Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd. · Singapore

Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies

Publisher-wide principles on publication ethics, peer review, editorial independence, research integrity, copyright and open access, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence — applicable to all academic journals and scholarly publications issued by Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd.

1Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

1.1General Principles

Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd. is committed to maintaining high standards of academic integrity, editorial responsibility, transparency, and ethical publishing.

Our publication ethics policies are informed by the principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), together with relevant disciplinary standards and applicable laws and regulations.

We recognise that maintaining the integrity of scholarly publications is a shared responsibility among authors, editors, peer reviewers, publishers, and research institutions.

All parties involved in the publication process are expected to act honestly, fairly, professionally, and transparently.

1.2Research and Publication Misconduct

Research and publication misconduct may include, but is not limited to:

• Plagiarism, including the unattributed use of another person's words, ideas, data, or work.
• Data fabrication or falsification.
• Manipulation or inappropriate alteration of images, figures, or research results.
• Duplicate publication or inappropriate redundant submission.
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest.
• Authorship misconduct, including ghost authorship, guest authorship, and inappropriate exclusion of contributors.
• Citation manipulation, including coercive or irrelevant citation practices.
• Breaches of research ethics, confidentiality, or intellectual property rights.
• Undisclosed or inappropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research or manuscript preparation.
• Other practices that undermine the reliability, originality, or integrity of scholarly work.

Allegations of misconduct will be assessed fairly and confidentially, with appropriate consideration given to the evidence and the circumstances of each case.

Where necessary, the journal may contact the authors' institutions, research funders, or other relevant organisations to seek clarification or request an investigation.

1.3Responsibilities of the Publisher

Leading Publishing is responsible for supporting the implementation of appropriate editorial and ethical policies across its journals.

The publisher will:

• Support editors in handling suspected misconduct and ethical concerns.
• Respect editorial independence and avoid inappropriate interference in editorial decisions.
• Facilitate the publication of corrections, retractions, and other notices when warranted.
• Protect the confidentiality of authors, reviewers, and editorial communications.
• Maintain transparent publication policies and communicate material changes.
• Review ethical concerns in accordance with applicable policies and relevant guidance.

Commercial considerations, publication fees, institutional affiliations, and personal relationships must not override the integrity of editorial decisions.

1.4Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal editorial decisions when they believe a decision resulted from a significant procedural error, a misunderstanding of the manuscript, or an inappropriate application of editorial policy.

Complaints concerning editors, reviewers, publishing practices, or alleged misconduct should be submitted in writing to the relevant journal's editorial office or to the publisher when the complaint concerns the journal's editor or the publisher itself.

Complaints will be reviewed impartially and, where appropriate, by an individual who was not directly involved in the original decision.

An appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance of a manuscript. Decisions following an appeal will be communicated with an explanation where appropriate.

2Peer Review Policy

2.1Purpose of Peer Review

Peer review is intended to assess the quality, originality, validity, relevance, and scholarly contribution of submitted manuscripts.

Leading Publishing expects its academic journals to operate transparent, fair, and appropriately managed peer-review processes.

Each journal must clearly identify its peer-review model and procedures on its official website.

2.2Initial Editorial Assessment

Upon submission, the editor or an authorised editorial representative will assess whether the manuscript:

• Falls within the journal's scope.
• Meets the journal's basic submission requirements.
• Demonstrates sufficient scholarly relevance and potential contribution.
• Meets applicable ethical and research-integrity requirements.
• Contains the declarations and supporting information required by the journal.

Manuscripts that do not meet the journal's scope or minimum requirements may be rejected without external peer review.

2.3External Peer Review

Manuscripts proceeding to external review will normally be assessed by at least two independent reviewers, unless the journal's published policy specifies an appropriate alternative for particular article types or circumstances.

Reviewers should possess relevant subject expertise and have no significant conflicts of interest that would compromise their impartiality.

The journal may use single-anonymous, double-anonymous, or another clearly described peer-review model appropriate to its discipline.

The identity of reviewers will be managed in accordance with the journal's stated review model.

2.4Reviewer Responsibilities

Reviewers are expected to:

• Provide objective, evidence-based, constructive, and timely assessments.
• Evaluate the manuscript's originality, methodology, accuracy, significance, and clarity.
• Identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately acknowledged.
• Report potential plagiarism, research-integrity concerns, or ethical issues to the editor.
• Declare conflicts of interest and decline reviews where impartiality may be compromised.
• Maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts and associated materials.
• Avoid using unpublished material for personal research or other unauthorised purposes.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly about a manuscript unless authorised by the editor.

2.5Editorial Decisions

Editorial decisions may include acceptance, rejection, or a request for revision.

Decisions should be based on scholarly merit, relevance, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and the journal's editorial standards.

Acceptance is not guaranteed by payment of any publication fee, invitation to submit, editorial-board membership, or personal or institutional affiliation.

The editor retains responsibility for the final editorial decision, subject to the journal's published procedures.

2.6Confidentiality

Manuscripts under review are confidential documents.

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose manuscript content, reviewer reports, or editorial discussions to unauthorised individuals.

Manuscripts must not be shared with third parties or uploaded to external AI systems where confidentiality cannot be assured, except where appropriately authorised and consistent with the journal's AI policy.

3Editorial Independence and Conflicts of Interest

3.1Editorial Independence

Leading Publishing respects the editorial independence of the journals it publishes.

Editors are expected to make decisions based on scholarly merit, journal scope, research integrity, and published editorial policies.

The publisher will not require an editor to accept a manuscript solely because of commercial considerations, payment, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, or the author's prominence.

Editorial independence does not remove the publisher's responsibility to address credible ethical concerns or legal obligations.

3.2Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest may arise when financial, professional, personal, institutional, or other relationships could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, scholarly judgement.

Potential conflicts may include:

• Employment, consultancy, funding, or financial interests.
• Personal relationships or disputes.
• Institutional or professional competition.
• Collaboration or co-authorship with an author.
• Intellectual or commercial interests related to the manuscript.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose relevant conflicts of interest.

The existence of a conflict does not automatically disqualify a manuscript, but it must be assessed and managed appropriately.

3.3Authors' Declarations

Authors must disclose relevant financial support, funding sources, competing interests, and other relationships that could affect the interpretation of their work.

Where no competing interests exist, authors should provide an explicit declaration of no competing interests.

Funding and conflict-of-interest statements will be published when required by the journal's policies or relevant disciplinary standards.

3.4Reviewers' Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers must decline an invitation if a conflict of interest prevents them from providing an impartial assessment.

If a potential conflict becomes apparent after accepting an invitation, the reviewer must inform the editor promptly.

3.5Editors' Conflicts of Interest

Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a conflict of interest could compromise their impartiality.

Such manuscripts should be assigned to an independent editor with appropriate expertise and no relevant conflict.

Editors must not use confidential information obtained through their editorial responsibilities for personal advantage.

3.6Publisher and Institutional Interests

The publisher will seek to ensure that commercial relationships, sponsorships, advertising, and institutional partnerships do not improperly influence editorial decisions.

Any relevant conflicts involving the publisher or journal management will be assessed and managed in a manner that protects editorial independence and scholarly integrity.

4Plagiarism and Research Integrity

4.1Originality and Proper Attribution

Submitted manuscripts must represent the authors' original scholarly work, or clearly identify and appropriately acknowledge material derived from other sources.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions where required and providing accurate citations for quoted, paraphrased, adapted, or reproduced material.

All forms of plagiarism are unacceptable, including unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, and the use of another person's ideas or results without proper acknowledgement.

4.2Similarity Screening

Journals may use similarity-detection software and other appropriate methods to identify potentially overlapping or unattributed content.

Similarity reports are screening tools and do not, by themselves, establish plagiarism or misconduct. Each case must be assessed in context by the editor.

4.3Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to multiple journals unless explicitly permitted under a clearly stated publication arrangement.

Submissions that substantially overlap with previously published work must disclose the relationship and cite the relevant publications.

Translations, conference papers, preprints, and other forms of prior dissemination must be disclosed in accordance with the individual journal's submission policy.

4.4Data Integrity and Research Ethics

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and appropriate presentation of their data, methods, images, and research findings.

Where applicable, manuscripts must include information concerning ethics approval, informed consent, participant protection, animal welfare, clinical-trial registration, data availability, and other relevant ethical requirements.

Authors must not fabricate, falsify, or deceptively manipulate research data or images.

Editors may request supporting information or clarification where reasonable concerns arise about the reliability of the research.

4.5Authorship and Contributions

All listed authors should have made meaningful scholarly contributions, approved the final manuscript, and agreed to take responsibility for their contributions.

Individuals who made substantial contributions but do not meet the journal's authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately, with their consent where required.

All authors must approve the submitted version and any material changes to authorship.

Changes to authorship after submission require a documented explanation and approval from all relevant authors, subject to the editor's assessment.

4.6Handling Allegations of Misconduct

When an allegation is received, the editor or publisher will conduct an initial assessment to determine whether the concern is sufficiently specific and credible to warrant further action.

Depending on the circumstances, actions may include:

• Requesting an explanation or supporting evidence from the authors.
• Consulting independent experts or relevant institutions.
• Temporarily suspending editorial processing or publication.
• Rejecting a manuscript when serious concerns remain unresolved.
• Publishing a correction, expression of concern, or retraction for published work when justified.

Authors will ordinarily be given an opportunity to respond, except where doing so would compromise a legitimate investigation or other applicable obligations.

Confidentiality will be maintained as far as reasonably possible.

5Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern

5.1Maintaining the Scholarly Record

Leading Publishing is committed to preserving the accuracy, transparency, and integrity of the scholarly record.

Published articles will not be altered or removed merely because an author, editor, institution, or other party disagrees with their conclusions.

Where a material error or ethical concern is identified, the journal will assess the evidence and determine the appropriate action.

5.2Corrections

A correction may be issued when an error affects the accuracy, clarity, attribution, or interpretation of a published article but does not invalidate the overall reliability of the work.

Corrections will clearly identify the affected article and explain the nature of the amendment.

The correction notice and original article should be linked where technically possible.

Minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect meaning may be corrected without a separate notice, subject to the journal's policy and the significance of the change.

5.3Retractions

Retraction may be appropriate when an article's findings or conclusions are unreliable, when substantial plagiarism is established, when serious research misconduct has occurred, or when other major ethical or publication violations undermine the integrity of the work.

A retraction notice should:

• Clearly identify the retracted article.
• Explain the reason for retraction in sufficient detail.
• Distinguish, where possible, between honest error and misconduct.
• Be linked to the original article.
• Be clearly labelled and accessible to readers.

Retracted articles should normally remain accessible as part of the scholarly record, with clear retraction notices, rather than being silently removed.

5.4Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when credible concerns about a published article require further investigation and the available evidence does not yet support a final decision.

The notice should explain the nature of the concern as far as can appropriately be disclosed.

It may be followed by a correction, retraction, or other notice when further evidence becomes available.

5.5Editorial Process

Decisions concerning corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern will be made by the responsible editor in consultation with the publisher and other appropriate parties where necessary.

The process should be fair, proportionate, evidence-based, and consistent with relevant COPE guidance.

Authors will normally be notified and given an opportunity to respond.

5.6Post-Publication Discussion

Journals may consider substantive post-publication comments, scholarly correspondence, or concerns raised by readers.

Such contributions will be assessed for relevance, evidence, civility, and compliance with the journal's policies.

The journal may invite a response from the original authors and may publish a correction or other notice when warranted.

6Copyright and Open Access Policy

6.1Copyright Ownership

Copyright ownership and licensing arrangements must be clearly stated in the relevant journal's author guidelines, publishing agreement, and article publication information.

Unless otherwise specified in a signed agreement or applicable policy, authors retain the rights they hold in their original work.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that they have the necessary rights and permissions to submit and publish all text, images, tables, figures, and other third-party materials included in their manuscripts.

6.2Publishing Agreements

Before publication, authors may be required to enter into an appropriate publishing agreement or grant the journal the rights necessary to publish, distribute, preserve, and promote the work.

The applicable agreement will specify the rights granted, any licence conditions, and the parties' responsibilities.

Authors should review the agreement carefully before acceptance or publication.

6.3Open Access

Each journal must clearly state whether it operates under an open-access, subscription-based, or other publishing model.

For open-access articles, the applicable licence must be displayed clearly on the journal website and article.

Where a Creative Commons licence is used, the specific licence and its conditions must be identified.

Open-access availability does not remove the requirements of attribution, research integrity, ethical compliance, or respect for third-party rights.

6.4Article Processing Charges and Other Fees

Any article processing charges, submission fees, publication fees, or other author-facing charges must be disclosed clearly on the relevant journal's website before submission.

Payment of a fee does not guarantee peer review acceptance or publication.

Where applicable, the journal should explain any waiver or discount arrangements and the circumstances in which charges may be refunded.

6.5Permissions and Reuse

Authors must obtain permission for the reuse of copyrighted material when required by law or the applicable licence.

Readers and third parties may reuse published material only in accordance with the stated copyright terms, licence conditions, and applicable law.

6.6Archiving and Long-Term Access

Journals should provide clear information about digital preservation, archiving, and continued access to published content.

Where preservation services or repositories are used, the journal should identify them accurately.

The publisher will seek to maintain access to the scholarly record and to preserve article metadata and publication notices.

7AI Use and Disclosure Policy

7.1General Principles

Leading Publishing recognises that artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI and large language models, may assist with language editing, research workflows, data analysis, and other scholarly tasks.

AI use must not undermine academic integrity, research transparency, confidentiality, copyright, or human accountability.

Authors, reviewers, editors, and publishing staff remain responsible for their work and decisions.

7.2AI Use by Authors

Authors must disclose substantive use of AI tools in preparing a manuscript where such use affects the text, research process, data analysis, figures, images, or other scholarly content.

The disclosure should identify the tool, explain its purpose, and describe the relevant use sufficiently for readers and editors to understand the contribution of AI.

Where appropriate, disclosures should appear in the acknowledgements or methods section, or another location specified by the journal.

Routine spelling, grammar, or language-polishing assistance may be exempt from formal disclosure if the journal's instructions expressly permit this.

Authors remain responsible for:

• Verifying the accuracy of AI-generated content.
• Checking references and factual claims.
• Ensuring that sources are properly attributed.
• Obtaining permissions where required.
• Preventing plagiarism, fabricated citations, and misleading representations.
• Ensuring that research data and conclusions are valid.

AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors because they cannot assume responsibility or accountability for the work.

7.3AI in Research and Data Analysis

Where AI is used in research design, data collection, data processing, statistical analysis, image generation, or interpretation, authors should describe the use in sufficient detail to support appropriate evaluation and reproducibility.

Authors must not present AI-generated data, references, images, or results as authentic evidence without appropriate verification and disclosure.

AI assistance does not replace research ethics approval, informed consent, or other applicable safeguards.

7.4AI Use by Reviewers

Reviewers must protect the confidentiality of manuscripts and peer-review materials.

Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, reviewer reports, or related materials to external AI tools where confidentiality cannot be assured, unless appropriately authorised under the journal's policy.

Reviewers must not rely on AI-generated assessments without independent critical evaluation.

Any AI assistance used in reviewing must comply with the journal's instructions and applicable confidentiality requirements.

7.5AI Use by Editors and Publishing Staff

Editors and publishing staff must exercise professional judgement when using AI-assisted tools.

AI must not independently determine whether a manuscript is accepted, rejected, or retracted.

Confidential manuscripts and reviewer reports must not be entered into AI systems that cannot adequately protect their confidentiality, except where appropriately authorised.

Where AI is used in editorial or production processes in a way that materially affects scholarly content or editorial assessment, the use should be documented and disclosed where appropriate.

7.6AI-Generated Images and Third-Party Content

Authors must disclose AI-generated or AI-modified images and other visual materials where required by the journal.

Such materials must not misrepresent evidence, research findings, or the authenticity of experimental or observational records.

Authors are responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable copyright, privacy, consent, and other legal requirements.

7.7Undisclosed or Inappropriate AI Use

Where an editor identifies potentially undisclosed or inappropriate AI use, the author may be asked to explain the process and provide supporting information.

The editor will assess the circumstances, the nature of the use, and any resulting impact on the manuscript's integrity.

Corrective action may include a request for revision or disclosure, rejection, or post-publication action where warranted.

8Implementation and Review

These policies establish the publisher-wide principles applicable to academic journals and scholarly publications issued by Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd.

Individual journals may publish additional policies or more specific requirements to reflect their subject areas, peer-review models, article types, and relevant professional standards.

Where journal-specific requirements differ from these general principles, the applicable requirements should be clearly stated and must not undermine the fundamental standards of academic integrity, editorial independence, and responsible publishing.

Leading Publishing will review these policies periodically and update them when necessary to reflect changes in publishing practice, research ethics, technology, and relevant guidance.

Guiding References

Policy Interpretation and Administration

Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd. is responsible for the interpretation, administration, and periodic review of these policies. The Publisher reserves the right to amend or update these policies when necessary, with appropriate notice of material changes.

The interpretation and application of these policies shall be consistent with applicable laws and regulations, recognised publication ethics principles, and the editorial independence of individual journals.

Governing Law and Policy Administration

These policies shall be interpreted and applied in accordance with the applicable laws of Singapore.

Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd. is responsible for the administration, interpretation, and periodic review of these policies. The Publisher may amend or update these policies when necessary, provided that such amendments are consistent with applicable laws and regulations.

In matters concerning publication ethics and scholarly integrity, the Publisher shall also take into account recognised international publication ethics standards, including the guidance and best practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), where appropriate.

Nothing in these policies shall be construed as limiting any rights or obligations that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted under applicable Singapore law.

Leading Publishing Pte. Ltd. · Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies  |  Effective 29 October 2026