Journal Policies

Zona Laut: Journal of Ocean Science and Technology Innovation is committed to maintaining transparent, fair, and responsible editorial and publishing practices. The following policies govern manuscript submission, peer review, publication ethics, open access, copyright, and post-publication procedures of the journal.

1. Peer Review Policy

Zona Laut applies a double-anonymous peer review process, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other throughout the review process. Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise.

Before peer review, submitted manuscripts are evaluated by the editorial team for relevance to the journal's focus and scope, scientific quality, originality, ethical compliance, manuscript preparation, and adherence to journal requirements. Manuscripts submitted from November 2026 onward must be written in English.

Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, and confidential assessments. Recommendations may include acceptance, revision, resubmission, or rejection. The final editorial decision is made by the Editor based on reviewer reports, editorial assessment, scientific merit, relevance, and compliance with the journal's policies.

The journal does not guarantee acceptance or publication within a specific period. Editorial decisions are made independently of authors' institutional affiliation, nationality, professional position, or ability to pay publication fees.

2. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Zona Laut is committed to maintaining integrity in scholarly publishing. The journal's ethical practices are informed by internationally recognized principles of publication ethics, including guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted work is original, accurate, appropriately referenced, ethically conducted, and not simultaneously submitted to another journal.

Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts objectively, maintain confidentiality, disclose relevant conflicts of interest, and avoid using unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage.

Editors are responsible for fair and independent editorial decisions based on scholarly quality, relevance, originality, methodological soundness, and ethical compliance.

Suspected fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, manipulation of the peer-review process, or other forms of research misconduct may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or other appropriate editorial action.

3. Plagiarism Policy

Manuscripts submitted to Zona Laut may be screened using similarity-detection software before or during the editorial process. Similarity reports are used as editorial assessment tools and are evaluated in context.

The journal does not rely solely on a numerical similarity percentage when determining whether plagiarism has occurred. Editors evaluate the nature, location, extent, and source of overlapping text, including whether appropriate citation and attribution have been provided.

Manuscripts containing substantial unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, duplicate publication, or other unethical reuse of previously published material may be rejected. If such issues are identified after publication, appropriate correction or retraction procedures may be initiated.

4. AI Use Policy

Artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the accuracy, integrity, originality, or ethical compliance of scholarly work.

Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to the journal. When generative AI or similar technologies have been used substantively in preparing text, analysis, images, code, or other research materials, such use should be transparently disclosed in an appropriate section of the manuscript.

Reviewers and editors must protect manuscript confidentiality. Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, or confidential editorial information should not be uploaded to publicly accessible AI systems where confidentiality, intellectual property, or data protection cannot be assured.

5. Authorship and Conflict of Interest Policy

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual contributions to the conception, design, execution, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the research and who accept responsibility for the published work.

Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately. All authors must approve the submitted manuscript and its author order.

Requests to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must be supported by a clear explanation and agreement from all affected authors. The editorial office may reject authorship changes when adequate justification is not provided.

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, peer review, or editorial decision.

6. Copyright and License

Authors retain copyright in their published work and grant Zona Laut the right of first publication.

Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under this license, readers may share and adapt published material for any lawful purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and original publication, a link to the license is provided, and any modifications are clearly indicated.

7. Open Access Policy

Zona Laut provides immediate open access to its published content. Readers may access journal articles without subscription or registration fees.

The journal supports the principle that freely accessible research promotes wider dissemination of knowledge, scholarly communication, collaboration, and increased visibility of scientific research.

8. Article Processing Charge (APC)

Zona Laut does not charge authors a fee for manuscript submission. An Article Processing Charge (APC) may apply only to manuscripts that have successfully completed peer review and received a formal acceptance decision.

Payment of the APC does not influence manuscript evaluation, peer-review outcomes, editorial decisions, or publication priority.

Authors should make payments only after receiving an official acceptance notification and payment instructions from the journal. Authors are advised to verify payment information through the official Zona Laut editorial communication channel.

9. Archiving and Digital Preservation Policy

Zona Laut is committed to maintaining the accessibility and long-term availability of its scholarly content. Published articles and associated metadata are maintained through the journal's institutional publishing platform.

The journal may participate in or adopt additional digital preservation mechanisms provided by the publisher, institutional repository, publishing platform, or recognized preservation services as they become available. Any specific preservation service will be stated publicly when actively used by the journal.

10. Repository Policy

Authors may deposit and share their published articles in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal academic websites, research profiles, and other lawful scholarly platforms in accordance with the journal's CC BY 4.0 license.

When depositing the published version, authors should provide complete bibliographic information and, where available, link to the official journal version and DOI.

11. Corrections, Retractions and Complaints Policy

Zona Laut recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity and reliability of the scholarly record. When significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, the journal may issue a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other appropriate notice.

Corrections may be issued when an error affects the interpretation, accuracy, or completeness of an article but does not invalidate its overall findings. Retraction may be considered when findings are unreliable because of misconduct or major error, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, manipulation, or other serious breaches of publication ethics.

Complaints concerning editorial procedures, peer review, ethical matters, published articles, or editorial decisions should be submitted to the journal's official editorial office. Complaints will be reviewed objectively and, where appropriate, by an editor who was not directly involved in the matter under consideration.

Authors may submit a reasoned appeal against an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual or procedural issue has affected the decision. Appeals do not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance and will be handled according to editorial judgment and publication ethics principles.