Publication Policies

This document outlines the publication policies adopted by MTI journals. These policies are designed to uphold high standards of academic integrity, research ethics, transparency, and publication quality. They provide a framework for authors, editors, reviewers, and other stakeholders to ensure that all stages of the publication process are conducted fairly, responsibly, and in accordance with recognized international standards and best practices in scholarly publishing.

1. Copyright Policy

Copyright in published articles remains with the author(s), or with another copyright holder where applicable. Authors grant the journal and publisher the non-exclusive right of first publication and the right to publish, distribute, identify, preserve, and make the Version of Record available.

Authors may reuse, republish, archive, share, and distribute their articles after publication in accordance with the applicable Creative Commons license. The publisher does not control or assume responsibility for lawful subsequent uses by third parties.

Authors authorize the publisher to register and display a DOI and to deposit article metadata and content, as appropriate, with indexing, abstracting, discovery, preservation, and library services, including services such as EBSCO, DOAJ, ProQuest, Crossref, and other relevant databases.

2. Open Access and Licensing Policy

MTI journals follow the Gold Open Access model. Published articles are made freely and immediately available on the journal website, with no subscription or access charge to readers.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license permits sharing and adaptation for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated.

The copyright holder and license information should appear on the published article. No additional restriction may be imposed that conflicts with the CC BY 4.0 license.

Journal operations are supported primarily by Article Processing Charges (APCs) paid by authors, their institutions, or funders. APCs are for publication services such as formatting, production, online hosting, and preservation; payment does not influence editorial decisions.

3. Submission and Prior Publication Policy

Submission of a manuscript confirms that the work has not been published as a journal article and is not under consideration by another journal. Publication must be approved by all authors and, where required, by the responsible institution or authority where the work was carried out.

Material previously made public as an abstract, academic thesis or dissertation, lecture, conference presentation or paper, poster, blog post, or other non-journal communication may be considered, provided that the prior version is disclosed and the submission does not infringe third-party rights.

Manuscripts previously posted on recognized preprint servers may be submitted. Examples include arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, and other established disciplinary or institutional repositories. Authors should disclose the preprint at submission and, after publication, update the preprint record where possible with the journal citation, DOI, and a link to the Version of Record.

Duplicate, redundant, or substantially overlapping publication must be disclosed. Authors must cite related work and explain material overlap when submitting.

4. Peer Review and Editorial Independence

Research articles and other scholarly manuscripts designated as peer reviewed are evaluated by two or more independent experts with relevant subject knowledge. All peer-reviewed research articles are normally evaluated under a double-anonymous model unless the journal explicitly states otherwise.

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal’s scope, clarity, and ethical compliance. Commercial considerations, APC payment, waiver status, nationality, institutional affiliation, political or religious views, race, ethnicity, gender, or other personal characteristics must not determine editorial decisions.

Editors and reviewers must protect manuscript confidentiality and disclose relevant conflicts of interest. Editors must not handle submissions where a conflict could compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, independent judgment. Such manuscripts will be assigned to another qualified editor.

The Editor-in-Chief or designated editor retains responsibility for the final editorial decision. Special issues and guest-edited content remain subject to the journal’s normal editorial, peer-review, conflict-of-interest, and research-integrity standards.

5. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who made substantial scholarly contributions to the work, participated in drafting or critically revising it, approved the submitted and published versions, and accept accountability for their contributions and the integrity of the work.

All authors must approve the author list and order before submission. Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be explained and approved by all affected authors; changes after acceptance are permitted only in exceptional, well-justified circumstances.

Contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission. Journals may request a contributor statement using the recognized CRediT taxonomy.

6. Competing Interests and Funding

Authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research or its interpretation. Editors and reviewers must also disclose relevant competing interests and recuse themselves when appropriate.

Authors should identify funding sources and describe the funder’s role, if any, in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit. If there was no relevant funding or competing interest, the manuscript should state this where required by the journal.

7. AI/SI and AI/SI-Assisted Tools Policy

Authors may use artificial intelligence (AI), super intelligence (SI) or AI/SI-assisted tools for legitimate research support, data analysis, coding assistance, literature organization, or language improvement, subject to applicable research, privacy, confidentiality, and data-protection requirements.

Material use of generative AI/SI in preparing a manuscript must be disclosed transparently, normally in the manuscript or acknowledgements/methods section as appropriate. The disclosure should identify the tool and describe how it was used when that information is relevant to evaluating the work.

AI/SI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final version, or manage conflicts of interest and copyright. Human authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, integrity, and lawful use of all submitted content, including AI/SI-assisted content.

Authors must not use AI/SI tools in ways that fabricate or falsify data, images, references, or results, or that breach confidentiality, privacy, intellectual-property rights, or research ethics. Undisclosed or inappropriate AI/SI use may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or other action consistent with the journal’s publication-ethics procedures.

8. Plagiarism, Redundant Publication, and Research Misconduct

MTI journals do not tolerate plagiarism, including unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, or reuse of another person’s ideas, text, data, images, or other material without proper acknowledgment. Manuscripts may be screened with iThenticate and are also subject to editorial and peer-review checks.

Text recycling or reuse of an author’s own previously published material must be transparent, appropriately cited where needed, and justified. Substantial undisclosed duplication or redundant publication is not acceptable.

Allegations involving plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, image manipulation, citation manipulation, undisclosed conflicts, authorship disputes, peer-review manipulation, or other research or publication misconduct will be assessed fairly and confidentially. The journal may contact authors, institutions, funders, or other appropriate bodies and may take action before or after publication in line with COPE guidance.

9. Research Ethics

Research must comply with applicable laws, institutional requirements, and accepted disciplinary standards.

• Human-participant research must have appropriate ethics review or documented exemption where required. Authors must obtain informed consent when required and protect participant privacy and confidentiality. Identifiable personal information or images may be published only with appropriate consent or other lawful and ethical justification.
• Research involving animals must have appropriate ethical approval where required and should follow recognized standards for animal welfare, humane treatment, and reporting.
• Field studies, biological materials, genetic resources, protected species, and specimen collection must comply with applicable permits, access and benefit-sharing rules, and relevant community or disciplinary standards.
• Authors should use recognized reporting guidelines where appropriate and provide enough methodological detail to support assessment and reproducibility.

10. Data, Materials, and Reproducibility

Authors should preserve the data, code, protocols, and other materials necessary to support their findings in accordance with disciplinary norms, legal requirements, funder policies, and legitimate confidentiality or intellectual-property constraints.

Where appropriate, authors are encouraged to deposit supporting data and materials in a trusted repository and cite them using persistent identifiers. Journals may require a Data Availability Statement describing where supporting data can be found or explaining justified restrictions on access.

Editors may request underlying data or documentation during review or after publication when needed to assess the integrity of the work. Failure to provide reasonable supporting information may affect editorial decisions or lead to post-publication action.

11. Corrections, Retractions, and Post-Publication Updates

MTI journals are committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. Material errors identified after publication will be corrected through a clearly linked correction or other appropriate notice. Retractions, expressions of concern, and related updates will be issued when warranted by the reliability or integrity of the published record.

Post-publication actions should identify the article, state the reason for the action clearly, remain permanently accessible, and preserve the scholarly record. Retraction or correction decisions will follow recognized publication-ethics guidance, including COPE guidance where applicable.

12. Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other parties may submit a reasoned complaint or appeal concerning editorial process, publication ethics, or a journal decision. Complaints and appeals should be handled by an editor or publisher representative who was not directly responsible for the disputed matter whenever practicable.

Appeals must address substantive concerns such as factual error, procedural irregularity, or significant evidence that was not adequately considered. An appeal does not guarantee reversal of a decision. Allegations of misconduct will be handled separately under the journal’s research-integrity procedures.

13. Article Processing Charges, Waivers, and Editorial Decisions

Upon acceptance, an APC (Article Processing Charges) is payable where applicable, subject to the journal’s published waiver and discount policy. Current payment information is available at https://payment.macrothink.org.

All fees must be disclosed clearly before manuscript submission. APC payment, the source of payment, and eligibility for a waiver or discount do not influence peer review or editorial decisions.

Under the current MTI waiver policy, an editorial member of the journal may receive a full publication-fee waiver for one article per calendar year. Any journal-specific waiver or discount terms should be stated on the journal website.

14. Refund Policy

Refunds are based on publication status:

• Before online publication: the publication fee is fully refundable.
• After online publication: the publication fee is non-refundable.

Where exceptional circumstances arise, the publisher may review the matter in light of services already provided and any applicable legal obligations.

15. Self-Archiving and Repository Policy

MTI follows a Green Open Access self-archiving policy consistent with the journal’s Gold Open Access model. Authors may deposit the preprint, Author Accepted Manuscript, and publish Version of Record/PDF in institutional, subject, funder, or personal repositories without embargo, subject to the article’s CC BY 4.0 license and appropriate citation of the Version of Record.

Authors are encouraged to include the DOI and a link to the published article when archiving the Version of Record or updating an earlier version.

16. Digital Preservation, DOI, and Indexing

The publisher seeks to maintain persistent access to published content through journal hosting, DOI registration, indexing and discovery services, and appropriate digital preservation arrangements (such as LOCKSS). Each published article should have a persistent identifier, normally a DOI.

The publisher may archive or deposit article metadata and content with databases, indexes, repositories, libraries, and preservation services. Inclusion in any particular indexing service is determined by that service and should not be implied unless confirmed.

Journal websites and policies should accurately state current indexing, archiving, ownership, editorial contacts, peer-review procedures, publication frequency, APCs, licensing, and ethics policies.

17. Policy Standards

These policies are intended to be consistent with widely recognized standards for transparent and responsible scholarly publishing, including the COPE Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing used by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, and WAME. Journal-specific policies may add disciplinary requirements but should not conflict with these principles.

Policy wording and implementation should be reviewed periodically to reflect changes in publishing standards, open access practice, research integrity, and indexing requirements.

Reference Standards

• Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Core Practices.
• DOAJ / COPE / OASPA / WAME, Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.
• DOAJ, Guide to Applying and Copyright & Licensing guidance.
• Scopus, Content Policy and Selection criteria.
• Web of Science Core Collection, Journal Evaluation Process and Selection Criteria.
• Creative Commons, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).