Publishing and Editorial Policies

Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. — Article Processing Charges, Publishing Ethics, and Related Policies

Article Processing Charges

Our open access model is sustained through Article Processing Charges (APCs), which cover the costs of running the journal—evaluation, production, indexing and archiving, and website maintenance. APCs become payable once a manuscript is accepted.

The APC for this journal is US $500.

Waiver and Discount Policy

To reduce barriers to the dissemination of knowledge, Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. offers APC waivers and discounts to authors from low-income countries and to those facing exceptional circumstances. Applications should be submitted to the journal's Editorial Office, where each case is reviewed individually.

Publishing Ethics

Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. is committed to the highest ethical standards, in line with its mission to carry forward academic classics, publish high-quality original research, and promote scientific exchange worldwide. We follow the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and subscribe to:

Contributors' privacy is protected: personal information is not disclosed without permission, except where publication requires it or the law demands it (see our Privacy Policy for further details).

Any allegation of misconduct (see our Misconduct Policy) is promptly investigated by a dedicated group. Conclusions are evidence-based, and authors are informed of them. An appeal must reach the publisher within 14 days. If no appeal is received within that period, the outcome is deemed accepted and the corresponding action is taken. Rulings on appeals are final.

Complaints and appeals may be sent to the publisher at editorial_office@springcity.top and are handled in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Research Involving Human Subjects

Studies involving human beings must conform to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki, obtain ethics committee approval before commencing, and remain subject to monitoring. At submission, a statement naming the ethics committee and its approval code must be provided.

Informed consent must be obtained from every participant or guardian, and a statement confirming this must accompany the submission. Where consent has been waived, the name of the ethics committee and the grounds for the waiver are required.

Participant privacy is paramount. Identifying information (e.g., name, contact details, medical record numbers) may not be disclosed unless indispensable to interpreting the research. Written informed consent to publish is mandatory, including for identifiable images. Where participants are deceased or vulnerable, consent must be obtained from next of kin or a legal representative.

Research Involving Animal Subjects

Animal studies require prior ethics committee approval. Where national law provides an exemption, authors must supply the committee's name and the reason at submission.

Useful reference points include:

Animal studies are assessed by Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. using The ARRIVE Essential 10: Compliance Questionnaire, which authors are encouraged to consult as a checklist before submitting.

Ethical Oversight

Each journal's Editor-in-Chief is responsible for overseeing the entire publication process, upholding the highest standards of scientific integrity, preserving editorial impartiality, and maintaining the journal's academic quality. The Editor-in-Chief is committed to preventing malpractice of any kind.

By submitting a manuscript, authors affirm that all authors have reviewed and approved the final version and agree to its publication. Formal approval from all co-authors is required before acceptance.

Where human participants are involved, authors must comply with our policy on patient anonymity and privacy and confirm that the research was conducted ethically. Manuscripts describing experimental procedures that conflict with established animal welfare standards will not be considered.

Any personal data supplied by authors is treated as strictly confidential, collected and used solely for the publication process, and will not be exploited for commercial marketing or passed to third parties without explicit consent.

Every author, reviewer, and editor must declare financial or non-financial competing interests that might be perceived as affecting the research or its interpretation.

Authorship

Definition

In accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), authorship requires meeting all four conditions:

  • Substantial contributions to conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, or interpretation; AND

  • Drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; AND

  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND

  • Accountability for all aspects of the work.

Individuals who do not meet every condition should be listed in the acknowledgments. Any use of AI-assisted technologies in preparing the manuscript must be disclosed, with the manner of use described in the Materials and Methods or Acknowledgments section. Tasks requiring human intellectual analysis—such as interpreting data or summarizing conclusions—must not be delegated to AI.

Changes to Authorship

Additions, deletions, or rearrangements of authorship require confirmation from all authors concerned (including those being added or removed) and must be approved by the journal's Editorial Office before the manuscript is accepted.

Conflict of Interest

Authors: all potential financial and non-financial conflicts of interest must be declared. Arrangements with sponsors that restrict data access, analysis, interpretation, or independent publication should be avoided entirely.

Reviewers and Editors: any potential non-financial conflicts, unpaid roles, or relationships capable of influencing decisions must be declared, including personal or professional ties to authors or inclusion on an author's avoidance list.

Misconduct Policy

Guided by COPE guidelines, Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. maintains the highest standards of publishing ethics and academic integrity and rejects any misconduct liable to mislead the research community.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism means presenting another person's words, ideas, data, or original work as one's own, or reusing one's own work without due attribution or permission. Potential plagiarism is detected by Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. through Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate).

Fabrication and Falsification

Inventing or manipulating data, images, processes, or results damages the scientific record and constitutes a grave ethical breach; it is therefore firmly rejected. Submissions suspected of such misconduct are rejected outright. Where reliable evidence emerges, Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. may reject all submissions from that author.

Duplicate Submission

Sending the same work to multiple journals at once, or submitting material already published, wastes the time and resources of editors and reviewers and is considered unethical. Such a submission will be rejected directly by Spring City International Group Co., Ltd., and harsher penalties may be proposed.

Manipulation of Peer Review

No attempt to interfere with the independent and impartial peer review process is tolerated. Examples include:

  • Proposing reviewer details with fabricated or misleading email addresses in order to control the review.

  • Submitting fabricated peer review reports.

  • Recommending citations unrelated to the article's topic.

Correction, Retraction, and Withdrawal

Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. works to keep the scholarly record accurate and intact and acknowledges its duty to correct the record when necessary.

Correction

Readers, authors, and editors are invited to report errors to the journal's Editorial Office. Where a post-publication error does not affect the conclusions, the Editorial Office will issue a correction/erratum.

Retraction

In accordance with COPE's retraction guidelines, retraction applies to:

  • Unreliable findings

  • Major authorship disputes

  • Plagiarism

  • Redundant publication lacking attribution, disclosure, permission, or justification

  • Unauthorized use of material/data

  • Copyright infringement, privacy violation, or other legal issues

  • Unethical research

  • Compromised peer review

  • Undisclosed major competing interests

  • Review articles whose conclusions rest on material that has been corrected or retracted

Once misconduct is confirmed, a retraction notice is issued and the retracted PDF carries a "Retracted" watermark. APCs are not refunded when an article is retracted.

Corrections and retractions are handled prudently by Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. Any such step requires joint deliberation by the Editor-in-Chief and the relevant Editorial Board members, after which a detailed public statement is issued.

Withdrawal

Before acceptance, authors may withdraw a submission by formally lodging a request stating the reason. Once approved, the submission is archived in the system and no further processing occurs. A penalty fee of US $200 applies where withdrawal happens during peer review, reflecting the resources expended.

Withdrawal after acceptance may arise from ethical breaches (on grounds similar to those for retraction).

Preprint Policy

Original research preprints may be posted by authors on community-recognized servers (e.g., arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN) before or during submission to Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. Copyright in the preprint remains with the authors.

A cover letter disclosing the preprint version, together with accession numbers/DOIs, must be attached. Peer-reviewed, revised versions and accepted manuscripts must not be posted as preprints.

Once the article appears in our journals, authors should update the preprint to include a direct link to the final published article via its DOI. The link text should clearly state: "This manuscript has been published in [Journal Name] at [DOI Link]".

Research Data Policy

Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. strives to advance research integrity, transparency, and reproducibility. Consistent with COPE's guidance on data and reproducibility, we actively encourage authors to share the data, code, and materials underpinning their findings. Doing so strengthens the credibility of research, enables validation, and increases trust in scientific outcomes. Authors who deposit datasets in a data repository must include a comprehensive data availability statement in the manuscript. That statement should set out access protocols for the supporting datasets or provide a substantiated rationale for any access restrictions, covering ethical or legal constraints.

Data Sharing

Shared data must conform to the FAIR Data Principles, under which (meta)data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. Collaborative practices should be adopted across journals and institutions to monitor and uphold the scientific validity and credibility of research practices overall. Authors are encouraged to prioritize primary data from their own investigations and to supply supporting data, such as accessible data sources, at the earliest opportunity.

Where data involve confidentiality, privacy, or sensitive personal information, authors shall make every reasonable effort to anonymize identifiable sensitive information and to share data in strict compliance with disciplinary mandatory guidelines.

Under COPE guidelines on unpublished data, the journal Editorial Office shall open correspondence with data providers about concerns regarding the scientific rigour of an unpublished dataset. The corresponding author will be contacted and asked to comment on the concerns raised, supply supporting documentation where necessary, and provide information on any other affected content. Under COPE guidelines on published data, where the scientific rigour of a published dataset tied to a manuscript is called into question, the journal Editorial Office shall inform all journals that have published results derived from the disputed dataset, summarizing the issues and the actions taken so far. Authors must respond with satisfactory updates. If major issues affecting the manuscript's conclusions come to light, the submission should be withdrawn by the author or rejected by the journal's Editorial Office.

Data Citation

Authors are encouraged to cite, in the references section, any datasets deposited in external repositories that are referenced in their manuscript. For datasets previously published, both the research article and the original data source should be cited. In-house editors will check and enforce proper data citation before publication.

Data citations shall contain the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

  • Author(s)

  • Dataset title

  • Year of publication/release

  • Publisher/Repository or archive name

  • Persistent identifier (e.g., DOI)

Data Repository

Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets in relevant community-specific data repositories, or they may choose general repositories (including any institutional repositories that universities, funders, or research institutions provide for their affiliated researchers) suited to their discipline's specifications and requirements. Spring City International Group Co., Ltd. recommends repositories that assign DOIs, so that referenced datasets are linked consistently.

Registries of certified data repositories, such as FAIRsharing.org and re3data.org, may be consulted by authors. Examples include: