Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies

Helium: Journal of Science and Applied Chemistry is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct in scholarly publishing. These policies apply to authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher and are guided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

1. Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship must accurately reflect each individual's contribution to the research and manuscript.

All listed authors must have made a substantial scholarly contribution, approved the final version of the manuscript, agreed to its submission, and accepted responsibility for the integrity of their contribution.

The journal encourages the use of the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy to describe individual contributions.

Guest, gift, honorary, and ghost authorship are not permitted. Individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

Any request to add, remove, or rearrange authors after submission must include a clear explanation and written agreement from all authors and is subject to editorial approval.

2. Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant scientific or procedural error occurred during the editorial or peer-review process.

Appeals must provide clear reasons and supporting evidence and should address the scientific or procedural basis of the decision.

Complaints concerning editorial procedures, publication delays, reviewer or editor conduct, ethical concerns, or other aspects of journal management may be submitted through the journal's official contact channel.

Appeals and complaints will be handled objectively, confidentially, and fairly. When a complaint involves the Editor-in-Chief, the matter will be referred to an appropriate independent representative of the publisher.

3. Allegations of Research Misconduct

Helium does not tolerate research or publication misconduct, including:

• plagiarism;
• fabrication or falsification of data;
• inappropriate manipulation of images or results;
• duplicate or redundant publication;
• inappropriate authorship;
• citation manipulation;
• peer-review manipulation; and
• deliberate misrepresentation of research methods or findings.

All submitted manuscripts are screened for similarity using plagiarism-detection software in accordance with the journal's plagiarism policy.

When credible concerns arise, the journal may request explanations, original data, laboratory records, ethical approval documents, or other supporting materials.

Where necessary, the journal may consult independent experts or contact the relevant institution.

Depending on the findings, editorial action may include manuscript rejection, correction, expression of concern, or retraction.

4. Conflicts of Interest and Competing Interests

Authors, reviewers, and editors must disclose any financial, personal, professional, institutional, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing their judgment.

Authors must declare relevant conflicts of interest and funding sources in the manuscript.

Reviewers must decline an invitation when a conflict of interest could compromise their objectivity.

Editors must not participate in the evaluation or decision-making process for manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest. Such manuscripts will be handled by another qualified and independent editor.

Editorial decisions must be based solely on scholarly merit, relevance, methodological quality, and compliance with journal policies.

5. Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Helium supports transparency, reproducibility, and responsible sharing of research data.

Authors of original research articles are required to provide a Data Availability Statement indicating whether supporting data are:

• included in the article or supplementary materials;
• available in a public repository;
• available from the corresponding author under reasonable conditions; or
• subject to legitimate ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, or intellectual-property restrictions.

Authors are encouraged to deposit research data in recognized repositories whenever appropriate.

Editors and reviewers may request supporting data when necessary to evaluate the reliability or integrity of a manuscript.

Fabrication, falsification, selective manipulation, or deliberate concealment of research data is considered research misconduct.

6. Ethical Oversight

Research published in Helium must comply with applicable institutional, national, and internationally accepted ethical standards.

Human Participants

Research involving human participants, identifiable human materials, or personal data must obtain approval or exemption from an appropriate ethics committee when required.

The manuscript should state the name of the ethics committee, approval number where applicable, and whether informed consent was obtained.

Animal Research

Research involving animals must comply with appropriate animal welfare regulations and institutional ethical requirements.

Where ethical approval is required, the relevant committee and approval number should be identified.

Hazardous Materials and Procedures

Because Helium publishes research in chemistry and applied chemistry, authors must clearly identify significant hazards associated with chemicals, materials, equipment, or experimental procedures.

Research involving hazardous substances or environmentally sensitive procedures must comply with applicable laboratory safety and environmental regulations.

Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI and automated tools cannot be listed as authors.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, and integrity of submitted content. Substantive use of generative AI in manuscript preparation or research should be transparently disclosed where relevant.

Editors and reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts or unpublished data to external AI systems when confidentiality and data protection cannot be guaranteed.

7. Intellectual Property

Authors are responsible for ensuring that submitted manuscripts do not infringe copyright, trademark, patent, privacy, confidentiality, or other third-party rights.

Permission must be obtained where required to reproduce copyrighted figures, tables, photographs, text, or other protected materials.

Articles published in Helium are made openly accessible under the journal's stated Creative Commons license.

Copyright ownership, author rights, licensing conditions, and reuse permissions are described in the journal's Copyright Policy and Open Access Statement.

8. Post-Publication Discussion

Helium welcomes legitimate scholarly discussion and concerns regarding published articles.

Readers, authors, and researchers may submit concerns, requests for clarification, or evidence of potential errors through the journal's official contact channel.

Concerns should be supported by clear arguments or evidence and should focus on the scholarly content or integrity of the publication.

The journal may invite the original authors to respond and may seek independent expert advice when necessary.

Depending on the outcome, the journal may take no further action or may publish a correction, editorial notice, expression of concern, or retraction.

9. Corrections and Retractions

Helium is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.

Corrections

A correction may be issued when an error affects the accuracy or interpretation of an article but does not invalidate its main findings.

Expression of Concern

An Expression of Concern may be issued when serious questions have been raised about a published article but the evidence remains inconclusive or an investigation is ongoing.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that:

• the findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct;
• data have been fabricated or falsified;
• substantial plagiarism has occurred;
• the work has been published previously without appropriate disclosure;
• the peer-review or publication process has been manipulated;
• the research was conducted unethically; or
• another serious violation substantially undermines the integrity of the article.

Retraction decisions will follow relevant COPE guidance.

Where technically possible, the original article will remain accessible as part of the scholarly record but will be clearly identified as retracted and linked to a retraction notice.

Authors who discover a significant error in their published work must promptly inform the journal and cooperate with any necessary correction or retraction.