Bentham Open Science applies the following publication policies across all its journals.

Authors publishing in Bentham Open Science’s print & online journals are generally required to transfer copyright of their work to Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. with some exceptions. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that all contributors have read and agreed to the terms outlined in the Copyright Letter or the Terms and Conditions. As a condition of publication, submitted manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by any other journal at the time of submission. Plagiarism and data fabrication are strictly prohibited. By submitting a manuscript, authors agree that the publisher may take appropriate legal action if plagiarism or falsified information is discovered. By submitting a manuscript, the authors also agree that the copyright of their article will be transferred to the publisher upon acceptance for publication, except in some special cases. Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be withdrawn at any stage prior to publication.

“Except as expressly permitted by a written license from Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. (FZE) or by applicable law, no part of any of its publication may be reproduced, extracted, or used for the development, training, fine-tuning, or grounding of any artificial intelligence or machine learning system, including large language models, or incorporated into any dataset for such purposes."

It is mandatory for the corresponding author to submit a signed copyright letter along with the manuscript. Submitted work must not contain unlawful, defamatory, fabricated, or plagiarized material, nor violate any terms of the copyright agreement. For more details, please visit Rights and Permissions.

Bentham Open Science partners with the Copyright Clearance Center to facilitate licensing, rights and permissions for all published content.

The Copyright Clearance Center's RightsLink® service offers a quick and efficient way to request permission for content reuse. To request permissions, visit the Journals by Title section, locate the desired article, navigate to the article’s abstract page, and click on "Rights and Permissions" to access the RightsLink® service. If you cannot locate the material or cannot obtain the rights you need, please contact us at contact us.

Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions for any third-party content included in their work as authors or editors. Third-party content includes any material not created by the author—such as text, tables, figures, photographs, screenshots, or other graphic elements.

Unless a figure is in the public domain (copyright-free) or licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) or other open-access licenses, authors must obtain explicit permission from the copyright holder(s) before including it in their manuscript.

Published or reproduced material should not be included in a manuscript without written permission from the copyright holder upon acceptance of the article. Authors must forward the obtained permissions to the Editorial Office.

Access articles published at Bentham Open Science are licensed under the terms of either the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) or CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 ( XXXX). These license permit unconditional / conditional distribution and reproduction in any medium, ensuring that the original work is properly cited. For more details, please refer to the Open Access Policy.

Bentham Open Science’s self-archiving policy includes the following provisions:

1. Authors may deposit the first draft of their submitted manuscript on their personal websites or institutional repositories for personal or internal scholarly use.
2. Authors may deposit the ACCEPTED VERSION of their peer-reviewed manuscript on their personal websites, institutional repositories or non-commercial repositories such as PMC and arXiv etc. This is permitted only for personal use, internal institutional use, or scholarly posting. When depositing the accepted version, authors must acknowledge the original publication and include the article’s DOI using the following format: "The published manuscript is available at Bentham Open Science via https://opentransportationjournal.com/openurl/content.php?genre=article&doi=insert DOI"

To ensure permanent access to all publications, Bentham Open Science has partnered with Portico for the long-term digital preservation of journal content.

Bentham Open Science follows a double-blind peer review process for all manuscript submissions.

Each submitted article undergoes an extensive peer review process, involving consultation with the journal’s editorial board and independent external reviewers (typically three). Every manuscript is evaluated carefully, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision based on the feedback from all peer reviewers. This decision is then communicated to the author(s).

Submissions from the Editor-in-Chief, Co-Editor, or Editorial Board Members are assigned to an independent editor to ensure impartial and unbiased review. For further details, please refer to the complete guidelines at: https://opentransportationjournal.com/peer-review-workflow.php.

With the increasing adoption of AI technologies, new challenges have emerged regarding the originality, confidentiality, and integrity of peer review reports. Bentham Open Science continually updates its policies to support reviewers, authors, and editors while maintaining the highest ethical standards.

The quality and originality of peer review remain a top priority for Bentham Open Science. The reviewers are advised not to use AI technologies or any other related assisting resources to generate review reports that could compromise the integrity and confidentiality of the reports.

All financial contributions and potential conflicts of interest must be clearly disclosed under the heading “Conflict of Interest.”. Authors must list all sources of funding for the study and disclose any relationships that could influence the interpretation of the work. This information must be provided for each author. For more details, please visit: Conflict Of Interest.

Bentham Open Science maintains the strict confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and their content. Editors must not disclose any information regarding submitted manuscripts before publication.

The peer review process is entirely confidential. Bentham Open Science follows a double-blind peer review process, ensuring that the identities of both the reviewers and authors remain undisclosed to each other. This guarantees anonymity and maintains confidentiality throughout the entire review process.

Reviewers are required to keep the whole peer-review process completely confidential. If a reviewer needs assistance from a colleague, they must first seek permission from the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) or a senior editor before doing so.

Reviewers must not disclose any information related to the manuscript to anyone before its publication.

Plagiarism involves copying or paraphrasing another author’s work—including text, data, figures, results, or observations—without proper citation. All sources must be appropriately acknowledged, and only authentic, verifiable references should be cited.

Bentham Open Science employs advanced plagiarism-detection software to evaluate similarity in submitted manuscripts. These tools compare submissions against an extensive database of published articles, periodicals, online materials, and research repositories. A similarity report is generated, which quantifies the percentage of content that overlaps with existing published material. Each similarity report undergoes manual evaluation by editorial staff to distinguish legitimate similarity to assess potential plagiarism according to Bentham Open Science's Editorial Policies. The final report includes an overall percentage of reused content, which is evaluated before any editorial decisions are made.

Authors must ensure their work is original and must cite all relevant, credible sources. Authors are strongly encouraged to use plagiarism checking tools before submitting their manuscripts to ensure that there are no instances of plagiarism. Authors must also obtain proper consent from individuals referenced in the study and acknowledge all co-authors and contributors.

Bentham Open Science has specific policies for authors with multiple publications. In accordance with these policies, authors must clearly specify the sources of any previously published content in their new submissions. For further details, please refer to the Editorial Policies for Concurrent Publication/Simultaneous Submission at https://opentransportationjournal.com/editorial-policies.php.

Bentham Open Science strictly adheres to COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for identifying and addressing plagiarism. Authors may consult COPE’s flowcharts by clicking here or visiting the COPE website.

To maintain the scholarly integrity of its publications, Bentham Open Science issues post-publication notices when necessary. Authors who submit manuscripts containing false information or fabricated data, including images, whether in published or submitted articles, will be subject to sanctions, and their papers may be retracted. For further details, please refer to the full guidelines at: https://opentransportationjournal.com/fabricating-and-stating-false-information.php.

A preprint is an early version of a manuscript that has not yet been accepted for publication in a journal.

Manuscripts that have not been previously published and are not under simultaneous consideration elsewhere may be submitted to Bentham Open Science journals. Preprints may be posted on the author’s personal webpage, an institutional repository, or a recognized preprint server. These versions are not considered ahead-of-print or early-access publications.

Bentham Open Science fully supports and encourages the archiving of preprints on any reputable, non-profit preprint server. Articles posted on approved preprint platforms prior to, or at the time of, journal submission are not regarded as prior, citable publications.

All clinical investigations must adhere to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Manuscripts involving human participants must be supported by formal review and approval from an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee.

Bentham Open Science strongly recommends compliance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors www.icmje.org, particularly regarding patient consent for participation in research. Authors must ensure compliance with all applicable privacy and data protection laws, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state confidentiality laws, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and corresponding member state legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws") etc.

It is the responsibility of authors to ensure that:

• Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, or any other identifiers do not appear anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).
• Authors are responsible for obtaining signed consent-to-disclose forms for any recognizable patients appearing in photographs, videos, or other identifiable content that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works, or on the journal’s web site. Patients must be given the opportunity to review the manuscript before submission.
• The consent-to-disclose form must clearly state how the patient’s information will be used (e.g. publication in medical literature, in print and online), with the understanding that the material will be publicly accessible. It must also include the patient's or legal guardian’s signature along with a statement that they have had the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying manuscript.
• For identifiable data—such as photographs, audio recordings, or video—explicit written consent must be obtained. For minors, consent must be provided by a parent or legal guardian.
• A clear, stand-alone statement confirming ethical approval and informed consent must appear at the end of the manuscript and in the copyright letter. This statement must confirm that written informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legal guardians. Original consent forms must be retained by the corresponding author and provided to editors upon request. Editors may request authors to provide the original forms by fax or email.
• All case reports must include documented patient consent prior to publication.

Editors may request copies of IRB or ethics committee approval documents for study oversight. Manuscripts that fail to comply with these requirements may be rejected. Authors bear full responsibility for any breaches, false statements, or ethical violations.

Anonymous images that do not directly or indirectly identify an individual - such as X-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides or laparoscopic images – do not require formal consent provided they contain no identifying marks, text or features.

However, if consent is not obtained, merely concealing identity using eye bars or blurring the face is not acceptable.

For studies involving animals, authors must confirm that all procedures comply with the standards outlined in the eighth edition of the “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals”(grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals_prepub.pdf published by the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).

Animal research must also adhere to the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For details on In Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines.

Authors must explicitly state the name of institutional ethics committee that approved the study and confirm that all procedures were conducted in compliance with relevant international, national, and institutional guidelines, some examples of which, are specified below:

• US authors must cite compliance with the US National Research Council https://www.nap.edu/read/5140/chapter/1
• The US Public Health Service's "Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"and "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"

• UK authors should confirm to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).

• European authors outside the UK must adhere to Directive 2010/63/EU.

• Research involving animals should comply with the ethical guidelines of The Basel Declaration and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical guidelines.

The manuscript must include a clear declaration of compliance with relevant guidelines such as the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK, Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe, and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained under the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

If a study is exempted from ethics approval, authors must indicate the reasons for exemption in the ethical statement.

Following is an example of an Ethical Statement:

"This study involving animal subjects is exempted from ethics approval for [specific reasons]. The exemption was evaluated and authorized by [Full name of ethics committee], ensuring adherence to ethical standards”.

Client-owned animals (non-commercially available animals such as pets or livestock) should be studied exercising best practices in veterinary care. Authors must confirm that the animal owner(s) (or their legal representatives) have provided written consent for this purpose.

Following is an example of an Ethical Statements:

"The animal study was evaluated and authorized by [Full name of the ethics committee]. The owners provided written informed consent for their animals' involvement in this study, ensuring ethical treatment and compliance with standards."

Studies involving animals must comply with internationally accepted standards and adhere to the 3Rs principles (Replace, Reduce, Refine).

• Replace: Replacing animals with alternatives whenever possible.
• Reduce: Reducing the number of animals used.
• Refine: Refining experimental procedures to minimize pain and distress.

Authors must follow the ARRIVE guidelines (Reporting in Vivo Experiments) for reporting experiments involving live animals.

"This study adheres to internationally accepted standards for animal research, following the 3Rs principle. The ARRIVE guidelines were employed for reporting experiments involving live animals, promoting ethical research practices."

Bentham Open Science strongly discourages euthanasia methods such as chloral hydrate, ether, or chloroform overdose. Authors should include an in-depth description of any anesthetic, surgical, or euthanasia procedures conducted throughout the study.

If the experimental details explained in the study violate the standard animal research procedure, editors may seek additional documentation, such as approval forms and relevant literature citations.

All experimental research involving plants, whether cultivated or wild, must comply with international standards. The manuscript should include a declaration confirming compliance with field study guidelines and specify any permissions or licenses obtained under the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Authors must disclose any unusual risks associated with the use of chemicals, procedures, or equipment used in the study. This information must be explicitly stated by the author in the manuscript, preferably in both the “Materials and Methods” section and the “Declaration” section. For more information, visit The World Medical Association (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/public-health/chemicals)

Bentham Open Science is committed to promoting sex and gender equity in research and adheres to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines to ensure inclusivity and scientific rigor in all published work. All authors submitting research papers are required to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines. These guidelines are intended to encourage the inclusion of sex and gender considerations in research to improve the rigor and relevance of our publications.

Bentham Open Science expects all researchers to uphold the values of justice, benevolence, and autonomy when conducting research. We understand that certain situations such as medical emergencies or humanitarian crises present unique challenges compared to non-emergency scenarios. Bentham Open Science recommends that research efforts should be conducted with scientific rigor, ensuring that they do not hurt human subjects, respondents or researchers. Special care must be taken to address potential ethical and practical concerns faced by individuals who may be victims of disasters or involved in medical emergencies. These individuals are often vulnerable, and their privacy, dignity and well-being must be respected and protected. Researchers must acknowledge these considerations in their work and proactively identify potential ethical and logistical issues that may arise due to such circumstances. Research conducted in emergency situations should aim to maximize benefits for the survivors involved while striving to minimize future casualties. For guidance, research in emergency settings must prioritize the preservation of human life, wellbeing and security, along with the protection, privacy and confidentiality of subjects.

Unethical behavior or misconduct may be reported to the Editor or Publisher by any individual, provided that sufficient evidence is submitted. Upon receiving a complaint, the Editor —working in consultation with the Publisher—will initiate a thorough and impartial investigation against any misconduct. The process will be conducted confidentially, ensuring fairness until an unbiased decision is reached. The accused author will be given a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond to any allegations.

In cases involving serious breaches, the Editor or Publisher may, where appropriate, notify the author’s employer or affiliated institution after carefully reviewing all available evidence and consulting experts in the relevant field, if necessary.

Conclusion:

• Author(s) must inform the Publisher, Editor and Reviewers if there has been any misinterpretation or mishandling of International Acceptable Standards.
• A formal notice may be issued to the author, warning them to avoid future unethical misconduct.
• An Editorial addressing the reported misconduct may be published or an official notice of unethical behavior may be posted on the journal’s website if it relates to already published content.
• An official letter detailing the misconduct may be sent to the author’s Head of Department, Funding Agencies, and Abstracting & Indexing Agencies.
• If necessary, the retraction or withdrawal of the publication may be initiated in consultation with the author’s Head of the Department and other relevant higher authorities.
• The Publisher may impose temporary restrictions on the accused author’s future publications in the journal.

If a manuscript contains an individual’s data, such as personal details, audio-video material, or other identifiable information, explicit consent must be obtained from the individual. For children, consent must be provided by a parent or legal guardian.

A clear declaration of this approval and consent-to-disclose form must be included in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article. This is especially important for human studies where it is mandatory to include a statement confirming that written informed consent was obtained from each subject or their legal guardian. The corresponding author or guarantor must retain all original consent forms and provide them to editors if requested.

All such case reports should be followed by proper consent prior to publishing.

Guidelines for Citing Retracted References:

Authors must verify the accuracy and integrity of the references they cite, including verifying whether any article they intend to cite has been retracted. Citing retracted articles can compromise the credibility of a manuscript and should avoided unless necessary for contextual or historical discussion.

For more information, please refer to the detailed instructions available in the Author Guidelines section.

Authors will receive page proofs of their accepted manuscript prior to publication. To prevent delays, proofs must be reviewed promptly and returned within 48 hours. Only typographical corrections are permitted at the proof stage; major revisions will not be accepted.

The corresponding author is solely responsible for ensuring all corrections have been reviewed and approved by all co-authors before final submission.

Authors and readers are encouraged to notify the Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief immediately if they identify any errors in published material, including authors’ names, affiliations or concerns regarding the legitimacy of a publication. In such cases the journal will issue an ERRATUM or a CORRIGENDUM, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief and the authors. If necessary, the journal may also replace or retract the article to maintain the scholarly integrity and accuracy of the publication.

Early View Articles (articles that have been only accepted for publication as yet or published Ahead of Schedule but have not yet been assigned to a volume, issue, or page number) may be withdrawn if they contain errors or violate publishing ethics guidelines. Violations may include plagiarism, duplicate submission, false authorship claims, fraudulent data, or similar misconduct. Withdrawn articles will be removed from the website and replaced with a PDF notice stating that the article has been withdrawn under Bentham Open Science’s Editorial Policies.

If a published article—one that has been assigned a volume, issue, and page number—is later found to violate professional or ethical standards (e.g., plagiarism, data fabrication, or significant overlap with another publication), it will be retracted from the journal.

• A retraction notice, titled “Retraction: [Article Title]” will be published in the paginated part of the next scheduled issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents.
• The retraction notice is generally approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the respective journal. A link to the original article is displayed in the online (electronic) version.
• A retraction screen containing the notice of retraction appears before accessing the electronic version of the article on the journal’s website. On the screen, a link for the complete article is present, i.e. to access the retracted article.
• The original article’s webpage and link remain unchanged, however a watermark is added to the downloadable PDF document, explicitly indicating that the article has been retracted.

Further details are available at: https://opentransportationjournal.com/research-misconduct.php

Manuscripts submitted to Bentham Open Science must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism and data fabrication are strictly forbidden. By submitting a manuscript, authors acknowledge that the Publisher may take appropriate action if ethical violations are discovered.

Abstracts and posters presented at conferences, results presentations shared in meetings (e.g., to inform investigators or participants about findings), and results databases (data presented without interpretation, discussion, context or conclusions in the form of tables and text to describe data/information where this is not easily presented in tabular form) are not considered prior publications.

Authors wishing to publish translated versions of previously published articles must obtain all necessary permissions, clearly disclose that the work is a translation, and cite the original publication. The Editor-in-Chief may request copies of related work to assess overlap or redundancy.

While editorial decisions are generally final, authors may request clarification if they believe a misunderstanding or error affected the decision. Appeals must include strong, evidence-based reasoning addressing the specific critiques raised in the rejection letter. Mere disagreement with the Editor’s assessment of novelty, scope, or interest is not grounds for appeal. The Editor-in-Chief, along with other relevant editors, will review the appeal and the subsequent decision taken by the journal will be final. Reconsideration does not guarantee acceptance, and may involve re-review by the same or new reviewers and require substantial revisions.

Complaints should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief of the respective journal. Complaints to the Publisher may be sent via email to contact us.

To uphold the integrity of scientific research, Bentham Open Science investigates all concerns raised by readers or authors. However, authors are always given the opportunity to respond. Reviewers may be asked to re-evaluate the original data and consult with relevant experts to ensure a fair and conclusive resolution.

Post Publication Discussions may be published online following editorial review and are typically accompanied by a response from the original authors. For more details, please visit: Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections.

The responsibility for all content published by Bentham Science Publishers in any of its journals, including any opinions expressed rests solely with the author(s). To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Bentham Open, its staff, and members of its editorial board disclaim liability for any injury and/or damage (whether financial or otherwise) to persons or property, resulting directly or indirectly from any ideas, methods, instructions, or products (including errors) referenced in any publication. Any dispute or claim arising from such content shall be governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates, as applied in the Emirate of Sharjah.