Ethical Guideline for Reviewers

1. Ethical Guideline for Reviewers

Reviewers must adhere to the following ethical guidelines:

(1) All information obtained during the review process must be kept confidential. Reviewers should not use information about the authors, research ideas, or research results for their own benefit, nor should they disclose such information to others.

(2) Reviewers must decline review requests if they have the following conflicts of interest with the manuscript's authors or institutions: (a) if the reviewer can deduce the authors of the manuscript and has a personal relationship or competitive relationship with the deduced authors, (b) if the authors' research content affects the reviewer's own research, (c) if the reviewer can obtain financial gain through the review, and (d) if the reviewer has participated in or been involved in the manuscript's research content.

(3) Reviewers must not intentionally delay the review process or publication of the manuscript for personal reasons. Additionally, reviewers must not attempt to confirm the authors of the manuscript, inquire about personal information related to the manuscripts from the editorial board, or contact the authors.

(4) Reviewers cannot delegate the review of the manuscript to other researchers, nor should they discuss manuscripts with other researchers.

(5) Reviewers must upload an ethics pledge agreement when submitting review comments to the manuscript submission system.

Any issues not covered by these ethical guidelines should be referred to the editorial board for judgment.