Ethical Guidelines

The Mangalayatan Journal of Engineering and Technology (MJET) upholds the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. These ethical guidelines are designed to ensure responsible conduct by authors, reviewers, and editors, and to foster a transparent, rigorous, and inclusive scholarly communication process. All stakeholders involved in the submission, review, and publication of manuscripts are expected to adhere strictly to the following principles:

1. Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original. Any use of work and/or words of others must be appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism in any form, including verbatim copying, improper paraphrasing, and self-plagiarism, is unethical and unacceptable. All submissions are subject to similarity checks using plagiarism detection software, and manuscripts exceeding the acceptable threshold will be rejected outright.

2. Research Integrity and Data Transparency

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the data presented in their manuscript. Fabrication, falsification, or manipulation of experimental results, data points, images, or citations is a violation of research ethics. Authors should maintain and be prepared to provide raw data and analysis files upon request during both the review and post-publication phases.

Manuscripts should contain sufficient detail and references to permit replication of the work by others.

3. Ethical Research Involving Humans, Animals, or Sensitive Data

For research involving human participants, animals, or sensitive personal data, authors must provide clear evidence of ethical clearance from an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee. Informed consent must be obtained and documented where necessary. All procedures must comply with relevant national and international guidelines (e.g., Declaration of Helsinki, CPCSEA, GDPR).

4. Authorship and Acknowledgement

Authorship should reflect significant intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research. All individuals listed as authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission. Contributions of those who do not meet authorship criteria (e.g., statistical analysis, language editing, funding acquisition) must be acknowledged in an acknowledgment section.

The practice of “ghost authorship,” “guest authorship,” or “honorary authorship” is unethical and prohibited.

5. Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could influence the interpretation of data, peer review decisions, or editorial outcomes. Sources of funding and sponsorship must be transparently acknowledged in the manuscript.

Conflicts may include personal relationships, academic competition, financial interests, or institutional affiliations.

6. Inclusive and Non-Discriminatory Language

Manuscripts should be written using inclusive, respectful, and unbiased language. Discriminatory or prejudicial expressions based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or socio-political status are not permitted. Authors should adopt gender-neutral terms where possible and ensure that their language upholds the dignity of all populations discussed.

7. Peer Review Ethics and Confidentiality

All submissions are subjected to a rigorous double-blind peer review process. Reviewers must assess manuscripts objectively and fairly and must not use any information obtained through peer review for personal advantage. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the review process and to declare any conflict of interest before accepting a review.

Constructive feedback should be provided in a professional manner, and any suspicion of misconduct must be reported to the editors.

8. Editorial Responsibility and Independence

Editors are expected to make decisions on manuscript acceptance or rejection based solely on the scholarly merit, originality, clarity, and relevance of the submission, without bias or conflict of interest. Editors must ensure that the peer review process is impartial, confidential, and free from undue influence.

They are also responsible for identifying and acting on research or publication misconduct, including plagiarism, falsification, duplicate publication, or unethical experimentation.

9. Citation Integrity and Reference Quality

References must be accurate, relevant, and appropriately cited. Authors should ensure that they cite foundational and recent works fairly, without excessive self-citation or citation manipulation to boost individual metrics. Over-reliance on non-peer-reviewed sources, predatory journals, or unverifiable preprints must be avoided unless essential to the topic.

Misleading or fabricated citations constitute unethical conduct.

10. Redundant or Duplicate Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal. Likewise, a manuscript previously published or under consideration elsewhere will not be considered. Redundant publication—publishing substantially similar content across multiple journals with minor variations—is not allowed unless transparent cross-referencing and justification are provided.

11. Clarity, Structure, and Coherence of Content

Submissions must be well-written, logically organized, and presented with academic clarity. The argument must follow a coherent structure from introduction to conclusion. Authors should ensure technical terminology is defined, illustrations and tables are properly labeled, and conclusions are substantiated by data presented.

Special attention should be paid to grammar, punctuation, and scientific tone to ensure ease of understanding and global readability.

12. Post-Publication Responsibilities and Corrections

Authors must notify the editorial office if a significant error or omission is discovered in their published article. The journal will publish corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern as necessary to maintain the integrity of the scientific record.

13. Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Manuscript Preparation

Authors must transparently disclose the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, including generative models (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, etc.), in the preparation of their manuscripts. While such tools may assist in grammar correction, formatting, data visualization, or language refinement, they cannot be credited as authors and must not be used to generate original research content, interpretations, or critical findings without rigorous human oversight and verification.

The following guidelines must be observed:

• Disclosure Requirement: Any use of AI tools for content generation, image creation, summarization, or language editing must be disclosed in the manuscript’s acknowledgments or a dedicated section (e.g., “Use of AI Tools”).
• Accountability: Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, ethical compliance, and integrity of the content generated or edited using AI tools.
• Prohibited Uses: The use of AI-generated content for data fabrication, generating literature reviews without proper citations, impersonating peer reviewers, or automatically spinning content is strictly prohibited and considered a breach of research ethics.
• Image and Data Integrity: AI-generated images, figures, or visual content must be clearly labeled as such and should not misrepresent the findings. The authors must ensure transparency in the generation and use of any such visuals.

The editorial board reserves the right to reject or retract any manuscript found to rely on undisclosed or unethical use of AI, particularly where it compromises scholarly integrity, originality, or the peer review process.

The Mangalayatan Journal of Engineering and Technology fully supports the COPE Code of Conduct for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors. All stakeholders are expected to act in good faith, maintain the integrity of the academic record, and contribute positively to the advancement of science and society.

For any suspected ethical breaches, the editorial board reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate action, including retraction, blacklisting, and notification to institutional authorities.