Scientific research integrity is the cornerstone of technological innovation, and upholding scientific research integrity is a principle that must be adhered to throughout all stages of academic activities, including research, publication, and communication processes. As a key platform for sharing outstanding achievements within the coatings industry, Paint & Coatings Industry is committed to maintaining research integrity and adhering to publishing ethics. To strengthen the construction of research integrity in Paint & Coatings Industry, standardize the entire process from manuscript preparation and review to publication, and resist academic misconduct, this journal has formulated this Publishing Ethics. This statement is based on relevant publication ethics guidelines, such as the Copyright Law and regulations of publishing-ethics-related organizations, such as COPE, combined with the journal's actual situation. Authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers are expected to refer to this statement. In the event of misconduct during the manuscript review and publication process, or upon receiving a report of academic misconduct concerning a published paper, the journal will handle the case following this statement and the recommendations and principles of COPE and other related publication ethics organizations.
The duties of authors mainly include the following aspects:
1. Authors who report original research achievements shall provide a detailed description of their work, and potential data shall be included in the manuscripts. The manuscript should contain sufficient details and references to enable the reproducibility of the research. False or knowingly incorrect statements are unacceptable. Articles reviewed and professionally published shall be accurate and objective.
2. Authors should be able to provide the original data and images from the manuscripts to the editorial office for review. These data and images should be retained for a period following the publication of articles, if possible. Authors should also cooperate with the editorial office's requests by preparing supporting materials such as fund approval documents and the project name for review purposes. Authors are responsible for the authenticity of articles, ensuring that data are neither fabricated nor altered or misinterpreted through deceptive means.
3. Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. If they reference the work or words of others, proper citation is required. When using others' research findings, authors should provide clear acknowledgment and obtain permission from the original author in accordance with the Copyright Law to avoid infringing intellectual financial rights. Plagiarism in any form — including copying others' work, extensively reproducing content without proper citation, or adopting others' research results without acknowledgment — is unacceptable. Authors must also ensure that their articles do not contain confidential information.
4. Authors must not publish the same research in more than one publication, as "duplicate submission" is prohibited. Additionally, authors should avoid splitting one manuscript into multiple manuscripts to submit or publishing the same content repeatedly.
5. Writing, submitting, or revising the manuscripts by third parties is strictly prohibited.
6. Contributions made by others must be acknowledged. Publications significantly contributing to the manuscripts to be published shall be cited. Information obtained privately, such as through conversations, correspondence, or discussions with third parties, shall be used with explicit written permission from the source. Information obtained from private services, such as data of fund management, shall be used with written permission from the author of that work.
7. Authorship of Articles
(1) Authorship is limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the articles. All individuals who have made substantial contributions can be listed as co-authors, including those who: (ⅰ) have made significant contributions to the conception or design of the research, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; (ⅱ) have drafted the manuscript, or revised it critically for important intellectual content; (ⅲ) have approved the final version to be published; (ⅳ) have agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that any issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Individuals who provide only technical support, financial aid, or material resources should not be listed as authors. Those who contribute certain key aspects of the research project may be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section. The corresponding authors shall ensure that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission and publication.
(2) In principle, the order of authorship should be determined based on the extent of each author's contribution and must be mutually agreed upon by all listed authors. This order should be confirmed at the time of submission, along with the completion of the Author Contribution Statement (available for download from the "Download" section). Changes to the listed authors or affiliations are generally not permitted. If changes are truly necessary, the primary contributors (first author and corresponding author) must submit a request for modification to the editorial office, providing a statement of reasons. This request must be signed by all listed authors. When adding or removing an author, the modification request must also include the signature of the author being added or removed.
(3) Typically, only one corresponding author should be designated. However, in the case of standardized multicenter or multidisciplinary collaborative research, additional corresponding authors may be considered if justified. These additional corresponding authors are generally expected to be academic leaders from different research institutions or research teams involved in the collaboration.
(4) Authors must provide their names and affiliations when submitting their manuscripts. The listed affiliations should be relevant to the research content. If an affiliation is unrelated, the author must explain their contribution to the research or provide a certificate from their institution confirming their involvement in the research.
(5) If an author's affiliated institution differs from the institution responsible for topic selection, research design, conducting the research, or providing research resources (such as cases involving postgraduates who have left their training institution, specialized training students, visiting scholars, or collaborative researchers), the institution that provided the research conditions and facilitated the completion of the study should be listed as the first affiliation.
8. Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may affect the research findings. At the time of submission, a Conflict of Interest Statement must be completed (available for download via "Download" section). A potential conflict of interest exists when the financial, personal, or affiliative relationships of the author (or author's institution/employer) may influence the author's decisions, work, or manuscript. If specific products are mentioned in the manuscript, authors shall disclose whether there is any conflict of interest with competing products.
9. If an author discovers a significant error in a previously published article, they have an obligation to promptly inform the journal's editor and request a retraction or a correction statement. If the editor learns of a significant error in a published article from a third party, the author is obliged to cooperate with the editor in retracting the article or publishing a correction statement.
10. If authors disagree with the review comments or review results, they may submit a written appeal to the editorial office, providing a detailed explanation and clarification for each review comment.
The duties of editors mainly include the following aspects:
1. The journal will directly reject manuscripts with a similarity rate exceeding 20% (excluding references). Editors should make decisions on whether to accept the manuscript in consultation with the editorial board and following relevant regulations after discussing with other editors or reviewers.
2. Editors should process each manuscript fairly, impartially, and promptly, based solely on the content of the author's article, without considering the author's institution, nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, or other personal factors.
3. Apart from the relevant authors, reviewers, other editorial reviewers, and publishers, editors must not disclose the submitted manuscript or reviewer information to any other parties.
4. Editors shall ensure that the review process is fair.
(1) Editors must not interfere in peer review due to personal interests and should strive to ensure the independence of each reviewer to guarantee a fair and unbiased peer review process.
(2) When selecting manuscript reviewers, editors should avoid choosing reviewers from the same institution as the author and must not select an author as a reviewer.
(3) If considering reviewers recommended by the author, the editor should verify their identity and choose them carefully, avoiding selecting reviewers who are former supervisors, students, co-authors, or others with close personal relationships to the author.
(4) If the author has proposed reviewers to be avoided, the editor should make every effort to avoid selecting those reviewers.
(5) Editors shall seriously handle authors' appeals with caution, organizing collective discussions or asking reviewers to re-evaluate the manuscript, ensuring that handling and investigation are fair.
5. Editors must disclose any conflicts of interest related to the articles.
(1) Unpublished materials from submitted manuscripts cannot be used for the editors' own research.
(2) Information obtained from reviewers shall be kept confidential and cannot be used for personal purposes.
(3) A potential conflict of interest exists if the content of the article or the financial/personal/affiliative relationships of the author (or author's institution/employer) could influence the editor's decisions or work or if the editor is one of the authors. In such cases, the manuscripts should be assigned to another editor for handling.
6. Editors should be reasonable and rigorous when revising manuscripts or making rejection decisions.
(1) Editors have an obligation to remind authors of potential copyright and intellectual property issues that may arise after changes to author name, affiliations, and their order.
(2) Editors should provide authors with as much detailed feedback as possible regarding revisions or reasons for rejection.
(3) Editors shall respect the author's views and writing style. Any key modifications involving academic viewpoints or other essential changes to the manuscript should be made with the author's agreement.
7. The editorial office must take reasonable measures to address academic misconduct, including informing the authors, contacting relevant research institutions, and even issuing correction or retraction statements. Even if the article has been published for years, such academic misconduct should still be addressed.
Reviewers, who assist editors in reviewing manuscripts and help authors revise articles, shall be experts in relevant fields. The duties of reviewers mainly include the following aspects:
1. If a reviewer finds that the manuscript assigned to them is not aligned with their area of expertise, or if they are unable to review it on time, they must promptly notify the editor and withdraw from the review process. If a reviewer encounters a manuscript they have reviewed previously, they have an obligation to inform the editorial office and provide review comments according to the journal's inclusion standards.
2. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality regarding the content of the manuscript and the review process. They are prohibited from disclosing data, information, arguments, or other details from the manuscript to others and must also keep their identity and the details of the review process confidential. Additionally, after completing the review, reviewers must not retain the manuscript in any form and must comply with data protection regulations.
3. Reviewers shall evaluate the manuscript in a fair, impartial, and objective manner without any bias or discrimination based on the author, research institution, region, qualifications, ethnicity, or other factors.
4. Reviewers must not use any confidential information, such as data or results from the manuscript under review, for their research purposes.
5. Reviewers should not consider conflicts of interest related to competitors, collaborators, or other affiliated authors, companies, and research institutions. They should proactively disclose any potential conflicts of interest to the editorial office and recuse themselves from reviewing the manuscript if necessary.
6. Reviewers should clearly express their opinions and provide sufficient evidence to support their arguments.
7. Reviewers should identify works that the others have not cited in the manuscript and inform the editor of any overlap with published works that they are aware of.
8. If reviewers discover potential issues related to publication ethics in the manuscript, they should promptly notify the editorial office. This includes, but is not limited to, academic misconduct such as plagiarism, data falsification, or other unethical behaviors.
1. Placement: Advertisements in this journal are mainly published on the cover, inside pages, and back cover of the printed journals. The advertisements are placed separately from the academic content published in the journal.
2. Formal statement: The presentation of advertisements is entirely distinct from academic content. The inclusion of advertisements will not influence the editorial or acceptance decisions for any submitted manuscripts.
3. Advertisement Requirements: Advertisers must ensure the authenticity of their advertisement content. The journal will verify relevant supporting materials and check the advertisement content according to the Advertising Law and other applicable laws and regulations. Advertisements that are inconsistent with the actual content or lack proper supporting materials will be rejected.
The editorial office strives to respect the protection of intellectual property and requires editors, authors, and reviewers to do the same. Any potential infringement must be avoided. Third-party organizations must also respect the journal's intellectual property and refrain from infringement. While ensuring the protection of intellectual property, the journal encourages open science practices, including the publication and sharing of research data where appropriate. Data that can typically be shared includes raw data, observational records, experimental results, etc. The journal also encourages authors to share software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods, and other relevant materials. Authors may upload these materials to accessible third-party storage platforms and include the link as an attachment at the end of the manuscript.
