achievements and present them as their own independent work. Alternatively, they may leave the type of the achievement unchanged but use copyrighted content, altering its form of expression, and present others' work as their own independent achievement. 

3) Authors cite others' protected viewpoints, schemes, materials, data, etc., without indicating or listing the corresponding references.

4) The main content of the paper is the same as that published by the authors or others in print or online, with only some changes in the form and without substantial research progress.

5) Authors fabricate or tamper with research results, survey data, experimental data or literature materials in the paper.

6) Authors submit the same paper to other journals.

7) There are disputes over the authorship and authors’ affiliations.

4.       Handling of papers involved in academic misconduct

1) The editorial department will handle papers deemed to involve academic misconduct cautiously, inform the authors promptly, and allow them to explain and defend their work before the final decision is made.

2) If the paper has not been accepted, the editorial department will immediately terminate the processing process, reject the paper and give warning to the author.

3) If the paper has been accepted but not officially published, the editorial department will reject the paper and cancel its acceptance. At the same time, the author will be recorded and warned.

4) If the paper has been officially published, the editorial department will publish an announcement on the journal and the website to officially retract the publication, notify the cooperative database to delete the online version at the same time, and terminate the dissemination of the paper. At the same time, the editorial department will inform the author's affiliation. The author shall return the remuneration, apologize to the journal, relevant party, institute, and all the readers on the paper for the infringement and the adverse effects and shall bear the corresponding responsibilities. If the reputation of the journal is influenced or other losses are caused to the journal, the editorial department have the right to claim compensation.

5) For cases of serious plagiarism or multi-submission, the editorial department will not accept any paper written by the author as the first author or corresponding author within 3 years.

5. Handling of author’s appeal

If the author of the paper doesn’t agree with the determination and handling, he/she can submit a written application for recheck within 10 working days after receiving the notification from the journal (we don’t accept an overdue appeal). The editorial department will invite experts for the recheck of the paper and make a final decision. The editorial department will inform the author of the final results within 30 working days.

The above measures shall come into effect from the date of publication, and the editorial department of Petroleum Reservoir Evaluation and Development shall reserve the right of interpretation.

Editorial Department of Petroleum Reservoir Evaluation and Development