Ethical Guidelines
Chinese Geographical Science (CGS) is committed to meeting and upholding standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process. We follow closely the existing Spring Nature policies and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements. Our key expectations of authors, peer reviewers and editors are set as presented below.
1. Ethical expectations
1.1 Authors’ responsibilities
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by the following rules of good scientific practice.
The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”).
A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g. “salami-publishing”).
No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions.
No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors’ own (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgments to other works must be given, and this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased. Quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.
Consent to submit has been received from all co-authors and responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out before the work is submitted.
Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
1.2 Reviewers’ responsibilities
To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of the published paper in an objective and timely manner.
To maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author. To not retain or copy the manuscript, or discuss with others.
To alert the editor to any published content that is substantially similar to that under consideration.
To be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or competitive, or other relationships with any of the authors, affiliations or companies related to the paper) and to alert the editor to these.
1.3 Editors’ responsibilities
To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.
To handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
To adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflicting nature, in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Society where appropriate. To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained.
2. Authorship
2.1 Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following:
The conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
Final approval of the version to be submitted.
Authors should appoint a corresponding author to communicate with the journal during the editorial process. All authors should agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
2.2 Changes to authorship
The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at submission.
The policy of this journal around authorship changes:
All authors must be listed in the manuscript and their details entered into the submission system. Changes can only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor. This includes additions, deletion, or rearrangement of author names.
Requests to change authorship must be made by the corresponding author. The corresponding author must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the changes. Requests which do not comply with this instruction will not be considered.
This journal does not allow authorship changes after acceptance. This includes additions, deletions, or the rearrangement of author names, including changes to the corresponding author.
The review process may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.
Approved authorship changes will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been accepted.
Change requests made by the authors without editor approval may result in the rejection of the manuscript or retraction if the article has already been published.
3. Declaration of competing interests
All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:
Employment
Consultancies
Stock ownership
Honoraria
Paid expert testimony
Patent applications or registrations
Grants or any other funding
Affiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board Member
4. Ethics
The authors declare that all experiments on animal or human subjects were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and that all procedures were carried out with the adequate understanding and written consent of the subjects.
The following statements should be included in the "Materials and methods" or in the text before the References section:
Ethical approval: "All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards" or "All applicable institutional and/or national guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed".
For studies with animals: all animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines.
5. Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing
Authors preparing a manuscript for this journal can use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (“AI Tools”) to support them. However, these tools must never be used as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise and evaluation. AI technology should always be applied with human oversight and control. Authors must not list or cite AI Tools as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to, and performed by, humans. Authors must declare the use of generative AI in the manuscript preparation process upon submission of the paper.
Pubdate: 2026-05-20
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