Maintaining good ethical awareness and practicing moral rules are critical to every participant in academic research, essay writing, and publishing. Clean Coal Technology adheres to the concept of sticking to high standards of publishing ethics, and implements this commitment with transparent and standardized services, and provides correct advice when it is found that authors' articles have academic misconduct. Below we list several publishing ethics and guidelines that are critical to the journal for reference by contributors. For more details, please refer to the official website of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (Committee on Publication Ethics) (http://www.publicationethics.org/) and the publication of ethical standards by institutions such as the European Association of Scientific Editors (EASE).

I. Author Publication Ethics

The responsibilities of authors include the following:

1. Change of Authorship

Authorship shall not be altered arbitrarily. Any addition, deletion, or adjustment of authorship must be completed before submission, and no changes will be accepted after submission.

2. Confidentiality and Infringement

Authors must declare that the manuscript does not involve state secrets or any intellectual property infringement issues.

3. Five Prohibitions

Authors shall comply with the requirements of the Five Prohibitions: Prohibiting manuscript writing by a third party; Prohibiting manuscript submission by a third party; Prohibiting manuscript revision by a third party; Prohibiting provision of false peer reviewer information; Prohibiting authorship for individuals without substantial academic contributions.

4. Citation and Acknowledgment

All cited references shall be clearly marked and listed in the form of references. Authors must acknowledge the institutions and individuals that provided scientific funding or consultation.

5. Respect for Revision Opinions

Authors shall respect the revision opinions put forward by peer reviewers and editors.

6. Transfer of Copyright

Authors agree to transfer the copyright of the paper to the Editorial Office of Clean Coal Technology.

7. Academic Misconduct Policy

The journal uses the Academic Misconduct Literature Checking System (AMLC) developed by CNKI to check the duplication rate of each manuscript during the preliminary review, prior to acceptance, and before publication. The duplication rate of articles must be lower than 15%. If any issues are detected by the system, the editorial office will launch an investigation. In case confirmed violations of others'rights and interests such as plagiarism, duplicate submission, or data fabrication are found, the journal will impose severe penalties on the corresponding author to uphold scientific ethics and maintain normal publication order. Unaccepted manuscripts will be rejected. Manuscripts accepted but not yet published will have their page fees non-refundable and will not be published. If plagiarism or data fabrication is discovered in published articles, the journal will retract the article and publish a retraction notice including the author's affiliation and name in the journal. Thereafter, the journal will refuse to publish any future submissions from the author(s).

Declaration of Research Contributions and Conflicts of Interest. Authors must declare their specific research contributions and disclose potential conflicts of interest at the end of each article. A potential conflict of interest exists when financial, personal, or affiliational relationships may influence decision-making, research work, or the content of the manuscript. If products are mentioned in the manuscript, authors shall also disclose conflicts of interest related to competing products. Authors must avoid the following academic misconducts:

a. Duplicate Submission

Ensure that the manuscript represents original research findings (except for review articles), contains no fabricated, fraudulent, or plagiarized content, and has not been submitted to any other journal in any language prior to receiving a rejection notice from this editorial office.

b. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the most common violation of publication ethics. It refers to the use of others’ work—including direct copying or paraphrasing of others’ ideas, data, images, audio, methodologies, text, unpublished research findings, or entire works—without permission or proper citation. Any form of plagiarism is strictly prohibited.

c. Improper Authorship

Authorship shall be limited to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the research, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the article, or critical revision of its key content. Those who only provided laboratory space or funding are not eligible for authorship. All major contributors shall be listed as co-authors or corresponding authors, while other participants shall be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section. Adding authors arbitrarily is prohibited. Prior to submission, written consent must be obtained from all co-authors, and a signed copyright transfer agreement for authorship shall be submitted along with the manuscript.

d. Redundant Publication

Authors shall not intentionally republish an already published article, nor present published data as original research findings, unless explicit statements are made and proper citations are provided.

e. Fabrication and Falsification

Data and conclusions must be derived from genuine experiments or research. Fabricating or falsifying data, funding sources, peer review comments, and related information is strictly prohibited.

II. Publication Ethics for Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers shall ensure that their evaluations are scientifically rigorous, objective, fair, confidential, and respectful of the authors' academic contributions. Reviewers shall avoid evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest. The responsibilities of peer reviewers include the following:

1. Impartial and Confidential Review
Reviewers shall apply their professional expertise to assess the originality, scientific validity, and practical value of the manuscript, evaluate the research methodology, design, results, conclusions, and potential confidentiality issues, and provide detailed revision suggestions to improve the quality of the manuscript.

2. Objective Evaluation
Reviewers shall conduct academic evaluations of the manuscript without engaging in personal criticism. Their judgments shall not be influenced by the authors’ race, gender, religion, beliefs, social status, academic qualifications, or professional authority, and all opinions shall be clearly expressed with sufficient evidence and factual support.

3. Timely Response
Reviewers shall submit their review comments within the specified time limit. If unable to complete the review on time, they shall promptly inform the editorial office and return the manuscript, and may recommend other appropriate reviewers.

4. Confidentiality Obligation
All review comments and related information shall be strictly confidential and shall not be used for personal purposes or shared with others for discussion. Reviewers shall not use or publish any part of the manuscript without the consent of the authors.

5. Reporting Similarity Concerns
Reviewers shall report any similarity or overlap between the reviewed manuscript and known published works. If they have previously reviewed the same manuscript, they shall notify the editorial office.

6. Conflict of Interest
Reviewers shall avoid evaluating manuscripts involving competitive, collaborative, or other relationships of interest with the authors, institutions, or companies associated with the research.

7. Fair Treatment
Reviewers shall not use the review process to suppress or disadvantage manuscripts submitted by authors conducting research in similar or competing fields.

III. Publication Ethics for Editors

Editors shall abide by national laws and regulations, adhere to academic publishing ethics, handle all submissions fairly and impartially, respect the academic contributions of authors and the opinions of peer reviewers, maintain confidentiality, and strictly avoid personal-relation-based publishing. The responsibilities of editors include the following:

1. Editorial Responsibility

Editors shall ensure that articles are published with high quality and in a timely manner, comply with journal policies, and observe laws related to defamation, infringement, and plagiarism.

2. Accuracy and Confidentiality

Editors shall maintain the authenticity of review records, properly preserve and keep confidential all review and revision materials, and provide relevant information only to corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and members of the editorial board when necessary.

3. Fair Manuscript Selection

Decisions regarding acceptance or rejection shall be based solely on the originality, significance, clarity, and relevance of the manuscript to the journal.

4. Respect for Authors

Substantial academic revisions shall be made only after obtaining the consent of the authors.

5. Avoidance of Commercial Influence

Editors shall prevent commercial considerations or interests from compromising academic integrity.

6. Handling Misconduct

Editors shall investigate and address academic misconduct and take effective measures in response to ethical complaints. Where necessary, corrections, clarifications, retractions, or statements of apology shall be issued. Editors have the obligation to hold accountable authors or reviewers involved in improper conduct.

7. Confidentiality of Research Information

Editors shall ensure that information contained in submitted manuscripts is not used for personal research purposes or provided to third parties. During the double-blind review process, the identities of reviewers and editorial personnel shall be protected.

8. Encouraging Academic Dialogue

Editors shall promote academic discussion and respond to authors’ differing views regarding review comments. Negative research results obtained through rigorous scientific methods will also be considered for publication to help prevent redundant research.

9. Prevention of Misconduct

Editors shall prevent duplicate submission and redundant publication through manuscript screening and peer review.

10. Fair Peer Review Process

Editors shall ensure that the peer review process is fair and reasonable. If an editor has a conflict of interest or collaborative relationship with the author, institution, or company associated with a manuscript, the editor shall withdraw from handling the submission, and the review process shall be managed by the Editor-in-Chief or another member of the Editorial Board.

IV. Ethics on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

1. Responsibilities of Authors

In accordance with the Guidelines on the Boundary of AIGC Use in Academic Publishing (Version 3.0), authors shall explicitly declare the scope of AI tool usage in the manuscript (such as literature retrieval or language editing).

The following behaviors are strictly prohibited:

Submitting manuscripts generated entirely by AI tools;

Using AI-generated data or images that have not been experimentally verified;

Listing AI tools as authors of the paper.

2. Requirements for Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers are prohibited from using AI tools to draft or rewrite review comments.

If AI tools are used to assist in detecting textual similarity, reviewers must conduct manual verification to ensure the accuracy of the results.

3. Editorial Measures

The editorial office will employ AI-content detection tools to screen submitted manuscripts.

The handling procedures are as follows:

For manuscripts confirmed to have used AI tools without declaration — the manuscript will be rejected and authors will be required to provide an explanatory statement;

For falsified or misleading declarations regarding AI usage — such cases will be handled in accordance with the Academic Misconduct Policy;

For published articles found to involve improper use of AI — retraction procedures will be initiated and a public notice will be issued.

4. Special Circumstances

Research articles involving AI technology must provide additional statements on algorithm transparency and evidence of ethical review approval.

AI-generated images used in the manuscript must indicate the generation tool, parameter settings, and records of manual modification.

V. Retraction and Correction

In principle, the journal does not issue corrections or retractions for published articles, except under the following circumstances:

1. Correction

If minor scientific errors that do not affect the results or conclusions are identified after publication, a correction notice will be issued detailing the revisions made. The updated version of the article will be released while the original version will be archived. Readers may still access the original version; however, the latest version shall be used when citing the article.

2. Retraction

Articles containing serious scientific errors that affect the results or conclusions, or involving academic misconduct such as plagiarism or data fabrication, will be retracted. The retraction process includes investigation and verification, notification to readers, and publication of a retraction statement once misconduct is confirmed.

VI. Intellectual Property Protection

The editorial office respects and protects intellectual property rights, and requires editors, authors, and peer reviewers to jointly comply with these principles. All parties shall avoid any potential infringement, and third parties must respect the intellectual property rights of this journal.

VII. Advertising Statement

The journal does not publish any commercial advertisements. All articles and content on the official website and related platforms are free of advertising. Manuscript review and acceptance decisions are not influenced by commercial factors.

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Study on the Determination Method of pH Value in Coal Water Slurry