Proceedings of the 6^th International Conference
on Civil, Structural and Transportation Engineering (ICCSTE'21)

At International ASET Inc., we take matters that relate to ethics in publishing very seriously. We believe that the peer-review publication process is a vital building block of academia, and its integrity must be maintained at all costs, which is why every article will be peer-reviewed by several experts in the field. Under peer-review, experts in the related fields are required to provide opinions and comments on the improvements of the submissions.

We are proud of our efforts towards abiding by the guidelines of ethics, integrity, and high standards in publishing.

Following are the ethics guidelines set by the organizers for the authors and the reviewers of the conference:

Scientific Committees

Scientific committees consisting of experts in the fields are established. The committees oversee the peer-review and publication process. To see the scientific committee members, please follow the link: Scientific Committee

Equality and Decisions
One or more reviewer, scientific committee member, or chair, (internal or external), are responsible for evaluating the relevance of the submitted manuscripts to the proceedings, technical and scientific merit, originally, and impact. These evaluations are to be carried out regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, and institutions. Successive to peer-review, the Chair has full authority and is solely responsible for the published content and the process thereof.

Confidentiality
Scientific committee member(s) and publishing staff may not disclose manuscripts or their content, directly or indirectly, to anyone other than individuals invited to review the manuscript (whether they accept or not), other reviewers of the same publications, and publishing staff.

Conflicts of Interest
Scientific committee member(s) and publishing staff may not utilize the contents of submitted manuscripts whether accepted or rejected, directly or indirectly for their own research purposes without prior written consent by the authors.

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Reviewers

Contribution to Decisions
In order for final decisions to be made regarding acceptance or rejection of papers, we rely on peer-review. Peer-review is the process of experts in the field reading, understanding, and objectively commenting on submitted papers. Through peer-review, scholars give back to the academic and scientific community by helping the chair(s) make decisions regarding manuscripts.

Promptness
Reviewers should promptly notify the chair(s) if they are unable or unqualified to carry out their reviewing duties. Reviewers should do their best to provide the reviews to the chair(s) as promptly as possible, and within the designated time-frame.

Acknowledgment of Source
The reviewer should notify the chair(s) if they find any similarities in the paper being reviewed and any other work that has been published previously.

Confidentiality
Reviewers must not share the contents of the manuscripts they receive for review, regardless of their decision to review or contents of the review, directly or indirectly, with anyone other than the person who has assigned the review.

Fairness
Reviewers should review manuscripts fairly and objectively, with supporting evidence or arguments, regardless of personal feelings or biases.

Conflicts of Interest:
Invited reviewers should immediately inform the chair(s) in case of a conflict of interest based on competitive, collaborative, personal, family, and other relationships with the authors or people involved in the work.

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Authors

Reporting Standards
The paper being submitted for the proceedings should be based on clear objective, discussion, and references. The findings, data, and the arguments being used in the paper should be accurate. It is author’s responsibility to guarantee the authenticity of the data in the paper.

Authorship
Only persons who have significantly contributed to the work and the manuscript can be named authors on a paper. These contributions include the idea/concept, design, experiments, evaluation, analysis, drafting or revision of the manuscript, and others. Authors must all have agreed to be named as such and for the manuscript to be submitted. Anyone who has contributed based on the above, but the level of contribution is not significant, may appear in the acknowledgement section of the manuscript.

Acknowledgement of Source
Acknowledgement to other’s work being used in the paper must be given at all times. Authors of the paper should give comprehensive credit where it is necessary, by citing the work, they use for supporting their own research.

Accuracy, Originality, and Plagiarism
Authors should describe their work and the results of their work accurately and in full. The level of provided accuracy and detail should be such that a reader can replicate the work independently. Inaccurate, incomplete, fraudulent, and misleading statements are considered unacceptable and unethical. Direct or indirect use of other people’s work is not allowed, unless properly cited. Previous works that have influenced the current work should also be cited. Presenting someone else’s work as one’s own is strictly prohibited and is considered plagiarism.

Data and Material
Authors are encouraged to share their data, software, or other sharable material online, provided copyright and ownership laws surrounding that particular project permit. Authors may also be asked to share such material with the chair(s), and/or reviewers, and must be willing to do so if asked.

Dual Submissions
Submitting a manuscript to more than one venue (conference, journal, etc) simultaneously is not allowed. Presenting previously published work to be considered as a new submission, without a significant new interpretation or analysis, is prohibited.

Conflicts of Interest
Authors must notify the chair(s) at the time of submission, if any factor outside the scope of the research has influenced any step of the work and manuscript writing. Examples of such factors include but are not limited to funding, grants, advisory and consultancy, stock ownership, current or past employment, and memberships, among others. All funding sources should be disclosed in the manuscript.

Animal and Human Subjects
Works involving human and/or animal subjects must ensure that the work has abided by institutional guidelines, and pre-approved by required bodies. Moreover, consent must be acquired from participants, and privacy of subjects must be ensured. All of the above must be specified with clear statements in the manuscript.

Hazardous Material
It should clearly be identified in the manuscripts if the works have involved hazardous chemicals and material, or devices that can be harmful.

Reporting of Mistakes, Errata, and Retractions
If an author identifies a major error in a published paper, he/she must immediately inform the publisher. Regardless of whether a significant error is reported by the authors of the work or other readers, authors are obligated to take the necessary steps to correct the issue. It is decided on a case-by-case basis whether an erratum will be submitted to notify future readers of the error and correction, or whether the paper will be retracted. Unethical/plagiarism issues mostly result in a retraction, while unintended mistakes will mostly result in the publication of an erratum.

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Publisher

Errata and Retractions
The publisher takes the necessary steps to prevent mistakes, academic and scientific misconduct, and unethical behavior, both intended and unintended. When mistakes are reported, the publisher works with chair(s) and authors to publish an erratum clarifying the issue. In cases where the mistakes are severe and significant, the paper might be retracted. If unethical behavior, plagiarism, academic and scientific misconduct, or other such activities are proven to have taken place by an author or authors, the publisher will retract the paper.

Content and Archiving
The publisher preserves and stores all content digitally on their own servers, as well as through partnering with Portico (Digital Preservation and Electronic Archiving Service).

Copyright and Access:
The proceedings and related papers are all based on the open-access model, which means interested individuals and institutions can access the material for free.

Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this proceedings without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Ownership and Management:
This conference-proceedings is managed and operated by the International ASET (International Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology) and Avestia Publishing (the publishing arm of ASET).

Schedule:
This conference proceeding accompanies the conference, meaning a new proceedings will be published every year for the corresponding annual conference of this series.