Journal of Tropical Oceanography adheres to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This statement defines ethical responsibilities for editors, reviewers, authors, and the publisher, to uphold the integrity of scholarly publication in marine and oceanographic research.

1. Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining the quality and integrity of the journal. They make fair, unbiased decisions on manuscripts based on scientific merit, relevance, and ethical standards, irrespective of the authors’ background, affiliation, nationality, or seniority. Editors shall maintain confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts and peer-review content. They must declare and recuse themselves from handling manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest, including collaborative relationships, competitive projects, financial ties, or personal connections with authors. Editors supervise the handling of complaints, appeals, and allegations of research misconduct, and oversee corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions when necessary.

2. Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers assist editors in evaluating the scientific validity, originality, clarity, and ethical compliance of submitted manuscripts. Reviews shall be objective, constructive, and completed within the agreed time frame. Reviewers must keep all manuscript materials confidential and must not use unpublished content for their own research or share it with third parties without editorial permission. Reviewers shall disclose conflicts of interest and decline review tasks when impartial judgment cannot be guaranteed. They should alert the editorial office to suspected misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, and redundant publication.

3. Responsibilities of Authors

Authors warrant that their work is original, has not been published previously, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, except for properly acknowledged preprints or conference abstracts. Authorship should be based on substantial contributions to research conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, manuscript drafting, or critical revision. Honorary, gift, or ghost authorship is prohibited. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to submission. Corresponding authors take responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of the record and communication with the journal. Authors must disclose all conflicts of interest and relevant financial support. Funding sources shall be clearly stated in the manuscript. Authors are obliged to notify the editorial office promptly if significant errors or omissions are discovered after publication and cooperate with corrections or retractions.

The editorial department will check all manuscripts for plagiarism through the Wanfang Database (https://check.wanfangdata.com.cn/checklogin/?service=http%3A%2F%2Fcheck.wanfangdata.com.cn%2Fja). Manuscripts with a similarity rate exceeding 15% will be returned for revision.

 4. Complaints and Appeals

The journal accepts complaints and appeals from authors, reviewers, readers and other stakeholders regarding manuscript decisions, editorial handling, reviewer conduct or editorial misconduct.

·   Contact email: jto@scsio.ac.cn. Please mark “Complaint/Appeal– Manuscript ID” in the subject line.

· All complaints are received and reviewed under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief.

·   Acknowledgement of receipt will be sent within 5 working days.

· A final written response will normally be issued within 30 working days. For complex cases, an extension will be notified to the complainant.

· If the complainant disagrees with the journal’s final decision after exhausting the internal procedure, they may escalate the case to COPE following COPE guidance.

·    Records of complaints and appeals are securely archived. The journal follows COPE guidelines for fairness, independence and confidentiality.

5. Data Sharing and Reproducibility Policy

The journal encourages open archiving of raw observational data, experimental records, numerical codes and configuration files for marine science research to support reproducibility.

· Preferred repositories include the National Marine Science Data Center, PANGAEA, Zenodo and other discipline-recognized repositories.

· At submission, authors must state data availability: repository, persistent link/DOI, and access conditions (open or upon request).

· If full raw data cannot be released due to confidentiality, regulation or ownership constraints, authors must clearly state the reason and provide a minimal dataset sufficient to verify the main findings.

· Data papers and annotated datasets are welcome. Discipline reporting standards are encouraged.

6. Research Ethical Oversight

For studies involving marine organisms, laboratory animals, human samples, endangered species or sampling within protected marine areas:

·   Animal experiments must have institutional ethics approval and follow the 3Rs principle (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement).

·   Field sampling in protected areas, coral reefs or wild biota surveys must include valid permits from competent authorities.

·   Research using human tissues or questionnaires requires ethics approval and informed consent statements.

·   The editorial office reserves the right to request permits and ethics documents. Manuscripts lacking valid ethical approval will be rejected.

· Sampling and experiments shall minimize disturbance to marine ecosystems and biota.

7. Corrections, Expressions of Concern and Retractions

After publication, errors that affect the scientific record shall be corrected promptly. Minor corrections are published as Corrigenda or Errata. When serious concerns arise about the reliability of published work, an Expression of Concern may be issued pending investigation. If conclusive evidence of misconduct or irreparable invalidity is confirmed, the article will be retracted with a transparent retraction notice linked to the original article. Retraction notices are permanent and not removed.

8. Procedure for Allegations of Research Misconduct

When allegations of publication misconduct (plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, redundant publication, image manipulation, reviewer fraud, etc.) are received, the journal follows COPE procedures:

1. Register the allegation and keep confidentiality. The respondent will be given a chance to respond.

2. Collect evidence; external ad-hoc experts may be consulted if needed.

3. Outcomes include: closing the case with clarification, requesting a correction, rejecting the manuscript, issuing an Expression of Concern or Retraction, and notifying the author’s affiliated institution.

4. Retraction notices are linked to the original published article.

5. All investigation records are retained. Corrections and retractions are published transparently in accordance with COPE best practice.

6. Misconduct investigations apply equally to unpublished manuscripts and already published articles.

9. Publisher’s Responsibilities

The publisher supports the editorial team in enforcing this ethics policy, maintaining the confidentiality of submission records, preserving long-term access to published content, and cooperating with investigations of publication misconduct. The publisher will not interfere with editorial decisions on scientific grounds.