Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

 

The Journal of Salutogenic Architecture is dedicated to maintaining the utmost standards of ethics in publishing and takes into consideration the guidelines for transparency and excellence in scholarly publishing established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).

 

1 Journal Identity Ownership and Scope

Item	Journal information
Main title and serial key title	Journal of Salutogenic Architecture
Abbreviation	JSA
Publication type and medium	Academic scholarly journal; electronic
Online ISSN	2958-8251
Publisher and owner	Al-Riyad Engineering Center
Publisher's postal address	Al-Riyad Engineering Center, Build. 100, Haround Al Rashid St., Arjan, Amman, Jordan
Website	https://jsalutogenic.com/
Editor-in-Chief	Assoc. Prof. Dr. Salar Salah Muhy Al-Din
Editorial team	Editorial Team
Editorial email	editor@jsalutogenic.com
Publication language	English
Frequency	One issue annually, scheduled for December; accepted articles may appear online earlier
First year of publication	2022
Status	Active
Review model	Double-blind external peer review
DOI prefix	10.38027; articles receive individual Crossref DOIs
Access model	Diamond open access: free to read and free to publish

 

 

Journal Scope

The Journal of Salutogenic Architecture (JSA) is an international, open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal examining how architecture and the built environment support human health and well-being. It advances salutogenic theory and translates research evidence into design principles, practices and technologies that promote healthier environments. Its scope comprises three interconnected areas:

·         Section A — Salutogenic Architecture and the Built Environment: Applications of salutogenic theory, including comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness; relationships between architectural aesthetics, spatial experience and health; and connections with other architectural and environmental theories.

·         Section B — Well-being in Architecture and the Built Environment: Indoor environmental quality, including air quality and thermal, visual and acoustic comfort; biophilic design; healing environments; responsive architecture; resilience; and evaluation of buildings and spaces through users’ experiences and health-related outcomes.

·         Section C — Green Built Environment and Technologies: Sustainable design, passive and low-energy strategies, green building technologies, and sustainable and non-toxic materials, with explicit relevance to human health and well-being.

JSA serves researchers, architects, designers, planners and professionals working at the intersection of design, environmental performance and public health. Interdisciplinary submissions must demonstrate a clear connection to this scope, scholarly originality, appropriate methodological rigour and a substantive contribution to knowledge or practice.

 

2 Ethical Framework and Editorial Independence

JSA applies the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) publication ethics guidance, relevant topic resources and flowcharts, together with the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing jointly developed by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME. Official sources are linked in Section 25. These frameworks inform the journal’s procedures; their use does not imply organisational membership, accreditation or inclusion in an indexing service.

This policy applies to submitted and published content, supplementary materials, regular issues, special issues and guest-edited content. Authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher share responsibility for protecting the scholarly record.

Editorial decisions are based on relevance, originality, methodological soundness, clarity, ethical integrity and contribution to knowledge. Decisions are independent of commercial interests, funding, sponsorship, fees or waiver status. Authors are treated fairly regardless of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs or institutional affiliation. Academic rank, reputation and citation metrics do not replace assessment of the manuscript's scholarly merit.

 

3 Article Types and Review Status

JSA welcomes original research articles, review articles, theoretical and methodological studies, and rigorously evaluated architectural and built-environment case studies. These scholarly article types undergo double-blind external peer review before acceptance. Monographic studies and scholarly book reviews may be considered when they meet the journal’s scope and scholarly standards; they follow the same external review procedure.

Editorial notices, corrections, retractions, expressions of concern and administrative announcements are assessed by the responsible editors and clearly labelled. Letters, commentaries and author replies undergo editorial assessment and additional external review when needed; their published review status must be identified. Substantive research submitted in these formats remains subject to the normal external peer review requirements. Acceptance by JSA does not guarantee that an article will be covered by an external index.

 

4 Submission and Peer Review Procedures

Submissions are made through the journal's online submission system and must follow its Author Guidelines.

The editorial office first checks scope, completeness, originality, ethical documentation and compliance with submission requirements. Manuscripts may be returned for clarification or rejected at this stage without external review.

Scholarly manuscripts proceeding beyond initial assessment are evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers with appropriate subject expertise. Reviewers must not belong to the journal’s editorial team and must have no relationship or interest that compromises impartiality. The handling editor screens for relevant conflicts, including shared institutional affiliation, close collaboration, supervisory relationships and personal or commercial interests. Authors’ and reviewers’ identities are concealed from one another; authorised editors and staff retain access to the information needed to manage review. Authors must anonymise the review files. Public preprints and other available information can limit practical anonymity.

Review includes the manuscript and relevant supplementary materials. Reports assess the research question, theoretical grounding, methods, evidence, interpretation, limitations and contribution. Review reports are confidential, anonymous to authors and not routinely published. Author-suggested reviewers may be considered, but the editor independently checks their identities, expertise and suitability and makes the appointments. Authors must not supply fabricated identities, contact details they control or undisclosed close associates. A reviewer who recognises an author must report any resulting conflict to the editor.

The handling editor evaluates the reports and recommends acceptance, revision or rejection. Final authority rests with the Editor-in-Chief or an independent authorised editor when the Editor-in-Chief has a conflict. Decisions are reasoned and communicated to authors; acceptance is never guaranteed. Additional opinions may be sought when reviews conflict, lack appropriate expertise or raise concerns about fairness. Revisions may be returned to reviewers.

Review and publication times depend on manuscript complexity, reviewer availability and the revisions required; JSA does not promise acceptance or a fixed turnaround. Authors are informed of significant delays and may request withdrawal. Submitted, accepted and first online publication dates must be recorded accurately on scholarly articles. JSA publishes one issue annually, scheduled for December, with accepted articles made available online as they become ready. Earlier online publication must be distinguished from issue completion; any material schedule change must be explained publicly.

 

5 Special Issues Guest Editors and Editorial Authors

The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for all journal content. Special issues must fall within the journal's scope, be clearly identified and follow the same ethical standards, editorial oversight and external peer review as regular articles.

Guest editors' identities, qualifications and relevant expertise are checked before appointment. Their work is supervised by the Editor-in-Chief or designated editorial board members, who retain oversight of reviewer selection and decisions.

Submissions by editors, board members, reviewers, guest editors or their close associates receive no preferential treatment. An editor with a conflict takes no part in reviewer selection, evaluation or the decision. An independent editor manages the submission, and the independent handling is disclosed in the published article.

JSA monitors and minimises editorial and reviewer authorship. Research papers with at least one author who is an editor, editorial board member or journal reviewer must not exceed 25% of the published research papers in either of the two latest issues, assessed separately. Each paper is counted once, regardless of the number of such authors. Papers authored by guest editors must be independently handled and must not exceed 25% of the special issue’s total papers. Where a paper is subject to both limits, both apply. These safeguards do not replace independent review of every affected submission.

 

6 Authorship and Contributorship

JSA adopts the four authorship criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), applied to architectural and built-environment scholarship. Every author must satisfy all four criteria:

1. Make a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or to the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of its evidence.

2. Draft the manuscript or critically revise its intellectual content.

3. Approve the final version for publication.

4. Accept accountability for the work and cooperate in resolving questions concerning its accuracy or integrity.

Everyone meeting all four criteria must be included as an author. A person who makes a substantial contribution must be given a fair opportunity to participate in drafting or critical revision and final approval; these opportunities must not be withheld to exclude a deserving contributor. Funding acquisition, seniority, general supervision, technical assistance or language editing alone does not establish authorship. Guest, honorary, purchased and ghost authorship are prohibited. Other contributions must be acknowledged with the contributor’s permission.

Every manuscript must include an author contribution statement using appropriate CRediT roles. CRediT describes contributions and does not independently determine eligibility for authorship. All authors must agree to the statement, author order and submission. The corresponding author coordinates communication, declarations and responses and keeps co-authors informed. Authors are encouraged to provide verified ORCID identifiers.

Requests to add, remove or reorder authors after submission must explain the change and include written agreement from all affected authors. Publication may be paused while a dispute remains unresolved. Institutions may be asked to investigate disputes that authors cannot resolve; the journal does not determine disputed contributions without adequate evidence.

 

7 Author Responsibilities Originality and Prior Dissemination

Authors must report research accurately, describe methods sufficiently, acknowledge limitations and distinguish evidence from interpretation. All author names and current institutional affiliations, including country or region, must be accurate; the corresponding author must provide a working email address. Authors must identify financial and in-kind support, secure permissions, submit the required declarations and respond to editorial questions. An author discovering a significant error must promptly notify the journal and cooperate in correcting the record.

Manuscripts must not be under consideration by another journal. Duplicate and redundant publication, undisclosed substantial overlap and unjustified fragmentation of a study into multiple publications are prohibited.

Posting a preprint, depositing a thesis, or presenting a conference abstract or presentation does not automatically prevent consideration. Authors must disclose these forms of dissemination, provide links or copies, cite relevant prior work and identify differences. A previously published full conference paper requires disclosure, citation, a substantive new contribution and compatible copyright permissions; eligibility is decided by the editor. A translation or other secondary publication requires prior editorial agreement, appropriate permissions and clear identification of the original publication.

Before publication, withdrawal must be requested in writing by the corresponding author, identifying the manuscript and confirming all authors’ agreement. Authors must receive confirmation that JSA’s consideration has ended before submitting the work elsewhere. A published article is addressed through the correction or retraction procedure rather than withdrawal. Withdrawal does not prevent assessment of a credible integrity concern already identified, and no withdrawal fee applies.

 

8 Citation Integrity

References must be accurate, relevant and used to support the scholarly argument. Appropriate self-citation is permitted. Coercive citation, citation exchanges and unnecessary references intended to inflate the metrics of an author, reviewer, editor, journal or institution are prohibited.

Editors and reviewers may recommend references only for a justified scholarly reason. Acceptance must not depend on adding irrelevant references. Concerns about inappropriate citation requests may be reported through the complaints procedure.

 

9 Research Ethics and Ethical Oversight

Authors must comply with applicable research ethics requirements and obtain approval from an appropriate ethics committee before research begins where approval is required. The manuscript must identify the approving body, approval reference and date. When a competent body grants an exemption, or approval is not required under an applicable framework, the manuscript must explain and identify that basis. Unsupported assertions that approval is ‘not applicable’ are insufficient. Supporting documentation must be supplied confidentially on request. Permission to enter a site or an organisation’s approval does not substitute for research ethics approval where the latter is required.

Human participants: Surveys, interviews, experiments, behavioural observations, post-occupancy evaluations and research using personal or health data require appropriate ethical assessment. Authors must explain recruitment, informed consent, confidentiality and relevant risks. Consent must be voluntary and appropriately documented; any authorised waiver must be explained. Research involving children, patients or other vulnerable groups requires safeguards and appropriate consent or assent arrangements. Participation must not be secured through coercion or improper pressure. Medical research involving human participants must also follow the applicable current Declaration of Helsinki and relevant registration requirements.

Consent to publication: Permission to participate is distinct from permission to publish identifiable information. Identifiable photographs, recordings, quotations, case details or other personal information require appropriate publication consent. Identifiers must be removed where feasible. Consent documentation is retained securely and supplied through confidential channels when requested, rather than published with identifying signatures.

Architecture and community research: Authors must respect access permissions, ownership, cultural protocols and confidentiality affecting buildings, communities, drawings, photographs, maps and datasets. Sensitive information about households, vulnerable communities, security or protected sites must be handled carefully. Claims about healing, health or well-being must be proportionate to the study design and evidence.

Animal research: Where relevant, authors must document appropriate approval, applicable welfare requirements and measures to minimise harm.

Participant characteristics and equitable reporting: Where relevant, distinguish sex and gender, explain how information was obtained, and report the limitations of the measures used. Age, disability and other characteristics relevant to environmental experience must be handled respectfully and accurately. Reporting and interpretation must avoid unsupported stereotypes and claims that extend beyond the participants or contexts studied.

Ethics approval does not remove the journal's responsibility to assess the acceptability of the research. Manuscripts may be rejected when serious ethical concerns remain unresolved.

 

10 Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure

Authors, reviewers, editors and the publisher must disclose interests that could reasonably influence, or appear to influence, research or editorial judgment. These include financial relationships, employment, consultancy, ownership, patents, commercial design interests, personal relationships, close collaboration, institutional relationships and relevant intellectual or professional commitments.

Authors must provide a competing-interest statement and identify financial and in-kind support, funders and grant references where applicable. They must explain any funder’s role in design, data collection, analysis, writing and the decision to submit. Relevant declarations are published with the article; absence of funding or competing interests must also be stated accurately. A missing declaration is not evidence that no interest exists.

Reviewers disclose conflicts before accepting an invitation and withdraw where impartiality is compromised. Editors recuse themselves from conflicted submissions. Undisclosed interests discovered later are assessed and may require a correction or other action according to their effect on the record.

 

11 Data Availability Sharing and Reproducibility

Every scholarly manuscript must include a Data Availability Statement, including studies that generate no new datasets. The statement must identify access to supporting data, code, instruments and other relevant materials, using persistent identifiers or stable links where available, or explain a specific access restriction. Deposit in an appropriate institutional, disciplinary or general repository is encouraged where lawful and ethical. Reused datasets must be identified with their source, licence and access conditions.

JSA encourages FAIR data practices: findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability. Sharing must respect consent, privacy, intellectual property, contractual obligations and sensitive location information. Restrictions must be explained, with the responsible custodian and any lawful controlled-access procedure identified. ‘Available on request’ statements must give meaningful access conditions and must not promise access that cannot lawfully be provided. When open deposition is reasonably possible without restriction, a general availability-on-request statement is insufficient.

Authors must retain research records according to applicable institutional, funder and legal requirements and provide relevant materials through secure channels when needed to assess integrity. Unexplained refusal to provide essential evidence may affect an editorial decision or prompt further assessment.

Methods must describe data sources, selection and exclusion criteria, instruments, analytical procedures, software and relevant versions. Computational, simulation and machine-learning studies must explain sufficient parameters and validation procedures for evaluation and, where feasible, reproduction. Applicable reporting guidelines and required study registration must be followed.

Suitable data statement formulations include:

·         Open data: Supporting data and code are available in the named repository at the DOI or persistent URL provided in the article.

·         Article or supplements: Supporting materials are included in the article and its supplementary files.

·         Third-party data: The article identifies the original provider, access conditions and relevant licences.

·         Restricted data: The article explains the ethical, legal or contractual restriction and any available controlled-access procedure.

·         No new data: No new datasets were generated or analysed for this study; data sharing is not applicable.

 

12 Misconduct Screening and Integrity Concerns

Prohibited practices include plagiarism of text, ideas, data or visuals; misleading text recycling; fabrication or falsification; deceptive alteration of photographs, drawings, maps or visualisations; unauthorised use of data; duplicate publication; fraudulent authorship; manipulated peer review; fabricated references; citation manipulation; and paper-mill or other systematic publication fraud. Legitimate image adjustments, simulations and design visualisations must be described sufficiently and must not be presented as unaltered observations when they are not. Original source material may be requested.

Scholarly submissions proceeding to external review undergo editorial checks and text-similarity screening using iThenticate. Editors interpret reports in context, considering quotations, references, methods, attribution and disclosed prior dissemination. JSA does not use a fixed similarity percentage as an automatic acceptance or rejection threshold. A high score is not by itself proof of plagiarism, and a low score does not establish originality. Image, data and automated screening findings likewise require human assessment; authors may be asked for source files, original images, data or methodological clarification.

The journal does not encourage or knowingly permit misconduct. Credible concerns are assessed regardless of when an article was published and whether a concern is raised by an author, reviewer, reader, institution or anonymous reporter.

 

13 Procedure for Handling Allegations of Misconduct

Concerns should be sent to editor@jsalutogenic.com, identifying the manuscript or article, the specific concern and available evidence. Anonymous reports are considered on their substance. Reporter identities are protected as far as reasonably possible, subject to fair assessment and applicable obligations.

The journal follows this procedure:

1. Record and assess: An editor without a relevant conflict records the concern and evaluates the evidence. Unsupported accusations do not establish misconduct.

2. Seek an explanation: The relevant authors are informed and given a reasonable opportunity to respond and provide documentation. All affected authors are involved where appropriate.

3. Examine the evidence: The journal may obtain independent expert advice and request original data, images, approvals or other supporting records. Processing may be paused during assessment.

4. Refer where necessary: Relevant institutions, ethics bodies, funders or other journals may be contacted when a formal investigation or coordinated response is needed. JSA makes publication decisions; institutional research investigations remain the responsibility of competent bodies.

5. Decide proportionately: Outcomes may include no further action, clarification, revision, rejection, correction, expression of concern or retraction. Further restrictions, if justified, must be documented and proportionate.

6. Communicate and preserve records: Findings, decisions and relevant correspondence are retained securely. Necessary notices are published and affected parties informed. The appeals route remains available.

The purpose is to protect the reliability of the scholarly record. Honest error and misconduct are distinguished where evidence permits; correction or retraction may be necessary in either case.

 

14 Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

Authors: Generative AI and automated tools cannot qualify as authors. Human authors remain accountable for the accuracy, originality, attribution and integrity of every submitted statement, reference, analysis and visual. AI-generated answers must not be used as scholarly authority for factual claims; authors must verify claims against appropriate original evidence. When an AI system or its output is itself the object or method of research, it must be documented as research material in a reproducible manner.

Generative AI use beyond routine spelling, grammar correction or formatting must be disclosed in the submission and in a Declaration of AI Use in the manuscript. Identify the tool, version or access date, purpose, extent of assistance and how outputs were checked. Substantive rewriting, translation, drafting and content generation require disclosure. Use in data processing, coding, analysis or image generation must also be described in the Methods or equivalent section, including material settings or prompts where relevant. Fabricated data, participants, quotations and references are prohibited. AI-generated or modified visuals must be labelled and explained and must not misrepresent observed conditions. Appropriate authority and safeguards are required before sharing confidential third-party or participant information with an external tool.

Reviewers and editors: Scholarly assessments and editorial decisions must be made by the responsible humans. Generative AI must not be used to produce manuscript assessments or replace expert judgment. Confidential manuscripts, data, reviews and correspondence must not be uploaded to external AI systems. Limited language editing of a human-written assessment is permissible only where confidentiality is protected and the assistance is disclosed to the journal. The human reviewer or editor remains accountable for the complete assessment.

Journal operations: Routine automated tools and their editorial purpose must be transparently described to affected users. Tools must be appropriately evaluated, used consistently and supervised by humans. Editors must verify text-similarity, image, reviewer-selection and AI-detection findings. Automated flags, including an AI-detection score, must not alone establish misconduct or determine acceptance, rejection or retraction. The journal assesses disclosed and suspected AI use under its originality, confidentiality, research integrity and fair assessment requirements.

 

15 Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers must accept assignments only within their expertise, disclose conflicts, respect the double-blind process and complete reviews within the agreed period or promptly report delays. Reviews must be specific, evidence-based, constructive and respectful.

Manuscripts and supporting materials are confidential. Reviewers must not share them, involve another person without editorial permission, contact authors directly concerning the review or use unpublished material for personal advantage. Any authorised co-reviewer must be identified to the editor and follow the same confidentiality and conflict rules.

Reviewers assess originality, theory, methods, evidence, interpretation and ethical compliance, identify relevant omissions and report suspected problems privately to the editor. Citation recommendations must be justified by relevance. Reviewers advise the editor; they do not make the journal's final decision.

 

16 Responsibilities of Editors and the Publisher

Editors protect confidentiality, select competent independent reviewers, manage conflicts, communicate reasoned decisions and address integrity concerns. They must not misuse unpublished information or permit pressure from authors, reviewers, sponsors or the publisher to compromise decisions.

The Editor-in-Chief oversees journal content and policy implementation. The editorial board must include at least five members with appropriate qualifications and expertise, drawn from more than one institution. Members must agree to serve and be listed on the Editorial Team page with full names, roles, current institutional affiliations and country or region. Guest-editor details must also be available. The journal must verify appointments and maintain an accurate current list, distinguishing it from historical membership. Editors and staff must receive appropriate guidance on review, ethics and handling concerns.

Al-Riyad Engineering Center supports independent editorial decision-making, reliable journal administration, correction of the record and planning for continued access. It cooperates with editors in addressing allegations and ensures that complaints about editors can be assessed independently. Responsibility for handling integrity concerns is not waived through a disclaimer.

 

17 Complaints and Appeals

Complaints about editorial conduct, delays, ethical procedures or published content may be submitted to editor@jsalutogenic.com. The message should identify the relevant submission or article, describe the concern, provide supporting evidence and explain the requested remedy.

The journal aims to acknowledge complaints within 10 working days and provide an initial substantive response within 30 working days. Complex cases may take longer; the complainant is informed of significant delays. These are service targets, not guaranteed investigation deadlines.

Complaints are considered by an editor who has no relevant conflict. A complaint involving the Editor-in-Chief must be addressed to the Publisher, Al-Riyad Engineering Center, and may be sent directly to the publisher's postal address in Section 1. The publisher appoints an independent qualified person to assess it. Complaints involving the publisher are considered with independent external advice where necessary. Subjects of a complaint must not control its assessment.

Authors may appeal an editorial decision within 30 calendar days of notification, explaining a substantive factual error, overlooked evidence or procedural unfairness. An independent editor or adviser who did not make the contested decision assesses the appeal, and additional review may be sought. Outcomes may uphold the decision, reopen evaluation or require another appropriate action; the reasoned outcome is communicated in writing. Reconsideration does not guarantee acceptance. This appeal window does not restrict reporting a credible integrity concern about submitted or published work.

An appeal does not prevent necessary action to protect readers or the record. Raising a good-faith complaint or appeal must not prejudice assessment of future submissions.

 

18 Post Publication Discussion

JSA welcomes substantive discussion through letters to the editor, commentaries, author replies and external moderated scholarly platforms. Contributions should identify the article and focus on its evidence, methods or interpretation. Personal attacks, discriminatory material and unsupported defamatory allegations are not acceptable.

Editors assess relevance and evidence, invite the original authors to respond and obtain independent review where appropriate. Valid critiques may be published even if the original authors do not respond. Concerns requiring correction or an integrity investigation are handled through the relevant procedures rather than treated only as debate.

 

19 Corrections Expressions of Concern Retractions and Removal

JSA maintains a transparent record of material changes to published articles and follows the current COPE Retraction Guidelines, including the August 2025 revision. Notices are published promptly once sufficient evidence supports the action. The responsible, unconflicted editor makes the publication-status decision; author disagreement or an unfinished institutional investigation does not prevent action justified by the available evidence.

·         Corrections: Issued for errors or omissions that require amendment while the article remains substantially reliable, including relevant errors in data presentation, authorship, funding or competing-interest declarations.

·         Expressions of concern: Issued where significant doubts remain unresolved, an investigation is ongoing or reliable clarification cannot be obtained promptly.

·         Retractions: Issued when serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unauthorised material, redundant publication, unethical research or manipulation of the publication process compromises the article’s reliability or integrity. Compromised peer review, fictitious authorship and undisclosed competing interests may warrant retraction according to their effect on the work or its evaluation. Each case is assessed on the evidence; retraction protects the scholarly record rather than serving as punishment. Authors are informed, but their agreement is not required.

·         Addenda: Used for necessary clarification or supplementary information that does not conceal an error or introduce an unreviewed substantive new study.

·         Exceptional removal: Considered only when continued access presents a serious legal, privacy or safety concern. An explanatory notice and bibliographic record are retained where permissible.

An authorship dispute alone does not justify retraction when the findings remain reliable. Notices must identify the affected article, its title, authors and DOI, the type of notice, who issues it and the factual reason for the action. They are freely accessible, separately citable and linked in both directions to the article. Retracted articles normally remain available, with a prominent retraction label on the webpage and full text. Material changes must not be made silently; article, DOI and relevant indexing metadata must be updated. Exceptional removal retains a notice and bibliographic record wherever legally permissible.

Where an article carries a Crossmark record, relevant corrections and status changes are also communicated through that record. Crossmark use does not guarantee that an article is free from error. The current article webpage and linked notices provide the authoritative publication status.

 

20 Open Access Copyright and Intellectual Property

JSA provides immediate open access to its published content, consistent with the Budapest Open Access Initiative and DOAJ definitions, without a reading fee, registration requirement or embargo. Under the applicable open licence, users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, crawl for indexing and process the full text for other lawful purposes. Access and permitted reuse must not be restricted by additional contractual or technical barriers.

Authors retain copyright and publishing rights and grant Al-Riyad Engineering Center a non-exclusive right to publish and distribute their work. Articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits sharing and adaptation, including commercial reuse, subject to its terms. Reusers must give appropriate credit, link to the licence and indicate changes without implying endorsement. No additional restrictions may be imposed on permitted uses. The licence cannot be revoked from compliant users; any later policy change must respect rights already granted.

Article webpages and full-text versions must identify the author or authors as copyright holders and display the applicable licence and its link. Article rights are distinct from rights in website design and administrative content. An ‘all rights reserved’ notice for the website must not be applied to articles in a way that contradicts their open licence.

Authors must secure permission or another valid basis for using third-party photographs, drawings, maps, tables, datasets and other protected material. Material excluded from the article's CC BY licence must be clearly identified with its source and applicable rights. The article licence does not override privacy, consent or third-party rights.

 

21 Repository Deposits and Digital Preservation

Authors may deposit the preprint, accepted manuscript and published version of their article in institutional, disciplinary or other repositories without an embargo. Deposited published versions must retain attribution and licensing information and link to the journal version and DOI. Earlier versions should be identified accurately and linked to the published article when available.

JSA participates in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), a distributed preservation service using LOCKSS technology. Current archival coverage can be checked in the ISSN Portal and Keepers Registry record for ISSN 2958-8251. At this policy’s revision date, that record lists 2022–2025 as preserved by Public Knowledge Project PLN; it does not yet establish coverage of 2026 content. The publisher is responsible for depositing new and updated content, monitoring completion and addressing failed or incomplete deposits. Plugin activation or publication of an issue does not, by itself, prove that preservation has completed.

PKP PN provides continued access to preserved content following an applicable trigger event, such as the journal ceasing publication or disappearing from the web. The publisher must maintain regular website and file backups separately from long-term preservation. Crossref DOI and metadata registration supports identification and discovery; it is not a substitute for preserving full-text content.

 

22 Funding Author Charges Advertising and Marketing

JSA is a diamond open access journal, supported by Al-Riyad Engineering Center. Any additional financial support and any material change to the journal’s revenue model must be disclosed publicly. A change involving author charges must be announced before submission and must not be applied retrospectively to manuscripts already submitted. Existing open-access and licensing rights remain protected. Financial support must not influence manuscript evaluation or editorial decisions.

JSA does not charge authors any fees. There are no submission fees, article processing charges (APCs), editorial processing charges, page charges, colour charges or withdrawal fees at any stage from submission to publication, and readers are not charged for access. As no charges apply, no waiver policy is required. Any request for payment that claims to come from JSA should be reported to editor@jsalutogenic.com.

Advertisements, sponsorship and promotional announcements, if carried, must be clearly identifiable and separate from scholarly content, reviewer selection and editorial decisions. The publisher approves advertising under these safeguards; misleading, intrusive or deceptively presented advertisements are unacceptable. Authors must not be required to purchase editing or other services to obtain publication. Marketing must be accurate, appropriate and respectful of recipients’ preferences. JSA must not promise acceptance or misrepresent its indexing, affiliations, metrics or preservation coverage; membership and indexing claims must be specific, current and verifiable.

 

23 Confidentiality and Privacy

Personal information and submission records are used for legitimate editorial, publication, integrity and administrative purposes. Access is restricted to authorised persons who need the information. Information is not sold or used for unrelated marketing.

Necessary disclosure to reviewers, service providers, institutions or competent authorities must be limited, handled securely and consistent with the stated purpose and applicable obligations. Unpublished material must not be used without permission. Consent records, sensitive data and investigation correspondence are retained securely according to applicable retention requirements. Published author information and research data are managed consistently with consent, the article licence and relevant privacy obligations.

 

24 Scholarly Responsibility and Disclaimer

Authors are responsible for their research, interpretations and conclusions. Published opinions do not necessarily represent those of the editors or Al-Riyad Engineering Center. Publication does not constitute endorsement of a product, service, clinical intervention or design proposal. Readers should evaluate evidence and applicability before relying on findings.

This statement does not limit the journal's responsibility to conduct appropriate review, investigate credible concerns and correct the scholarly record.

 

25 Contact Policy Review and Reference Frameworks

Editor-in-Chief: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Salar Salah Muhy Al-Din
Editorial and ethics correspondence: editor@jsalutogenic.com
Publisher and owner: Al-Riyad Engineering Center
Postal address: Al-Riyad Engineering Center, Build. 100, Haround Al Rashid St., Arjan, Amman, Jordan
Journal website: https://jsalutogenic.com/
Contact page: https://jsalutogenic.com/index.php/jsa/about/contact

 

Official Reference Frameworks

The following official resources support this statement. Indexing criteria and external guidance may change; the journal must consult the current versions and implement the procedures it declares.

·          COPE publication ethics guidance. Relevant guidance, topic resources and case-handling flowcharts.

·          Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. Joint COPE DOAJ OASPA WAME principles, fourth edition, September 2022; official DOI 10.24318/cope.2019.1.12.

·          COPE Retraction Guidelines. August 2025 revision.

·          DOAJ Guide to Applying. Current inclusion requirements and recommended practices.

·          Scopus Content Policy and Selection. Elsevier and Content Selection and Advisory Board requirements.

·          Scopus Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement Guidance. Official guidance updated October 2023.

·          Web of Science Journal Evaluation Process and Selection Criteria. Clarivate requirements for the Web of Science Core Collection.

·          ICMJE Authorship Recommendations. Source of the four authorship criteria adopted in Section 6.

·          NISO CRediT Contributor Role Taxonomy. Standard terminology for describing contributions.

·          WMA Declaration of Helsinki. October 2024 revision; applicable to medical research involving human participants.

·          Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Official licence deed and access to its legal code.

·          PKP Preservation Network Documentation. Deposit, preservation and continuity arrangements.

·          ISSN Portal and Keepers Registry Record for JSA. Registered journal identity and reported preservation coverage.

 

Revision date: 4 October 2026