Landscape Architecture follows internationally recognized publication ethics. According to the relevant guidelines published by the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and combined with the actual situation of the journal, we have formulated the publishing ethical standards of the journal.

1  Duties of Authors

1) Authors have the duty to ensure the originality of their manuscripts, and ensure that research results of other researchers used in manuscripts are properly cited and marked, and their manuscripts are original works which do not involve plagiarism, data falsification, multiple submissions, redundant publications, confidential information, etc.

2) Authorship Criteria:

All signed authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria. According to internationally recognized standards for scientific research papers, authorship is determined by the following conditions:

① Making substantial contributions to the research in its design and conception, experimental studies, data collection, and analysis of results.

② Writing the article or making critical changes to important scholarly content of the article.

③ Final review and finalization of the article to be published, and consent for submission and publication.

We require that all named authors should meet at least one of the above conditions, and that all those who meet one of the above conditions should be listed as authors. The order of authors should be determined jointly by all authors. Every author should be able to be held accountable to the public for the full content of the article.

(3) Statements on Author Order and Contribution, and Conflict of Interests:

All authors need to fill in and submit the document of "Statements on Author Order and Contribution, and Conflict of Interests" provided by the journal. This is to confirm that there is no dispute about the order of the authors, that all authors have made substantial contributions to the article without nominal authors, and that all potential conflicts of interest involved in the research have been disclosed.

(4) It is not allowed to add or remove authors from the author list at will. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the author list should be made before the manuscript has been accepted. To request such a change, the corresponding author should explain the reason for the change, and send the confirmation letter that all authors agree to modify the author list to the Editorial Office. When adding or removing authors, the confirmation letter should also include the acknowledgments of the added or removed authors.

(5）Authors should state the funding information related to the research in the manuscript, but not other funding information unrelated to the research.

2  Duties of Editors

(1) Editors should deal with each manuscript fairly and impartially, and accept or reject a manuscript according to the journal's scope, the novelty and academic quality of the manuscript.

(2) Editors should strictly follow the double-blind review process of the journal and keep the true review records. They have the duty to keep confidential the information of authors and reviewers, the authors' research results, and the intermediate materials in manuscript processing.

(3) Editors have the responsibility to avoid academic misconduct such as multiple submissions and redundant publications. Editors should conduct plagiarism checking on all manuscripts.

(4) Editors should provide authors with detailed revision opinions or reasons for rejection as much as possible, objectively state the review status of manuscripts, and should not make personal comments or attacks on review experts and authors.

(5) In the process of editing and publishing, editors should not only pay attention to publishing standards, but also respect author's point of view and writing style, and should obtain author's consent for key revisions of a manuscript, such as revision to academic views.

3  Duty of Reviewers

(1) Reviewers should make honest, objective, and fair review based on the principles of maintaining academic integrity and respecting academic freedom. Reviewers shall not prejudice or discriminate against author's country, institution, race, religion, political belief, gender, etc., and shall not disclose the research content of manuscripts that they review.

(2) When there are conflicts of interest between reviewer and author (e.g., kinship, teacher-student relationship, alumni relationship, colleague relationship, competition relationship), in order to ensure the fairness of the review, the reviewer should consult the Editorial Office in time to obtain further suggestions.

(3) When a reviewer finds the research is similar to his/her own, the review comments must not contain unsubstantiated or malicious criticism and unfair content. The reviewer should avoid making unfounded allegations.

(4) Reviewers should review manuscripts in a timely manner as agreed. If review comments cannot be returned on time, the reviewer should notify the Editorial Office in time and withdraw from reviewing the manuscript, and can recommend suitable reviewers. Without the permission of the Editorial Office, reviewers are not allowed to entrust their students or colleagues to review the manuscripts on their own behalf.

(5) When reviewers encounter manuscripts that they have reviewed, they are obliged to report the situation to the Editorial Office and then complete review according to the journal's standards.

4  Academic Misconduct

Landscape Architecture only accepts original articles that have not been published. Academic misconduct such as plagiarism, data forgery, multiple submissions, and redundant publications are strictly prohibited. In order to prevent academic misconduct, the Editorial Office adopts the AMLC System provided by China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) to check manuscripts during the preliminary review and after the final review.

Manuscripts involving academic misconduct will be rejected by the journal. For manuscripts with severe academic misconduct, the journal will notify other relevant journals in the field.

5  Appeal, Discussion, Retraction & Correction

(1) The journal accepts authors' appeals. If authors have any disagreement to the review comments or review results, they could submit a written appeal to the Editorial Office by sending it to the journal's email (la@lalavision.com). Author who submits appeal needs to make detailed explanation for each review comment. After receiving the appeal, the Editorial Office will investigate and deal with it as soon as possible, and the result of appeal will be fed back to the author as soon as possible.

(2) The journal welcomes authors and readers to make discussion on the journal's published articles. Comments can be sent to the journal's email (la@lalavision.com). The Editorial Office will deal with it as soon as possible and give feedback as appropriate. We welcome readers and authors to actively provide their comments on the articles to us, which can help us to create a positive academic atmosphere.

(3) We will consider correction for published articles under the following circumstances: If it appears that there are honest scientific errors in a published article, which would not lead to significant impacts on the results and conclusions of the article, the Editorial Office will publish a Correction in the journal as soon as possible, detailing the changes made to the original article and indicating the source of the article. The Editorial Office will also release the corrected new version of the article, and specify the changes to the original article and the date of the update. Only the latest version of the article should be used for citation.

(4) We will consider retracting published articles under the following circumstances: If a published article is confirmed to involve plagiarized research results, falsified data, redundant publications, or other academic misconduct, the Editorial Office will retract the article, including publishing a retraction statement publicly, and requiring relevant databases to delete all online versions of the article so that the adverse effects of the misleading article could be minimized. 

In addition, if a published article is found to have severe scientific errors, which make the results and conclusions of the article unreliable, the Editorial Office will retract the article, including publishing a retraction statement publicly and requiring relevant databases to delete the online versions of the article.

6  Digital Archive & Online Accessibility

Articles published by Landscape Architecture since 2017 have been digitally archived on the journal's official website, through which readers can directly access the articles online. All information and material are backed-up in the Editorial Office for security, including the print-copy and digital-copy of all issues, and all other relevant material (e.g., authors' additional information and forms submitted during submission).

In addition to our official website, readers can access the journal's articles online by visiting the database of CNKI, the journal's WeChat Official Account.

It is allowed for author to deposit all versions of his/her article in an institutional or other repository of the author's choice. However, it is necessary to indicate the article's publishing information in the metadata in the institutional or other repository and use that as a recommended way of citation.

7  Advertising

The funds of the journal's operation mainly come from the financial support of the sponsor, followed by the income from paper journal subscriptions, advertising income, etc. We accept advertisements of companies or products which are related to the journal's field and have passed the national quality inspection and have relevant qualifications. The content of advertisements must pass the examination of the Editorial Office and sponsor. Advertisements are mainly published on the cover pages of paper journal, and the journal's website and new media platforms. The locations of advertisements are separated from the content of articles published in the journal. Please note that, the advertisements published in the journal will not affect the journal's editorial or acceptance decisions on any submitted manuscripts.