Policies

Who May Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in IJNS, provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Nuclear Security (IJNS) is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards for publication in the interest of contributing to the international nuclear security conversation. IJNS adheres to the publication guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editors' Responsibilities

IJNS editors will be responsible for selecting which manuscripts will be published. In some instances, publication decisions may require several rounds of correspondence and peer review before a final decision is made. Additionally, in an effort to avoid cases of plagiarism, we run all manuscripts through the iThenticate detection online software. Publication decisions will be based exclusively on the academic merit of the submission, criteria which include an article’s originality, clarity, cogency, validity, importance to the global nuclear security conversation, and relevance to the journal’s purview.
Editors will not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author(s), reviewers, potential reviewers, other editors of the journal, and the journal’s publisher.
Editors, members of the editorial board and reviewers will not use unpublished materials of submitted manuscripts for their own research purposes without the explicit written consent of the manuscript’s author.

Authors' Responsibilities

Authors must ensure that the submission has not been previously published and is not under current consideration for publication elsewhere.
All listed authors must have significantly contributed to the content of the submission. All contributing authors must confirm their level of involvement with their co-authors prior to submission.
All submissions must be the original work of the author(s). Original work means that the references to other sources should be clearly and properly documented, including references to the authors' previously published work.
Authors should acquire all relevant permissions prior to submission. If an image is used that is not the original creation of the authors, the authors must obtain reuse permission from the owner of the image.
Authors must notify journal editors of any possible conflicts of interest that could affect, or be perceived to affect, the content of the article. For example, conflicts of interest could consist of sources of research funding, including financial support and supply of equipment or materials.
If at any point (before or after publication) an author notices a significant factual error in the manuscript, the author will be responsible for writing a retraction statement or correction.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

IJNS adheres to a double-blind peer review model, in which neither the author(s) nor the reviewers are aware of each other’s identities. After a submission is screened for relevance to the journal, the article will be reviewed by at least two external peer reviewers with relevant subject-matter expertise. These reviewers will provide reports on the article and recommendations regarding publication. The editors base their publication decisions on these reports and recommendations, which will be made available to the author(s) when a publication decision is made.

Reviewers must keep the contents of all manuscripts received confidential.
Reviewers must make the editors aware of any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and published articles of which the reviewer is aware.
Reviews must be conducted objectively and should present their views about the manuscript being considered in clearly reasoned arguments.
Reviewers must inform editors of any conflicts of interest arising from relationships with any parties affiliated with the journal or with submissions under consideration.
If a reviewer cannot complete a review in a timely manner, the reviewer should inform the editor and withdraw from the review process.

AI Use Policy

IJNS recognizes the value of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool that can empower scientific research and scholarship, enhancing activities such as writing, formatting, data analysis, and critical review. As such, the journal permits the responsible use of AI in submissions, provided that authors transparently disclose their use of AI. This includes specifying the specific models and versions employed and the nature of their application. Regardless of whether AI tools are utilized, all authors retain complete responsibility for their papers, including but not limited to factual accuracy, analytical rigor, and adherence to scholarly integrity, including originality and proper attribution. All submissions must also continue to comply fully with applicable regulations related to export control, classification, and privacy.

Note: IJNS permits the responsible use of AI in submissions, provided that authors transparently disclose their use of AI. This includes specifying the specific models and versions employed and the nature of their application.

Open Access

Open access to scholarship ensures that scholarly works will be broadly disseminated and are easily discoverable. Open-access digital publishing is freely available to internet users.

Author Rights/Attribution/Usage

In keeping with best practices for open access publication IJNS licenses all works under the Creative Commons CC Attribution (CC-BY) license. Considered a gold standard in open access publishing, a CC-BY does not replace a copyright. Rather, by accepting its terms, a copyright owner participates in a standardized method for granting certain permissions to users, ensuring maximum dissemination of their works as well as optimal circulation of research and ideas.

All CC licenses require attribution. The CC-BY is the most flexible, allowing users to distribute, adapt, or build-upon the works so long as the copyright holder is attributed. Works licensed under the CC-BY are considered “Approved for Free Cultural Works”, which are defined as readily used, shared, and remixed by others, and go furthest in creating a commons of freely reusable materials.

Authors Who Publish With This Journal Agree to the Following Terms:

1. Copyright holders retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Copyright holders are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

3. All accepted articles will be available without delay with no embargo period.

Article download statistics are available for authors with registered accounts.

Indexing

IJNS is currently indexed with:

Scopus DOAJ Ulrichsweb Google Scholar OCLC (WorldCat)

Our license terms and self-archiving policies are listed with JISC.

VOL Journals: General Terms and Conditions of Use

The publisher of this journal is in a partnership with UT VOL Journals, the Volunteer Open-Access, Library-hosted Journals of the University of Tennessee University Libraries. Users of the website, services, and/or software(s) affiliated with VOL Journals agree not to misuse the website, services, or software(s) in any way. Users also agree to abide by The University of Tennessee System Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources policy.

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