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Editorial Policies

(NSWA) and its editorial board fully adhere to the policies and principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

NSWA requires all submissions to adhere to the highest ethical standards and best practices in publishing. All writing and research submitted to NSWA is expected to present accurate information and to properly cite all referenced content from other materials.

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Affiliations

Authors must report their relevant affiliations with the institutions where the research was approved, supported, and/or conducted. For non-research articles, authors should provide their current affiliations. If an author has moved to a different institution before publishing the article, they must report the affiliation where the work was conducted, while also including their current affiliation and contact information in the acknowledgements.

Appeals and Complaints

Appealing a Rejection

If you believe your manuscript was unfairly rejected, you have the right to request a reconsideration. To do so, you must contact the Editor using the contact information provided on the journal’s official website. These requests are handled as formal appeals.
Please be aware that appeals are reviewed only after the completion of regular editorial tasks, so a decision may take several weeks. According to journal policy, each manuscript is allowed only one appeal.

An appeal will be considered under the following circumstances:

• The authors can show that a factual error made by the reviewers or editors influenced the rejection decision.
• New, important data has become available that could significantly affect the evaluation of the manuscript.
• There is a reasonable claim that bias or a conflict of interest may have impacted the review or editorial decision.

To submit an appeal, send a formal letter explaining your reasons to the editorial office at ethics_reporting@sciencesforce.com. Be sure to include your manuscript’s tracking number in the subject line of the email.

Submitting a Complaint

We take all complaints seriously and handle them with care and confidentiality.

If your complaint is related to the editorial process (for example, unusual delays in peer review), the responsible editor will review the situation and respond accordingly. Feedback from such cases is used to help improve editorial procedures.

If your concern involves publication ethics or the integrity of scientific content, the editor will act in accordance with the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

If your complaint directly involves the editor, or if the issue cannot be resolved through normal channels, it will be escalated to the journal’s editorial and publishing management team for further review.

All complaints or ethical concerns should be submitted via email to ethics_reporting@sciencesforce.com.

Acknowledgment

Any individuals who contributed to the article but do not qualify for authorship should be mentioned in the acknowledgement section. In addition, any organization or institution that provided support, whether through funding or other resources, should also be acknowledged. Authors are responsible for notifying and obtaining permission from those they identify in the acknowledgement section.

Authorship

NSWA recognizes the importance of crediting individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to a manuscript. Contributors are considered authors if they have significantly contributed to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. We require detailed information about each contributor’s role in the research for original studies. Prospective authors should follow our guidelines on authorship and contributorship principles to ensure best practices in research and publication.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit in Neutrosophic Systems with Applications is granted only to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to all of the following three components of the research and manuscript preparation:

• Concept and Design of the study, or Acquisition, Analysis, or Interpretation of Data;
• Drafting the Article or Critically Revising It for significant intellectual content;
• Final Approval of the version to be published.

Merely securing funding or collecting data does not meet the criteria for authorship. Similarly, general supervision of the research team, without direct involvement in the key aspects mentioned above, does not qualify an individual for authorship.

Each listed author must have made a meaningful contribution to the work and should be able to publicly take responsibility for the content attributed to them.

The order of authorship should reflect each contributor’s relative involvement in the conception, execution, and writing of the manuscript. Once a manuscript is submitted, the authorship order cannot be altered without the written consent of all contributors.

The journal also sets guidelines on the maximum number of authors per manuscript, depending on the type of article, its scope, and the number of institutions involved. If a submission exceeds the recommended limit, the corresponding author must provide a clear justification for the number of listed authors.

For transparency and ethical publishing, we expect all submissions to comply strictly with these authorship criteria.

Contribution Details

Contributors are encouraged to provide a description of their contributions to the manuscript, organized into the following categories as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing, and manuscript review. The authors' contributions will be included at the end of the published article in a separate section titled “Author Contributions”.

Citations

Research and non-research articles must cite relevant, timely, and credible literature to support any claims reported in the article. While peer-reviewed sources are generally preferred, non-peer-reviewed materials (such as official reports, websites, datasets, or technical standards) may also be cited where appropriate and reliable.

Authors must avoid excessive self-citation and must not engage in citation manipulation practices, including prearranged agreements among authors or coercive citation requests, intended to inappropriately increase citation metrics. Such practices are considered a form of publication misconduct and will be handled in accordance with the COPE guidance on citation manipulation.

Authors of non-research articles should ensure that citations are relevant and appropriate to the article type. Review articles are expected to provide a comprehensive and balanced overview of existing literature, while opinion or perspective pieces should cite key references that support the author's arguments, ensuring relevance without requiring exhaustive coverage of all related research.

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, whether for-profit and non-profit, that could interfere with their access to all study data or compromise their ability to analyze, interpret, and publish the results independently.

All authors must disclose any relationships or interests that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include but are not limited to:

• Financial interests (such as employment, consultancies, stocks/shares ownership, honoraria, research grants, paid expert testimonies, and patent-licensing arrangements).
• Non-financial interests (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, or personal beliefs).

Authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest via the online submission system during the submission process. The corresponding author must include a summary statement in the manuscript in a separate section titled “Conflicts of Interest” placed just before the reference list. The statement should reflect all disclosed potential conflict of interest.

Below are examples of disclosures:

• Conflicts of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stocks in Company Y. Author C has been involved as a consultant and expert witness in Company Z. Author D is the inventor of patent X.

If no conflicts of interest exist, authors should state:

• Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions

Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined below. Neutrosophic Systems with Applications (NSWA) places great importance on the integrity of articles, and our policy is based on best practices in the academic publishing community.

Errata: An erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any corrections resulting from errors or omissions. Any impact on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article will remain available in the online journal, accompanied by a notice of erratum that is freely accessible to all readers and linked to the corrected article.

Retraction: A retraction indicates that the paper should no longer be considered part of the scientific literature. Retractions are issued when there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, which may result from misconduct or honest error. Retraction may also occur if findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper referencing, permission, or justification; if the work is plagiarized; or if it reports unethical research. To protect the integrity of the scholarly record, the retracted article is not removed from the online journal; instead, a notice of retraction will be issued, made freely available to all readers, and linked to the retracted article. Retraction will be conducted according to COPE retraction guidelines.

Consent for Publication

For all manuscripts that include details or images relating to an individual, written informed consent for the publication must be obtained from the individual (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 18). The consent must specify publication under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, allowing free access online. For deceased individuals, consent must be obtained from their next of kin. The manuscript must include a statement confirming that consent has been obtained.

Confidentiality

When submitting manuscripts for review, authors trust editors with their work. It is important to respect the confidentiality of both authors and reviewers, as disclosing confidential information can violate authors’ rights and impact their careers. Editors must not share any details about the manuscripts, such as content, status, or reviewer comments, except with the authors and reviewers. Confidentiality may only be breached if fraud or dishonesty is suspected. Reviewers and editorial staff must not discuss the work publicly before publication. Reviewers should not make copies of the manuscript, share it, or publish comments without permission. Editors should not retain copies of rejected manuscripts. Confidentiality is essential throughout the review process.

Copyright Policy

Philosophy of Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

As an open-access journal, Neutrosophic Systems with Applications (NSWA) is dedicated to disseminating high-quality research globally without barriers. This commitment ensures that scholarly work is accessible to all, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange. For detailed editorial priorities, please refer to our Aims and Scope page.

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original manuscript to be considered for publication in NSWA as long as they either own the copyright to the work or are authorized by the copyright owner(s) to submit it. Authors retain the copyright to their works after publication in NSWA. An exception may apply if authors are subject to institutional or employment agreements requiring copyright transfer.

Author Rights

For all articles published in NSWA, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under the open-access CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

Open Access Policy

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications (NSWA), published by Sciences Force LLC, is firmly committed to the principles of open access, ensuring that all published content is freely and immediately available to the global scholarly community.

NSWA adheres to the widely accepted definitions of open access as outlined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. In accordance with these declarations, NSWA defines open access by the following core conditions:

• Peer-reviewed research is made available online without financial, legal, or technical barriers—no subscription or paywall restrictions.
• Content is published immediately in open access format without any embargo period.
• Articles and supplementary materials may be freely used, shared, reproduced, or modified in any medium, provided that proper attribution is given to the original authors and source.

All articles in NSWA are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license enables the broadest possible dissemination and reuse of content, allowing for linking, sharing, text and data mining, and integration into educational, scientific, and technological tools—free of charge and without seeking prior permission, as long as appropriate credit is given.

This open access model aligns with NSWA’s mission to promote interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, support researchers across the globe—including those in under-resourced regions—and accelerate scientific discovery in neutrosophic systems and related fields.

Please note: Some submitted content (e.g., figures or tables) in all types of articles may include third-party materials for which NSWA does not hold copyright or licensing rights. In such cases, authors are responsible for securing the necessary permissions from the original copyright holders prior to reuse or publication.

NSWA’s open access policy is reviewed regularly to ensure alignment with evolving global standards and best practices in open scholarly communication.

Data Falsification/Fabrication

The intentional manipulation or fabrication of research data constitutes a severe violation of academic ethics. Such misconduct distorts scientific truth, undermines trust in scholarly work, and has significant consequences for the academic community.

Authors submitting manuscripts must:

• Ensure the accuracy and proper representation of all reported data.
• Maintain complete, unprocessed datasets supporting their findings, where applicable unless ethical, legal, privacy, or practical constraints prevent it.
• Provide these original records upon editorial request.

Failure to produce authentic source data when required will result in immediate manuscript rejection or retraction of published articles. The journal reserves the right to investigate suspected cases of data manipulation using verification methods and tools.

Data Sharing Policy

At NSWA, we are committed to fostering open and responsible data sharing as a way to promote transparency, encourage collaboration, and advance scientific understanding. We believe that making research data accessible benefits both the scientific community and society as a whole.

We actively encourage authors to share their data in a timely and appropriate manner, and we continuously work to improve our submission system to support this process more effectively. Our data sharing policy is based on the following key principles:

1. Promoting Transparency and Reproducibility: We encourage researchers to make the data behind their findings available so others can verify results, reproduce experiments, and build upon the work. Early sharing is supported when feasible, while always respecting ethical standards and legal obligations related to data privacy or confidentiality.
2. Simplifying the Data Submission Process: To make data sharing easier, we provide authors with clear and practical guidance on how to deposit their datasets in trusted public repositories. Our manuscript submission process is designed to include data sharing steps seamlessly, without adding unnecessary burden to authors.
3. Ensuring Proper Credit for Shared Data: We recognize data as a valuable research output. Authors are encouraged to cite datasets using persistent identifiers such as DOIs, ensuring they receive proper acknowledgment for their contributions. Well-documented and curated datasets can and should be cited just like traditional publications.
4. Encouraging Reusability of Data: To make shared data useful to others, we require authors to provide detailed metadata and documentation. This is especially important for datasets related to neutrosophic systems, where clarity and context are essential for reuse and reinterpretation.
5. Supporting Authors in Managing and Sharing Data: We promote the use of reliable tools like Mendeley Data to help authors organize, store, and share their datasets efficiently. We also offer flexible sharing options—including embargoes when needed—to accommodate varying publication and privacy needs.

Desk Rejection Policy

To maintain high standards of academic publishing, the editorial team may reject a manuscript without sending it for peer review. This is known as a desk rejection. It usually occurs when the submission does not meet the basic criteria required for further evaluation. The following reasons commonly lead to desk rejection:

• Scope relevance: If the manuscript does not fit within the journal’s focus areas or topics, it may be rejected. Authors are encouraged to check the Aims and Scope page before submitting their work.
• Ethical compliance: Papers that show ethical problems will not proceed. This includes plagiarism above 20 percent, submitting the same work to more than one journal, data manipulation, or ignoring accepted research ethics.
• Originality and contribution: Submissions must offer a clear theoretical or practical value. If the manuscript lacks innovation or does not add meaningful knowledge to the field, it may be rejected.
• Research design and methods: Papers with major flaws in the study’s design, data analysis, or methods are not accepted. A strong and valid approach is essential.
• Research purpose and clarity: If the paper does not clearly explain its research questions, objectives, or hypothesis, it becomes difficult to evaluate and may be rejected.
• Structure and completeness: A submission must include all major sections of an academic paper. If it lacks a proper literature review, methods, results, or discussion, or if it is poorly organized, it may not be considered.
• Language and readability: Papers written in poor English, with many grammar issues or unclear phrasing, may be rejected due to difficulty in understanding the content.
• Formatting and guidelines: Authors must follow the journal’s submission rules, including the required template, referencing style, and word count. Failure to do so may lead to desk rejection.

Authors whose papers are desk rejected will receive a clear explanation so they can revise their work and submit again, either to this journal or elsewhere.

Duplicate Submission/Publication

Authors are required to declare upon submission that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Detection of a duplicate submission or publication is typically considered as a deliberate act.

Funding

NSWA requires authors to disclose any form of funding, including financial support. Authors must describe the role of the sponsors at any stage of the research processing and ensure that the information provided is accurate and according to the funder's requirement.

Images and Figures

Authors must use only images and figures that are relevant and add value to the work. Purely illustrative materials that do not contribute meaningfully should be avoided. Authors must obtain written permission to include any copyrighted materials owned by third parties.

Misconduct

NSWA takes all forms of misconduct seriously and will take all necessary action in accordance with COPE guidelines to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

• Affiliation misrepresentation
• Breaches in copyright/use of third-party material without appropriate permissions
• Citation manipulation
• Duplicate submission/publication
• Ethics dumping
• Image or data manipulation/fabrication
• Peer review manipulation
• Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism/text-recycling)
• Undisclosed competing interests
• Unethical research

Duplicate Submission

Original Work Requirement:
Submissions to NSWA must constitute unpublished, original research that is not currently under evaluation by any other publication venue.

Consequences for Duplicate Submission:
The journal will impose the following sanctions when duplicate submissions or publications are identified:

• Immediate rejection of the manuscript
• Retraction of any published articles containing duplicate content
• Notification to authors' affiliated institutions
• Potential restrictions on future submissions

Building Upon Previous Research:
When authors incorporate elements from their own prior work (whether published or under review), they must:

1. Provide complete citations for all referenced publications
2. Clearly articulate in the manuscript:
   • Significant new theoretical advances
   • Substantive methodological improvements
   • Novel applications or findings
   • Important extensions to prior results

Citation Manipulation

Manuscripts that include citations primarily intended to artificially increase the number of citations to a given author’s work or to articles published in a particular journal will face citation manipulation sanctions.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Manuscripts found to have either fabricated or falsified experimental results, including manipulation of images, will incur sanctions for data fabrication and falsification.

Improper Author Contribution or Attribution

All listed authors must have made significant scientific contributions to the research presented in the manuscript and approved all its claims. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.

Redundant Publications

Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into multiple articles.

Image Manipulation

Image files included in manuscripts must not be manipulated in ways that compromise the accuracy or authenticity of the information they convey. Irregular manipulations, including the introduction, enhancement, movement, or removal of features, grouping of images that should be presented separately, or modifications to contrast, brightness, or color balance that obscure or enhance information, are strictly prohibited. If irregular image manipulation is identified during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If identified post-publication, NSWA may take corrective actions, including issuing corrections or retracting the paper. These measures are implemented to uphold the credibility of the scientific record and ensure the accuracy of published findings.