Journal of Materials Intelligence and Computing

I. Journal Overview

• Official Title: Journal of Materials Intelligence and Computing (JMIC).
• Abbreviation: J. Mat. Int. Comp.
• Publisher: Institute of Materials Informatics, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.
• ISSN: XXXX-XXXX [In Progress]
• Publication Frequency: JMIC publishes four issues per year organized into one annual volume.
• Model: Gold Open Access.
• Review Process: Double-blind peer review.

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II. Ethics Policy

The Journal of Materials Intelligence and Computing (JMIC) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and academic integrity. All stakeholders, including authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher, are required to adhere to the core principles established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

A. Authors' Responsibilities

• Originality and Plagiarism: All submitted manuscripts must represent original research. Authors must ensure that all sources are properly cited. Plagiarism in any form, including "self-plagiarism" (text recycling), is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate rejection or retraction.
• Data Integrity and Reproducibility: To support scientific transparency, authors are strongly encouraged to share raw data, computational code, and workflows through recognized repositories (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo). Results must be reported accurately; data fabrication or falsification is considered a major ethical breach.
• Authorship: Membership in the author list must be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the study. All listed authors must review and approve the final manuscript before submission. We encourage the use of the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) to define individual contributions.
• Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose all financial, professional, or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing their research. This must be provided in a formal "Declaration of Interest" statement within the manuscript.
• Use of Generative AI: The use of AI tools in the writing or data analysis process must be clearly disclosed. Generative AI cannot be listed as an author. Authors maintain full accountability for the accuracy and integrity of any content generated or assisted by AI.
• Fundamental Errors: If an author discovers a significant error in their published work, they are obligated to promptly notify the journal and cooperate with the editors to publish an erratum or, if necessary, retract the paper.

B. Editors' Responsibilities

• Fair Evaluation: Editors evaluate manuscripts based strictly on their intellectual and academic merit, without regard to the authors' race, gender, institutional affiliation, or citizenship.
• Confidentiality: Editors and editorial staff must protect the confidentiality of all submitted material and must not disclose information about a manuscript to anyone other than the authors and reviewers.
• Misconduct Handling: In cases of suspected research or publication misconduct, editors will follow the standardized flowcharts provided by COPE to ensure a fair and thorough investigation.
• Special Issues: Guest editors are held to the same ethical standards as the regular board. The final decision for all manuscripts within special issues remains with the Editor-in-Chief or the permanent editorial board.

C. Reviewers' Responsibilities

• Confidentiality: Reviewers must treat all manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. They must not discuss or share the work with others without explicit permission from the editor.
• Conflict of Interest: Reviewers must decline to review manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors or institutions.
• Objectivity: Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly, providing supporting arguments and constructive feedback to help the authors improve their work.

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III. Peer-Review Policy (Double-Blind)

The JMIC employs a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. To ensure an impartial evaluation based solely on scientific merit, the identities of both the authors and the reviewers are kept confidential throughout the review period.

A. Manuscript Preparation & Anonymization

To maintain the integrity of the double-blind process, authors are required to submit their work in two separate files:

• Title Page (Non-Blinded): This document is for editorial use only and will not be shared with reviewers. It must include:
  • The full manuscript title.
  • Complete author names, institutional affiliations, and ORCID IDs.
  • Contact details for the corresponding author.
  • Comprehensive disclosure of funding, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest (COI), and author contributions (CRediT).
• Anonymized Manuscript: This is the version sent to reviewers. It must be prepared as follows:
  • Remove all Identifying Info: Delete names, affiliations, and contact details from the first page and headers/footers.
  • Neutral Phrasing: Use the third person when referring to your previous work (e.g., replace "As we showed in our 2023 study..." with "As previously demonstrated (Smith et al., 2023)...").
  • Redact if Necessary: If a self-citation cannot be neutralized, replace the reference with "[Anonymous, 2023]" in the text and bibliography.
  • Exclude Metadata: Ensure that acknowledgments, funding statements, and file metadata (Properties) do not contain identifying information.

B. Editorial & Review Workflow

1. Technical Screening: The editorial office performs an initial check for scope, plagiarism, and proper anonymization. Manuscripts that are not correctly blinded will be returned to the authors.
2. Editorial Assignment: The Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to a specialized Associate Editor.
3. Peer Evaluation: A minimum of two independent experts are invited to review the manuscript.
4. Reporting: Reviewers evaluate the manuscript for scientific rigor, originality, and significance to the field.
5. Editorial Decision: Based on the reports, the Associate Editor recommends one of the following: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.
6. Revision: If revisions are requested, authors must submit a response to reviewers alongside the revised, anonymized manuscript.
7. Final Approval: The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on all publications.

C. Reviewer Guidelines

• Timeline: To maintain a rapid publication cycle, reviewers are requested to complete their evaluations within 3–4 weeks.
• Constructive Feedback: Reviews should be professional and offer specific suggestions to help authors improve the quality of their research.
• Ethical Vigilance: Reviewers must confidentially report any concerns regarding potential plagiarism, data manipulation, or ethical breaches directly to the editor.

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IV. Open-Access Policy

The JMIC is a Gold Open Access journal. All articles are made available immediately and permanently upon publication for anyone to read, download, and distribute without subscription fees or registration barriers.

A. Author Rights and Archiving

• Copyright Retention: Authors retain full, unrestricted copyright of their work.
• Licensing: By publishing in JMIC, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute the work under a Creative Commons license.
• Self-Archiving (Green OA): Authors are encouraged to deposit all versions of their work (Pre-print, Accepted Manuscript, or Published Version) in institutional repositories or disciplinary servers (e.g., ChemRxiv, arXiv, ResearchGate, or Zenodo, etc.) at any time.

B. Creative Commons Licenses

JMIC primarily utilizes the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. This allows others to distribute, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This license is the gold standard for open research and is required by many major global funding agencies.

Other license options available upon request include:

License Name	Abbreviation	Commercial Use?	Allows Remixing?
Attribution (Recommended)	CC BY	Yes	Yes
Attribution-NonCommercial	CC BY-NC	No	Yes
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives	CC BY-NC-ND	No	No
Attribution-ShareAlike	CC BY-SA	Yes	Yes
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike	CC BY-NC-SA	No	Yes

C. Article Processing Charges (APC)

As an open-access journal, JMIC does not charge readers or institutions for access. To cover the costs of editorial management, peer-review coordination, web hosting, and permanent archiving, the following charges apply:

• Standard APC: $1,200 USD per accepted manuscript.
• Invoicing & Timing: The APC is only invoiced after a manuscript has been officially accepted for publication following peer review. There are no submission fees, and no charges are applied if a manuscript is rejected or withdrawn.
• Waiver Policy: We are committed to ensuring that financial barriers do not prevent the publication of high-quality research. Full or partial waivers are available for authors from low-income economies or those facing documented financial constraints.
• Application: Waiver requests must be submitted during the initial submission process. Requests made after acceptance will typically not be considered.