To further promote the academic integrity system of Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering and to regulate the processes of manuscript writing, peer review, and publication, the Journal has formulated ethical standards covering authors, editors, and reviewers by referring to relevant Chinese and international regulations on publication ethics (such as the COPE Guidelines) and in light of its actual publishing practices, to guide their professional conduct and properly handle academic misconduct arising in research and publication.                                                                            

Responsibilities of Authors

1. Manuscripts must be original works written by the authors themselves. Misconduct such as plagiarism, data or figure falsification, deliberate provision of false information, multiple submission, or duplicate publication is strictly prohibited.

2. All listed authors shall have made substantial contributions to the paper. Authors shall not be added or removed arbitrarily. If any adjustment to authorship is required (including addition, deletion, or change in author order), it must be proposed before the manuscript is accepted, with specific reasons provided.

3. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given, authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work , and original achievements and cited results in the paper shall be clearly defined and distinguished. Authors are obliged to retrieve and cite, as comprehensively as possible, literature closely related to the work reported in the paper. Before using any published content (such as figures, tables, or other copyright-protected materials), relevant authorization must be obtained, and the manuscript shall ensure that it does not infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights, nor involve any confidential information. Information or materials obtained through non-public means—including correspondence, conversations, and review activities—may only be used with the explicit consent of the owner.

4. Authors shall truthfully disclose all relationships or interests that may improperly affect or bias the research or publication process. If there are reviewers who should be avoided, this shall be raised at the submission stage.

5. If authors discover significant errors or omissions in a published work, they shall promptly notify the Editorial Office and cooperate in the necessary correction or retraction of the work.

6. Potential hazards that may exist in the research work shall be clearly identified, including possible risks related to chemicals, instruments and equipment, or experimental procedures.

Responsibilities of Editors

1. Editors shall handle each manuscript in accordance with the principles of fairness and impartiality and make decisions on acceptance or rejection based on the Journal’s scope, the novelty of the manuscript, and its academic value, to ensure that the peer review process is objective, transparent, and timely.

2. Editors shall strictly follow the Journal’s peer review process to ensure that all manuscripts passing the initial review are evaluated by reviewers with corresponding disciplinary backgrounds, and shall provide authors with complete, detailed, and clear revision suggestions or reasons for rejection.

3. Editors shall maintain the confidentiality of both authors and reviewers during the peer review process. Meanwhile, any information or communication related to the manuscript shall not be disclosed to persons outside the review process. Editors must keep strictly confidential, throughout all stages such as editorial processing, peer review, and academic misconduct detection, any content of unpublished papers.

4. Editors shall require reviewers to disclose any potential conflicts of interest before accepting the review assignment and shall respect authors’ requests for reviewer exclusion. Meanwhile, editors shall make editorial decisions independently without interference from the Journal owner, publisher, or any other third party.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

1. Reviewers shall, on the principles of maintaining academic integrity and respecting academic freedom, provide objective, detailed, and clear review comments on manuscripts, and assist editors in improving manuscript quality in a timely manner.

2. Reviewers shall accept review invitations only when they possess relevant disciplinary expertise and are able to complete the review within the prescribed time limit. If they are unable to complete the review on time for any reason, they shall promptly notify the Editorial Office and proactively withdraw from the review. Reviewers shall not transfer the manuscript to students, colleagues, or other persons for review without authorization.

3. Reviewers shall truthfully disclose any potential conflicts of interest. If they are uncertain whether a certain circumstance constitutes a conflict of interest, they shall proactively consult the Editorial Office. Information obtained during the review process shall not be used to seek benefits for themselves, others, or institutions, nor shall it be used to harm or defame others.

4. Reviewers shall pay full attention to possible academic misconduct in the manuscript, including omitted citations, incorrect citations, plagiarism, and fabrication. If any of the above problems are identified, reviewers shall promptly inform the Editorial Office.

5. Reviewers shall be obliged to keep confidential the contents and related information of the manuscript under review and shall not disclose such contents or information to others. If assistance from others is sought for evaluation purposes, the identity of the assistant shall be reported to the Editorial Office in advance or at the time of submitting the review comments.

6. Reviewers shall act prudently with respect to any personal research that may be inspired by the manuscript under review. Without the prior consent of the authors or before the formal publication of the manuscript under review, reviewers shall not use or disclose any information contained in the manuscript. Reviewers shall not explicitly or implicitly compel authors to cite the reviewers’ own papers or viewpoints through review comments.

Plagiarism Detection

In order to protect the interests of readers and safeguard the quality and academic reputation of the Journal, Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering adopts the Academic Misconduct Literature Check System (AMLC) provided by CNKI during the review stage to conduct automatic screening of submitted manuscripts. The overall text similarity rate of a manuscript shall not exceed 10%. Any manuscript with a detection result exceeding the above proportion, or identified as involving academic misconduct at any stage, shall be rejected by the Journal. If academic misconduct is discovered after publication, the Journal will retract the manuscript and notify the authors’ affiliated institutions and other relevant journals. For serious cases (such as deliberate multiple submission), the Journal will no longer accept submissions from the author concerned. In addition, submitting authors found to have committed academic misconduct will be included in the Journal’s “Database of Authors with Academic Misconduct,” and the Editorial Office will conduct focused review of or impose publication restrictions on subsequent academic works submitted by authors in this database.

Research Involving Human Subjects

1.Information of Consent

Manuscripts involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must include a statement confirming informed consent for participation. Human subjects' right to privacy must always be observed. The authors should ensure that the individual rights of all the participants who are involved in the study are protected. Identifying details (e.g., names and dates of birth) of the participants that were studied should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or genetic profiles unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the participant (or parent or guardian if the participant is incapable) gave written informed consent for publication. If verbal informed consent is used, authors must provide a rationale for its use in the "Comments for the Editor" field.

2.Ethics Approval Statements

Authors must obtain approval (or waiver) from the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (IRB) before submitting the manuscript if the research involves human or animal subjects. For multisite studies, approval from the IRB or Ethics Committee at each participating institution is required. If ethical approval was not needed, this must be explicitly stated in the "Comments for the Editor" field.

For human subjects, the authors must ensure that their research was carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki, as revised in 2024. The manuscript must include a statement of IRB approval or waiver (with the reason for the waiver), or a statement confirming adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki. An example of the IRB statement is as follows: "All subjects provided informed consent for inclusion before participating in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)."

Allegations of Misconduct

Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, and image manipulation, and the Journal adopts a zero-tolerance policy toward such behaviors. Plagiarism refers to the theft or improper appropriation of the intellectual property of others, as well as substantial textual copying without proper source acknowledgment. Whether intentional or unintentional, such conduct shall be regarded as a serious violation of academic norms. Authors must ensure that all cited content is given proper and clear attribution and acknowledgment. Duplicate publication refers to the repeated use of substantial parts of the authors’ own published works without appropriate citation. Other misconduct, such as data fabrication or image manipulation, is likewise strictly prohibited. Authors must truthfully present the entire research process, especially with respect to data generation, presentation, analysis, and interpretation.

If there is any allegation of misconduct, it shall be submitted to the Editorial Office email (jygc@chd.edu.cn). Upon receipt of an allegation of research misconduct, the Editorial Office will immediately conduct a preliminary assessment and submit the relevant materials to the Editorial Board for handling.

Where conditions permit, the Journal will provide a formal response within four weeks. If the investigation cannot be completed within the prescribed period, a phased response will be provided within four weeks.

Appeals

The Journal accepts reasonable appeals from authors regarding review comments or editorial decisions. If authors object to the rejection of a manuscript, they may submit a written statement to the Editorial Office email and file an appeal with the Editorial Office. The reasons for appeal shall include specific explanations of problems existing in the review process, such as major misunderstandings of the technical content of the manuscript or failure to fully understand the scientific innovation reflected in the manuscript.

Appeals submitted without sufficient justification and merely requesting an additional review will not be accepted. Appeals shall be submitted by email to the Journal Editorial Office (jygc@chd.edu.cn) with the manuscript number clearly indicated. Appeal applications may only be submitted by the original submitting author.

receipt of the appeal, the Editorial Office will promptly conduct an investigation and handle the matter and will communicate the handling result to the author within one month.