Journal polices

For Authors

1. Authors of submitted articles are responsible for the reliability of the research results they contribute to and are responsible for compliance with all regulations related to the publication of scientific papers under the current Publishing Law, Press Law, Law on Science and Technology, and current Intellectual Property Law.

2. Authors of submitted articles must disclose any clear and potential conflicts of interest of the article (if any).

3. Authors submitting articles have an obligation to comply with the regulations on article submission procedures of the journal; revise and complete the article according to the requirements of reviewers and the Editorial Board.

4. The order of authors' names in the article should reflect their contributions to the article or their roles in the author group: The first author is the one with the most contributions, the next position is the second most contributing author, the third, etc., the last author is usually the leader of the research team. Based on the consensus of the author group, the corresponding author is responsible for arranging the order of authors of the article and the names of co-authors. After the article enters the editing stage, any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the list of authors is not accepted (except for valid reasons and has been requested in writing to the editorial office); the submitting author is responsible for the arrangement of the author order during the exchange with the editorial office.

5. Authors are not allowed to submit manuscripts to other journals while the final approval decision of the Editorial Board has not been made and must take responsibility for duplicate publication with other journals; not providing information related to themselves in the article; not contacting reviewers during the peer review process.

6. The rights of authors of articles published by the Journal are applied in accordance with the Intellectual Property Law of Vietnam 2022, the Law amending some articles of the Intellectual Property Law 2022. The author has personal rights and property rights of the manuscript submitted to the Journal. Specifically:

a) Personal rights: The author has the right to name or allow the Journal to name the article to improve the quality of the article, in accordance with the regulations of the Journal; to self-publish or allow the Journal to publish their article; Protect the integrity of the manuscript, not allowing others to distort, modify, or cut the manuscript that would harm the author's reputation and prestige; allow the Journal's reviewers and editors to propose author revisions, adjustments, and supplements to improve the quality of the manuscript and in accordance with the regulations of the Journal.

b) Property rights: The author has property rights and ownership rights to the original manuscript submitted to the Journal; the author has the right to submit a manuscript based on their own published article but with a different title, objective, research results, and not more than 30% similarity; have the right to submit the manuscript to another Journal if the Journal refuses to accept or publish it.

7. Authors of published articles in the journal are staff members of Nguyen Tat Thanh University and are counted as standard hours, research hours according to the regulations of the University.

8. Authors of articles are evaluated by the State Professor Council for scientific research work when considering recognition of the standards of Professor and Associate Professor titles (applicable to fields recognized by the State Professor Council for scoring).

9. The journal encourages the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a support tool in the research process. AI can play an important role in analyzing big data, searching for information, and even in developing predictive models for research.

10. Authors using AI must adhere to principles to ensure transparency in the use of AI, providing detailed information about the AI technology used, the reasons for using it, and how the authors evaluate the AI results, to help build a reliable basis for AI research and application.

11. To ensure transparency in reporting the use of artificial intelligence (AI), in the "Acknowledgments" section of the manuscript, authors need to include information about the use of AI through clear text, including the type of AI technology used, the reason for using AI technology, the role of AI technology in the research. If AI is used in the research process, authors should provide a detailed description in the "Method" section. Editors may request additional information or adjust content to ensure transparency and prepare for publication.

For Reviewers

1. Reviewers must be scientists holding a PhD or higher degree, with reputable and scientifically honest credentials, having published numerous scientific works domestically and internationally; having expertise or near-expertise in the field and research subjects of the article being invited to critique; capable of assessing the quality of research works; the reviewer does not have any competing interests or does not have financial/non-financial relationships too closely related to the author/research topic.

2. Reviewers are tasked with objectively and honestly evaluating the scientific content of the article, respecting academic freedom; providing constructive, positive, and civilized critiques based on the Critique Form provided by the Editorial Office. Reviewers are responsible for:

a) Evaluating the entire article on all scientific and academic integrity aspects as stipulated by the journal;

b) Not editing the manuscript content, but providing comments and proposing improvements to the article quality;

c) Maintaining anonymity and confidentiality during the article review process; not contacting the article author during the review process;

d) Adhering to the time frame for returning review results as committed upon receiving the review request, or as stipulated by the journal (maximum of 20 days for the first round and 07 days for the second round).

3. The journal may request expert reviewers to provide additional opinions, exchanges on the manuscript to complete the critique process.

4. Reviewers accept the recommendations of the editor and the publishing decision of the Editor-in-Chief, which may differ from the review results.

5. Reviewer comments evaluate the following main contents: Title; Abstract, keywords; Introduction; Research rationale; Theoretical basis; Research method and database; Scientific and practical contributions of the manuscript; Presentation format and spelling/grammar errors; Reference list.

6. Manuscript ranking evaluation by the reviewer's personal opinion (consisting of 7 levels): A- Excellent; B- Very good; C- Good; D- Acceptable; E- Below average; F- Poor.

7. Reviewer recommendations: After evaluating the manuscript, the reviewer selects one of the following proposals to assist the journal in making a decision regarding the manuscript:

Accept the manuscript without requiring revisions;
Edit and resubmit to the Editorial Office (minor edits accompanied by an explanation and not requiring re-review);
Edit and resubmit for re-review (Significant points needing revisions affecting the content of the article should be sent back to the reviewer for reevaluation accompanied by an explanation);
Reject the manuscript (Clear reasons must be provided in the report).

8. Reviewer evaluations and recommendations must be compatible with each other:

Ratings from A-D: Accept for publication (with or without revisions, or revisions and resubmission for a second review);
Ratings E-F: Reject for publication.

9. Final decision: The editor will consider the recommendations of the reviewers to make requests for revisions, additions, exchanges with the author if necessary.

10. Reviewers will receive remuneration for their critique according to the current regulations of Nguyen Tat Thanh University.

Editing – Reviewing – Publishing

1. After receiving peer review comments, the Editor makes decisions (which may involve further discussions with reviewers) regarding acceptance or rejection of the manuscript, or requests revisions for resubmission, addressing second-round reviews. The decision timeline is 03 days from receiving the peer review comments.

2. The Editor conducts a plagiarism check on the manuscript, reaching conclusions based on the similarity report, and notifies the authors of the results; or suggests revisions to ensure compliance with plagiarism standards.

3. The Editor assists in revising and editing the manuscript before approval for publication, following the journal's guidelines for a complete scientific paper. Authors must collaborate with the Editor to address the Editor's requirements, ensuring that the manuscripts meet publication standards. The resubmission date is the date when authors complete revisions as per the Editor's requests and resubmit to the editorial office (revision time is 10 days from receiving editing suggestions from the Editor).

4. Authors must revise according to the reviewers' and Editor's requests. The resubmission date is when authors complete revisions as per the Editor's requests and resubmit to the editorial office (revision time is 10 days from receiving editing suggestions from the Editor).

5. The Editor sends the final draft to the authors for content and formatting confirmation before publication. All editing and reviewing steps are performed on the journal's online system. Authors act on behalf of all co-authors and are responsible for the accuracy of all content, formatting, and information.

6. Once the manuscript completes the editing process and receives author confirmation, it proceeds to the reviewing process for publication. During this stage, authors have no right to withdraw or change the manuscript.

7. The results of acceptance for publication are notified to the authors via email. The sequence number of the manuscript and the issue number in which the manuscript is scheduled for publication are determined by the Editorial Office (expected time and issue number may change).

8. The reviewing period for the manuscript is 10 days (from the completion of the final draft).

9. The article will be published electronically upon acceptance for publication. Contact authors will be informed of the expected issue number of the article via email. The article will be published in print or electronic format, or both, on the journal's website. The timing of these two versions may not be simultaneous. The decision on the publication format is at the discretion of the journal.

Privacy Statement and Information Security

1. The journal is responsible for publicly disclosing in writing the journal's policies, editorial personnel, Editorial Board list, objectives and scope of publication, detailed guidelines for authors, reviewers, and evaluation forms, citation regulations, article structure, and format. The contents disclosed on the journal's website are considered as written disclosure, and the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for approving before publication.

2. The journal implements a two-way blind review policy, where authors and reviewers will remain anonymous; all exchange of information must go through the editorial office. The journal implements a new review process or will reject submissions if authors or reviewers inadvertently or intentionally disclose identities to each other.

3. The journal is responsible for keeping the names of authors, reviewers, and personal information about the author's and reviewer's organization confidential and will not disclose for any commercial purposes, except as required to disclose in writing by competent state authorities.

4. The journal has the right to contact sponsors, regulatory agencies, or organizations of authors in cases of suspicion that the author's research is related to unlicensed subjects or discloses confidential materials threatening security, or contains information contrary to current laws.

5. The journal may send occasional emails to authors, reviewers, collaborators, and readers of the journal for purposes such as: announcing new developments, inviting submissions, inviting reviews, inviting collaboration, etc. Anyone wishing to stop receiving such emails may request to be removed from the list.

6. Authors must ensure the confidentiality of all documents, review content, and editing content provided by the Editorial Office.

7. Reviewers are responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of all documents during the review process. Reviewers are not allowed to share evaluations or manuscript information with anyone or contact authors directly without the consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Reviewers are not allowed to use manuscript information for personal purposes.

Plagiarism

Manuscripts are checked for plagiarism using manual methods or using Turnitin software to detect duplication. In case of plagiarism detection, the journal reserves the right to request the author to explain, edit, or immediately reject the submission. The following behaviors are considered plagiarism by the journal:

a) Including in the manuscript passages, data, images, or other information from other research works or published articles of others without citing the source of that work or article;

b) Providing vague, unclear, or inaccurate information about reused sources in the manuscript or misattributing the author of that information;

c) Properly citing the source of information but not adhering to the journal's citation guidelines;

d) Translating a portion or translating the entire text from Vietnamese to English or from another language to Vietnamese to constitute over 20% of the author's manuscript without citing the original text;

e) Properly citing the content of another author's writing to form one's own manuscript but with a citation rate of 25% or more of the content of the manuscript, excluding citations that ensure the integrity of the original work and citations that only serve to clarify the author's argument leading to their own conclusion;

f) Using over 30% of the content of the author's previously published work and presenting it as a new paper;

g) Copying an entire work, article of others to create one's own paper;

h) Presenting the ideas of others in one's own personal writing style;

i) Other behaviors contrary to current copyright and intellectual property laws;

k) Copying verbatim a passage containing 20 words or more, or having a similarity rate of 25% or more and each source exceeding 2%, or only changing the topic title, data while retaining the content is considered a violation.

Research Publication Ethics

1. Individuals conducting research and publishing their research results in journals are required to adhere to the principles of academic freedom, pursue and present research results that ensure the integrity of knowledge; not fear threats, repression, or censorship by organizations or individuals with power for their own interests by concealing scientific discoveries and inventions. The journal considers the following behaviors as ethical violations in research:

a) Fabrication: Authors and author groups do not actually conduct research but have falsified data or results presented in the article;

b) Data falsification: Authors and author groups have conducted research, experiments, but have manipulated, altered, or omitted data or results from the original research, experiments;

c) Plagiarism: The use, with or without the author's intention, of academic products such as sentences, paragraphs, articles, data, images, information, and ideas of others in their own products without instructions/acknowledgment from the authors of the content used. Behaviors considered plagiarism by the Journal are outlined in Article 11;

d) Scientific research causing irreparable harm to humans, living animals, and the environment;

e) Unfair treatment of research participants; discriminatory behavior based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or prejudice against vulnerable individuals or groups;

f) Content that undermines - or may reasonably be considered to undermine - the rights and dignity of an individual or group whose role is socially or societally derived;

g) Identifying and relying on the content of articles on images, information related to individuals without their permission;

h) Research content using human embryos, stem cells, human fetuses, and related materials, organs, or organs of the human body without permission from the competent authority.

2. For research works related to chemicals, processes, hazardous equipment, authors need to declare clearly in the article about compliance with the procedures of Vietnamese law, guidelines of relevant international organizations.

3. When the research subject is animals or humans, research involving human participants must be conducted according to the Helsinki Declaration.

4. Authors are responsible for managing ethical aspects of research. The journal has the right to request authors to publicly disclose and provide documents, evidence when necessary. When there is insufficient evidence, the journal has the right to reject the article.

Conflict of Interest

1. The journal is responsible for managing the potential conflicts of interest of members of the editorial board, editorial staff, authors, reviewers, and related individuals. The journal requires individuals to declare clear and potential conflicts of interest and be responsible for their statements.

2. The journal considers potential conflicts of interest to be all factors that may hinder or interfere with the full and objective presentation of research results or may affect the reliability of research results in the article after publication. The journal considers types of potential conflicts of interest related to editorial board members, authors, and reviewers, including:

a) For editorial board members: Financial and non-financial benefits enjoyed by the member, including expertise, employment position, title, affiliated organizations, remuneration. This information is regularly collected and managed by the journal, annually or when appointed, reappointed, or assigned tasks;

b) For authors: Authors have an obligation to disclose any personal benefits or relationships that may be affected when publishing the submitted manuscript (if any). Funding sources must be acknowledged in the manuscript. All authors must report any financial interests in business or commercial organizations related to themselves. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author is responsible for notifying the journal of potential conflicts of interest at the time of manuscript submission. Such conflicts will be declared in the article upon publication. Authors must also submit a corrigendum if potential conflicts of interest become clear conflicts of interest after the article has been published. In such cases, depending on the extent of the conflict of interest, the journal will decide whether to retract the article or not, and publicly disclose the conflict of interest of that article on the journal's website;

c) For reviewers: Reviewers, in addition to the duties stipulated in Article 8, Clause 2 of these Regulations, also have the duty to assess any conflicts of interest disclosed by the author as well as disclose any situations that may lead to bias or perceived bias in their evaluation of the proposed manuscript, including: their own or the author's identity disclosed to the other party, personal relationships with the inviting reviewer, discovery of simultaneous competing research on the same topic in the article, or professional or financial relationships with an interested organization after the article is published. In cases of potential or clear conflicts of interest, the use of evaluation results depends on the decision of the Editor-in-Chief.

3. The journal strictly adheres to independent policies in the peer review, review, editing, and publication process; not influenced by any agreements with third parties or the journal's sponsors or partners.

Complaints and Appeals

1. The journal receives complaints from individuals, groups, agencies, and organizations (complainants) requesting the journal to review decisions related to the implementation of regulations and policies that the journal has published. Forms of complaints include:

a) Complaints about author rights;

b) Complaints about plagiarism;

c) Multiple publication, duplication, simultaneous publication;

d) Distorted research results;

e) Allegations of research misconduct or fraud;

f) Research violating ethical standards;

g) Undisclosed conflicts of interest;

h) Conflicts of interest from the reviewer's side.

2. Complaints will be handled by the editor who handled the article. The complaint handling process is as follows:

Step 1: The complainant will send a complaint letter to the journal's email (tapchikhcn@ntt.edu.vn). The complaint letter needs to specify the following: Issue to be complained about; Relevant evidence regarding the complaint.

Step 2: The complaint letter will be acknowledged by the journal via email within 3 working days.

Step 3: The journal will verify and handle the complaint issue with relevant parties according to the journal's complaint handling regulations. Processing time is from 30 to 90 days, depending on the specific case.

Step 4: The result of handling the complaint will be notified to the complainant via email or on the journal's website.

3. Complaints will not be considered if they contain personal attacks, inappropriate language, insults, or if the complainant identifies unclear and confusing issues.

4. The journal receives appeals from individuals, groups, agencies, and organizations (appellants) who disagree with the journal's decision regarding the complaint handling outcome. The appeal handling process is as follows:

Step 1: The appellant will send an appeal letter to the journal's email (tapchikhcn@ntt.edu.vn). The appeal letter needs to specify the following: Appeal content; Relevant evidence regarding the appeal content.

Step 2: The appeal letter will be acknowledged by the journal via email within 3 working days.

Step 3: The journal will verify and handle the appeal issue with relevant parties. Processing time is from 30 to 90 days, depending on the specific case.

Step 4: The result of handling the appeal will be notified to the appellant via email or on the journal's website.

5. Information related to the complaint and appeal process is completely confidential.

Article Commissioning

To meet some research demands of the scientific community, the Journal will commission authors to write articles according to the Journal's requirements to provide the latest and highest quality information in the fields of Engineering - Technology, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, Economics - Management. Below are some regulations regarding commissioned articles that the Journal is applying:

a) Ensure exclusivity and dedication to the Journal: Commissioned articles are works that have not been published or simultaneously submitted to other journals; they are also products of projects commissioned by the University. Commissioned articles must be completed within the timeframe requested by the Journal. Depending on the specific case, the Journal may have specific remuneration policies for authors who write these commissioned articles.

b) Guidelines: Commissioned articles must adhere to the principles of writing guidelines outlined in the author's instructions, especially regarding the length of the article, format, and structure.

c) References and citations: Authors should accurately cite sources and follow the international APA citation rules. Compliance with the formatting and citation style required by the Journal's guidelines for authors is necessary.

d) Language: Depending on the specific section, commissioned articles may be required to be written in a specific language, either English or Vietnamese.

e) Novelty, scientific contribution, and practicality: The research results of commissioned articles should provide new and significant contributions to the research field being explored, as well as practical value, meaning direct application and impact on daily life, industry, or society.

Corrections, Retraction and Withdrawal

1. Authors have the right to withdraw a submitted manuscript or revise, supplement the content, or modify the information of the article within 01 week after the Editorial Office receives the manuscript for the first time sent to the journal.

2. Authors have the right to withdraw a submitted manuscript if the manuscript has not been processed by the journal after 6 months from the date the author first submitted it to the journal.

3. After the allowed withdrawal period, withdrawal requests will not be accepted unless the author submits a written request stating a reasonable reason for withdrawal. In the event that the Journal accepts the withdrawal, the Author will be required to pay the withdrawal fee, the fee will be publicly announced on the Journal's website.

Note: If the Author disagrees with the penalty, the Author will be blacklisted by the Journal and all previously published articles by the Author will also be removed from the Journal's online system.

4. Articles seriously violating the Journal's policies on duplication, research ethics, or having clear conflicts of interest will be retracted and publicly announced on the Journal's website.

5. Information about withdrawn manuscripts will be permanently deleted from the Journal's online system; information about retracted articles and the Authors of retracted articles will be retained by the Journal for at least 05 years, and the list of Authors of retracted articles will be included in the Journal's blacklist.

Finance

1. All authors have the right to subscribe and submit their research article manuscripts to the Journal without any fees; all decisions to publish articles are based on the scientific value and practicality of the article; all decisions adhere to the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

4. Reviewing and editing of articles are remunerated according to the University's financial regulations.

Archiving

1. The journal archives accepted and published articles through open access policies before and after publication.

2. The journal archives all submitted manuscripts and published articles of specialized sections through two storage systems:

Internal journal storage system: The journal uses an internal storage system to meet the requirements of safe and permanent storage of all publications published by the journal. The full text of articles published in the journal is securely and permanently preserved. Three versions of the article are stored by the journal including:
Original manuscript: The version submitted by the author or author group for initial review;
Accepted manuscript: The version edited by the author according to the reviewer's comments and accepted by the editor;
Final published PDF: The version that has been edited, proofread, and published.

b) International storage system:

DOI (Digital Object Identifier): All published articles of the Journal are assigned a DOI, a permanent link address of the article to a centrally managed directory, ensuring accurate identification of the article. DOIs ensure consistency and access to documents over time, even if the web address or storage location of the Journal changes. The Journal uses DOIs to link and access articles, providing readers with an easy way to search, cite, and access documents.

Open Access

1. With the orientation of operation and development towards integration and participation in connecting with national and international data systems, the Journal identifies all scientific articles, research published as open educational resources (OER). The Journal allows readers free access to all publications immediately after publication.

2. Authors and readers can search, view, and download the full text of all electronic articles published in the Journal without any fees; they are also allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and create derivative works based on the original work for legitimate and non-commercial purposes along with proper source citations.

3. The Journal is committed to creating favorable conditions for openness, transparency, and reproducibility of research. The Journal supports and encourages the sharing of research data so that readers can explore and cite research data recognized as valuable intellectual property.

Post-Publication Discussion

The Journal applies an open access policy to all stakeholders to expand opportunities for high-quality scientific research and enhance knowledge exchange in the fields of Engineering - Technology, Health Science, Social Sciences - Humanities, and Economics - Management.

The Journal encourages readers, who are researchers, to debate on published articles by sending comments, feedback to the Journal.

Copyright

1. Copyright of articles published in the journal (both online and print editions) belongs to the authors of the articles and Nguyen Tat Thanh University.

2. In case of copyright disputes, the Journal will provide advice to the competent authorities to resolve disputes according to the current law.