NexSolveAI Young Scientists Journal

1. Purpose and Scope

These policies govern editorial assessment, peer review, publication ethics, research integrity, open-access publication and post-publication actions at the NexSolveAI Young Scientists Journal (NYSJ). They apply to authors, editors, reviewers, guest editors, Editorial Board members and the Publisher.

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2. Editorial Independence

Scholarly decisions shall be based on originality, scientific merit, methodological quality, ethical compliance, clarity and relevance to NYSJ. Article Review Chargess, sponsorship, advertising, institutional relationships, commercial interests or use of NexSolveAI products shall not determine acceptance or rejection. The Publisher provides infrastructure and administrative support while protecting independent scholarly decision-making.

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3. Editorial Assessment

Every submission shall undergo an initial technical and editorial assessment without a submission or peer-review payment. Manuscripts may be returned before external review if they are outside scope, substantially incomplete, clearly deficient in scholarly quality, inconsistent with ethical requirements, or unsuitable for the journal. Passing initial screening does not imply eventual acceptance.

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4. Peer-Review Policy

Research manuscripts should normally be evaluated by at least two appropriately qualified independent reviewers. NYSJ shall use a reviewer model that protects impartiality and confidentiality and shall state the operative review model clearly on the journal website. Reviewers assess originality, methods, analysis, interpretation, presentation, reproducibility and scholarly significance. Reviewer recommendations may include Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision or Reject. Final decisions rest with authorized editors, not reviewers or automated systems.

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5. Reviewer Confidentiality and Conduct

Reviewers must treat manuscripts and associated material as confidential, use information solely for peer review, disclose relevant conflicts of interest, provide objective and constructive reports, avoid personal criticism, and not exploit unpublished findings. Confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded to external generative-AI services or other systems unless journal policy and appropriate confidentiality protections expressly permit it.

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6. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must reflect substantial scholarly contribution and accountability for the work. All listed authors should approve the submitted and final versions and accept responsibility for their contributions. Individuals who contributed but do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately. NYSJ may request a contributorship statement. Guest, gift and ghost authorship are unacceptable.

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7. Corresponding Author Responsibilities

The corresponding author is responsible for agreeing to the Article Review Charges at submission and paying through Polar before review begins and for communications with NYSJ, confirming author approval, providing complete declarations, communicating editorial decisions to co-authors and ensuring that required revisions and publication documentation are completed accurately.

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8. Originality, Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication

Submitted work must be original and must not improperly reproduce the work of others. NYSJ may use similarity-screening tools. Substantial plagiarism, unattributed copying, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate publication, redundant publication or simultaneous submission of substantially the same manuscript to another journal may result in rejection and, where appropriate, further editorial action.

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9. Data Fabrication, Falsification and Image Integrity

Fabrication or falsification of data, results, images or research records is prohibited. Image adjustments must not misrepresent scientific information. Authors should retain original data and source files and provide them when reasonably requested for editorial investigation or validation, subject to ethical, legal and privacy constraints.

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10. Citation Integrity

References should be relevant, accurate and used for scholarly purposes. Fabricated references, citation manipulation, coercive citation, excessive self-citation intended to distort metrics, and citation practices unrelated to the manuscript's scientific content are unacceptable.

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11. Conflicts of Interest

Authors, editors and reviewers must disclose financial, professional, institutional or personal interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the work or its evaluation. Editors with a relevant conflict shall not control the decision. Manuscripts authored by NYSJ editors or Editorial Board members shall be handled independently and receive no preferential treatment.

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12. Human Participant Research

Research involving human participants, identifiable human data or human biological material must comply with applicable ethical and regulatory requirements. Authors must provide the name of the approving ethics body, approval/reference information where applicable, and appropriate statements regarding informed consent or justified exemption. Participant privacy and confidentiality must be protected.

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13. Clinical Research and Trials

Clinical research must be handled by appropriately qualified editors and reviewers. Where prospective trial registration or specific reporting standards apply, authors must provide the required registration and reporting information. NYSJ may request supporting protocols, ethics documentation or other records necessary to evaluate compliance.

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14. Animal Research

Research involving animals must comply with applicable institutional, national and disciplinary ethical standards. Manuscripts should identify the relevant approval body and approval information where applicable and should describe measures taken to support appropriate animal welfare and scientifically justified study design.

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15. Informed Consent and Privacy

Identifiable personal information, images or case details must not be published without appropriate consent unless publication is otherwise ethically and legally justified. Authors are responsible for ensuring that consent and privacy requirements applicable to their research have been satisfied.

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16. Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI

NYSJ permits responsible use of AI-assisted tools where consistent with research integrity, confidentiality and applicable disciplinary standards. AI systems cannot be authors because they cannot assume scholarly accountability. Authors remain fully responsible for all submitted content, including accuracy of references, analyses, code, images and conclusions. Substantive use of generative AI in research, analysis, figure generation or manuscript preparation should be transparently disclosed where relevant. Fabricated references, undisclosed synthetic evidence, deceptive manipulation or substitution of AI output for accountable scientific judgment is prohibited.

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17. AI in Editorial and Peer-Review Workflows

AI editorial assistants are optional and disabled by default. When enabled by Admin, they support authorised human editors through the local Rules Engine or a configured external AI provider. Human peer review and accountable editorial decisions remain essential. NYSJ may use AI-assisted tools for technical checks, metadata preparation, workflow support, reference checks, reviewer discovery assistance or similar administrative functions, subject to confidentiality and data-protection safeguards. AI shall not independently accept or reject a manuscript. Human editors remain accountable for scholarly decisions.

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18. Data Availability and Reproducibility

NYSJ encourages authors to make research data, code, protocols and computational workflows available where ethically, legally and practically possible. Authors may be required to include a Data Availability Statement explaining where supporting data can be accessed or why access is restricted. Claims of reproducibility should be supported by sufficient methodological detail.

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19. Software, Code, Toolkit and Data Articles

Software, toolkit, workflow and data submissions must provide sufficient scholarly context, documentation and validation to permit meaningful evaluation. Commercial ownership does not disqualify a submission, but relevant interests must be disclosed and promotional claims must be distinguished from scientific evidence.

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20. NexSolveAI-Related Manuscripts

Research involving NexSolveAI software, databases, research toolkits or services may be submitted. Such manuscripts shall receive no preferential treatment. Material relationships with NexSolveAI must be disclosed, manuscript handling must be independent where conflicts exist, and appropriate external reviewers should be used. Purchase or use of NexSolveAI products is never a condition of publication.

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21. Research Funding

Authors should disclose relevant sources of financial or material support and, where appropriate, describe the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation or publication decisions.

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22. Intellectual Property, Copyright and Open Access

NYSJ is an open-access journal. The journal shall adopt and publicly display a clear copyright and licensing framework before review begins begins. The specific open-access licence applied to articles must be communicated to authors before review begins and displayed on each published article. Authors are responsible for securing permission for third-party material when required.

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23. Article Review Charges Policy

Effective 16 October 2026.

NYSJ charges no APC. Article Review Charges are US$100 for international authors and PKR 5,000 for Pakistani authors, per submitted manuscript. Review starts only after the journal office confirms receipt of the charges. International payments use Polar; Pakistani payments use JazzCash account +923004800595. Payment does not guarantee acceptance.

One Article Review Charges applies per submitted manuscript. Screening and peer review begin without payment. Publication requires the corresponding author’s Article Review Charges agreement and confirmed review-charge payment.

Maximum 20 pages, including references, tables and figures; Times New Roman, 12-point font; 1.5 line spacing.

Payment information

24. Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Content

Advertising or sponsorship, if introduced, must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content and must not influence editorial decisions. Sponsored thematic activities must retain independent peer review and transparent disclosure of relevant financial relationships.

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25. Corrections

NYSJ will correct the scholarly record when a published article contains material errors that do not invalidate its principal findings. Corrections shall be linked transparently to the original article and should identify the nature of the change.

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26. Retractions and Expressions of Concern

NYSJ may retract an article when findings are unreliable because of misconduct or major error, when publication is redundant or plagiarized, when unethical research is established, or in other circumstances requiring removal of confidence in the scholarly record. An Expression of Concern may be issued while a serious matter is under investigation. Notices should explain the reason for editorial action as transparently as legally and ethically possible.

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27. Withdrawal

Withdrawal of a submitted manuscript may be requested by the authors before review begins, subject to confirmation by the journal. After publication, removal is exceptional; corrections, retractions or other permanent scholarly-record mechanisms are normally preferred.

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28. Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they identify a substantial procedural or scientific concern. Appeals must be reasoned and evidence-based. Where practical, an appeal should be assessed by an editor not primarily responsible for the disputed decision. An appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance.

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29. Complaints

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, publication processes or policy implementation shall be documented and investigated fairly. Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief should be referred to an appropriate independent governance mechanism established by the Publisher.

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30. Research Misconduct Investigations

NYSJ may request explanations, original data, ethics documentation or other relevant records when credible concerns arise. The journal may contact authors' institutions, funders or other appropriate bodies where necessary and consistent with fair process. Editorial actions shall focus on protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

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31. Special Issues and Guest Editors

Special Issues and Thematic Collections require approval and oversight by NYSJ's permanent editorial leadership. Guest Editors must declare conflicts, follow NYSJ policies and maintain independent peer review. Manuscripts involving a Guest Editor's own work or close collaborators must be reassigned to an independent editor.

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32. Reviewer and Editorial Manipulation

Fabricated reviewer identities, false contact information, compromised peer review, coercion, undisclosed interference with reviewer selection or other manipulation of the editorial process is prohibited and may result in rejection, retraction or further investigation.

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33. Preprints and Prior Dissemination

NYSJ may consider manuscripts that have appeared as legitimate preprints, provided this is disclosed at submission and does not conflict with applicable legal, ethical or third-party restrictions. Authors should update preprint records with the final publication citation when possible.

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34. Post-Publication Discussion

NYSJ may consider evidence-based comments or concerns about published work. Substantive issues will be assessed through appropriate editorial procedures, with authors given a reasonable opportunity to respond where appropriate.

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35. Publication Schedule and Quality Control

NYSJ publishes monthly — 12 issues/year — with continuous online publication. Publication frequency shall not override scholarly standards. An issue may contain fewer articles when insufficient manuscripts have successfully completed rigorous editorial and peer review. Quality before quantity is a governing principle.

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36. Confidentiality and Data Protection

Editorial records, reviewer identities where protected by the review model, unpublished manuscripts and personal information shall be handled with appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards. Access should be limited to individuals who require it for legitimate journal functions.

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37. Policy Transparency and Updates

Current editorial and publication policies shall be made publicly accessible on the NYSJ website. Material policy changes should be versioned and dated. Policies may evolve as the journal develops, but changes shall not be applied deceptively or used to alter completed editorial decisions retrospectively without legitimate cause.

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38. Governing Commitment

NYSJ is committed to editorial independence, scholarly quality, ethical research, transparent open-access publishing, responsible use of artificial intelligence and preservation of the integrity of the scientific record. These principles apply equally to ordinary, invited, special-issue and NexSolveAI-related submissions.

NYSJ charges no APC. Article Review Charges are US$100 for international authors and PKR 5,000 for Pakistani authors, per submitted manuscript. Review starts only after the journal office confirms receipt of the charges. International payments use Polar; Pakistani payments use JazzCash account +923004800595. Payment does not guarantee acceptance.

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