Acceptance of Terms
- By accessing or using the Confmeets Publishing website, users agree to comply with these Terms and Conditions.
- These Terms govern the use of the Confmeets website, platform, services, trademarks, logos, website design, software, and other publisher-owned materials.
- Scholarly articles published by Confmeets journals are governed by the copyright and open-access licence stated on each individual article and journal website. These open-access rights are not restricted by the general website-use provisions in these Terms.
Intellectual Property Rights
- Confmeets Publishing retains rights in its trademarks, logos, website design, source code, software, proprietary databases, administrative systems and materials, and other non-article publisher-created content unless otherwise stated.
- Copyright in scholarly articles is governed separately by the copyright policy and licence displayed on the relevant journal and article page.
- Authors publishing in Confmeets open-access journals retain copyright in their articles where stated by the applicable journal policy.
- For journals publishing articles under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), including the Journal of Psychiatry and Psychological Sciences (JPPC), users may read, download, copy, share, distribute, reproduce, adapt, translate, text- and data-mine, and otherwise reuse those articles for commercial or non-commercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is given and the requirements of CC BY 4.0 are followed.
- No additional permission from Confmeets Publishing is required for reuse that complies with the applicable Creative Commons licence.
- The general restrictions applicable to the Confmeets website, software, trademarks, logos, and publisher-created materials do not override or limit the open-access licence applied to scholarly articles.
Prohibited Conduct
- Users must not attempt unauthorized access to servers, databases, user accounts, administrative systems, or restricted areas.
- Users must not reverse engineer or interfere with proprietary platform software except where permitted by law.
- Users must not use automated systems in a way that compromises security, circumvents access controls, disrupts website availability, or creates an unreasonable technical burden.
- Users must not misuse Confmeets trademarks, logos, or publisher-owned materials.
- Users must not use the website for unlawful, malicious, fraudulent, or abusive purposes.
Scholarly Crawling, Indexing and Text/Data Mining
- Legitimate automated access to openly published scholarly articles and bibliographic metadata is permitted for search engines, academic indexing services, scholarly discovery services, citation databases, institutional repositories, digital-preservation services, research tools, metadata harvesters, text- and data-mining systems, and other lawful scholarly purposes.
- Such access must comply with the licence applicable to the published content and must not compromise the security, stability, or availability of the Confmeets platform.
- Nothing in this section restricts rights granted under the Creative Commons licence displayed on an individual scholarly article.
Privacy and Data Protection
- Confmeets complies with Creative Commons and international data protection laws.
Data Collection & Usage
- We may collect personal data (e.g., name, email, affiliation).
- We track usage analytics (e.g., views, downloads, navigation paths).
- Referral sources are used for optimizing user experience.
Purpose of Data Processing
- Enhancing functionality and engagement.
- Internal analytics and improvements.
- Non-identifiable marketing statistics.
- Confmeets does not sell, trade, or disclose user data to third parties.
Cookies & Tracking Technologies
- Used to improve user experience.
- Visual recognition tools may be used with opt-out options available.
Payment Security
- All transactions are processed via secure gateways.
- Confmeets does not store or use financial data for marketing.
Service Availability
- While Confmeets strives for uninterrupted access, it is not liable for downtime due to maintenance or unforeseen issues.
No Submission, Review or Withdrawal Fees
- Confmeets Publishing does not charge authors for manuscript submission, initial editorial screening, peer-review evaluation, editorial decision-making, or manuscript withdrawal before publication.
- Article Processing Charges (APCs) become applicable only after a manuscript has successfully completed peer review and has been formally accepted for publication. No payment is required to obtain peer review or an editorial decision.
Waiver and Discount Policy
- Authors who are unable to meet the applicable APC may request a full or partial waiver or discount.
- Eligibility may consider absence of research or publication funding, affiliation with resource-constrained institutions, countries or regions with limited research funding, students, postdoctoral researchers or early-career researchers facing genuine financial limitations, exceptional documented financial circumstances, and eligible institutional publishing agreements.
- Waivers and discounts are not automatic and no fixed percentage is guaranteed unless explicitly confirmed in writing by Confmeets Publishing. Requests should be submitted before the APC invoice is finalized.
- Requests are handled confidentially by administrative/finance personnel who are independent of the peer-review decision. Editors and reviewers are not informed of an author's waiver request during peer review.
- Waivers and discounts are not based on manuscript quality, reviewer recommendation, editorial evaluation, likelihood of acceptance, or editorial acceptance criteria. A waiver request, financial circumstances, or ability to pay must never influence reviewer selection, peer-review reports, editorial recommendations, acceptance, or rejection.
Manuscript Withdrawal Before Publication
- Authors may request withdrawal of a manuscript at any time before publication by submitting a written request from the registered corresponding-author email address.
- No withdrawal fee, administrative fee, or processing charge is imposed for withdrawing an unpublished manuscript, including after peer review or formal acceptance.
- Where a manuscript has already been accepted, the journal may request a brief reason for withdrawal for administrative and scholarly-record purposes.
- Withdrawal requests involving suspected duplicate submission, authorship disputes, research misconduct, or other ethical concerns may be referred for editorial or research-integrity review. Such investigation does not create a financial withdrawal penalty.
- Temporary or proportionate restrictions on future submissions may be applied following documented investigation of repeated or serious breaches of publication ethics. Such restrictions are not imposed merely because an author legitimately withdraws a manuscript.
After Publication
- Once an article has been published as the Version of Record, it becomes part of the permanent scholarly record. Published articles are not removed through the ordinary manuscript-withdrawal process.
- Where significant errors, ethical concerns, or research-integrity issues arise after publication, the matter is handled through the journal's correction, expression-of-concern, or retraction procedures, as appropriate.
- Retracted articles remain part of the scholarly record and are clearly marked and linked to the corresponding retraction notice.
APC Refund Policy
- No APC is payable before formal manuscript acceptance.
- If an APC has been paid and publication has not yet commenced, a refund request may be submitted to the Finance Office.
- Once substantive production services have commenced following payment and author authorization, APC payments are normally non-refundable.
- Refunds may nevertheless be issued where appropriate in cases of duplicate payment, payment made in error, publisher billing error, inability of the publisher to complete publication, or other exceptional circumstances approved by the Finance Office.
- Refund decisions are administrative/financial decisions and do not influence editorial decisions.
Editorial Independence
- APCs, waivers, discounts, refunds, institutional agreements, and other financial arrangements are administered separately from editorial decision-making.
- Editors and reviewers do not make financial eligibility decisions. An author's ability or inability to pay has no influence on peer review, editorial recommendations, acceptance, or rejection.
Author Responsibilities
- Respond to proofs/invoices within 7 calendar days.
- Approve final proofs before publication.
- Ensure timely APC payment.
- Maintain professional communication.
- Non-compliance may result in delays, cancellations, retraction notices, or rejection of future submissions.
Retraction & Ethical Violations
Zero-Tolerance Policy : Confmeets Journals maintains a strict zero-tolerance stance against plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification or any form of research or publication misconduct.
Unacceptable Practices : The following practices are considered serious ethical breaches:
- Plagiarism : Copying or reproducing the work of others, self-plagiarism, or simultaneous submissions to multiple journals.
- Data Fabrication or Falsification : Inventing, manipulating or misrepresenting research data, results, or findings.
- Manipulation of Content : Altering images, figures or results with the intent to mislead readers or reviewers.
- Authorship Misconduct : Including individuals who did not contribute to the work or excluding legitimate contributors.
- Citation Manipulation : Adding irrelevant, excessive, or inappropriate citations to artificially enhance citation metrics.
Investigation Process : All reported concerns of ethical misconduct will be formally investigated by the Confmeets Editorial Board. Authors may be required to submit supporting data, clarifications or explanations during the review process.
Consequences of Violations : Upon confirmation of a violation, Confmeets Journals may impose one or more of the following actions:
- Article Retraction : Retracted articles remain part of the scholarly record and are clearly marked and linked to the corresponding retraction notice.
- Institutional Notification : The author's affiliated university, research body or funding institution will be informed of the misconduct.
- Submission Restrictions : The author's may be barred from future submissions to Confmeets Journals.
- Escalation to Ethics Committees : Severe cases may be reported to relevant national or international ethics and research oversight bodies.
Commitment to Integrity : Confmeets Journals is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of research integrity and ethical publishing. Authors are expected to ensure originality, transparency and honesty in all submissions, fostering trust and credibility within the academic community.
Disclaimers
- Opinions in articles are those of the authors.
- Confmeets does not endorse third-party ads or products.
- Medical/clinical content must be validated by professionals. Confmeets is not liable for misuse.
