Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
Publication Decisions
Final decision for publication in the Advanced Applied Geology is based on a codified process. Journal policies are a part of this process. Content compatibility of each submitted paper with the scope of journal is one of the journal policies. Submitted papers must be free of allegations such as libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Reviewer comments are another part of decision process. The results of these two parts determine the final decision for each paper. Advanced Applied Geology has been authorized to select valuable submitted papers for publication.
Confidentiality
Advanced Applied Geology has commitment to protect all information of submitted articles from untrusted ones. In this regard, journal’s editorial boards such as reviewers and advisers are only able to access the information.
Identification of and Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct
Publisher and editor of the journal take reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. In no case shall the journal or its editor encourage such misconduct, or knowingly allow such misconduct to take place. In the event that the journal’s publisher or editor is made aware of any allegation of research misconduct relating to a published article in the journal– the publisher or editor shall follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines (or equivalent) in dealing with allegations.
Authorship
Submitted papers must be approved by its author(s) to consider for refereeing in the Advanced Applied Geology. Author(s) must thus have an active presence to design and prepare all materials of their papers. All of the authors must have critically reviewed its content and have approved the final version submitted for publication. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the manuscript content. They should also sign an authorship form confirming their contribution in writing the manuscript. Papers are only considered for publication once consent is given by all contributing authors.
Complaints and Appeals 
Complaints, appeals or allegations of misconduct should be addressed to the editor in chief via the following link. Please select the “sent a Complaint” in the question type box.
https://aag.scu.ac.ir/journal/contact.us?lang=en
Allegations that concern the conduct of the editor in chief or are of a sensitive nature that warrant external involvement, should be addressed by direct email to Director-in-Charge via charchi38@scu.ac.ir. These complaints will be received by two nominated members of the external editorial board.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be affected on influence the results or interpretation of the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. Authors should also sign “conflicts of Interest form” available in “Guide for Authors” section.
Data Sharing and Reproducibility
Advanced Applied Geology believes in open, reproducible science. All papers must contain a methodology detailed enough for someone in the field to reproduce the methods. For short papers, this can be supplied in a supplementary file. All data should be submitted with manuscript.
Ethical Oversight 
Ethical oversight is by the editor in chief and the editorial team. Issues can be raised and discussed by individuals during meetings of the editorial team and via contacting with editorial office using the following link. Please select the “Contact with Editorial Office” in the question type box.
https://aag.scu.ac.ir/journal/contact.us?lang=en.
Although the journal is not yet a member of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) but tries to follow the procedures outlined by COPE to deal with all ethical issues as they arise.
Intellectual Property
Here, we outline the journal’s policies for avoiding and handling violations of intellectual property, including copyright and licensing, prior-publication and plagiarism:
Copyrighted Material
When submitting an article to Advanced Applied Geology, the corresponding (submitting) author agrees to publish the work under the conditions laid out in the journal’s policies on open access and copyright and licensing.
Further, it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain permission to use published copyrighted material, and state the licence and permission in the main text or figure caption(s). It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the manuscript does not contain any confidential or copyrighted information without express permission for its use.
In submitting their work to journal, the corresponding author agrees that:
1- The manuscript contains no confidential information, publication of which is restricted.
2- Permission has been granted to reuse, modify or redistribute any copyrighted material and the licence and permission are provided in the main text or caption.
Disputes over copyright of published scholarly content should be addressed to the editor in chief by email. Disputes of copyright in unpublished articles (i.e. during the review stage) should be reported to the subject editor of the work.
Prior Publication
Advanced Applied Geology only accepts manuscripts that have not been previously published in the peer-reviewed literature. We do not accept manuscripts that are under consideration for publication by another scholarly (i.e. peer-reviewed) journal.
Manuscripts that have not undergone a peer-review process, including institutional reports or manuscripts that appear on personal or institutional websites or recognized preprint servers, are not considered to be cases of prior publication. We therefore accept submissions that have been previously available online, in these formats. Authors should always acknowledge such circumstances upon submission and cite any previous versions of the submitted article.
Publication Fee
Advanced Applied Geology welcomes article submissions and does not charge a publication fee. The Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz publishes the journal and there are no charges to submit and publish a paper.
Originality and Plagiarism
Author(s) must present original works for consideration in the Advanced Applied Geology. In papers contained any part of a published article, author(s) have to properly cite or quote the source of the published article. Journal utilizes "Plagiarism Detection Software" for checking the originality of submitted papers in the reviewing process.
Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication
Author(s) should not submit papers if those papers have been previously presented for refereeing to other journals. Simultaneous submission of a paper in more than one journal will be faced to unethical publishing behaviors.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Please also note that plagiarism can also apply to researchers who re-use their own text or duplicate their own previously published reports without acknowledgment. This, is sometimes called self-plagiarism, text recycling, duplicate or redundant publication. In some instances, recycling of text may be appropriate. For example, overlap between the description of methods or some aspects of a study site, with citation of the original article, is likely to be acceptable. However, overlap of texts from the introduction, results, discussions or conclusions are unlikely to be acceptable.
Revenue Sources/Advertising/Direct Marketing
Advanced Applied Geology is financially supported by Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran, and has no other sources for earning funds. Journal accepts No advertisements in the site or even as a report article.
Publishing Schedule/Archiving
Advanced Applied Geology is published four issues per year. All the content from the beginning to the end will be available for ever on journal’s exclusive website.
Duties of Reviewers
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
All of the journal’s content, apart from any editorial material that is clearly marked as such, is subjected to double blind peer review process. Peer reviewers have an effective role in assistance the editor to make editorial decisions. They also can assist the authors to improve their papers throughout the editorial communications.
Promptness
Each one of peer reviewers who feels unqualified to review a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process. Confidentiality any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor. Standards of Objectivity Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections
Journal encourages debate post publication by submitting a letter to the editor. Post-publication corrections will be published alongside the original article. Any necessary changes will be accompanied with a post-publication notice which will be permanently linked to the original article so that readers will be fully informed of any necessary changes. This can be in the form of a Correction notice, an Expression of Concern, a Retraction and in rare circumstances a Removal. The purpose of this mechanism of making changes which are permanent and transparent is to ensure the integrity of the scholarly record. All correction, expressions of concern and retraction notices are free to access at the point of publication.
Future Steps
The "Advanced Applied Geology" has already started to go through the procedure of getting membership of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). For the time being, we do follow its principles as much as possible, on how to deal with acts of misconduct thereby committing to investigate allegations of misconduct in order to ensure the integrity of research.