To enhance academic integrity in Coal Geology & Exploration, standardize the writing, reviewing, and publishing process, prevent academic misconduct behaviors, and provide proper guidance when academic misconduct is detected, this journal has formulated ethical guidelines for authors, peer reviewers, and editors based on the Copyright Law of China, Chinese and international publishing ethics, CY/T 174-2019 "Academic Publishing Specification: Definition of Academic Misconduct for Journals," and other relevant provisions.

For more detailed information, please refer to the official websites of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (http://www.publicationethics.org/), the European Association of Science Editors (EASE), and the publishing ethics standards set by the National Press and Publication Administration of China.

I. Publication Ethics for Authors

Authors' responsibilities include the following:

1. Authorship Changes: Authors' names cannot be arbitrarily changed. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names must be made before the manuscript submission. Authorship changes after submission will not be accepted.

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 must adhere to the "Five Prohibitions": no ghostwriting, no third-party submissions, no third-party modifications, no provision of false peer reviewer information, and no authorship for those without substantial academic contributions.

4. Citation and Acknowledgments: All cited literature sources must be clearly identified and listed as references. Institutions and individuals providing scientific funding or consultation must be acknowledged.

5. The authors shall respect the revision opinions of reviewers and editors.

6. Authors agree to transfer the copyright of this article to the Editorial Office of Coal Geology & Exploration.

7. Academic Misconduct Policy: Coal Geology & Exploration uses the "Academic Misconduct Literature Check System (AMLC)" by CNKI during initial review, pre-acceptance, and pre-publication stages to detect the repetition rate of each manuscript. Research articles must have a repetition rate below 15%, and review articles below 20%. Any issues identified by the software will be investigated by the editorial office. If it is found that the article involves plagiarism, multiple submissions, data fabrication, or other violations and infringements on others' rights, the editorial office will take serious action against the main author to maintain scientific ethics and the normal publishing order. Unaccepted manuscripts will be rejected. Accepted articles will not be refunded and will not be published. If plagiarism or data fabrication is discovered after publication, the article will be retracted, and the author's affiliation, name, and a retraction notice will be published in this journal. Henceforth, the journal will refuse to publish any manuscripts from that author.

Authors must avoid the following academic misconduct:

   - Duplicate Submission: Ensure the manuscript is original (excluding reviews), free of any fabricated, deceptive, or plagiarized content, and not submitted elsewhere in any language before receiving a rejection notice from the editorial office.

   - Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the most common publishing ethics violation behavior, involving the unauthorized use of others' work without permission or proper citation. This includes direct copying and rewriting of others' work, encompassing ideas, data, images, audio, methods, text, unpublished results, or entire works. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited.

   - Improper Authorship: Authorship is limited to those who have made significant contributions in research concept and design, data acquisition, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript writing, or critical revision of important content. Providing laboratory space or funding alone does not qualify someone as an author. All significant contributors must be listed as co-authors or corresponding authors, and others involved in the research should be acknowledged. Arbitrary addition of authors is prohibited. Consent must be obtained from all co-authors before submission and a signed Copyright Transfer Agreement must be provided alongside.

   - Duplicate Publication: Authors must not deliberately re-publish previously published articles or present published data as original, except with clear notification and appropriate citation.

   - Fabrication and Falsification: Data or conclusions must be derived from actual experiments or research. Fabrication or falsification of data, funding sources, review comments, or related information is strictly prohibited.

8. Authors must declare their specific contributions to the research, and disclose potential conflicts of interest at the end of each article. When financial/personal/affiliation relationships might influence decisions, work, or the manuscript, potential conflicts exist. If products are mentioned in the manuscript, authors should also disclose any conflicts with competing products.

II. Publication Ethics for Peer Reviewers

Peer reviewers must ensure scientific accuracy, objective evaluation, confidentiality, and respect for authors' research outcomes, avoiding manuscripts with potential conflicts of interest. Peer reviewers' responsibilities include:

1. Fair, Just, and Confidential Review: Use professional knowledge and abilities to review the manuscript's innovation, scientific validity, and practicality. Evaluate research methods, design, results, conclusions, and potential confidentiality issues. Provide detailed revision suggestions to improve manuscript quality.

2. Objective Evaluation: Assess manuscripts academically without personal attacks, regardless of the author's race, gender, religion, belief, status, credentials, or authority. Provide well-argued and fact-based opinions.

3. Timely Feedback: Submit review comments within the stipulated time. If unable to meet the deadline, inform the editorial office and return the manuscript. Reviewers may recommend additional reviewers.

4. Confidentiality: All review comments and information must be kept confidential, not used for personal purposes, not shared or discussed with others, and not used or published without the author's consent.

5. Similarity Reporting: Report any similarity or overlap between the reviewed manuscript and published works within the reviewer's knowledge. Notify the editorial office if the reviewer has previously reviewed the manuscript.

6. Conflict of Interest: Avoid reviewing manuscripts with conflicts of interest due to competitive or cooperative relationships with the author, institution, or company.

7. Fair Treatment: Do not use the review process to suppress or disparage manuscripts by authors with similar research interests.

III. Publication Ethics for Editors

Editors must comply with national laws and regulations, adhere to academic publishing ethics and norms, and handle all submissions fairly and justly. They must respect authors' research results and reviewers' opinions, maintain confidentiality, and avoid favoritism. Editors' responsibilities include:

1. Editorial Responsibility: Ensure high-quality and timely publication of articles. Adhere to the journal's policies and relevant laws regarding defamation, infringement, and plagiarism.

2. Authenticity and Confidentiality: Maintain the authenticity of review records and safeguard and confidentially handle review and revision materials. Provide information to corresponding authors, reviewers, and editorial board members only as needed.

3. Fair Selection: Accept or reject articles only based on originality, importance, clarity, and relevance to the journal's scope.

4. Respect for Authors: Obtain authors' consent for any significant academic revisions.

5. Avoiding Commercial Influence: Prevent any commercial needs or interests from compromising academic integrity.

6. Handling Misconduct: Investigate and address academic misconduct, take effective measures for ethical complaints, and publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, or apologies as needed. Editors have an obligation to hold authors and reviewers accountable when misconduct exists.

7. Confidentiality in Research: Ensure authors' submission information is not used for personal or third-party research and protect the identities of reviewers and editorial staff during blind reviews.

8. Encouraging Debate: Facilitate academic discussions and respond to authors' differing opinions on review comments. Consider publishing negative results obtained scientifically rigorously in order to prevent redundant research.

9. Avoiding Misconduct: Prevent duplicate submissions and redundant publication through manuscript screening and review.

10. Fair Review Process: Editors must ensure that the peer review process is fair and reasonable. If a conflict of interest or a collaborative relationship arises between the editors and the authors, institutions, or companies involved in the article, the editors must recuse themselves. In such cases, the review process should be handled by the Editor-in-Chief or other members of the editorial board.

IV. Intellectual Property Protection

The editorial office respects and protects intellectual property and requires editors, authors, and reviewers to do the same. Any potential infringement must be avoided, and third parties must respect the journal's intellectual property rights.

V. Advertising Statement

This journal does not publish any commercial advertisements. All articles and content on the official website and other platforms are free of advertisements. The review or acceptance of manuscripts is not influenced by commercial factors.