Ethical Guidelines

Frontiers in Business and AI is committed to maintaining the integrity, transparency, quality and reliability of the scholarly record. The journal expects authors, editors, reviewers and the publisher to follow recognised principles of publication ethics and responsible research conduct.

These Ethical Guidelines apply to all content published by the journal, including research articles, review articles, case studies, perspectives, editorials, special-issue articles, corrections and other scholarly materials.

1. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors must ensure that their submissions are original, accurate, ethically conducted and presented honestly. By submitting a manuscript, the authors confirm that:

The manuscript is original and has not been formally published elsewhere.
The manuscript is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.
The research findings are reported honestly and without fabrication, falsification, inappropriate manipulation or selective omission.
All sources, ideas, text, data, images, tables, figures and other materials taken from previous work are properly acknowledged and cited.
All listed authors meet the journal’s authorship criteria and have approved the submitted version.
All relevant funding sources and competing interests have been disclosed.
Necessary ethical approval, informed consent and publication permission have been obtained where applicable.
The authors will cooperate with reasonable editorial requests for data, documentation, clarification or corrections.

Authors must notify the journal promptly if they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted or published article.

2. Originality and Plagiarism

All submissions must represent original scholarly work. Plagiarism in any form is prohibited.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

Copying text, ideas, data, images, code or other material without proper attribution.
Presenting another person’s work as one’s own.
Inappropriate paraphrasing of previously published material.
Reusing substantial parts of the authors’ own published work without disclosure and citation.
Translating previously published material without acknowledgment.
Submitting fabricated, manipulated or non-existent references.
Republishing substantially the same research findings in more than one journal.

The journal may screen submissions using similarity-checking software. Similarity reports are reviewed by editors and are not used as an automatic decision-making tool.

Where plagiarism or inappropriate duplication is identified, the journal may request an explanation, require revision, reject the manuscript, contact the authors’ institution, or take post-publication action, including correction or retraction.

3. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must be based on substantial scholarly contribution. Every listed author should:

Have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the collection, analysis or interpretation of data.
Have participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it.
Have approved the final version submitted for publication.
Agree to be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet all authorship criteria should be acknowledged with their permission.

Guest, gift, honorary and ghost authorship are not permitted. The journal encourages authors to describe individual contributions using the CRediT contributor roles.

The corresponding author is responsible for confirming that all authors meet the authorship criteria, have approved the manuscript and consent to its submission and publication.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors after submission must include:

A clear explanation for the proposed change.
Written agreement from all existing authors.
Written agreement from any author being added or removed.

Changes after acceptance will be permitted only in exceptional circumstances and may require publication of a correction.

4. Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers and editors must disclose any financial or non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence their work or judgment.

Competing interests may include:

Employment or consultancy relationships.
Research grants or other financial support.
Stock ownership or other financial interests.
Patents, patent applications or intellectual property interests.
Personal, family or professional relationships.
Institutional responsibilities.
Academic competition.
Political, religious or strongly held intellectual commitments relevant to the work.

Authors must include a competing-interests statement in their manuscript. If no competing interests exist, the manuscript should state:

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

Funding sources must be disclosed, together with any role played by the funder in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation or the decision to publish.

Reviewers must disclose relevant conflicts before accepting a review assignment. Editors with a competing interest must withdraw from the editorial handling of the manuscript.

5. Human Participant Research

Research involving human participants, identifiable human information, personal data or human biological materials must comply with applicable laws, institutional requirements and internationally recognised ethical principles.

Authors must provide:

The full name of the approving ethics committee or institutional review board.
The approval number or reference, where available.
A statement explaining how informed consent was obtained.
An explanation where ethical approval or consent was waived.
Confirmation that participants’ privacy and confidentiality have been protected.

If the relevant institution does not require formal ethical approval, the authors must state this clearly and explain the basis for the exemption.

The journal may request copies of ethics approvals, consent documents or other supporting records. Failure to provide adequate documentation may result in rejection, correction, expression of concern or retraction.

6. Informed Consent and Privacy

Informed consent must be obtained from participants before their participation in research unless a properly authorised ethics body has approved a waiver.

Separate consent for publication must be obtained where an article contains identifiable personal information, images, case details or other material from which an individual could reasonably be identified.

Authors must take appropriate measures to anonymise personal information. Removing a person’s name alone may not provide sufficient anonymity.

Information that is not essential to the scholarly purpose of the article should not be published. The journal may require the removal or further anonymisation of sensitive or identifiable information.

7. Animal Research

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and international standards for animal welfare.

Authors must identify:

The institution or ethics committee that approved the research.
The relevant approval or licence number, where available.
The standards or regulations followed.
The measures taken to minimise animal suffering and reduce the number of animals used.

The journal may reject manuscripts where animal research was conducted without appropriate ethical oversight or where the scientific justification does not support the procedures used.

8. Data Integrity and Availability

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, integrity and provenance of all data reported in their manuscripts.

The following practices are prohibited:

Fabricating data or results.
Falsifying, altering or omitting data in a misleading manner.
Manipulating images in a way that changes their scientific meaning.
Misrepresenting statistical analyses.
Concealing material methodological limitations.
Using data without appropriate permission or lawful authority.

Authors should preserve the original data and supporting records for a reasonable period following publication.

Each research article should contain a Data Availability Statement explaining:

Where the supporting data, code or materials can be accessed.
The persistent identifier or repository link, where available.
Any ethical, privacy, legal, security or commercial restrictions.
How controlled access may be requested where public sharing is not possible.

Editors may request raw data, analytical code, research protocols or other supporting materials during review or after publication.

9. Image Integrity

Images must accurately represent the original data. Adjustments to brightness, contrast or colour are acceptable only when applied consistently and when they do not obscure, eliminate or misrepresent information.

The following practices are prohibited:

Adding or removing features from an image.
Combining images without clearly identifying the arrangement.
Duplicating images or image sections to represent different results.
Applying selective enhancement that changes the interpretation of the data.
Using an image without permission or appropriate attribution.

Editors may request original, unprocessed image files where concerns arise.

10. Citation Ethics

References must be accurate, relevant and sufficient to support the claims made in the manuscript. Authors are responsible for checking every citation against the original source.

Authors must not:

Cite sources they have not verified.
Include fabricated or non-existent references.
Misrepresent the findings of a cited source.
Add irrelevant citations to increase citation counts.
Participate in citation-exchange arrangements or citation cartels.
Cite generative AI output as an authoritative primary source.

Editors and reviewers must not require authors to cite their own work, the journal or another publication unless the requested citation is directly relevant and has a clear scholarly justification.

11. Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.

Substantial overlap with an author’s previous publications must be disclosed and appropriately cited. Authors should provide copies of closely related manuscripts, conference papers, reports or publications when requested by the editor.

Secondary publication or translation may be considered only when:

Permission has been obtained from the relevant copyright holder and editors.
The secondary publication serves a legitimate scholarly purpose.
The original publication is clearly and prominently cited.
Readers are informed that the work has been published previously.

12. Preprints

The posting of a manuscript on a recognised preprint server does not normally prevent consideration by the journal.

Authors must disclose the existence of a preprint at submission and provide its persistent link. After publication, authors are encouraged to update the preprint record with the complete citation and link to the published Version of Record.

Authors remain responsible for ensuring that preprint posting does not breach contractual, ethical, confidentiality or copyright obligations.

13. Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors

Generative artificial intelligence systems and automated tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript or manage competing interests.

Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including its:

Accuracy.
Originality.
References.
Permissions.
Confidentiality.
Ethical compliance.
Absence of plagiarism or fabrication.

The use of generative AI beyond routine spelling, grammar, formatting or language improvement must be disclosed in the manuscript. The disclosure should identify:

The name of the tool.
The version, where known.
The purpose for which it was used.
The section or stage of the research or writing process in which it was used.
How the authors verified the resulting content.

Generative AI must not be treated as a factual authority or cited as a primary scholarly source. Authors must verify all AI-generated statements, data, calculations and references.

Authors must not upload confidential information, personal data, copyrighted materials or unpublished third-party content to an AI system without appropriate permission and safeguards.

Reviewers and Editors

Reviewers and editors must not upload manuscripts, supplementary files, review reports or confidential editorial information to public generative AI services.

Generative AI must not be used to make peer-review judgments, prepare substantive review reports or make editorial decisions.

Limited language-editing assistance may be used only where confidentiality is protected, the use complies with applicable policy and the human reviewer or editor retains full responsibility.

Journal and Publisher

Any automated system used by the journal for similarity checking, integrity screening, reviewer identification or production will be subject to human oversight. Automated findings will not be treated as conclusive without review by a qualified editor.

14. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers contribute to editorial decisions and help authors improve their manuscripts. Reviewers must:

Provide objective, constructive and evidence-based assessments.
Review only manuscripts for which they have appropriate expertise.
Complete reviews within the agreed period or promptly notify the editor of any delay.
Treat manuscripts and associated materials as confidential.
Disclose actual or potential competing interests.
Avoid personal, discriminatory, hostile or defamatory comments.
Identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately cited.
Notify the editor of suspected plagiarism, duplication, fabrication, ethical concerns or peer-review manipulation.
Refrain from using unpublished material for personal, professional or commercial advantage.

Reviewers must not contact authors directly concerning a manuscript unless authorised by the journal.

15. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors must evaluate manuscripts fairly, independently and on the basis of scholarly merit.

Editorial decisions must not be influenced by an author’s:

Nationality or geographic origin.
Race or ethnicity.
Sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Religion or political belief.
Institutional affiliation.
Disability or personal status.
Ability to pay an Article Processing Charge.
Personal or professional relationship with the publisher.

Editors must:

Protect the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts.
Select qualified and independent reviewers.
Require at least two independent external reviews for research articles.
Avoid and disclose competing interests.
Recuse themselves from manuscripts in which they have a conflict.
Respond appropriately to ethical concerns.
Protect the integrity of the scholarly record.
Ensure that commercial interests do not influence editorial decisions.

Where an editor, editorial board member or publisher employee submits a manuscript, that person must have no involvement in its review or decision. The manuscript must be managed by an independent editor.

16. Editorial Independence

Global Frontiers Press Limited provides operational support for Frontiers in Business and AI but does not determine whether individual manuscripts are accepted or rejected.

The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for the journal’s editorial content and decisions, subject to the journal’s published policies and appeal procedures.

Article Processing Charges, waiver decisions, advertising, sponsorship and other financial considerations must not influence peer review or editorial decisions.

17. Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts and their associated files are confidential documents.

Editors and reviewers must not:

Share manuscripts or review materials without authorisation.
Discuss unpublished findings with unauthorised persons.
Use unpublished information for personal advantage.
Retain unnecessary copies after completing their responsibilities.
Upload confidential material to external AI tools or services that do not guarantee confidentiality.

Information may be disclosed where necessary to investigate suspected misconduct, comply with law or protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

18. Peer Review Manipulation

Any attempt to manipulate the peer-review process is prohibited. This includes:

Providing false reviewer names or contact details.
Creating fabricated reviewer identities.
Using email accounts controlled by an author or related person.
Coordinating reviews to guarantee a favourable outcome.
Influencing reviewers through undisclosed personal relationships.
Interfering with editorial systems or review records.
Offering payment, gifts or other benefits in exchange for favourable treatment.

Suspected peer-review manipulation may result in rejection, retraction, notification of institutions or restrictions on future submissions.

19. Research Misconduct

The journal considers allegations involving:

Fabrication or falsification.
Plagiarism.
Image or data manipulation.
Unethical research.
Undisclosed competing interests.
Authorship abuse.
Citation manipulation.
Duplicate publication.
Peer-review manipulation.
Paper-mill involvement.
Other conduct that compromises the scholarly record.

Concerns should be submitted to the journal’s official editorial email with sufficient details and supporting evidence.

The journal will:

Conduct an initial assessment.
Preserve confidentiality as far as reasonably possible.
Assign the matter to an editor without a conflict of interest.
Give affected parties a fair opportunity to respond.
Seek independent expert advice where appropriate.
Contact relevant institutions, funders, ethics bodies or journals where necessary.
Take proportionate action based on the available evidence.

Possible actions include requesting clarification, requiring revision, rejecting a manuscript, publishing a correction, issuing an expression of concern, retracting an article or notifying an appropriate organisation.

The journal does not make determinations of legal or institutional guilt but will take the steps necessary to protect the scholarly record.

20. Corrections

Material errors that affect the interpretation, reliability, attribution or understanding of a published article will be corrected through a formal, dated correction notice.

The correction notice will:

Identify the original article.
Explain what has been corrected.
Be freely accessible.
Be linked to the original article.
Preserve a transparent publication record.

Minor typographical or formatting errors that do not affect interpretation may be corrected directly, provided that the correction does not obscure the publication history.

21. Retractions

An article may be retracted where:

Its findings are unreliable because of error or misconduct.
It contains fabricated or falsified data.
It constitutes plagiarism or redundant publication.
It reports unethical research.
Authorship or peer review was seriously manipulated.
Copyright was materially infringed.
Another serious breach makes the article unsafe to rely upon.

A retraction notice will identify the article, explain the reason, state who is retracting it and remain permanently accessible.

The original article will normally remain online to preserve the scholarly record but will be clearly marked as retracted. Retraction will not be used solely to punish authors.

22. Expressions of Concern

The journal may publish an Expression of Concern where:

Serious concerns have been raised about an article.
Available evidence is inconclusive.
An institutional investigation is pending.
An investigation cannot be completed promptly.
There is a risk that readers may rely on potentially unreliable findings.

An Expression of Concern will be linked to the relevant article and may later be replaced or supplemented by a correction, retraction or notice that the concerns have been resolved.

23. Complaints and Appeals

Complaints about editorial procedures, ethical matters, staff conduct or published content should be submitted to the journal’s official editorial email.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they believe that a material procedural, factual or interpretive error affected the outcome. An appeal must identify the manuscript and explain the specific grounds. Disagreement with reviewers alone is not sufficient.

Appeals will be considered by the Editor-in-Chief or an independent senior editor who was not involved in the original decision. If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, it will be handled by an independent editorial board member or the publisher’s designated research-integrity contact.

Complaints and appeals will be considered fairly, confidentially and without retaliation.

24. Special Issues

Special-issue articles are subject to the same ethical, editorial and peer-review standards as regular submissions.

The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for all special-issue content. Guest editors must:

Have appropriate qualifications and subject expertise.
Disclose relevant competing interests.
Work under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief or a designated editorial board member.
Follow the journal’s double-anonymous peer-review policy.
Avoid handling submissions with which they have a conflict.

A submission authored by a guest editor must be handled by an independent editor. Articles authored by guest editors may not exceed 25 percent of the special issue.

25. Protection of the Scholarly Record

The journal is committed to maintaining a permanent, accurate and transparent scholarly record.

Published articles will not normally be removed from the journal website. Removal may be considered only in exceptional circumstances, such as:

A binding legal requirement.
A serious risk to personal safety.
Unlawfully disclosed confidential information.
Material that seriously violates privacy rights.
Content that poses an immediate and substantial public harm.

Where removal is necessary, the article record and a notice explaining the reason will normally remain available unless prohibited by law.

26. Reporting Ethical Concerns

Anyone may report a suspected ethical problem involving a submitted or published article.

Reports should include:

The title or manuscript number of the relevant work.
A clear description of the concern.
Supporting documents, links or evidence where available.
Contact information for follow-up, unless anonymity is necessary.

Reports should be sent to the journal’s official editorial email address.

The journal will consider good-faith concerns regardless of the complainant’s identity, nationality, affiliation or relationship with the authors. Anonymous allegations will be considered where they contain sufficient verifiable evidence.

27. Policy Framework

Frontiers in Business and AI handles publication-ethics matters with reference to internationally recognised principles of research integrity and scholarly publishing, including relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Reference to an external ethical framework does not replace the journal’s responsibility to investigate concerns fairly, maintain editorial independence and take appropriate action to protect the scholarly record.