Public Ethics

1. Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors must ensure that submitted manuscripts represent original scholarly work. Text, ideas, equations, algorithms, control strategies, datasets, experimental results, numerical models, figures, photographs, diagrams, software, and other materials obtained from external sources must be properly acknowledged and cited.

Plagiarism, inappropriate paraphrasing, unattributed copying, or misleading reuse of previously published material is unacceptable.

Accuracy and Research Integrity

Authors must report wave measurements, hydrodynamic coefficients, numerical results, power-capture data, PTO performance, structural responses, mooring loads, electrical outputs, experimental observations, statistical analyses, and other research findings accurately and transparently.

Fabrication, falsification, selective omission, inappropriate manipulation, or intentional misrepresentation of research findings is prohibited.

Multiple or Concurrent Submission

Manuscripts submitted to WEST must not simultaneously be under consideration by another journal.

Authors should disclose closely related conference papers, preprints, technical reports, theses, datasets, or previous publications that substantially overlap with the submission.

Authorship and Contributorship

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial intellectual or scholarly contributions to the conception, methodology, investigation, modelling, experimentation, analysis, interpretation, or preparation of the manuscript.

Guest authorship, honorary authorship, gift authorship, purchased authorship, and ghost authorship are not acceptable.

Corresponding Author Responsibility

The corresponding author must ensure that all listed authors have reviewed and approved the submitted manuscript, agreed to its submission, and accepted responsibility for their respective contributions.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose financial, professional, institutional, commercial, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably influence or appear to influence the research or interpretation of its findings.

Funding Disclosure

Research grants, industry sponsorship, prototype support, laboratory facilities, wave-tank access, equipment, computational resources, offshore testing support, or other relevant forms of financial or institutional assistance should be transparently acknowledged.

Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining appropriate permission to publish copyrighted or restricted photographs, datasets, design drawings, industrial information, technical documents, or other materials where required.

Errors after Publication

Authors who discover significant errors or inaccuracies in their published work should promptly inform the editorial office and cooperate in issuing an appropriate correction, clarification, or retraction where necessary.

2. Ethical Responsibilities of Editors

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly quality, originality, scientific validity, methodological rigor, relevance to WEST, ethical integrity, and contribution to knowledge.

Commercial, institutional, financial, political, or personal interests must not improperly influence editorial decisions.

Fair and Impartial Evaluation

Manuscripts should be evaluated without discrimination based on nationality, geographical origin, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, professional seniority, personal beliefs, or other characteristics unrelated to scholarly merit.

Confidentiality

Editors must protect confidential information contained in submitted manuscripts, datasets, reviewer reports, and editorial correspondence.

Conflict of Interest

Editors should withdraw from handling manuscripts when personal, academic, financial, institutional, or professional conflicts could compromise or appear to compromise impartial judgment.

Peer-Review Integrity

Editors are responsible for selecting appropriately qualified and independent reviewers and for maintaining a fair, confidential, rigorous, and professionally managed peer-review process.

Editorial Decisions

Decisions concerning acceptance, revision, resubmission, or rejection should be supported by scholarly considerations.

Reviewer recommendations inform editorial decisions, while final responsibility remains with the authorized editor.

3. Ethical Responsibilities of Reviewers

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for peer review are confidential scholarly documents. Reviewers must not reproduce, distribute, upload, discuss, or disclose manuscript content to unauthorized persons.

Objectivity

Reviews should be based on scientific and scholarly considerations. Reviewer comments should be constructive, specific, respectful, and supported by appropriate reasoning.

Appropriate Expertise

Reviewers who believe that a manuscript substantially falls outside their expertise should inform the editor and decline the review where appropriate.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must disclose relationships or interests that could influence their assessment and should decline the review where impartiality could reasonably be questioned.

Misappropriation of Ideas

Unpublished WEC concepts, device geometries, control algorithms, PTO technologies, numerical methods, experimental results, datasets, models, or other intellectual content obtained through peer review must not be used for personal, scholarly, or commercial advantage before publication.

Citation Ethics

Reviewers must not pressure authors to cite their own publications, WEST publications, or unrelated literature solely for the purpose of increasing citation counts.

4. Wave Energy Research Ethics

Hydrodynamic Research Integrity

Hydrodynamic studies should clearly report the assumptions, wave conditions, device geometry, coordinate systems, degrees of freedom, water depth, boundary conditions, hydrodynamic coefficients, and other parameters necessary for meaningful scientific interpretation.

Wave Resource Data

Wave-resource studies should accurately report measurement sources, locations, sampling or recording periods, data processing, spectral methods, missing-data treatment, and uncertainty where appropriate.

Selective exclusion of sea states or measurement periods solely to improve reported device performance is unacceptable.

Numerical Modelling

Potential-flow, CFD, SPH, FEA, multiphysics, reduced-order, and other numerical studies should transparently report relevant assumptions, mesh or discretization methods, boundary conditions, solver settings, numerical convergence, verification, validation, and model limitations.

Verification and Validation

Numerical and computational results should be supported by appropriate verification and validation wherever reasonably possible.

Comparisons with analytical solutions, experimental data, benchmark cases, published results, or full-scale observations should clearly describe the basis of comparison.

Physical Model Testing

Wave-tank and wave-basin experiments should report relevant information regarding model scale, scaling laws, wave-generation procedures, instrumentation, calibration, sampling frequency, repeatability, uncertainty, reflections, and experimental limitations.

Scale Effects

Authors should recognize and discuss relevant scale effects when extrapolating laboratory results to prototype or full-scale WEC performance.

Power Performance

Claims concerning absorbed power, capture width, capture width ratio, PTO efficiency, electrical output, annual energy production, or other performance metrics must be supported by clearly described calculation procedures and input data.

Power Take-Off Systems

PTO studies should accurately report relevant mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, or control parameters and should distinguish between absorbed mechanical power, PTO output, and delivered electrical power where applicable.

Control-System Research

Control studies should report model assumptions, constraints, controller architecture, tuning procedures, prediction requirements, performance metrics, actuator or PTO limits, and validation conditions.

Performance comparisons should use fair and consistently defined baselines.

WEC Array Research

Studies of WEC arrays should clearly report device spacing, orientation, wave direction, array configuration, hydrodynamic interaction assumptions, boundary conditions, and methods used to calculate array performance.

Mooring and Structural Analysis

Studies involving mooring, structural response, fatigue, extreme loading, or survivability should accurately report relevant environmental conditions, material properties, safety assumptions, load cases, modelling procedures, and design limitations.

Sea Trials and Field Demonstrations

Prototype and sea-trial studies should clearly report deployment conditions, instrumentation, monitoring periods, operational limitations, system failures where relevant, and any data-processing procedures applied to the measurements.

Marine Safety

Offshore testing and deployment should comply with applicable marine-safety requirements, navigation regulations, operational procedures, and relevant approvals.

Environmental Responsibility

Research involving offshore deployment should consider potential effects on marine ecosystems, navigation, seabed conditions, noise, electromagnetic fields, marine fauna, fisheries, and other ocean users where relevant.

Permits and Regulatory Compliance

Field studies, offshore experiments, environmental monitoring, or prototype deployments should obtain appropriate permits, approvals, or authorizations where required by applicable law or regulation.

Sustainability Claims

Claims such as sustainable, green, low-carbon, environmentally friendly, commercially viable, cost-effective, or highly efficient should be supported by appropriate scientific, technical, environmental, or economic evidence.

5. Research and Publication Misconduct

Plagiarism

The unattributed use of another person's text, concepts, equations, models, datasets, device designs, algorithms, figures, software, or intellectual contributions is prohibited.

Fabrication

Inventing wave measurements, experimental results, power-output data, sea states, structural loads, numerical outputs, references, or other research information constitutes serious misconduct.

Falsification

Manipulating experiments, simulation inputs, raw data, photographs, graphs, wave records, model parameters, or performance results in a way that misrepresents the research record is prohibited.

Duplicate and Redundant Publication

Substantially identical research should not be published in multiple journals without legitimate justification, transparent disclosure, and appropriate citation.

Citation Manipulation

Authors, reviewers, and editors must not participate in coercive, excessive, irrelevant, fabricated, or coordinated citation practices intended primarily to manipulate citation indicators.

Peer-Review Manipulation

False reviewer identities, fabricated reviews, manipulated reviewer information, compromised reviewer accounts, or coordinated attempts to improperly influence peer review constitute serious ethical violations.

Image Manipulation

Photographs, experimental images, wave-elevation plots, CFD contours, pressure maps, structural-response figures, and other scientific visualizations must not be manipulated in ways that misrepresent findings.

Data Manipulation

Selective alteration, deletion, fabrication, or concealment of experimental, environmental, numerical, or operational data intended to create more favorable findings is unacceptable.

Handling Allegations

When credible concerns regarding research or publication misconduct arise, WEST may request raw data, laboratory records, wave-tank files, simulation models, source code, original photographs, authorship documentation, permits, or other supporting information.

Appropriate editorial action will depend on the available evidence and seriousness of the concern.

6. Post-Publication Ethics

Corrections

When an error affects part of a published article but does not invalidate its principal findings, WEST may issue a correction, clarification, or another appropriate editorial notice.

Expressions of Concern

An expression of concern may be issued when credible questions arise regarding the reliability or integrity of a publication but sufficient evidence for a final determination is not yet available.

Retractions

An article may be retracted when there is clear evidence that its findings are unreliable because of serious error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, or another serious breach of research or publication integrity.

Transparency of the Scholarly Record

Corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, and related notices should remain clearly linked to the original publication so readers can understand its current status and publication history.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors, reviewers, readers, and other stakeholders may raise legitimate concerns concerning editorial procedures, peer review, conflicts of interest, research integrity, or published content.

Complaints and appeals should be considered fairly, confidentially, and on the basis of available evidence.

Post-Publication Discussion

WEST supports responsible scholarly discussion of published work. Credible concerns regarding errors, reproducibility, interpretation, data integrity, or research conduct may be submitted to the editorial office.

7. Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

AI Is Not an Author

Artificial intelligence systems, large language models, chatbots, image generators, and other AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors.

Authorship requires responsibility and accountability that can only be assumed by human contributors.

Human Author Responsibility

Human authors remain fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, scientific integrity, references, equations, calculations, hydrodynamic parameters, wave-energy data, control algorithms, numerical results, interpretations, and conclusions of all submitted content.

Disclosure of AI Use

Substantive use of generative AI or other AI-assisted tools in manuscript preparation, coding, data processing, analysis, visualization, image generation, or other research activities should be transparently disclosed where applicable.

Verification of AI Outputs

Authors must independently verify AI-assisted outputs. Fabricated, inaccurate, nonexistent, or misleading references, equations, wave parameters, technical standards, numerical values, or scientific claims are unacceptable.

AI and Peer-Review Confidentiality

Editors and reviewers must protect manuscript confidentiality when considering AI-assisted tools. Unpublished manuscripts, reviewer reports, confidential datasets, or proprietary technical information should not be transferred to external AI systems when appropriate confidentiality and data protection cannot be assured.

Human Editorial Responsibility

Artificial intelligence may assist selected technical or editorial tasks, but final decisions regarding manuscript evaluation, acceptance, rejection, correction, expression of concern, or retraction remain under human editorial responsibility.