1. General Ethical Principles

SELI expects every manuscript to be prepared, reviewed, edited, and published according to principles of honesty, transparency, accountability, originality, confidentiality, and fairness. The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, citation manipulation, unethical authorship, or any form of academic misconduct.

• Editorial decisions are based on academic merit, relevance to journal scope, originality, methodological rigor, and ethical compliance.
• All manuscripts must be original and must not be under consideration by another journal at the same time.
• All sources, theories, data, figures, tables, and ideas from other works must be properly cited.
• Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any potential conflict of interest.
• The peer review process must be conducted confidentially and professionally.

2. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts meet academic, ethical, and technical requirements. By submitting a manuscript to SELI, authors confirm that the work is original, accurate, ethically prepared, and not submitted elsewhere.

• Originality: Authors must submit only original work and properly acknowledge the work and ideas of others.
• No Duplicate Submission: Manuscripts must not be submitted to more than one journal simultaneously.
• Accurate Data and Results: Authors must present research data, analysis, and findings honestly without fabrication, falsification, or manipulation.
• Proper Citation: All references must be accurate, traceable, and relevant. Fabricated references are strictly prohibited.
• Authorship Transparency: All listed authors must have made a meaningful contribution to the manuscript and approve the final version.
• Conflict of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, personal, or professional conflicts that may influence the research.
• Ethical Approval: Research involving human participants, sensitive data, or institutional data must comply with applicable ethical standards and approval requirements.
• Correction Responsibility: Authors must promptly inform the editor if they discover significant errors or inaccuracies after submission or publication.

3. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers assist editors in making editorial decisions and help authors improve the quality of their manuscripts. Reviewers must conduct evaluations objectively, confidentially, and professionally.

• Confidentiality: Manuscripts and review materials must be treated as confidential documents.
• Objectivity: Reviews must be based on academic merit and supported by clear reasoning.
• Constructive Feedback: Reviewer comments should be respectful, specific, and useful for improving the manuscript.
• Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must decline review invitations if they have conflicts of interest or insufficient expertise.
• Ethical Alert: Reviewers should inform the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data, inappropriate citations, or other ethical concerns.
• Timeliness: Reviewers should complete reviews within the agreed deadline or notify the editor if additional time is required.

4. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for managing manuscripts fairly, transparently, and independently. Editorial decisions must be based on the manuscript’s quality, originality, relevance, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field.

• Editorial Independence: Decisions must be free from commercial, institutional, political, or personal influence.
• Fair Evaluation: Manuscripts must be evaluated without discrimination based on nationality, religion, gender, ethnicity, institutional affiliation, or personal background.
• Peer Review Integrity: Editors must ensure that manuscripts are reviewed by qualified reviewers through a confidential and fair process.
• Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts, authors, reviewers, and editorial communications.
• Ethical Handling: Editors must investigate suspected misconduct and take appropriate action when ethical concerns arise.
• Correction and Retraction: Editors should issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when required to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

5. Responsibilities of the Publisher

The publisher supports editorial independence, ethical publishing practice, digital preservation, metadata quality, and long-term access to published content. The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions and supports the journal in handling ethical issues, corrections, retractions, and publication integrity matters.

6. Generative AI and Publication Ethics

SELI recognizes that generative AI tools may support academic writing when used responsibly. However, AI tools must not replace author responsibility, scholarly judgment, data validity, ethical reasoning, or expert analysis.

• AI tools may be used for grammar, clarity, translation, or language polishing.
• AI tools must not be listed as authors.
• AI-generated content must be verified by the author(s).
• Use of AI must be disclosed when relevant to manuscript preparation.
• Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts into public AI systems.

7. Handling Research and Publication Misconduct

SELI takes allegations of research and publication misconduct seriously. Suspected misconduct will be reviewed carefully and handled in accordance with ethical publishing principles. The journal may request clarification, supporting documents, raw data, similarity reports, ethical approval, or institutional confirmation when necessary.

Possible editorial actions include manuscript rejection, request for correction, publication of correction notice, expression of concern, article retraction, notification to relevant institutions, or restriction from future submissions depending on the severity of the case.

8. Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

All submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity detection tools. SELI recommends a similarity level of ≤ 12%, excluding references and common phrases. Manuscripts with excessive similarity, improper paraphrasing, or unattributed content may be returned for revision or rejected before peer review.

9. Open Access, Copyright, and License

SELI provides open access to published articles to support broad dissemination of scholarly knowledge. Published articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Authors retain copyright while granting the journal the right to publish, distribute, preserve, and make the article accessible through the journal platform.

10. Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Updates

SELI is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. If errors, ethical concerns, or reliability issues are identified after publication, the editorial team may issue a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction depending on the nature and severity of the issue. All post-publication updates will be handled transparently and documented appropriately.