EDITORIAL POLICY

MSPE JOURNAL

General principles, scope and publication

The MSPE journal publishes original research articles, review papers, and other scholarly contributions within its defined thematic scope. The Editorial Board is committed to disseminating high-quality, peer-reviewed research that advances knowledge in the field and contributes to the international scientific discourse.

The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity at every stage of the editorial and publishing process. All parties involved, authors, reviewers, editors, and the Publisher, are expected to adhere to ethical principles that protect the credibility of the scholarly record.

This policy is guided by the recommendations and best practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal follows the COPE Core Practices and, in cases of suspected misconduct, the procedures outlined in the COPE flowcharts and guidance documents.

All manuscripts must be submitted and published in English. Manuscripts are accepted exclusively through the electronic submission system available on the Publisher’s website.

The journal operates under a full Open Access model. All published articles are freely and immediately accessible worldwide, without subscription charges or registration requirements.

Policies on authorship and contributorship

To qualify as an author, an individual must have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content; approved the final version to be published; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Only individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research may be listed as co-authors. Ghost authorship, including the omission of a contributor, and guest or gift authorship, including a person who has not made a qualifying contribution, are considered violations of publication ethics.

Any changes to the author list after submission, including additions, removals, or changes in author order, must be requested in writing by the corresponding author and approved by all listed authors. The Editorial Board reserves the right to request a justification for such changes.

Handling complaints and appeals

3.1 Appeals

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision may submit a written appeal to the Editor-in-Chief within 30 days of the decision. The appeal must include a detailed justification and, where relevant, a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments. The Editor-in-Chief will review the appeal and may consult additional reviewers or members of the Editorial Board before issuing a final decision.

3.2 Complaints

Complaints regarding the editorial process or alleged breaches of publication ethics may be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief in writing. All complaints will be handled in accordance with COPE guidelines.

The Editorial Board will take appropriate action in response to ethical complaints or allegations of misconduct concerning submitted or published manuscripts. Such actions may include requesting clarification from authors, issuing corrections or retractions, notifying the authors’ institution, and, where warranted, reporting the matter to relevant professional or regulatory bodies.

Policies on conflicts of interest and competing interests

All authors, reviewers, and editors are required to disclose any financial or non-financial relationships or interests, including personal, professional, or institutional interests, that could inappropriately influence or bias their work.

Authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation. Reviewers and editors must declare conflicts when they are assigned to a manuscript.

Reviewers who have a conflict that may compromise their impartiality should decline the invitation to review. Editors who have a personal, professional, or financial relationship with the authors or the subject matter of a manuscript must recuse themselves from the editorial process for that submission.

Policies on data sharing and reproducibility

Authors must ensure that all data, results, and conclusions presented in the manuscript are accurate, verifiable, and free from fabrication or falsification.

Authors are encouraged to make the data underlying their research available in a publicly accessible repository or to provide the data upon reasonable request. Where data cannot be shared because of privacy, legal, or other constraints, authors should state the reason in the manuscript.

Where applicable, authors should also provide access to code, software, or other materials necessary for the reproduction of the results.

Policy on ethical oversight

6.1 Research involving human subjects

All research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with the ethical principles set forth in the Declaration of Helsinki and must have received prior approval from an appropriate institutional or national ethics committee, such as an Institutional Review Board or Research Ethics Committee.

The manuscript must include the name of the approving ethics committee, the approval or protocol reference number, and a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legal guardians, or a justification for a waiver of consent granted by the ethics committee. For studies involving vulnerable populations, including children, persons with cognitive impairments, and prisoners, additional safeguards must be described.

6.2 Research involving animals

All research involving animal subjects must comply with applicable national and institutional regulations governing the care and use of laboratory animals and should follow established guidelines such as the ARRIVE guidelines.

The manuscript must state that the study protocol was approved by the relevant institutional animal ethics committee, provide the approval or protocol reference number, and confirm that the principles of the 3Rs, Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement, were applied.

6.3 Research not requiring ethical approval

For studies that do not involve human or animal subjects, including computational modelling, analysis of publicly available data, and purely technical or engineering research, authors should include a brief statement confirming that ethical approval was not required, with a justification.

6.4 Documentation

The Editorial Board reserves the right to request documentation of ethical approval at any stage of the editorial process. Manuscripts that lack evidence of required ethical oversight may be rejected or, if already published, retracted.

Policy on intellectual property

By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that the work is original, has not been published elsewhere, and is not under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Authors are required to submit a signed declaration of originality and a licence-to-publish agreement at the time of submission.

Authors retain full copyright to their work. Upon acceptance, authors grant the Publisher a non-exclusive licence to publish, distribute, and archive the article. Authors also consent to the article being made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, CC BY 4.0.

Under CC BY 4.0, users may copy, distribute, and make derivative works, provided that the original work is properly cited. The full terms of the licence are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The name of the author or authors as copyright holder or holders and the applicable Creative Commons licence are clearly indicated in the full text of every published article, both in the HTML and PDF versions.

Authors retain the right to share, reuse, and self-archive the published version of their article in institutional repositories, personal websites, or preprint servers without embargo, in accordance with CC BY 4.0.

Authors must properly acknowledge all sources used in the research and preparation of the manuscript. Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism, text recycling, and paraphrasing without attribution, is strictly prohibited. All submitted manuscripts are screened for plagiarism and textual overlap using iThenticate before peer review.

Options for post-publication discussions and corrections

The journal encourages constructive scholarly dialogue following publication.

Letters to the Editor: readers may submit concise letters commenting on, critiquing, or extending the findings of published articles. Letters are subject to editorial review and, if accepted, are published with a reference to the original article. The original authors are given an opportunity to respond.

Errata and author-initiated corrections: authors who identify errors in their published work are encouraged to contact the Editorial Office promptly.

Third-party concerns: any individual who suspects ethical violations, errors, or other issues in a published article may report the concerns in writing to the Editor-in-Chief. Such reports will be handled confidentially and investigated in accordance with COPE guidance.

The journal does not currently operate an open commenting system on its website. All correspondence related to published articles should be directed to the Editorial Office.

If significant errors do not affect the overall conclusions, the journal will publish a formal Erratum for publisher errors or Corrigendum for author errors, clearly linked to the original article. If errors or misconduct fundamentally undermine the reliability of the findings, the article will be formally retracted in accordance with COPE Retraction Guidelines. Retracted articles will remain accessible in the online archive but will be clearly and prominently marked as retracted, with the retraction notice linked to the original article. The journal may issue an Expression of Concern when evidence of misconduct is inconclusive or an investigation is ongoing.

Statement regarding the use of generative AI

Authors who have used artificial intelligence tools, including large language models, AI-assisted writing software, or automated data analysis tools, in preparing a manuscript must transparently disclose this use in the manuscript, specifying the tool or tools used, the version, and the purpose of use.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for the integrity of the work. The corresponding author and all co-authors bear full responsibility for the content of the manuscript, including any text, data, or analysis generated with AI assistance.

Responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and the Editorial Board

10.1 Responsibilities of authors

Authors submitting manuscripts to the MSPE journal are expected to:

Submit only original work that has not been previously published, in whole or in part, in any language, and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal. At the time of submission, authors must provide a signed declaration of originality and a licence agreement granting the Publisher a non-exclusive right to publish the work. Authors retain full copyright to their work.

Ensure that all data, results, and conclusions presented in the manuscript are accurate, verifiable, and free from fabrication or falsification.

Properly acknowledge all sources used in the research and the preparation of the manuscript. All direct and indirect citations must be appropriately referenced. Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism, text recycling, and paraphrasing without attribution, is strictly prohibited.

List as co-authors only those individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the research. Ghost authorship and guest or gift authorship are considered violations of publication ethics.

Disclose any financial or non-financial conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.

Comply with all applicable ethical oversight requirements described in this policy, including obtaining appropriate ethics committee approval and informed consent where required.

Report any errors discovered in their published work promptly and cooperate with the Editorial Board in issuing corrections, errata, or retractions as necessary.

10.2 Responsibilities of reviewers

Peer reviewers engaged by the journal are expected to:

Provide an objective, constructive, and evidence-based assessment of the manuscript’s scientific quality, methodological soundness, and significance within the relevant field.

Maintain strict confidentiality regarding the content of the manuscript under review. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or use information from the manuscript for their own benefit or the benefit of others before publication.

Declare any personal, professional, financial, or institutional conflict of interest that may compromise their impartiality and decline the invitation to review in such cases.

Complete the review within the agreed timeframe or promptly notify the Editorial Office if they are unable to do so.

Refrain from contacting the authors directly regarding the manuscript. All communication must be conducted through the Editorial Office.

Alert the Editor to concerns regarding potential ethical violations, including suspected plagiarism, data fabrication, or undisclosed duplicate publication.

10.3 Responsibilities of the Editorial Board

The Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board are committed to:

Evaluate manuscripts solely on their intellectual and scientific merit, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

Ensure the integrity and fairness of the double-blind peer review process described in the journal’s Peer Review Process document.

Maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and associated materials. Information obtained during review must not be disclosed to anyone other than persons directly involved in the editorial workflow.

Make timely, transparent, and well-justified editorial decisions based on reviewers’ recommendations, the manuscript’s scientific quality, and its relevance to the journal’s scope.

Manage conflicts of interest. Editors who have a personal, professional, or financial relationship with the authors or the subject matter of a manuscript must recuse themselves from the process for that submission.

Take appropriate action in response to ethical complaints or allegations of misconduct concerning submitted or published manuscripts, in accordance with COPE guidelines. Actions may include requesting clarification from authors, issuing corrections or retractions, notifying the authors’ institution, and, where warranted, reporting the matter to relevant professional or regulatory bodies.

Peer review, publication transparency, and research misconduct

All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. The full procedure, including reviewer selection criteria, decision-making protocols, and conflict resolution mechanisms, is described in the journal’s Peer Review Process document. The Editorial Board makes final decisions on manuscript acceptance or rejection based on the reviewers’ recommendations, the scientific quality of the work, and its alignment with the journal’s scope.

Every published article clearly displays the date the manuscript was received and the date it was accepted, in both the HTML and PDF versions.

Research misconduct, including data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, citation manipulation, and plagiarism, is treated with the utmost seriousness. In confirmed cases, the Editorial Board will follow the relevant COPE flowcharts. Actions may include manuscript rejection, retraction, notification of the authors’ employing institution, and reporting to relevant professional bodies.

Management Systems in Production Engineering

About the journal

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All volumes and issues in this journal

Volume 34 (2026)

Volume 33 (2025)

Volume 32 (2024)

Volume 31 (2023)

Volume 30 (2022)

Volume 29 (2021)

Volume 28 (2020)

Volume 27 (2019)

Volume 26 (2018)

Volume 25 (2017)

Volume 24 (2016)

Volume 23 (2016)

Volume 22 (2016)

Volume 21 (2016)

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