Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Geliotekhnika is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, editorial independence, impartiality, and transparency in order to protect the reliability of the scholarly record. This policy defines the ethical responsibilities of authors, editors, reviewers, the publisher, and other parties involved in the publication process.

The journal follows the COPE Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME. The CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy, the current Declaration of Helsinki, and the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines are applied where relevant.

Responsibilities of the Publisher

I-EDU GROUP LLC, as the provider of publishing services and technical platform support, is responsible for:

  • Editorial Independence: protecting the independence of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board and not interfering in decisions to accept, revise, or reject individual manuscripts.

  • Infrastructure and Resources: providing the editorial, technical, administrative, and digital infrastructure required for the effective operation of the journal.

  • Ethical Support: assisting the editors in addressing allegations of misconduct, disputes, corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern under established procedures.

  • Transparency: ensuring that information about journal ownership, management, fees, copyright, licensing, peer review, and editorial policies is accurate and publicly accessible.

  • Digital Preservation: maintaining reliable digital archiving and preservation arrangements to support the long-term accessibility of published content.

Responsibilities of the Editors

The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team are responsible for:

  • Editorial Decisions: evaluating manuscripts solely on their scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal’s scope, clarity, and significance.

  • Non-Discrimination: ensuring that decisions are not influenced by an author’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion, citizenship, nationality, institutional affiliation, disability, political beliefs, academic position, or other personal characteristics.

  • Peer Review Management: ensuring fair, timely, confidential, and academically rigorous review by appropriately qualified specialists.

  • Confidentiality: protecting submitted manuscripts, author and reviewer information, editorial correspondence, and unpublished data.

  • Conflicts of Interest: disclosing and appropriately managing financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts. An editor must recuse themselves from handling a manuscript when such a conflict exists.

  • Research Integrity: assessing possible plagiarism, duplicate publication, authorship disputes, data or image manipulation, fabrication, falsification, and other misconduct.

  • Post-Publication Action: issuing corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other notices when necessary to preserve the accuracy of the scholarly record.

Editors must not use unpublished information from submitted manuscripts for personal research or advantage without the authors’ written permission.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must:

  • provide objective, evidence-based, and constructive assessments;

  • review only manuscripts within their area of expertise;

  • complete reviews within the agreed period or promptly notify the editorial office of a delay;

  • maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts, data, methods, results, and editorial communications;

  • refrain from using unpublished information for personal, professional, or commercial advantage;

  • disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest and decline the assignment when impartiality cannot be ensured;

  • alert the editors to important uncited work, suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data or image manipulation, and other ethical concerns;

  • avoid personal criticism, discriminatory language, hostile comments, and unsupported allegations;

  • communicate with authors only through the editorial office during peer review.

A reviewer must not delegate a review to another person without prior permission from the editorial office.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must:

  • submit original work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration by another journal;

  • present research methods, data, analyses, and findings accurately, completely, and transparently;

  • provide sufficient methodological detail to permit verification, replication, or further development of the research;

  • retain primary research records and make supporting data available in accordance with the journal’s Data Availability Policy;

  • cite relevant sources accurately and avoid plagiarism, inappropriate text reuse, and citation manipulation;

  • avoid fabrication, falsification, selective reporting, inappropriate image manipulation, and misleading presentation of results;

  • disclose all funding sources and relevant financial, professional, institutional, or personal competing interests;

  • ensure that every listed author meets the journal’s authorship criteria and has approved the submitted and final versions of the manuscript;

  • obtain permission for any copyrighted material reproduced in the manuscript.

Where research involves human participants, identifiable human data, human-derived materials, animals, or another activity subject to ethical oversight, authors must obtain all required approvals and report the approving authority, approval number, and relevant consent information.

Authors must promptly notify the editorial office when they discover a significant error in a submitted or published work and cooperate in issuing an appropriate correction or retraction.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the work and who accept responsibility for its content.

All authors must approve the final version, agree to its submission and publication, identify their own contribution, and accept accountability for the integrity of the work. Author contributions should be described using the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy where applicable.

Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria should be named, with their permission, in the Acknowledgments section. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must include a justified explanation and written agreement from all affected authors.

Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers, editors, and other participants must disclose any relationship or circumstance that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, peer review, or editorial decision-making process.

Competing interests may include grants, employment, consultancy fees, honoraria, patents, stock ownership, personal relationships, professional disputes, recent collaboration or co-authorship, institutional affiliations, and academic, ideological, or competitive interests.

The existence of a competing interest does not automatically prevent publication, but it must be transparently disclosed and appropriately managed.

Research and Publication Misconduct

Misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism and inappropriate text reuse;

  • fabrication or falsification of data;

  • manipulation of images, figures, tables, or results;

  • duplicate or redundant publication;

  • simultaneous submission to multiple journals;

  • citation manipulation;

  • undisclosed competing interests;

  • unethical research;

  • improper authorship or contributorship;

  • peer review manipulation;

  • unauthorized use of confidential information.

Allegations will be assessed fairly, confidentially, and without prejudging the outcome. The journal may request explanations, primary data, ethics documentation, authorship records, or other evidence. Where appropriate, the journal may contact the authors’ institution, ethics committee, funding body, or another competent authority. Investigations will follow relevant COPE guidance.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit complaints concerning editorial procedures, publication ethics, staff conduct, peer review, or published content.

An author may appeal an editorial decision when a significant factual, procedural, or ethical error is believed to have occurred. An appeal must include a clear explanation and supporting evidence. Whenever possible, a complaint or appeal will be considered by an editor or other qualified person who was not directly involved in the disputed decision. Disagreement solely with the academic judgement of an editor or reviewer is not sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

A correction may be issued when an error does not invalidate the principal results or conclusions of an article.

A retraction may be issued when findings are unreliable because of a major error or misconduct, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, or manipulation.

An expression of concern may be issued when credible concerns exist but an investigation is incomplete, inconclusive, or substantially delayed.

Each notice will clearly identify the affected article, explain the reason for the action, remain freely accessible, and be electronically linked to the original publication. Retraction is not a punishment but a mechanism for correcting the scholarly record.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Artificial intelligence systems and large language models cannot be listed as authors. If generative artificial intelligence has been used substantially to prepare text, code, images, data analysis, translation, or other content, the authors must disclose the tool, version, and purpose of use in accordance with the journal’s requirements. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, and legal and ethical compliance of all AI-assisted content.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, images, data, or editorial correspondence to public AI services that do not guarantee confidentiality and copyright protection.

Human and Animal Research and Engineering Safety

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data, or human-derived materials must comply with applicable national and institutional requirements and the current version of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Research involving live animals must comply with applicable legislation, institutional requirements, and recognized animal welfare standards and should be reported under ARRIVE 2.0 where relevant.

Work involving high temperatures, electrical systems, pressurized equipment, chemical or hazardous materials, radiation, experimental energy installations, industrial facilities, or field testing must comply with applicable occupational safety, environmental, institutional, and legal requirements. Necessary permissions and relevant safety measures must be reported in the manuscript.

If ethical approval was not required, the manuscript must state this clearly and provide an appropriate explanation where necessary.

External Standards

The journal’s editorial and publishing practices are informed by:

  • COPE Core Practices;

  • Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing;

  • the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy;

  • the Declaration of Helsinki and ARRIVE 2.0, where applicable;

  • applicable national legislation, institutional requirements, and internationally recognized research integrity standards.

Policy Administration

This policy takes effect on the date of its publication on the journal’s official website and will be reviewed periodically to maintain alignment with applicable ethical standards and the editorial practices of the journal.

Questions, complaints, appeals, or allegations of misconduct should be submitted to the Editorial Office of Geliotekhnika at ftikans@uzsci.net. All matters will be considered in accordance with the journal’s applicable policies and relevant COPE guidance.

ISSN 0130-0997 (Print)
ISSN 2181-9963 (Online)