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Editorial Policies

The Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications (JSCCA) maintains a strong commitment to ethical publishing practices in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), and the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). All editorial decisions are based solely on scientific merit.

Affiliations

Authors are required to disclose all pertinent institutional affiliations at the time of submission. Each author's affiliation should reflect the institution at which the research was conducted. Affiliation misrepresentation — including listing an institution with which the author has no substantive current or former relationship — constitutes a form of misconduct and will be investigated in accordance with the journal's misconduct handling procedure.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors who wish to appeal a rejection decision may do so by submitting a written appeal to the editorial office at [email protected] within 30 days of receiving the decision. The appeal must clearly articulate the scientific or procedural grounds for the appeal; appeals based solely on disagreement with the decision are unlikely to succeed. Appeals are reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated senior editor who was not involved in the original decision. A decision on the appeal will be provided within 30 days of receipt.

Complaints regarding editorial conduct, reviewer misconduct, or journal processes may be submitted in writing to the editorial office. Complaints are handled in accordance with COPE guidelines. If a complainant is not satisfied with the journal's response, the complaint may be escalated to the publisher. All complaints are treated with strict confidentiality.

Acknowledgements

Individuals who contributed substantively to the work but do not meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgements section, not as authors. Their specific contributions should be briefly described. All named individuals must provide their consent to be acknowledged. Acknowledgements should also identify any financial or in-kind support received for the research (see Funding Statement).

Authorship

Authorship of manuscripts submitted to JSCCA is governed by the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To qualify for authorship, an individual must satisfy all four of the following criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
  • Drafting the work or critically revising it for important intellectual content.
  • Final approval of the version to be published.
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged, not listed as authors. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of a research group does not constitute authorship.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have been appropriately included and excluded, and must obtain written agreement from all co-authors prior to submission. Any changes to the authorship list — whether additions, removals, or reordering — after initial submission require the written consent of all authors and must be approved by the Editor-in-Chief.

Contributor Roles (CRediT)

All manuscripts must include a contributor role statement using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework (https://credit.niso.org/). Each named author's contribution must be specified using the 14 standardised CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review and editing.

At least one author must be designated as the guarantor, accepting overall responsibility for the integrity of the work. The contributor role statement must be included in the Declarations section of the manuscript, before the References.

Example contributor role statement:

A.B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. C.D.: Software, Validation, Formal analysis. E.F.: Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review and editing. A.B. (Guarantor).

Group Authorship

Where a manuscript is submitted on behalf of a named group or consortium, the group name must be listed as an author. The individual members responsible for the work must be identified and their contributions described, either within the article or as supplementary material.

Citations

Research and non-research articles must cite relevant, timely, and verified literature. Authors should cite sources that are directly pertinent to the claims made; excessive or irrelevant citations inflate the reference list and may constitute citation manipulation. Authors should not cite references primarily to boost citation counts — their own or those of others. If the relevance of a cited source is uncertain, authors should contact the editorial office for guidance.

Self-citation is permitted where scientifically justified but must not be excessive. Any evidence of citation cartels, coordinated self-citation rings, or coercive citation will be treated as misconduct.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial competing interests that could influence, or reasonably be perceived to influence, their judgment or actions in relation to the submitted manuscript.

Author Disclosures

Authors must disclose all relevant competing interests covering the 36 months prior to submission. Financial competing interests include: employment, consultancy, equity ownership, patents (applied for or held), honoraria, and research funding. Non-financial competing interests include: personal relationships, academic competition, and ideological or professional commitments relevant to the work. A competing interest statement must be included in the Declarations section of every manuscript. If no competing interests exist, authors must state: 'The authors declare no competing interests.'

Reviewer and Editor Disclosures

Reviewers must declare to the handling editor any competing interests that could compromise their objectivity before agreeing to review a manuscript. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts where a competing interest — financial, personal, professional, or institutional — exists. Recused editors must delegate the manuscript to an independent editor with no competing interest. A record of all recusals is maintained by the editorial office.

Post-Publication Modifications: Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

JSCCA maintains three distinct post-publication mechanisms in accordance with COPE Core Practice 9 (2023) and the COPE Retraction Guidelines (2019):

Corrections (Erratum / Corrigendum)

A correction is issued when a published article contains an error that does not affect the conclusions of the work. Errors identified by authors (corrigendum) or by the journal (erratum) are published as a separate, linked correction notice. The original article is updated to include a link to the correction.

Expressions of Concern

An Expression of Concern is issued when the journal has reason to believe that the reliability or integrity of the published work may be in question, but the issue has not yet been fully investigated or confirmed. An Expression of Concern may be issued while an investigation is ongoing. It alerts readers to a potential problem without prejudging the outcome. Expressions of Concern are linked bidirectionally to the original article.

Retractions

A retraction is issued when a published article is found to contain major errors, fraudulent data, plagiarised content, duplicate publication, or other serious violations that undermine the conclusions or integrity of the work. Retractions follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines (2019). A retraction notice identifying the reason for retraction is published and linked to the original article, which is marked as 'Retracted' but retained in the published record for bibliographic purposes.

Authors who identify a significant error in their published work are obligated to notify the editorial office promptly. The journal will investigate all concerns raised by readers, authors, or third parties in accordance with applicable COPE flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts).

Confidentiality

A submitted manuscript is a confidential document. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose or discuss the content of a manuscript under review with any third party without the express permission of the corresponding author. Reviewers must not retain copies of manuscripts after the review process is complete. Any breach of confidentiality will be treated as a serious ethical violation.

Copyright Policy and Open Access Statement

Copyright

The author(s) will own the copyright for the article. The author(s) grant the Journal a non-exclusive publishing licence, and identify themselves as the original publisher. All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Open Access Licence

All articles are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Under this licence, readers are free to share, copy, distribute, and adapt the material for any purpose, including commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

Author Rights

Authors are free to:

  • Self-archive the accepted manuscript or the published version-of-record in any institutional, subject, or funder-mandated repository, without embargo.
  • Post the accepted manuscript on personal or institutional websites immediately upon publication.
  • Reuse the article in subsequent scholarly works, provided the original publication in JSCCA is cited.

Open Access Statement

JSCCA is committed to publishing fully open access research. There are no subscription fees or paywalls. All articles are immediately and permanently available online at no cost to readers. This policy supports the widest possible dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Who Can Submit?

JSCCA welcomes the submission of original manuscripts from researchers worldwide, regardless of institutional affiliation or country of origin. There is no restriction on the nationality or career stage of authors.

Data Availability Statement (DAS)

A Data Availability Statement (DAS) is mandatory for all research articles submitted to JSCCA. The DAS must be included as a separate, labelled section before the References. Authors must specify how and where the data, code, and materials that support the findings of the study can be accessed.

The DAS should adhere to the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable; Wilkinson et al., 2016). Authors are encouraged to deposit datasets in publicly accessible repositories (e.g., Zenodo, Figshare, Dryad, OSF, GitHub/GitLab with persistent DOI) and to cite these repositories in the References section.

Acceptable DAS statements include:

  • "The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI]."
  • "The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author."
  • "No new data were generated or analysed in support of this research."

Authors who are unable to share data publicly due to ethical, legal, or contractual restrictions must explain these restrictions in the DAS and describe the conditions under which data access may be granted. The use of 'data available upon request' without justification is discouraged and may delay processing.

Data Falsification and Fabrication

Data falsification or fabrication involves intentionally manipulating, omitting, or inventing data with the aim of misrepresenting research findings. This constitutes a serious form of misconduct. When submitting a manuscript, authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of all data, results, and conclusions.

If requested by the editor or reviewer, authors must be able to supply original, unprocessed data underlying the findings reported in the manuscript. Failure to provide original data when requested may result in rejection of the manuscript or, if discovered after publication, retraction.

Desk Rejection Policy

Manuscripts may be rejected at the desk review stage (without peer review) for any of the following reasons:

  • The topic or scope does not align with the aims and scope of JSCCA.
  • The manuscript raises ethical concerns or does not comply with international publication ethics guidelines.
  • The topic lacks sufficient novelty or fails to contribute new knowledge to the field.
  • There are fundamental flaws in the study design or methodology.
  • The research objective is not clearly articulated.
  • The manuscript is poorly organised or key components are missing (e.g., abstract, methodology, results).
  • There are significant deficiencies in English language quality that prevent scientific evaluation.
  • The manuscript does not conform to the submission guidelines specified by the journal.
  • The manuscript has already been published or is under review elsewhere.

Duplicate Submission and Publication

By submitting to JSCCA, authors certify that the manuscript is not currently under review, has not been previously accepted, and has not been published (in any language) in another journal or conference proceedings, except as a preprint (see Preprints Policy). The identification of a duplicate submission or duplicate publication — at any stage — will result in immediate rejection or retraction, and will be reported to the authors' institutions in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Ethical Approval

Research involving human participants, human tissue, or animals must comply with applicable ethical standards and national/international regulations. Authors must confirm that ethical approval was obtained from an appropriate institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee prior to the conduct of the study.

For studies involving human participants, the manuscript must include:

  • The name and approval number of the ethics committee that approved the study.
  • A statement confirming that all participants provided informed consent (or a waiver thereof).
  • Confirmation that the research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, 2013).

For studies that do not require ethical approval (e.g., analysis of publicly available datasets), authors must include a statement confirming this and explaining why ethical approval was not required.

Funding Statement

Authors are obligated to disclose all sources of financial support for the research reported in the manuscript, including grants, contracts, fellowships, and equipment donations. The funding statement must name each funding source and, where applicable, provide grant reference numbers. If no external funding was received, authors must state: 'This research received no external funding.' The funding statement must be included in the Declarations section of the manuscript.

Images and Figures

All images and figures submitted with a manuscript must be accurate, unmanipulated, and directly relevant to the reported findings. Specific adjustments (such as brightness, contrast, or colour balance) applied uniformly to an entire image are acceptable where they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information in the original image. Selective manipulation of image regions, splicing of images, or removal of data points is prohibited and constitutes misconduct.

Authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder before including any third-party image, figure, or table in their manuscript. The permission must be documented and retained by the corresponding author. If the original, unmanipulated images cannot be provided upon request by the editor, the manuscript may be rejected or retracted.

Research Misconduct

JSCCA treats all forms of research misconduct with the utmost seriousness and will take appropriate measures at all stages of the editorial process. Misconduct identified before publication will result in rejection; misconduct identified after publication will result in retraction and, where appropriate, notification of the authors' institutions and relevant authorities.

Examples of misconduct include, but are not limited to:

  • Affiliation misrepresentation
  • Breaches in copyright or use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
  • Citation manipulation or coercive citation
  • Duplicate submission or duplicate publication
  • Ethics dumping (conducting research not permissible in the authors' home country in a jurisdiction with less stringent protections)
  • Image or data manipulation and fabrication
  • Paper mill submissions (manuscripts produced by third-party commercial authorship services)
  • Peer review manipulation (providing false reviewer contact details, reviewing one's own manuscript)
  • Plagiarism and text recycling/self-plagiarism
  • Undisclosed competing interests
  • Unethical research (involving human participants or animals without ethical approval)

All allegations of misconduct, whether raised before or after publication, are investigated in accordance with the applicable COPE flowcharts (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts). The journal will not suppress or ignore credible concerns.

Duplicate Submission

If a manuscript is discovered to have been published or is currently under review elsewhere, it will be immediately rejected or retracted, and the authors' institutions will be notified.

Citation Manipulation

If a submitted manuscript is found to contain citations whose primary purpose is to artificially inflate citation counts — including citations to the authors' own work, to the work of editors or reviewers, or to journals in a citation cartel — the manuscript will be rejected and the matter reported.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

If submitted manuscripts are found to contain manipulated images or fabricated/falsified experimental data, they will be immediately rejected. Published articles found to contain such manipulation will be retracted.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All authors listed in the manuscript must have made a substantial scientific contribution to the research as defined by the ICMJE authorship criteria. Guest authorship (listing individuals who did not contribute substantively) and ghost authorship (omitting individuals who did contribute) are both forms of misconduct.

Image Manipulation

Deliberate and inappropriate manipulation or fabrication of an image is a severe form of data falsification. The journal expects all images to be accurate and unaltered. If original, unedited images cannot be provided upon request, the manuscript will be rejected or retracted.

ORCID Policy

The corresponding author is required to provide a valid ORCID iD (https://orcid.org/) during manuscript submission. ORCID iDs for all co-authors are strongly encouraged and will be displayed alongside author names on published articles. Authors who do not yet have an ORCID iD are invited to register free of charge at https://orcid.org/register.

JSCCA participates in the ORCID auto-update programme: upon publication, article metadata is automatically added to each author's ORCID record, provided the author has granted the journal the corresponding permission during submission.

Publication Ethics

Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions

The Editor-in-Chief bears ultimate responsibility for determining which articles are published. Editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific quality, originality, and relevance of the manuscript, and are never influenced by the authors' national origin, gender, religion, or institutional affiliation. The Editor-in-Chief may consult members of the editorial board when making decisions on manuscripts that raise ethical or scientific concerns.

Confidentiality, Disclosure, and Conflicts of Interest

Editors must maintain strict confidentiality about submitted manuscripts and must not share information about a submission — including its existence, content, or review status — with anyone outside the editorial process. Editors must recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have a competing interest (financial, personal, or professional) and must delegate such manuscripts to an independent editor. Funding sources for published research must be identified in the article.

Author and Reviewer Relations

Editors are committed to fairness, impartiality, and timeliness in their interactions with authors and reviewers. Editors must ensure that reviewers are treated with respect, that their contributions are acknowledged, and that their identities are protected in accordance with the journal's peer review policy.

Quality Assurance

Editors are responsible for maintaining the quality of the published content. In the event of errors, inaccuracies, or misleading statements in published articles, corrections must be issued promptly and prominently, in accordance with the journal's corrections policy.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Reviewers assist the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may assist authors in improving the quality of their manuscripts. Peer review is a critical component of the scientific publishing process.

Qualification and Conflicts of Interest

Any reviewer who feels unqualified to review a manuscript, or who recognises a potential competing interest, should notify the editor promptly and decline the review request. Reviewers must not accept review assignments for manuscripts in which they have a financial, personal, or professional conflict of interest.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not discuss the manuscript with any third party, must not retain copies after the review process, and must not use any information from an unpublished manuscript for personal advantage.

Use of AI Tools in Peer Review

Reviewers must not upload, input, or otherwise transmit any portion of a manuscript under review into a generative AI tool, large language model, or AI-assisted writing platform. The submitted manuscript is a confidential document; its disclosure to third-party AI services constitutes a breach of peer review confidentiality and is prohibited. Reviewers may use AI tools solely for drafting language in their own review report, without inputting manuscript content; any such use must be disclosed to the handling editor.

Reporting Standards and Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should provide objective, constructive feedback based on the scientific merit of the manuscript. Reviews should identify any pertinent published work that has not been cited by the authors. Reviewers should also alert the editor to any substantial similarity between the manuscript and any other published or submitted work of which they are aware.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards

Authors must present accurate accounts of the work performed and the results obtained, with sufficient detail to allow reproducibility. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose all financial and non-financial competing interests in the Declarations section of the manuscript.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, the author is obligated to notify the Editor-in-Chief or publisher immediately and to cooperate in the issuance of a correction notice.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to JSCCA undergo a rigorous, single-blind peer review process. The identity of reviewers is kept confidential from authors throughout the review. Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are sent to at least two independent external reviewers who are experts in the relevant subject area.

The editor plays a central role in ensuring fairness, consistency, and integrity in the review process. Editorial decisions are based on the reviewers' recommendations and the editor's own scientific judgement. Even where one reviewer provides a positive assessment, concerns raised by another reviewer may warrant rejection or major revision if those concerns are scientifically substantive.

The final decision on acceptance or rejection rests with the Editor-in-Chief. In cases involving significant ethical, security, or societal implications, the editorial board may consult additional experts before making a decision.

Handling of Editor-Authored Manuscripts

In the case of manuscripts submitted by a member of the JSCCA editorial board, the journal applies a strict conflict-of-interest procedure. The manuscript is assigned to an independent editor with no conflict of interest, who manages the peer review process and makes the final publication decision. The submitting editor has no involvement in the handling of their own manuscript.

Reviewer Recognition

JSCCA acknowledges the essential contribution of its peer reviewers. Upon completion of their review assignments, reviewers will receive an official letter of acknowledgement from the editorial office.

Plagiarism Policy

JSCCA adheres to a stringent policy against plagiarism, including text recycling and self-plagiarism. Plagiarism — the use of others' ideas, words, or data without proper attribution — is a serious form of misconduct that will not be tolerated at any stage of the editorial process.

All submitted manuscripts are screened using professional plagiarism detection software (iThenticate). Manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 20% (excluding references, common phrases, and properly quoted material) will be returned to authors for revision prior to peer review. Manuscripts where plagiarism is confirmed after publication will be retracted.

The corresponding author bears responsibility for ensuring the originality of the manuscript and for obtaining all necessary permissions for the reuse of third-party material.

Preprints Policy

Authors have the freedom to share their preprint openly and at any stage of the research process. If a preprint is accepted for publication in JSCCA, authors are encouraged — but not required — to update the preprint record to link to the published version-of-record. Authors should disclose the existence of a preprint at the time of submission by providing the preprint DOI or URL in the cover letter or the manuscript's acknowledgements section. The prior posting of a preprint does not constitute duplicate publication and will not affect editorial decisions.

Revenue Sources and Financial Transparency

In accordance with COPE Principle 14 (Journals' Revenue Sources), JSCCA is transparent about its financial model. The journal is supported by the College of Computer Science, University of Technology-Iraq, as part of the University's commitment to open access publishing. The journal's primary revenue source is the Article Processing Charge (APC) paid by authors residing in Iraq (110,000 IQD per accepted manuscript). Authors from all other countries receive a 100% APC waiver.

The journal does not accept advertising revenue, subscription fees, or commercial sponsorship. APC revenues are used solely to cover the costs of publication services, including typesetting, digital archiving, DOI registration, and platform maintenance. Financial considerations do not influence editorial decisions.

Direct Marketing Policy

In accordance with COPE Principle 16 (Direct Marketing), any communication sent on behalf of JSCCA to potential authors, reviewers, or editorial board members will be courteous, accurate, and non-deceptive. The journal does not engage in unsolicited mass email marketing campaigns or send misleading messages about journal metrics or acceptance rates. Invitations to submit manuscripts or to serve as reviewers will clearly identify the journal and will accurately describe its scope and standards. Authors who receive communications they consider inappropriate are invited to report them to the editorial office.

Standards of Reporting

Authors are encouraged to follow recognised reporting guidelines relevant to their study design, in order to promote transparency, completeness, and reproducibility in reporting. Applicable guidelines include:

  • EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines (https://www.equator-network.org/) — the primary portal for all reporting standards.
  • Studies involving computational methods: ensure code availability and document all hyperparameters.
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: PRISMA 2020.
  • Survey and observational studies: STROBE.

Authors should state in the methods section which reporting guidelines were followed. Adherence to reporting guidelines improves the likelihood of acceptance and accelerates peer review.

Use of Third-Party Material

Before submitting a manuscript, authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holder to reuse any third-party material — including figures, tables, images, or extended text excerpts — that is protected by copyright. Short quotations used for purposes of commentary or criticism may be permissible under fair use/fair dealing provisions; authors are responsible for assessing the applicability of these provisions. Evidence of permission must be retained by the corresponding author and provided to the journal upon request. Third-party material included without the necessary permissions will result in rejection or post-publication correction.

Use of Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies

AI in Manuscript Preparation

When authors use generative AI or AI-assisted technologies (including but not limited to large language models, text generation tools, or AI-based writing assistants) in the preparation of a manuscript, this use must be disclosed. AI assistance is permitted for language editing, grammar checking, and formatting, but must not be used to generate the intellectual substance of the research, fabricate or interpret data, or produce content the authors cannot verify and take responsibility for.

AI tools may not be listed as authors. Authors remain fully and solely responsible for all content in the submitted manuscript, including AI-assisted content. Where AI was used, authors must include a disclosure statement in the Declarations section, specifying the tool used and the nature of its use.

Example AI disclosure statement:

"AI tools were used for language editing and grammar checking of sections of this manuscript. No AI tools were used to generate data, figures, or core scientific content. The authors take full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of all content."

AI in Peer Review

Reviewers must not upload, input, or otherwise transmit any portion of a manuscript under review — including the title, abstract, or any section of the text — into a generative AI tool, large language model, or AI-assisted writing platform. Submitted manuscripts are confidential; their disclosure to third-party AI services constitutes a breach of peer review confidentiality in violation of COPE Core Practice 2 (2023). This prohibition applies regardless of whether the AI tool's terms of service claim not to retain user inputs.

Reviewers may use AI tools for language assistance when drafting their review report, provided that no manuscript content is inputted into the AI system. Any such use must be disclosed to the handling editor. The journal reserves the right to disqualify reviews where reviewer AI use is found to have involved the disclosure of manuscript content.