Publication Ethics

The publisher and editorial board of the ­­­Civil Engineering Journalfollow ethical standards and guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; http://publicationethics.org).

Authors Reviewers Editors

Reviewers are expected to review such works they have professional expertise for. Reviewers shall keep confidentiality of the reviewed document, shall not use any information they gain during the peer review process to their own or to third parties benefit, nor to discredit others. Reviewers shall also report all potential conflict interests to the journal.

In order to ensure an impartial review process, reviewers are requested to refrain from recommending specific articles for citation. Any such recommendations will be removed from the review notes by the editorial staff.

Reviews are expected to be completed in a timely manner and reviewers are asked to respond as soon as possible especially if they cannot conduct the review for any reason. The review shall be fair, objective, constructive, not influenced by the authors’ identity or background, or by any commercial issues. Review should help authors to improve quality of their work.

Use of GenerativeAI - CEJ prohibits the use of generative or assisted AI tools in the review process because uploaded manuscripts and review reports are confidential. Entering them into AI could violate copyright, privacy, or data security. In addition, individual reviews require human critical thinking that AI cannot replace, and its outputs may be erroneous or biased. The reviewer remains fully responsible for the content of the review. Authors may use AI in preparing their contributions before submission, provided they state this transparently. CEJ internally uses its own secure and regulated AI technologies for screening and plagiarism checks, which respect confidentiality and the principles of responsible use.

Full document available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf