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Editorial Policies

Ethical Framework Declaration

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics, research integrity, transparency, and responsible scholarly publishing. The journal follows the ethical principles and guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), including its Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

The journal's editorial policies address the ethical responsibilities of authors, reviewers, editors, and the Publisher, including authorship and contributorship, conflicts of interest, research integrity, originality and plagiarism, data and image integrity, peer review, editorial independence, corrections and retractions, complaints and appeals, and the investigation of suspected research or publication misconduct.

Where applicable to the research being reported, authors must comply with relevant institutional, national, and international ethical and legal requirements and must obtain all necessary approvals, permissions, and informed consent before conducting or publishing the research.

Submission of a manuscript to the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics implies that the authors have read and agreed to comply with the journal's editorial and publication ethics policies and that the manuscript satisfies all applicable ethical and research-integrity requirements.

🔗 COPE Core Practices: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices

Peer Review Policy

Peer Review Model

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics operates a rigorous double-anonymized (double-blind) peer-review process for all manuscripts subject to external peer review. Under this model, the identities of the authors are not disclosed to reviewers, and the identities of reviewers are not disclosed to the authors. This approach is intended to promote impartial evaluation and reduce the potential for bias related to author identity, institutional affiliation, geographic location, or academic standing. The journal follows the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers throughout the peer-review process.

🔗 COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers

Editorial Workflow

Stage	Responsible Party	Target Timeline	Outcome
1. Submission Receipt	Editorial Office	Within 48 hours	Acknowledgment sent to corresponding author
2. Initial Screening and Similarity Check	Editorial Office / Editor-in-Chief or Handling Editor	Within 5–7 working days	Check for completeness, scope, ethical requirements, manuscript quality, and text similarity; desk rejection or proceed to peer review
3. Reviewer Assignment	Handling Editor	Within 7–10 working days; invited reviewers must respond to the invitation within 7 days	At least two independent reviewers invited; if an invited reviewer does not respond within 7 days, the invitation is automatically withdrawn and another qualified reviewer may be invited
4. Peer Review	External Reviewers	Target: within 4 weeks	Independent review reports submitted to the journal
5. Editorial Decision	Editor-in-Chief / Handling Editor	Within 2 weeks after sufficient review reports are received	Accept / Minor Revision / Major Revision / Reject
6. Author Revision	Corresponding Author	Minor: 2 weeks; Major: 4 weeks	Revised manuscript and point-by-point response submitted
7. Re-review (if required)	Original reviewers or other qualified reviewers	Target: 3–4 weeks	Further assessment and recommendation
8. Final Decision	Editor-in-Chief / Handling Editor	Within 1 week after sufficient information is available	Accept or Reject
9. Production and Publication	Editorial Office / Production Team	Target: within 3–4 weeks after acceptance	Production checks, author proofs, DOI assignment, and online publication

Desk Rejection Criteria

Manuscripts may be rejected at the desk-review stage, without external peer review, if they meet one or more of the following criteria:

• The topic or content of the manuscript falls outside the journal's stated Aims and Scope.

• The manuscript shows evidence of, or raises serious concerns regarding, publication or research ethics violations, including plagiarism, duplicate or redundant submission/publication, data fabrication or falsification, or undisclosed authorship or conflict-of-interest issues.

• The manuscript is not written in sufficiently clear academic English to permit appropriate editorial assessment and peer review.

• The manuscript does not comply with the journal's submission requirements, and the deficiencies are substantial or remain unresolved after a request for correction.

• The study has fundamental methodological, scientific, or technical deficiencies that preclude meaningful peer review.

• The manuscript lacks required information or declarations, such as an abstract, authorship information, conflict-of-interest declaration, funding statement, data availability statement, or ethics approval/consent information where applicable.

• The manuscript does not demonstrate sufficient originality, scientific contribution, or relevance to warrant external peer review.

Handling Editor-as-Author Submissions

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, Handling Editors, or other Editorial Board members of the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics are handled with full editorial independence. The submitting editor or board member must declare their editorial role and any relevant conflicts of interest at submission.

The manuscript is assigned to an independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest with the author(s). The submitting editor or board member has no involvement in reviewer selection, peer review, editorial assessment, or the final decision on the manuscript. The manuscript is subject to the same editorial and peer-review standards as all other submissions. If published, the article includes a transparency statement confirming that it was handled independently.

Reviewer Criteria and Selection

Reviewers are selected based on relevant subject-matter expertise, independence, absence of conflicts of interest, and their ability to provide timely and constructive assessments. Reviewer selection also considers the specific theoretical, observational, computational, experimental, or applied expertise required to evaluate the manuscript.

Reviewers should:

• Possess appropriate academic, research, technical, or professional expertise relevant to the manuscript.

• Have demonstrated expertise in the subject area, normally evidenced by relevant peer-reviewed publications, research activity, or substantial professional experience.

• Have no relationships or interests that could reasonably be perceived as compromising the independence or impartiality of the review.

• Declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before accepting the review assignment.

• Decline the invitation if they lack sufficient expertise to evaluate the manuscript appropriately.

Reviewer Obligations

Upon accepting a review assignment, reviewers agree to:

• Complete the review within the agreed timeframe, normally with a target of four weeks, or promptly inform the Editorial Office if additional time is required.

• Treat the manuscript and all associated materials as strictly confidential.

• Not share, distribute, discuss, or upload the manuscript or any part of it to unauthorized third parties, external platforms, or generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

• Provide an objective, constructive, and sufficiently detailed assessment addressing the manuscript's scientific or technical merit, methodology, originality, clarity, and relevant ethical considerations.

• Declare any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest before accepting the assignment and promptly disclose any conflict that becomes apparent during the review process.

• Refrain from using unpublished information, data, methods, or ideas obtained through peer review for personal or professional advantage.

• Notify the editor of any suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data manipulation, or other research or publication-integrity concern identified during review.

Authorship Policy

Authorship Criteria (ICMJE)

Authorship of an article published in the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics requires that all four of the following criteria, based on the authorship criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), are met:

• Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.

• Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

• Final approval of the version to be published.

• Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Individuals who do not meet all four criteria should not be listed as authors. Contributors who provided assistance such as technical support, language editing, general supervision, administrative support, or funding acquisition without meeting all four authorship criteria should instead be appropriately acknowledged.

Participation solely in funding acquisition, routine data collection, technical assistance, or general supervision does not, by itself, qualify an individual for authorship.

🔗 ICMJE Authorship Criteria: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT)

All authors of manuscripts submitted to the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics are required to provide a CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) statement specifying each author's contributions to the work. The journal uses the following 14 standardized CRediT contributor roles:

• Conceptualization

• Data curation

• Formal analysis

• Funding acquisition

• Investigation

• Methodology

• Project administration

• Resources

• Software

• Supervision

• Validation

• Visualization

• Writing – original draft

• Writing – review and editing

The CRediT contribution statement does not determine authorship eligibility. All individuals listed as authors must satisfy the journal's authorship criteria described in Section B3.1. Assignment of one or more CRediT roles alone does not qualify an individual for authorship.

Example: Author A.B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. Author C.D.: Data curation, Formal analysis, Software, Writing – review and editing. Author E.F.: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing – review and editing.

🔗 CRediT Taxonomy: https://credit.niso.org/

🔗 NISO CRediT Standard: https://www.niso.org/publications/z39104-2022-credit

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author must be a named co-author of the manuscript and serves as the primary point of contact between the journal and all co-authors throughout the submission, peer-review, revision, publication, and post-publication processes.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

• Ensuring that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript and all subsequent revisions.

• Confirming that the author list has been reviewed and agreed upon by all co-authors and that authorship complies with the journal's Authorship Policy (Section B3.1).

• Ensuring that no individual who qualifies for authorship has been inappropriately omitted and that individuals who do not qualify for authorship are not listed as authors.

• Coordinating and submitting all required declarations and information on behalf of the authors, including conflicts of interest, funding information, CRediT contributor roles, data availability statements, AI-use disclosures, and relevant ethical or institutional approvals, where applicable.

• Maintaining communication with all co-authors and ensuring that relevant editorial correspondence and decisions are communicated to them.

• Responding to relevant post-publication correspondence, including requests concerning data or supporting information, corrections, clarifications, and research-integrity or publication-ethics investigations.

• Providing a valid ORCID iD, which is mandatory for the corresponding author at the time of submission to the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics.

ORCID Policy

All corresponding authors are required to provide an ORCID iD at the time of submission to the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics. Co-authors are strongly encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs.

ORCID iDs provided by authors will be included in the article metadata and displayed with published articles, where supported by the journal's publishing platform. Authors who do not have an ORCID iD can register free of charge through ORCID.

🔗 ORCID Registration: https://orcid.org/register

Authorship Changes

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after manuscript submission must be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief, with a clear explanation of the reason for the proposed change. The request must include written agreement from all current authors and any author(s) being added or removed.

Authorship changes will be considered only when they are consistent with the journal's Authorship Policy (Section B3.1). The journal reserves the right to request additional information or documentation and may suspend editorial processing while an authorship dispute or change request is being evaluated.

After acceptance, authorship changes will be permitted only in exceptional and adequately justified circumstances and require the written agreement of all affected authors and approval by the Editor-in-Chief.

After publication, changes to authorship will normally be made only when necessary to correct a documented error or following the resolution of an authorship or research-integrity matter. Any approved post-publication authorship change will be accompanied by an appropriate correction notice in accordance with the journal's post-publication correction policy.

Ghost and Guest Authorship

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics strictly prohibits ghost authorship, in which an individual who meets the journal's authorship criteria is omitted from the author list, and guest or honorary authorship, in which an individual who does not meet the journal's authorship criteria is listed as an author. Such practices constitute breaches of publication ethics and will be investigated in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies and relevant COPE guidance.

Individuals who contribute to the work but do not meet the journal's authorship criteria should be appropriately acknowledged rather than listed as authors. Substantive professional writing, technical, editorial, or other third-party assistance should be disclosed in the Acknowledgements section, where appropriate, with a description of the nature of the contribution and, where relevant, its source of funding.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and final content of the manuscript, regardless of any third-party assistance received.

🔗 COPE Position on Authorship: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/discussion-document/authorship

Conflicts of Interest / Competing Interests

Author Competing Interests Declaration

All authors must declare any financial or non-financial competing interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, its conduct, interpretation, or presentation. Authors should disclose all relevant interests, regardless of when they arose, where those interests could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work.

Financial competing interests include, but are not limited to, employment, consultancy fees, honoraria, paid advisory roles, grants or other research funding, patents, royalties, stock or share ownership, and board membership in an organisation with a financial interest related to the manuscript's subject matter.

Non-financial competing interests may include personal or professional relationships, academic or intellectual conflicts, professional competition, involvement in related litigation, or other circumstances that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work or its evaluation.

If no competing interests exist, authors must state:

“The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their competing-interests declaration is complete and accurate at the time of submission and is updated if relevant circumstances change during the editorial process.

🔗 ICMJE COI Disclosure Form: https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/

Editor and Reviewer COI Policy

Editors and peer reviewers must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could reasonably affect, or be perceived as affecting, their impartiality in evaluating a manuscript. Where such a conflict exists, the editor or reviewer must recuse themselves from handling or reviewing the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Current or recent collaboration or co-authorship with any of the authors, normally within the previous three years, or an earlier relationship that could reasonably affect impartiality.

• Current employment in the same department, laboratory, research unit, or closely connected institutional unit as any of the authors.

• A direct competitive, adversarial, supervisory, or other professional relationship with an author that could reasonably be perceived as affecting impartial judgment.

• A personal, family, financial, or other professional relationship or interest that could reasonably influence, or appear to influence, the evaluation of the manuscript.

• Any other circumstance in which the editor or reviewer believes that they cannot provide an independent and impartial assessment.

Reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts of interest before accepting a review invitation and must promptly inform the journal if a conflict becomes apparent after accepting the assignment.

Editors must similarly disclose relevant conflicts and must not participate in the selection of reviewers, assessment of the manuscript, or editorial decision when a conflict exists.

If the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict of interest concerning a submission, the manuscript will be assigned to an independent senior editor or Editorial Board member with no relevant conflict of interest. The Editor-in-Chief will have no involvement in the peer-review process or editorial decision for that manuscript.

Relevant conflict-of-interest declarations, recusals, and reassignment decisions will be documented in the journal's editorial records.

Sponsorship of Clinical Trials

Authors must disclose all sources of financial and material support for the research and publication of the manuscript, including grants, contracts, institutional support, commercial funding, equipment, data, software, or other resources provided by external organisations.

Where a funder or sponsor has been involved in the research, authors must clearly describe, where applicable, the sponsor's role in study design, data acquisition, analysis or interpretation, preparation of the manuscript, and the decision to submit the work for publication. If the funder or sponsor had no involvement in these activities, this should be stated explicitly.

Any financial or other relationship between the authors and the funding or sponsoring organisation that could reasonably be perceived as a competing interest must also be disclosed in accordance with the journal's Competing Interests Policy (Section B4.1). Funding or sponsorship does not influence the journal's editorial evaluation, peer-review process, or publication decisions.

Research Data Policy and Data Availability

Data Availability Statement (DAS)

All manuscripts submitted to the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics must include a Data Availability Statement. The statement must accurately describe the availability of the data underlying the research and, where applicable, provide the repository name, dataset identifier, persistent URL, or DOI.

Authors are encouraged to make research data publicly available in a recognized disciplinary, institutional, or general-purpose repository whenever ethical, legal, contractual, security, licensing, or other legitimate restrictions do not prevent public sharing.

The journal may request additional information concerning data availability or access restrictions where necessary to evaluate the reproducibility, transparency, or integrity of the reported research.

Accepted Data Availability Statement formats include:

1. PUBLICLY AVAILABLE:

“The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in [REPOSITORY NAME] at [PERSISTENT URL/DOI].”

2. AVAILABLE ON REASONABLE REQUEST:

“The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON], but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.”

3. DATA CONTAINED WITHIN THE ARTICLE:

“All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the published article and/or its supplementary materials.”

4. NO NEW DATA GENERATED OR ANALYSED:

“No new datasets were generated or analysed during this study.” This statement may be appropriate, for example, for certain review, commentary, or purely theoretical articles that neither generate nor analyse research datasets.

5. RESTRICTED OR THIRD-PARTY DATA:

“The data underlying this study are subject to access restrictions due to [REASON, e.g., third-party licensing, proprietary restrictions, institutional agreements, national-security requirements, export-control regulations, or embargo conditions]. Information on the conditions and procedures for accessing the data is available from [DATA OWNER/REPOSITORY/CONTACT/URL], where applicable.”

Where research relies on third-party or previously published datasets, authors should identify and cite the original data source and provide information on how the data can be accessed, where applicable. Datasets deposited in repositories should be formally cited in the manuscript and reference list, where a formal dataset citation is available, using the repository's recommended citation and persistent identifier (such as a DOI).

🔗 FAIR Data Principles: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/

🔗 Recommended Data Repositories: https://www.re3data.org/

🔗 Figshare: https://figshare.com/

🔗 Mendeley Data: https://data.mendeley.com/

🔗 Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/

Data Sharing Expectations

The NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics encourages authors to make the research data underlying their published findings openly available wherever ethical, legal, contractual, security, licensing, and practical constraints permit. Authors are encouraged to deposit research data in recognized discipline-specific, institutional, or general-purpose repositories that support long-term access and preservation. Where available, datasets should be assigned a persistent identifier, preferably a DOI, and should be formally cited in the manuscript and reference list.

Where data cannot be made openly available, authors must clearly describe the reason for the restriction and, where applicable, the conditions or procedures through which access may be obtained, in accordance with the journal's Data Availability Statement policy.

Open Access Policy and Licensing

The NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics is a fully Diamond Open Access journal. All published articles are made immediately and freely available upon publication, without subscription or access barriers. No article processing charges (APCs) or publication fees are charged to authors.

Authors retain copyright in their published work and grant the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) a non-exclusive licence to publish and distribute the article.

All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. This license permits users to read, download, copy, share, distribute, adapt, and build upon the published material for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

The CC BY 4.0 license will be clearly identified on each published article and included in the article metadata.

🔗 CC BY 4.0 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Policy

Authors of articles published in the NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics retain copyright in their work.

Upon acceptance for publication, authors grant the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) a non-exclusive licence to publish, distribute, reproduce, preserve, archive, and make the article available in all formats and media.

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. Under this licence, users may share, copy, distribute, adapt, and build upon the published work for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

The copyright holder and applicable CC BY 4.0 licence will be clearly identified on each published article.

Authors may deposit, share, and reuse their published article, including through institutional or subject repositories, personal or academic websites, teaching materials, and other scholarly platforms, provided that the published article is appropriately cited and, where available, its DOI and applicable licence are included.

CC BY 4.0 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Article Processing Charges (APC) and Author Fees

Diamond/No-Fee Model

The NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) or any other fees to authors. Manuscript submission, peer review, editorial processing, and publication are provided free of charge. There are no submission fees, publication fees, page charges, colour figure charges, or other mandatory author charges. The journal's publishing activities are financially supported by the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), enabling the journal to operate under a Diamond Open Access model, with no charges to authors or readers.

Waiver and Discount Policy

Not applicable. The NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics does not charge Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, publication fees, or other author fees. Therefore, no waiver or discount policy is required.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Types of Post-Publication Notices

The NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics is committed to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the scholarly record. Where concerns or errors are identified after publication, the journal will take appropriate action in accordance with applicable COPE guidance.

Notice Type	When Used	Who Initiates	Linked to Original?
Erratum	Publisher error that does not invalidate the article's conclusions	Editorial Office	Yes — bidirectional
Corrigendum	Author error that does not invalidate the article's conclusions	Authors (confirmed by Editor)	Yes — bidirectional
Expression of Concern	Serious concerns have been raised; investigation is ongoing or inconclusive	Editor-in-Chief	Yes — bidirectional
Retraction	Major error renders findings unreliable; confirmed misconduct; plagiarism; or duplicate publication	Editor-in-Chief or Authors	Yes — bidirectional; original clearly marked “RETRACTED”
Removal	Exceptional legal, privacy, confidentiality, or serious safety circumstances requiring removal of the article content	Publisher	Tombstone record retained whenever possible

🔗 COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

Retraction Criteria

An article may be retracted when one or more of the following circumstances are established:

• A major error in methodology, analysis, or interpretation renders the findings or conclusions unreliable.

• Fabrication or falsification of data, images, or results is confirmed.

• Substantial plagiarism is confirmed.

• Duplicate or redundant publication without appropriate disclosure or justification is identified.

• The research was conducted without required ethical or institutional approval, where such approval was required.

• Serious authorship misconduct, including confirmed ghost or guest authorship, materially affects the integrity of the published record.

• Other serious ethical or research-integrity violations are identified that render the article or its findings unreliable.

Retractions will be handled in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines. The retraction notice will state the reason for retraction and will be permanently linked to the original article.

🔗 COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

Retraction Process

1. A concern may be reported to the Editor-in-Chief by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, or other parties.

2. The Editor-in-Chief conducts an initial assessment and, where appropriate, notifies the author(s) and requests a response, normally within 14 days.

3. Where further investigation is required, the journal may contact the authors' institution(s), research-integrity office, funder, or other relevant organisation.

4. An Expression of Concern may be published when serious concerns exist but an investigation is ongoing, delayed, or inconclusive.

5. If retraction is warranted, the journal publishes a clearly labelled Retraction Notice stating the reason(s) for the retraction and identifying the article concerned.

6. The original article remains part of the scholarly record and is clearly identified as retracted, with a permanent link between the original article and the Retraction Notice.

7. The journal will update the relevant article metadata and notify appropriate DOI registration, indexing, abstracting, and discovery services, where applicable, so that the retracted status is reflected in the scholarly record.

Retraction procedures will follow the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

🔗 COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

Preprints and Prior Publication Policy

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics does not consider posting of a manuscript as a preprint on a recognised preprint server (e.g., arXiv, ESS Open Archive, Zenodo, or OSF Preprints) to constitute prior publication. Authors who have posted a preprint are required to:

• Disclose the preprint's existence at submission, including the server name, persistent identifier or URL, and date of posting.

• Upon publication, update the preprint record, where possible, to include a citation and link to the final published article and its DOI.

• Inform the editorial office of any substantive updates made to the preprint during peer review.

Authors may update the preprint record with the accepted manuscript after acceptance. Following publication, the preprint record should be updated, where possible, to acknowledge publication in NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics and include the citation and DOI of the final published article.

🔗 ICMJE preprint guidance: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html

Research Ethics and Informed Consent

Research Involving Human Participants

All research involving human participants must have received prior approval from an appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee, where such approval is required. Where a study is exempt from ethical review, authors must provide a statement explaining the exemption and, where applicable, identify the authority that granted it. Authors must include, in a dedicated 'Ethics Approval' section of the manuscript, where applicable:

• The full name of the ethics committee or IRB that approved the study.

• The approval reference number or protocol ID, where available.

• A statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from participants, or explaining any waiver of consent approved by the appropriate ethics body.

Research involving human participants must be conducted in accordance with applicable ethical standards and regulations and, where relevant, the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Where clinical or health-related research falls within the journal's scope, authors should also follow the applicable ICMJE Recommendations.

🔗 Declaration of Helsinki (WMA): https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/

🔗 ICMJE Recommendations: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/

Research Involving Animals

All animal research must comply with the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and relevant national and institutional regulations. Authors must provide: (1) details of approval by the appropriate institutional animal ethics committee or equivalent authority, (2) justification for the use of the specific species, (3) relevant housing and welfare information, and (4) methods of anaesthesia and euthanasia, where applicable. The journal will not consider manuscripts involving animal research that cannot demonstrate appropriate ethical approval, where such approval is required.

🔗 ARRIVE 2.0 Guidelines: https://arriveguidelines.org/

Consent for Publication (Case Reports, Identifiable Data)

Manuscripts that include information, images, or data from which an individual can be identified require written consent for publication from that individual or, where applicable, their parent, legal guardian, or legally authorised representative. This consent must be documented and made available to the journal on request. The manuscript must include a statement confirming that consent for publication was obtained.

Example statement: “Written informed consent for publication of the identifiable information contained in this article was obtained from the individual concerned or their legally authorised representative, where applicable.”

Retrospective Ethics Approval

Where ethics approval is required, it must be obtained before data collection begins. Retrospective ethics approval, obtained after the research was conducted , is not acceptable, and manuscripts reporting research conducted without the required prior ethical approval will not be considered for publication.

Reporting Standards and Guidelines

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics requires authors to follow internationally recognised reporting guidelines appropriate to their study type, where applicable. Where an applicable reporting guideline requires a checklist, the completed checklist (with page numbers) must be submitted as a supplementary file.

Study Type	Reporting Guideline	Checklist URL
Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis	PRISMA 2020	https://www.prisma-statement.org/
Animal Research	ARRIVE 2.0	https://arriveguidelines.org/

🔗 EQUATOR Network (all reporting guidelines): https://www.equator-network.org/

Plagiarism, Text Recycling, and Duplicate Submission

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics does not tolerate plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, or duplicate publication. Submitted manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection or similarity-checking software as part of the editorial assessment. Similarity reports are evaluated by the editors in context and are not interpreted solely on the basis of a fixed similarity-percentage threshold. Where concerns are identified, the journal will take appropriate action in accordance with its publication ethics policies and relevant COPE guidance.

Forms of Plagiarism

• Direct plagiarism: Verbatim copying of text from another source without quotation and appropriate citation.

• Mosaic plagiarism: Paraphrasing without appropriate citation, or intermixing source text with original text without proper attribution.

• Inappropriate text recycling: Reusing substantial portions of one's own previously published work without appropriate disclosure, citation, or justification.

• Idea plagiarism: Using the concepts, ideas, methods, or arguments of another author without appropriate attribution.

Duplicate Submission and Publication

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript, or a substantially similar manuscript, to more than one journal is prohibited. Authors must confirm at submission that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Where duplicate submission or publication is suspected or confirmed, the journal will investigate the matter and take appropriate editorial action in accordance with COPE guidance. This may include rejection or retraction and, where warranted, communication with the other journal, the authors' institution(s), or relevant research-integrity bodies.

Secondary publication, including an authorised translation of a previously published article, may be considered only where appropriate permission has been obtained from the relevant copyright holder(s), the original publication is fully disclosed and cited, and the secondary publication is clearly identified as such.

🔗 COPE flowchart: Suspected plagiarism in submitted manuscript: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts

🔗 iThenticate / Crossref Similarity Check: https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/

Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies in Writing

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large language models and other generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors or co-authors of manuscripts submitted to NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics. Authorship requires human accountability for the accuracy, integrity, originality, and content of the work, responsibilities that cannot be assigned to an AI tool.

Authors may use AI-assisted technologies to support language editing, grammar, readability, or other aspects of manuscript preparation. Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including its accuracy, originality, appropriate attribution, and compliance with the journal's ethical policies.

Where generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used in preparing manuscript content, authors must provide a disclosure statement that:

• Names the AI tool or service used and, where available, its version.

• Briefly describes how the tool was used.

• Confirms that the authors reviewed and edited the AI-assisted content and accept full responsibility for the final manuscript.

Example disclosure statement:

“The authors used [TOOL NAME and VERSION, where available] for [PURPOSE, e.g., language editing and improving readability]. The authors reviewed and edited the resulting content and take full responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, and final content of the manuscript.”

AI tools used as part of the research methodology, including data processing, analysis, modelling, coding, or generation of research outputs, must instead be described transparently and with sufficient detail in the Methods or other appropriate section to support reproducibility.

Failure to disclose material use of AI-assisted technologies, or inappropriate use involving fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, misrepresentation, or other breaches of publication ethics, will be investigated and addressed in accordance with the journal's publication ethics policies and relevant COPE guidance.

🔗 COPE Position Statement on AI and Authorship: https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

Use of AI in Peer Review

Reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of all manuscripts and associated peer-review materials. Reviewers must not upload or otherwise provide any part of a submitted manuscript, supplementary material, confidential editorial correspondence, or other non-public submission content to publicly accessible or external generative AI tools where doing so could compromise confidentiality, intellectual property, privacy, or data protection.

AI tools must not replace the reviewer's own critical evaluation or be used to generate the substantive scientific assessment of a manuscript. The reviewer remains personally responsible and accountable for the content, accuracy, integrity, and recommendations of the peer-review report.

Reviewers may use appropriate tools solely to improve the language, grammar, or readability of their own review comments, provided that no confidential manuscript content or other protected information is disclosed to the tool and that such use complies with the journal's confidentiality requirements.

Any use of AI-assisted technologies during peer review must comply with the journal's confidentiality, conflict-of-interest, research-integrity, and data-protection requirements.

🔗 COPE Guidance on AI in Peer Review: https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

Editorial Independence Policy

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics upholds the principle of editorial independence. All editorial decisions, including manuscript acceptance, rejection, and post-publication actions, are made on the basis of scientific merit, ethical integrity, methodological quality, and relevance to the journal's aims and scope.

No party outside the editorial decision-making process, including the Publisher, the Publisher's institution, funders, sponsors, advertisers, or authors' institutions, may influence decisions concerning individual manuscripts.

The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for editorial decisions and the scientific content of the journal, supported by the journal's editors in accordance with their assigned roles. Commercial interests, institutional affiliations, funding arrangements, personal relationships, or political considerations must not influence editorial decisions.

Any dispute concerning editorial independence or an editorial decision will be handled through an appropriate independent and documented process, with due regard to the journal's policies, publication ethics, and the integrity of the scholarly record.

Appeals, Complaints, and Post-Publication Concerns

Appeals of Editorial Decisions

Authors may appeal a rejection decision if they believe that a material factual or procedural error affected the evaluation of their manuscript. Appeals based solely on disagreement with reviewer or editor opinions, without evidence of such an error, will not normally be considered.

A legitimate appeal must provide:

• A clear, evidence-based explanation of why the editorial decision is believed to be factually incorrect or procedurally flawed.

• Specific responses to relevant reviewer or editor comments, identifying any material misunderstanding or factual error.

• Relevant supporting evidence or references, where applicable.

Appeals must be submitted within 30 days of the rejection decision to [email protected] and should clearly identify the manuscript title and manuscript number.

The appeal will be reviewed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision. Where appropriate, additional independent expert advice may be sought. The journal will communicate the outcome of the appeal to the corresponding author as soon as reasonably practicable. The decision following completion of the journal's appeal process is final.

Complaints about Editorial Conduct

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, procedural unfairness, conflicts of interest, or failure to follow the journal's published policies should be submitted in writing to the Editor-in-Chief at [email protected].

If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, it must be referred to an appropriate senior representative of NRIAG or another designated person who was not involved in the matter under complaint.

Complaints will be acknowledged within 5 working days, where practicable, and will be investigated objectively and confidentially by an individual who was not directly involved in the matter. The journal will aim to communicate an outcome within 30 days. Where additional investigation is required, the complainant will be informed that additional time is necessary.

The journal handles complaints in accordance with its publication ethics policies and relevant COPE guidance.

🔗 COPE Complaints and Appeals: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines/cope-guidelines-on-appeals-and-complaints

🔗 COPE advice request for complainants: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/advice-for-complainants

Post-Publication Concerns

Readers, authors, and other parties who have concerns regarding a published article, including suspected data fabrication or falsification, image manipulation, plagiarism, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship concerns, or other potential ethical or research-integrity issues, are encouraged to contact the editorial office at [email protected].

Concerns will be assessed objectively and handled as confidentially as reasonably possible. Where an investigation is warranted, the journal may contact the authors, their institution(s), funders, or other relevant parties as appropriate. The journal will take any necessary post-publication action in accordance with its Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions Policy and relevant publication ethics guidance.

Research and Publication Misconduct

Definition and Scope

Research and publication misconduct encompasses actions or practices that compromise, or have the potential to compromise, the integrity, reliability, or trustworthiness of the scholarly record. NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics assesses allegations of suspected misconduct in accordance with its publication ethics policies and relevant COPE guidance.

Misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

• Plagiarism, including unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, and inappropriate text recycling.

• Data fabrication or falsification.

• Inappropriate manipulation of images, figures, or other research outputs beyond accepted scientific practices.

• Duplicate submission or redundant publication without appropriate disclosure.

• Ghost, guest, honorary, or coerced authorship.

• Undisclosed competing interests that could materially affect the interpretation or evaluation of the work.

• Manipulation of the peer-review process, including fabricated reviewer identities, reviewer collusion, inappropriate interference, or bribery.

• Misrepresentation of author identities, qualifications, or institutional affiliations.

• Research conducted without required ethical approval, consent, permissions, or other applicable ethical safeguards.

• Citation manipulation or coercive citation practices.

• Misconduct by editors, reviewers, or other individuals involved in the handling and evaluation of submissions.

Investigation Procedure

Upon receipt of an allegation of research or publication misconduct:

1. The Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Office will acknowledge receipt, normally within 5 working days.

2. An initial assessment will be conducted to determine whether the allegation is sufficiently specific, credible, and within the journal's responsibility to investigate.

3. Where further investigation is warranted, the relevant author(s), reviewer(s), editor(s), or other involved parties may be contacted and given a reasonable opportunity to respond, normally within 14–21 days.

4. Where appropriate, the journal may seek information or assistance from the relevant institution(s), research-integrity office(s), funder(s), publisher, or other appropriate bodies.

5. The investigation will be conducted in accordance with the journal's policies and relevant COPE guidance, while maintaining confidentiality as far as reasonably possible.

6. Depending on the findings and severity of the matter, editorial actions may include rejection of a submitted manuscript, publication of a correction or Expression of Concern, retraction of a published article, or referral of the matter to an appropriate institution or authority.

7. Relevant records of the allegation, investigation, correspondence, and outcome will be retained by the journal in accordance with applicable institutional and record-retention requirements.

🔗 COPE Misconduct Flowcharts: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts

Whistleblowing and Protection of Reporting Individuals

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics encourages authors, reviewers, editors, readers, and other individuals to report suspected research or publication misconduct in good faith. Reports will be handled confidentially and objectively. The journal will not disadvantage or retaliate against individuals who raise concerns in good faith. The identity of a reporting individual will be protected as far as reasonably possible and will not be disclosed unnecessarily during an investigation, except where disclosure is required by law or is necessary for a fair and appropriate investigation. Reports may be submitted to the editorial office at [email protected]. Individuals may submit concerns anonymously; however, anonymous reporting may limit the journal's ability to seek additional information or conduct a complete investigation.

All sufficiently specific and credible concerns will be assessed regardless of the reporting individual's identity, role, affiliation, or relationship to the manuscript or published article.

🔗 COPE advice for whistleblowers: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/advice-for-complainants

Advertising Policy

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics does not accept or display third-party commercial advertising in its journal content or on its publishing platform. Editorial decisions are made independently of any commercial interests or external influence.

Long-Term Digital Preservation (Cross-reference)

For the journal's full digital preservation and archiving policy, see Section A3.6. NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics is committed to the long-term preservation and accessibility of its published scholarly content. The specific preservation and archiving services used following the 2026 publishing-platform transition will be stated on the journal website only after participation and coverage have been confirmed with the publishing-platform provider and relevant preservation services. Persistent identifiers, including DOIs, will be assigned to published articles in accordance with the journal's publishing and metadata infrastructure.

Revenue Sources and Business Model Transparency

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics operates under a Diamond Open Access publishing model. The journal does not charge authors Article Processing Charges (APCs), submission fees, page charges, colour figure charges, or other publication fees.

The journal's publishing operations are financially supported by the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG).

The journal's funding and financial arrangements do not influence manuscript evaluation, peer review, editorial decisions, or post-publication actions. Editorial decisions are made independently in accordance with the journal's Editorial Independence Policy.

Direct Marketing and Manuscript Solicitation Policy

Any direct marketing or manuscript solicitation activities undertaken by NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics are conducted professionally, honestly, and transparently and must accurately represent the journal, its scope, editorial standards, peer-review process, publication model, and fees.

Specifically:

• Invitations to submit manuscripts must be relevant to the journal's aims and scope and must not contain misleading or exaggerated claims.

• Solicitation communications must not misrepresent the journal's indexing or abstracting status, citation metrics, acceptance rates, publication timelines, or other journal performance indicators.

• Invitations relating to guest editorships or special issues must be directed to individuals with appropriate subject-matter expertise and must comply with the journal's conflict-of-interest and editorial-independence policies.

• The journal does not employ or compensate individuals or agents on the basis of the number of manuscripts recruited or accepted.

• Unsolicited manuscript solicitation, where undertaken, will be limited, appropriately targeted, and relevant to the recipient's demonstrated area of research.

Privacy Policy and Data Protection

NRIAG Journal of Astronomy and Geophysics is committed to protecting the personal information of individuals who interact with the journal, including authors, reviewers, editors, and readers.

Personal information is collected and processed only where necessary for legitimate journal operations, including account administration, manuscript submission and processing, peer review, editorial decision-making, publication, scholarly metadata registration and dissemination, research-integrity investigations, and maintenance of the scholarly record.

Personal information may be shared with service providers and scholarly infrastructure partners where necessary for journal operations, manuscript processing, publication, metadata registration, indexing, preservation, and related publishing services, or where required by law. Such information will be handled in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements.

Personal data will be handled in accordance with applicable data-protection and privacy laws and regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where applicable. Requests concerning access to, correction of, or other applicable rights relating to personal information may be submitted to the editorial office at [email protected].

Manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and associated records are treated as confidential and stored within the journal's editorial and publishing systems subject to applicable access controls and retention requirements. Under the journal's double-blind peer-review model, reviewer identities are not disclosed to authors, and authors' identities are not disclosed to reviewers during the review process, subject to information that authors may inadvertently reveal within their manuscript or associated materials.

🔗 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): https://gdpr.eu/