Open Access Policy, Publication Policy & Ethics

1. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very serious academic offense. We have zero tolerance towards plagiarism. Papers will be screened to determine their authenticity. Plagiarized papers will be returned to the authors and will be banned for a duration of two years in submitting in the journal. Furthermore, the authors’ immediate supervisor/dean/research director/university president will be notified of this serious offense. In other words, only EXCELLENT papers are accepted and published in this journal

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Editor-in-Chief and Referees

The duties and responsibilities of the editorial staff (EIC, Referees, Editorial Assistant) and of the authors are guided by the core values of S.T.E.P., that is, service, trust, excellence, and professionalism. The EIC oversees the overall process and maintains the quality of the journal. He/She has the sole responsibility to decide the final status of the paper depending on the recommendations of the referees.

The referees or reviewers are selected based on their qualifications. The review is voluntary. HOWEVER, referees will be paid with this academic service. As academic professionals with high academic qualifications, their time is as precious as other professionals. They deserve a relatively small amount of remuneration for this service. AUTHORS WILL NOT PAY THE REFEREES. The S.T.E.P. Academic Publisher will cover this cost regardless of the referees’ decisions on the paper. Referees should maintain high degree of professionalism when reviewing the paper. It is understood that referees have no conflict of interest in reviewing the paper. THE TONE OF THE REVIEW SHOULD BE COLLEGIAL, CONSTRUCTIVE, AND HELPFUL.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of the Authors

Authors have the sole responsibility on the correctness and authenticity of the content of submitted papers. The authors should ensure that the submitted papers are not under consideration/under review in another journal or conference, and not previously published. It is understood that the submission is an original work. Whenever there is copyright infringement, Puissant will not be liable in any copyright dispute between the authors and the third party publisher.

4.  Open Access Policy

Authors retain the copyright of their works since Puissant operates under the Creative Commons License (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). Authors can share (i.e., copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially) their previous works as long as the original work is cited accordingly.

5. Retractions

A retraction can be done when a published article is confirmed to violate publication or research ethics. These unethical scientific behaviors may include, but not limited to, data fabrication, falsification, or recycling, plagiarism, double publication, copyright infringement, non-compliance to ethical data collection, and other unethical research practices. The retracted paper will be deleted in the Puissant website and a separate page containing the Retraction Statement by the Editor-in-Chief will be provided explaining the retraction. The publisher will not refund the any charges (e.g., language editing).

6. Paper Withdrawal

Manuscripts submitted in Puissant for review can be withdrawn anytime. However, once published, manuscripts cannot be withdrawn and publication charges will not be refunded. 

7. Corrections

All accepted papers will undergo two rounds of typeset proof correction. During these stages, authors have the chances to correct major (e.g., data correction, correctness of equations, etc.) and minor (e.g., spelling errors, table headings, etc.) errors in the paper. Once the paper is published, changes are no longer allowed EXCEPT to those changes that can affect the scientific interpretation of a paper. A correction notice containing the explanation of changes, the link of the original version, and the link to the updated version will be published
in a separate file.

8. Advertising Policy

Committed to its vision, Puissant accepts advertisements from academic societies or professional organizations for free.

9. Data Sharing Policy

Puissant is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. Data can be published as a separate article and will also be covered by the aforementioned license.

10. Policies on Conflict of Interest, Human and Animal Rights, and Informed Consent
       Authors must state whether an ethical approval has been secured in conducting the study.

11. Appeals and Complaints

      We welcome valid appeals and complaints about the editor's decision. However, authors must provide compelling justifications and evidence to justify overturning the decision. The EIC may then invite the reviewers to elaborate on their reasons for rejecting the paper. Depending on the circumstances, the editor may confirm the rejection, invite a revised submission, or seek additional review from other referees.