Qubahan Engineering Journal (QENGJ) requires editors and reviewers to uphold high standards of scholarly integrity, confidentiality, fairness, independence, and professional conduct.

Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal's editorial process.

Editors must:

• Evaluate manuscripts fairly and independently;

• Base editorial decisions on scholarly merit, originality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, and relevance to the journal;

• Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts;

• Avoid discrimination based on nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, personal characteristics, or other irrelevant factors;

• Declare relevant conflicts of interest;

• Recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where impartiality may reasonably be questioned;

• Select qualified, independent, and appropriately experienced reviewers;

• Protect reviewer confidentiality under the journal's double-anonymous peer-review model;

• Consider reviewer reports critically rather than relying on them mechanically;

• Respond appropriately to suspected research or publication misconduct;

• Maintain accurate editorial records;

• Require corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions where necessary;

• Protect the integrity of the scholarly record; and

• Maintain editorial independence from commercial and financial interests.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by:

• Article Processing Charges;

• Sponsorship;

• Institutional relationships;

• Commercial considerations;

• Personal relationships;

• Author nationality;

• Author institutional affiliation; or

• The author's ability to pay publication charges.

The Article Processing Charge is considered only after a manuscript has received final editorial acceptance.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose any relationship or interest that could reasonably affect their impartiality.

Potential conflicts may include:

• Current or recent institutional collaboration;

• Close personal or professional relationships;

• Financial interests;

• Academic competition;

• Joint research projects;

• Supervisory relationships; or

• Other circumstances that may compromise independent judgment.

Where a conflict exists, the manuscript must be reassigned to another qualified editor.

Editor-Authored Manuscripts

Editors and Editorial Board members may submit manuscripts to QENGJ, but they must receive no preferential treatment.

Where an editor is an author or co-author:

• The manuscript must be handled by an independent editor;

• The author-editor must not select reviewers;

• The author-editor must not participate in editorial discussions;

• The author-editor must not have access to confidential reviewer identities beyond the information normally available to authors; and

• The author-editor must not participate in the final decision.

Where the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest, responsibility must be transferred to another qualified senior editor.

Confidentiality

Editors must treat all submitted manuscripts and related correspondence as confidential.

Unpublished information must not be:

• Disclosed without authorization;

• Used for personal research;

• Used for financial or professional advantage; or

• Shared with unauthorized individuals.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must:

• Provide objective, evidence-based, and constructive evaluations;

• Review only manuscripts within their area of competence;

• Maintain strict confidentiality;

• Declare conflicts of interest;

• Avoid personal criticism;

• Provide clear reasoning for major recommendations;

• Evaluate originality, methodology, results, conclusions, and significance;

• Alert editors confidentially to suspected ethical or integrity concerns;

• Avoid inappropriate citation requests;

• Avoid citation coercion;

• Refrain from using unpublished material for personal advantage;

• Complete reviews within the agreed period; and

• Inform the Editorial Office promptly if unable to complete the review.

Reviewer Confidentiality

Reviewers must not:

• Share manuscripts with unauthorized persons;

• Contact authors directly concerning the manuscript;

• Publicly discuss unpublished work;

• Reuse unpublished data or ideas;

• Upload confidential manuscript material to publicly accessible generative-AI systems; or

• Reveal their identity where doing so would undermine the journal's double-anonymous review process.

Reviewer Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers should decline an invitation where a relationship with the authors, institutions, funding organizations, research project, or subject matter could reasonably compromise impartiality.

When uncertain, reviewers should disclose the potential conflict to the handling editor.

Research Integrity

Editors and reviewers have a shared responsibility to protect research integrity.

Potential concerns may include:

• Plagiarism;

• Data fabrication;

• Data falsification;

• Duplicate publication;

• Image manipulation;

• Citation manipulation;

• Authorship irregularities;

• Ethical violations;

• Peer-review manipulation;

• Undisclosed conflicts of interest; or

• Other forms of misconduct.

Such concerns should be reported confidentially to the responsible editor.

Editors and reviewers should not make public allegations or conduct unauthorized investigations.

Professional Conduct

All editorial and review communications must remain professional, respectful, and focused on scholarly matters.

Discriminatory, insulting, threatening, hostile, or personally directed language is unacceptable.

Responsibility for Final Decisions

Reviewer recommendations are advisory.

The Editor-in-Chief or authorized handling editor retains responsibility for the final editorial decision and must consider the full scholarly record of the submission before making that decision.