1. Purpose

This Submission Policy governs the requirements, ethical declarations, manuscript preparation, metadata accuracy, author responsibilities and initial screening conditions for all manuscripts submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University Journal of Science (HCMCOUJS).

2. General Submission Requirements

Authors must submit manuscripts through the official HCMCOUJS online submission system, normally OJS, unless otherwise instructed by the Journal.

Each submission must include:

1. manuscript file prepared according to HCMCOUJS Author Guidelines;
2. title page with author information, affiliations, ORCID and corresponding author details;
3. anonymized manuscript file for double-blind peer review, where required;
4. cover letter;
5. mandatory author declarations;
6. funding statement;
7. conflict of interest statement;
8. ethics approval and informed consent statement, where applicable;
9. data and code availability statement;
10. AI use disclosure, where applicable;
11. supplementary files, appendices or research instruments where relevant.

3. Originality and Exclusive Submission

Authors must confirm that the manuscript is original, has not been published in substantially the same form, and is not under consideration by another journal or publisher at the same time.

Duplicate submission may lead to:

• rejection;
• suspension of review;
• notification to the other journal;
• institutional referral;
• post-publication correction or retraction if discovered after publication.

4. Mandatory Declarations

The following declarations are required where applicable:

1. Originality and exclusive submission;
2. Authorship and contribution statement;
3. Scientific contribution statement;
4. Acknowledgments;
5. Funding disclosure;
6. Conflict of interest disclosure;
7. Ethics approval and informed consent;
8. Data and code availability;
9. AI use disclosure;
10. Academic integrity commitment.

The current HCMCOUJS ethics policy already sets out these mandatory declarations as part of the scholarly record, and they may be published alongside the article where appropriate.

5. Metadata Accuracy

Authors must ensure consistency among:

• manuscript file;
• OJS metadata;
• title page;
• cover letter;
• author declaration form;
• contribution statement;
• final published version.

Any discrepancy in author name, affiliation, email, ORCID, author order, funding, DOI, references or article metadata must be corrected before acceptance.

6. Initial Screening

HCMCOUJS conducts initial screening before peer review.

Initial screening may cover:

1. completeness of submission files;
2. aims and scope fit;
3. article type suitability;
4. format and reference style;
5. anonymization for double-blind review;
6. similarity checking;
7. AI disclosure review;
8. ethical approval checking;
9. authorship and COI declaration checking;
10. preliminary academic quality assessment.

7. Desk Rejection

A manuscript may be rejected before peer review if it:

1. is outside the journal’s aims and scope;
2. lacks scholarly quality;
3. lacks essential structure;
4. shows plagiarism or duplication risks;
5. lacks required declarations;
6. involves serious ethical concerns;
7. appears to be linked to paper mill activity;
8. contains fabricated, unreliable or unverifiable content;
9. does not comply with HCMCOUJS formatting and submission requirements after revision request.

8. Author Responsibility after Submission

After submission, authors must:

• respond to editorial queries on time;
• provide required documents;
• correct metadata errors;
• cooperate in ethics checks;
• notify HCMCOUJS of any related submission, error or conflict;
• not submit the same manuscript elsewhere while it is under consideration.

9. Related Policies

This policy shall be read together with:

• Publication Ethics & Research Integrity Policy;
• Authorship & Contribution Policy;
• Peer Review Policy;
• AI Governance Policy;
• Correction, Retraction & Post-Publication Policy;
• Complaints & Appeals Policy;
• Copyright & Licensing Policy;
• Personal Data Privacy Policy;
• Research Data Policy.

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Policy Information

Item	Content
Policy Owner	HCMCOUJS Editorial Council
Approved by	Editor-in-Chief and HCMCOUJS Editorial Council
Version	3.0
Effective Date	May 2026
Review Cycle	Annual