Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Editorial Procedures

Building Thermophysics is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to the physical processes that govern heat, air, and moisture transfer in materials, building components, whole buildings, neighbourhoods, and urban environments. The journal is committed to accurate, transparent, and accountable scholarly publishing. Its editorial policies are informed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Core Practices and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by COPE, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).

These policies apply to all journal content, including regular submissions, invited articles, special issues, editorials, corrections, and supplementary materials. Questions or ethical concerns may be sent to editor@bthermo.com. The journal website is https://bthermo.com/.

Fair play

Manuscripts are assessed according to their scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, clarity, reproducibility, and relevance to the journal's aims and scope. Editorial decisions must not be influenced by an author's nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, institutional location, political beliefs, career stage, or other characteristics unrelated to academic merit. The same standards are applied to invited and unsolicited work.

Submission and Acceptance Guidelines

Authors must follow the current Author Guidelines published on the journal website. These guidelines describe manuscript categories, preparation and reporting requirements, ethical declarations, reference style, data and code statements, figure standards, and submission procedures. Submission does not imply acceptance. A manuscript is accepted only after the applicable editorial screening, independent review, required revisions, ethical checks, and final approval have been completed.

Acceptance criteria are applied consistently and include fit with the journal's scope, scientific and technical validity, sufficient reporting, appropriate analysis, originality, research integrity, and a meaningful contribution to building thermophysics. Language quality alone will not determine scientific merit, although authors may be asked to improve presentation when unclear writing prevents reliable evaluation.

Content Relevance and Scope Alignment

Building Thermophysics publishes research that advances understanding of thermophysical behaviour across relevant scales. Suitable topics include hygrothermal material properties; coupled heat, air, and moisture transport; building-envelope performance; thermal bridges; airtightness; insulation and fenestration; conduction, convection, and radiation; ventilation and infiltration; indoor and outdoor thermal comfort; building-energy performance; passive heating and cooling; building-integrated solar technologies; model validation and uncertainty; field measurement; urban microclimate; overheating; urban heat islands; urban morphology and thermal performance; anthropogenic heat; vegetative cooling; cool materials; and climate adaptation or resilience related to the thermal performance of the built environment.

Submissions are screened for:

•      Thematic relevance to building thermophysics and the stated aims and scope.

•      Original scientific, methodological, technical, or theoretical contribution.

•      Appropriate and sufficiently reported experimental, numerical, analytical, or field methods.

•      Credible validation, uncertainty analysis, sensitivity analysis, or limitations appropriate to the study design.

•      Practical or theoretical significance for materials, envelopes, buildings, districts, cities, occupants, policy, or professional practice.

•      Clear, coherent, and internationally understandable presentation.

Manuscripts outside the scope, lacking adequate scholarly content, or failing essential ethical or reporting requirements may be declined before external review. A scope decision may be appealed within 14 calendar days by sending a reasoned request to editor@bthermo.com. An editor who did not make the original decision will review the appeal where practicable.

Editorial Independence Policy

Alanya University, as publisher, recognizes the editorial autonomy of Building Thermophysics. Decisions concerning reviewer selection, revision, acceptance, rejection, correction, or retraction rest with the Editor-in-Chief and authorized editors and must be based on the scholarly record and declared journal policies. Financial support, institutional relationships, advertising, sponsorship, personal interests, political considerations, and anticipated citation performance may not determine editorial outcomes.

Editorial Decisions and Appeals

Editorial decisions will identify the outcome and, where appropriate, provide reasons and reviewer comments. Authors may appeal if they believe that a material factual error, procedural irregularity, unmanaged conflict of interest, or serious misinterpretation affected the decision. Disagreement with an unfavorable academic assessment, without evidence of a substantive error or unfair process, is not by itself sufficient grounds for an appeal.

An appeal must be submitted to editor@bthermo.com within 14 calendar days and should include:

•      The manuscript title and submission identifier.

•      A concise explanation of the alleged factual or procedural problem.

•      A point-by-point response supported by evidence or relevant references.

•      Any information necessary to identify a conflict of interest or breach of policy.

Review of Appeals

The Editor-in-Chief or an independent senior editor will examine the appeal and the editorial record. The journal may consult a new reviewer, ethics adviser, or editor who was not involved in the initial decision. Possible outcomes are confirmation of the original decision, reopening of review, invitation to revise, or reassignment to independent reviewers. The reasoned appeal outcome is final within the journal's internal procedure. Appeals involving the Editor-in-Chief will be handled by an independent member of the Editorial Board or a publisher-appointed academic officer with no conflict of interest.

Editorial and Reviewer Accountability Policy

Editors and reviewers are accountable for timely, confidential, evidence-based, and respectful evaluation. The Editor-in-Chief may audit decision patterns, review quality, timeliness, declared interests, reviewer identity, and adherence to journal policies. Concerns about biased, coercive, careless, or otherwise improper handling will be investigated. Corrective measures may include guidance, manuscript reassignment, exclusion from a specific case, temporary suspension, or removal from an editorial or reviewer role.

Multiple Submissions

A manuscript may not be under consideration by another journal at the same time. Authors must disclose closely related manuscripts, conference papers, preprints, reports, theses, datasets, or prior publications and explain how the submitted work differs. Substantial redundant publication, duplicate submission, undisclosed translation, and fragmentation of one study into minimally different papers are prohibited.

Legitimate secondary publication may be considered only when it follows applicable guidance, has the necessary permissions, is transparently identified, and offers a justified benefit to readers. Suspected duplication will be evaluated on its facts and in accordance with COPE guidance. A similarity report is evidence for editorial assessment, not an automatic finding of misconduct.

The journal may reject or withdraw a manuscript before publication if serious ethical breaches, unreliable findings, manipulated peer review, or fundamental methodological deficiencies are established. If a problem is discovered after publication, the journal will protect the scholarly record through a correction, editorial note, expression of concern, retraction, or removal in the exceptional circumstances described below.

 

Section Policies

 

The peer-review route for each article type is stated in the Author Guidelines and, where an exception applies, in the published article. Indexing services independently determine which document types they include; the journal does not promise indexation of any manuscript or article.

Resolving Inconsistencies

When reviewer recommendations materially conflict, the handling editor assesses the reasoning, evidence, and disciplinary relevance of the reports rather than deciding by vote. The editor may request clarification, obtain an additional independent review, consult a methods or statistics specialist, or refer the case to the Editor-in-Chief. Authors who identify a serious concern about a review may submit a specific and evidence-supported explanation.

Publishing Schedule

Building Thermophysics is scheduled to publish two issues each year, in June and December, while accepting submissions on a rolling basis. Accepted articles may be published online ahead of issue assignment when the journal's production system supports continuous or early publication. The journal will display accurate submission, revision, acceptance, and publication dates and will publicly announce any material change to its frequency or any exceptional delay. No acceptance or publication date is guaranteed.

Ethical Standards and Research Integrity

Ethical Standards and Anti-Bias

All parties must act honestly, respectfully, and without discrimination. Editors, reviewers, authors, and publisher representatives must declare interests that could reasonably be perceived to affect their judgment. Harassment, retaliation, discriminatory treatment, and attempts to influence editorial decisions through personal, institutional, financial, or political pressure are not tolerated.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The journal seeks inclusive participation in authorship, peer review, editorial service, and readership while preserving appointment and publication standards based on relevant expertise and scholarly merit. The journal will periodically review its policies and practices for unintended barriers, seek broad disciplinary and geographic representation, and provide reasonable accommodations where possible. DEI objectives never override research-integrity requirements or the independence of editorial decisions.

Policy on Authorship Changes After Submission

Authorship must accurately reflect substantial intellectual contributions and accountability. Addition, removal, or reordering of authors after submission requires a written explanation from the corresponding author, agreement from all listed and affected contributors, and an updated CRediT contribution statement. The journal may pause processing while the request is assessed and may refer unresolved disputes to the relevant institutions.

Before Acceptance

Requests must be made as soon as the need for a change is known. The corresponding author must provide the reason for the change, written consent from every current and proposed author, and an updated contribution statement. Approval is not automatic and may require supporting information.

After Acceptance but Before Publication

Changes are permitted only when convincingly justified. The journal may delay publication while it verifies consent, contributions, affiliations, funding, conflicts of interest, and responsibility for the work. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final procedural decision or delegates it to an independent editor when conflicted.

After Publication

Post-publication authorship changes are exceptional and will be made only through a transparent correction, corrigendum, or editorial notice after appropriate verification. Evidence of ghost, gift, guest, purchased, or wrongfully omitted authorship may lead to institutional referral and further action under the misconduct and retraction policies.

Dispute Resolution

The journal does not determine the legal or institutional merits of contested authorship when the authors cannot agree. It may request an investigation by the authors' institution, employer, or research-integrity office and will act on reliable findings. Manuscript processing or publication may be paused while a dispute is unresolved.

Authorship and Contributor Order

An author must have made a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; acquisition, analysis, interpretation, or modelling of data; development of essential software or methods; or drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. Each author must approve the submitted and published versions, accept responsibility for their own contribution, and agree to be accountable for questions concerning the integrity of the work. Administrative position, funding acquisition, general supervision, language editing, or routine technical assistance alone does not justify authorship.

Author order is decided collectively by the authors. Equal contributions may be identified transparently. Building Thermophysics requires a CRediT contributor statement for applicable article types. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be named in the Acknowledgements with their permission. The use of artificial-intelligence systems does not satisfy authorship criteria.

Geographical Diversity & Global South / Emerging Hubs Engagement Policy

Building thermophysics is shaped by diverse climates, construction practices, material traditions, resource conditions, and urban forms. The journal therefore encourages rigorous work from all regions, including underrepresented and emerging research communities. Outreach, editorial recruitment, and reviewer selection should broaden participation without compromising peer-review quality. The journal will not favor or disadvantage a manuscript because of its country, institution, or linguistic background.

Gender Equity and Inclusion Policy

The journal supports equitable opportunity and respectful participation for people of all genders in authorship, peer review, leadership, and editorial service. It seeks balanced representation appropriate to disciplinary expertise, monitors potential bias, and evaluates contributions without gender-based assumptions.

Commitment to Responsible Research Assessment (DORA)

Building Thermophysics supports the principles of responsible research assessment promoted by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). Manuscripts, authors, reviewers, and editorial candidates are evaluated using the substance, rigor, relevance, openness, and contribution of their work rather than relying solely on journal-level metrics. This statement expresses policy alignment and must not be interpreted as a claim that the journal or publisher is a formal DORA signatory unless such status is separately confirmed on the official DORA website.

Allegations of Research Misconduct

Allegations may concern fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, unethical research, concealed conflicts, authorship fraud, manipulated images, citation manipulation, compromised peer review, identity deception, paper-mill activity, or other conduct that threatens the reliability of the record. Reports should include enough information for an initial assessment and may be sent confidentially to editor@bthermo.com by any person.

The journal will preserve confidentiality as far as practicable, notify affected parties when fair process requires it, manage conflicts of interest, and avoid premature conclusions. It may request raw data, laboratory records, model files, images, ethical approvals, permissions, or correspondence; consult independent experts; and contact institutions, employers, funders, or other journals. Journals generally assess the publication record while institutions investigate researcher conduct. Outcomes may include no action, additional review, rejection, correction, editorial note, expression of concern, retraction, reviewer or editor sanctions, and notification of relevant organizations.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

A competing interest exists when financial, personal, professional, institutional, intellectual, legal, political, religious, or other circumstances could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, research or editorial judgment. All authors must include a Competing Interests statement. Relevant interests may include funding, employment, consulting, honoraria, stock or ownership interests, patents, paid testimony, close relationships, academic competition, institutional affiliation, or commitments to a particular technology or outcome.

Editors and reviewers must disclose relevant interests before accepting an assignment and must recuse themselves when impartial handling cannot be assured. When an interest can be managed, the handling arrangement will be documented. Published disclosures do not imply wrongdoing; they allow readers to evaluate the work with appropriate context.

Funding Disclosure Policy

Every manuscript must identify all financial and material support, including grants, project numbers, fellowships, institutional resources, industry support, donated materials, equipment, software, data access, and sponsor involvement. Authors must state the funder's role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing, and the decision to submit. If the funder had no role, that fact should be stated. When no external funding was received, authors should state: “This research received no external funding.”

Data Fabrication and Falsification

Fabrication is the creation of data, observations, measurements, images, simulations, or results that did not occur. Falsification includes manipulating materials, equipment, code, models, boundary conditions, calibration, images, processes, exclusions, or reported results in a way that misrepresents the research. Selective reporting that materially distorts the findings is also unacceptable.

Prohibited conduct includes:

•      Fabrication or falsification of experimental, monitoring, survey, simulation, image, or performance data.

•      Undisclosed manipulation of thermograms, microscopy, plots, figures, or numerical outputs beyond legitimate and consistently applied processing.

•      Plagiarism, unattributed text recycling, or unauthorized use of another person's ideas, data, images, code, or methods.

•      Redundant publication, duplicate submission, or unjustified fragmentation of a study.

•      Citation coercion, citation trading, citation stacking, or irrelevant references intended to manipulate metrics.

•      Ghost, guest, gift, purchased, or otherwise misleading authorship.

•      Manipulation of reviewer identities, recommendations, reports, or editorial systems.

If concerns are substantiated, action will be proportionate to the evidence and the status of the work. The journal may reject the manuscript, correct or retract a published article, notify institutions or funders, restrict future submissions for a defined and documented period, and inform affected journals or indexing services where appropriate.

Policy of Screening for Plagiarism

Submissions may be screened with iThenticate or another recognized similarity-detection service before review, during revision, or after publication. Editors interpret similarity reports in context; a numerical similarity score alone does not establish plagiarism. Properly quoted text, standard methodological language, preprints, theses, and author-reused material require editorial judgment and transparent citation. Confirmed plagiarism, extensive unattributed recycling, or misappropriation may lead to rejection, correction, retraction, and institutional notification.

Policy on Academic–Practitioner Co-authorship

The journal welcomes genuine collaboration among researchers and professionals such as architects, engineers, building physicists, material scientists, energy modellers, manufacturers, facility managers, policymakers, and urban practitioners. Such submissions receive no preferential acceptance and must meet the same scientific and ethical standards. Practitioner roles, access to proprietary facilities or data, sponsor influence, and relevant commercial interests must be disclosed through affiliations, acknowledgements, funding statements, competing-interest declarations, and CRediT roles.

Policy on Ethical Committee Approval

Research involving human participants, identifiable personal data, interventions, thermal-comfort surveys, physiological measurements, wearable sensors, indoor-environment monitoring linked to occupants, or animals must receive prospective approval from an appropriate research ethics committee or institutional review board when required. Authors must report the committee name, approval identifier, approval date, and relevant consent procedure in the Methods section and in the journal's required end-matter statement. The journal may request supporting documentation.

Informed consent must be obtained where applicable, including specific consent for publication of identifiable information, photographs, thermal images, floor plans, or location data. Research involving vulnerable groups requires additional safeguards. Authors remain responsible for compliance with local law, institutional requirements, and recognized disciplinary standards.

Data Sharing and Reproducibility

Every research article must include a Data Availability Statement explaining where the data, metadata, code, model files, input assumptions, calibration information, and other materials needed to understand or reproduce the work can be found. Where open sharing is legally and ethically possible, authors are encouraged to use a trusted repository and a persistent identifier. Files should follow FAIR principles: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

Restrictions arising from privacy, security, commercial confidentiality, cultural sensitivity, licensing, building vulnerability, or third-party ownership must be clearly described. “Available on request” should be used only when a repository is not suitable and the conditions for access are realistic. Editors and reviewers may request underlying materials confidentially. Unjustified refusal to provide evidence necessary to evaluate a manuscript may lead to rejection or post-publication action.

For numerical and experimental work in building thermophysics, authors should report software and version, governing equations, key assumptions, boundary and initial conditions, mesh or time-step information where relevant, calibration and validation procedures, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, and sufficient information to reproduce principal results.

Retrospective Ethical Review Policy

Prospective ethics review is required whenever applicable. Approval obtained only after participant recruitment, intervention, data collection, or animal work has begun does not ordinarily cure the absence of required prior oversight.

1 Scope of non-acceptance

Human- or animal-subject research conducted without required prospective approval will normally be rejected. If the absence of required approval is discovered after publication, the journal will investigate and may issue an expression of concern, correction, or retraction depending on the reliability and ethical acceptability of the work.

2 Narrow, policy-based exemptions (not “case-by-case” discretion)

A study may proceed without an ethics-committee approval letter only if the authors demonstrate that it was exempt under the law, institutional policy, and disciplinary standards applicable when the study began.

 

 

Studies involving vulnerable participants, identifiable sensitive information, biospecimens, clinical or physiological interventions, or non-routine risk are not treated as exempt merely because data collection has ended.

3 Author responsibilities for exemption claims

The corresponding author must upload or provide the relevant exemption determination when requested and explain the basis for exemption in the manuscript. A misleading exemption claim may constitute misconduct and can result in rejection, correction, retraction, or institutional notification.

4 Editorial verification

The handling editor will assess whether the documentation is consistent with the study and applicable norms. Uncertain cases may be referred to the Editor-in-Chief, an independent ethics adviser, or the authors' institution. The journal does not retrospectively grant ethical approval.

Policies on the Use of Generative AI (GenAI)

Generative-AI and AI-assisted tools may support limited aspects of manuscript preparation, but they cannot assume responsibility, consent to publication, disclose conflicts, or answer for the integrity of the work. They therefore cannot be listed as authors, reviewers, editors, or accountable contributors. Human participants remain fully responsible for accuracy, originality, citations, permissions, confidentiality, and compliance with these policies.

For Authors:

•      Authors may use AI-assisted tools for language improvement, coding assistance, literature organization, image analysis, data analysis, or other purposes only when their use is lawful, appropriate, verified, and transparently described.

•      Material use that affects the research process or reported content must be disclosed in the Methods, Acknowledgements, or a dedicated AI-use statement, identifying the tool, version when available, purpose, and human verification performed.

•      Authors must verify all AI-assisted output, including references, equations, code, numerical values, interpretations, and claims. Fabricated citations, undisclosed synthetic data, plagiarism, or confidential-data exposure remain the authors' responsibility.

•      AI output may not replace required expertise, ethical approval, informed consent, data governance, or reproducible methods.

A suitable disclosure is: “During preparation of this work, the author(s) used [tool and version] for [specific purpose]. The author(s) reviewed and verified the resulting material and accept full responsibility for the content of the publication.” Routine spelling or grammar checking that does not generate substantive content need not be disclosed unless the Author Guidelines state otherwise.

Generative AI Images:

Images created solely for decoration are not accepted as scientific evidence. AI-generated or AI-modified figures, thermograms, photographs, diagrams, or visualizations may be considered only when integral to the research question or method, legally and ethically sourced, clearly labeled, reproducibly described, and not misleading. Undisclosed removal, addition, or alteration of scientifically meaningful features is prohibited. Authors must retain original files and prompts or processing records where relevant.

AI Use by Reviewers:

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, figures, supplementary files, personal data, or review correspondence to public or third-party generative-AI systems because doing so may breach confidentiality, privacy, copyright, or data-security obligations. Any journal-approved secure assistance must be disclosed to the editor, and the reviewer remains responsible for the report. AI may not make the recommendation or replace expert judgment.

AI Use by Editors

Editors must not place confidential submissions or peer-review material into unapproved generative-AI services. Editorial decisions must be made by accountable human editors. If approved automated tools support integrity screening, language checks, or workflow administration, their use must be governed by confidentiality, security, bias, and human-oversight safeguards.

Image and Figure Integrity Policy

Adjustments to brightness, contrast, color balance, or sharpness must be applied consistently and must not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent information. Splicing, selective enhancement, duplication, inappropriate cropping, fabricated thermograms, or manipulation of scales and legends is prohibited unless the operation is scientifically justified, described, and visibly identified. Editors may request original, unprocessed images, calibration files, and full-resolution data.

Research Safety, Fieldwork, and Building-Performance Data

Authors must report relevant safety approvals, risk controls, and permissions for laboratory, field, and occupied-building studies. Work involving fire testing, combustion, refrigerants, phase-change materials, nanoparticles, hazardous substances, pressure systems, electrical equipment, or extreme thermal conditions must follow applicable laws, standards, and institutional safety procedures. Potential dual-use risks or instructions that could facilitate unsafe practices should be disclosed to the editor.

Studies in homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals, heritage sites, or critical infrastructure must respect access permissions, privacy, security, and property rights. Identifiable occupants, precise sensitive locations, security systems, and floor plans should not be disclosed without lawful authority and appropriate consent.

Preprints and Prior Dissemination

Posting a manuscript on a recognized non-commercial preprint server does not ordinarily constitute prior publication, but it must be disclosed at submission with a link or identifier. Authors should update the preprint record with the citation and link to the Version of Record after publication. Conference abstracts, posters, theses, institutional reports, and working papers must also be disclosed when substantially related. The submitted article must offer a clear scholarly contribution beyond any earlier dissemination and must respect third-party rights.

Manuscript Withdrawal by the Authors

Before publication, the corresponding author may request withdrawal by emailing editor@bthermo.com with the manuscript title, identifier, reason, and confirmation that all authors agree. The journal will acknowledge the request and determine whether any unresolved ethical investigation or contractual matter requires retention of the record. Withdrawal after substantial review or acceptance should be supported by a clear reason. Once an article has been published, it cannot be withdrawn; corrections, retractions, or exceptional removal procedures apply instead.

Peer Review Process

Peer Review Statement

Original research, review articles, technical or methods papers, validation studies, case studies, data papers, and other substantive scholarly contributions undergo double-anonymous peer review by at least two suitably qualified, independent experts whenever practicable. Authors' and reviewers' identities are concealed from one another, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed where preprints, distinctive datasets, or prior presentations make identification possible. Reviewers are normally external to the journal's editorial team.

Editorials, corrections, retraction notices, obituaries, announcements, and some book or policy reviews may receive editorial assessment rather than external peer review. Any exception will be identified by article type and, when necessary, in the published item. Supplementary materials that support scholarly claims are included in the review to the extent practicable. Reviewer reports are confidential and are not routinely published or signed.

The handling editor evaluates scope, integrity, methods, evidence, reviewer reports, author responses, and journal policy. Reviewers advise; the responsible editor makes the decision. Reviewer suggestions supplied by authors may be considered, but editors independently verify identity and expertise and are not required to use them. Authors must not propose reviewers with conflicts of interest or fabricated identities.

Author and Reviewer Communication

The journal uses professional, respectful, and sufficiently informative communication throughout submission, review, revision, and production. Authors will be informed of material delays and may request withdrawal. Reviewers receive clear instructions regarding confidentiality, conflicts, constructive assessment, citation practices, and AI tools. Abusive or threatening communication may be restricted or referred for appropriate action without affecting the fair assessment of a manuscript.

Publication and Post-Publication Policies

Citation Policies

Citations must be accurate, relevant, and proportionate to the work. Authors should cite the original and most appropriate sources, acknowledge datasets, software, standards, and methods, and avoid references included primarily to influence metrics. Editors and reviewers must not demand citation of their own work, the journal, or associated authors unless each suggestion has a clear scholarly justification. The journal may investigate unusual citation patterns, coordinated citation exchanges, citation stacking, or coercive requests.

Citation Policy on Referencing Other Authors' Works

Building Thermophysics does not impose an arbitrary numerical limit on citations to any author, research group, journal, country, or school of thought. The reference list should fairly represent the literature necessary to support the study, including relevant conflicting evidence and foundational or recent work. Concentrated citation to one author or group may be queried when it appears unrelated, exclusionary, or metric-driven, but legitimate concentration is acceptable when justified by the subject or method.

Retraction and Correction Policy

The journal corrects the record promptly and transparently. A correction is appropriate when an otherwise reliable article contains an error or omission that affects interpretation, attribution, metadata, or a limited part of the work. Retraction is considered when findings are unreliable because of major error or misconduct, the work is redundant, peer review was compromised, research was unethical, or legal or ethical defects invalidate publication.

Retraction Process:

Investigation Initiation

A concern may be raised by authors, readers, reviewers, editors, institutions, funders, or other parties. The Editor-in-Chief or an independent delegate conducts an initial assessment, manages conflicts, preserves records, and determines whether further inquiry is warranted.

Inquiry and Evaluation

The journal may request explanations and source materials, consult independent specialists, and ask institutions or other responsible bodies to investigate. Parties are given a reasonable opportunity to respond. The process follows the evidence and does not presume guilt.

Decision and Communication

The responsible editor decides the publication action in consultation with the Editorial Board, publisher, legal advisers, or institutions as appropriate. An author who believes the process contained a material error may appeal within 14 calendar days with new evidence or a precise procedural objection. A conflicted editor will not decide the case.

Retraction Notice:

A retraction notice will be freely accessible, linked bidirectionally to the article, identify the article and reason for retraction, distinguish error from misconduct where possible, state who is retracting the article, and avoid defamatory or speculative wording. The article will remain available as part of the scholarly record but will be clearly watermarked or labeled as retracted unless exceptional removal is necessary.

Corrections and Errata:

Minor Corrections (Errata)

Minor errors that do not affect meaning or the scholarly record may be corrected silently only at proof stage. After publication, a substantive production error or limited author error will normally be addressed through a dated and linked correction notice. The original record and change history will remain transparent.

Major Corrections

When an error affects important sections but does not invalidate the central conclusions, the journal may publish a detailed corrigendum or correction. If corrected analysis changes the conclusions fundamentally, retraction and republication may be more appropriate.

Expression of Concern:

An expression of concern may be issued when credible questions create substantial doubt but an investigation is incomplete, delayed, or inconclusive; when institutional procedures are inadequate; or when readers need prompt warning of a potential risk. It will be updated or replaced when reliable findings become available.

Article Removal:

Complete removal is reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as a binding legal requirement, unlawful personal information, serious defamation, or an immediate and substantial risk of harm. Bibliographic metadata and a notice explaining the reason will remain whenever legally possible.

Follow-up and Indexing

Corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern form part of the permanent record and will be linked to the affected article. The journal will update metadata and notify Crossref, preservation services, and relevant abstracting or indexing databases as appropriate. Publication notices will remain openly accessible.

Post-publication Discussions

Readers may submit evidence-based comments, letters to the editor, replication findings, or correction requests to editor@bthermo.com. The journal may also consider responsible discussion on recognized post-publication platforms. Criticism will be assessed on its content, not the status or identity of the person raising it. Authors will normally be invited to respond, and verified errors will be corrected under the policies above.

CrossMark Policy

Building Thermophysics intends to use Crossmark or an equivalent update-identification service when registration and production integration are complete. Where a Crossmark logo is displayed, readers may select it to check the current status of the article and access corrections, retractions, or other updates. Until the service is active for a specific article, the journal website and Crossref metadata are the authoritative sources for publication updates. This section does not claim that Crossmark is currently active for all content.

Access, Licensing, and Archiving

Open Access Policy

All journal content is available online without subscription charges or mandatory registration. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to, text-and-data mine, and otherwise reuse articles for lawful purposes in accordance with the stated Creative Commons licence. The access status and licence will be displayed on the journal website and in each Version of Record.

Repository Policy

Authors may deposit their manuscripts and published articles in institutional, subject, funder, or general repositories in accordance with the CC BY 4.0 licence and the journal's self-archiving policy. Deposited Versions of Record should include the full citation, DOI, licence, and link to the journal's official article page.

General Repositories

When no suitable institutional or disciplinary repository is available, authors may consider established general repositories. Authors are responsible for confirming the repository's current terms, costs, preservation arrangements, access controls, and suitability for sensitive or restricted data.

 

Self-archiving policy

Authors may archive the submitted manuscript, accepted manuscript, and Version of Record without embargo, provided the deposited version is accurately identified. The Version of Record must carry its DOI, bibliographic citation, CC BY 4.0 notice, and link to https://bthermo.com/. Authors should not imply that an earlier manuscript is the final published version.

Archiving Digital Version

The publisher maintains routine technical backups of the journal platform and published content. The journal's long-term preservation plan is to deposit content in the PKP Preservation Network or another recognized preservation service listed in the Keepers Registry when eligibility and technical activation are complete. The website will name only services in which content is actually preserved and will update this statement when enrollment is confirmed. Metadata and article files will be retained so the scholarly record can be restored if normal journal operations are interrupted.

Article Processing Charge

Building Thermophysics currently charges no submission fee, article processing charge, publication fee, membership fee, page charge, color-figure charge, or mandatory language-editing fee. Authors and readers incur no hidden journal charges. If the funding model changes, all fees, waiver arrangements, and effective dates will be announced clearly before submission and will apply prospectively. A fee or waiver decision will never influence peer review or editorial judgment.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Policy

Each eligible published article or scholarly notice will receive a unique DOI registered through Crossref. A DOI is assigned to the Version of Record, not merely because a submission has passed screening or entered production. DOI metadata will be maintained and updated when corrections, retractions, or other changes occur.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Policies on Intellectual Property

Authors must respect copyright, database rights, software licences, patents, trademarks, privacy, cultural rights, and permissions applying to text, images, maps, plans, standards, code, datasets, and other materials. Third-party content must be used under a compatible licence, statutory exception, or documented permission. Suspected infringement will be investigated and may lead to rejection, correction, removal, or retraction.

Copyright

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant Building Thermophysics and Alanya University a non-exclusive right of first publication, identification as the original publisher, dissemination, preservation, and metadata registration. Copyright ownership and the applicable licence will be stated in the full text of every article. Website design and administrative content may be subject to separate copyright terms.

Licensing

Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Subject to that licence, users may:

•      Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, including commercially.

•      Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially.

Key Principles:

Users must provide appropriate credit, identify the author or authors and Building Thermophysics, supply the article title and DOI or official link, indicate whether changes were made, and include the CC BY 4.0 link. No additional legal or technical restrictions may be imposed that prevent uses permitted by the licence. Third-party material excluded from the article's Creative Commons licence must be clearly identified and may require separate permission. The licence cannot be revoked for compliant uses already made.

Ownership

Building Thermophysics was founded by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hourakhsh Ahmad Nia and is published by Alanya University. The journal's management and editorial governance are described publicly on https://bthermo.com/. Ownership, sponsorship, or institutional support does not confer authority to interfere with individual editorial decisions.

Administration and Transparency

Journal Identity and Website

The official journal title is Building Thermophysics. Its official website is https://bthermo.com/, and its Editorial Office email is editor@bthermo.com. The website will display accurate aims and scope, readership, manuscript types, peer-review procedures, editorial board, author instructions, publication frequency, fees, access, copyright, licensing, preservation, ownership, publisher details, and contact information. The journal will not imply indexation, membership, partnerships, metrics, or services that have not been formally confirmed.

Governing Body

The Editorial Board is the journal's scholarly governing body. It includes the Editor-in-Chief and may include managing, academic, section, advisory, language, production, and technical editors. Full names, relevant affiliations, and roles will be kept current on the journal website. Board members must agree to serve, possess expertise relevant to the aims and scope, disclose conflicts, and comply with these policies. The composition of the board will be reviewed periodically for expertise, active participation, and appropriate disciplinary, institutional, geographic, and gender diversity.

Investigations and Complaints Policy

Complaints may concern editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, discrimination, conflicts, authorship, plagiarism, data integrity, copyright, privacy, or journal administration. Complaints and allegations are handled confidentially, promptly, consistently, and by persons without relevant conflicts. The journal distinguishes an appeal against an academic decision from a complaint about process or conduct.

Reporting Ethical Concerns and Allegations

Reports should be sent to editor@bthermo.com and should identify the article or submission, describe the concern, and provide supporting evidence where available. Anonymous reports will be considered when they contain verifiable information. The journal will protect good-faith complainants from retaliation as far as it can, while also providing fair process to persons whose conduct is questioned.

Complaint Handling Process

The Editorial Office will acknowledge the complaint, record it securely, assess jurisdiction and conflicts, and refer it to the Editor-in-Chief or an independent delegate. Relevant parties may be asked to respond. Outcomes and reasons will be communicated when privacy and legal constraints permit. Complaints involving the Editor-in-Chief will be referred to an independent senior editor or an appropriate academic authority at the publisher. Matters beyond the journal's investigative authority may be referred to institutions, funders, regulators, or legal authorities.

Privacy Statement

Personal information is collected and used only for legitimate journal activities such as submission, peer review, publication, communication, integrity checks, indexing, preservation, and legal compliance. Access is limited to persons and service providers who require the information for these purposes. Submitted manuscripts, reviewer identities, and editorial correspondence are confidential except where disclosure is authorized, required for investigation, necessary for publication, or required by law.

The journal will apply reasonable organizational and technical safeguards and will follow applicable data-protection law. Editors and reviewers may not use unpublished material for personal advantage. Questions about privacy may be sent to editor@bthermo.com. Detailed platform-level information on cookies, retention, processors, and data-subject rights should be maintained in the website Privacy Policy.

Journal’s Revenue Sources

Building Thermophysics is financially supported by the Rectorate of Alanya University. It currently receives no revenue from article charges, subscriptions, commercial advertising, reprint sales, or paid editorial decisions. Financial support is administered separately from manuscript evaluation and may not influence peer review, acceptance, correction, or retraction.

Advertising Policy

Building Thermophysics does not currently accept commercial advertising. If advertising is introduced, a public policy will identify acceptable categories, the person responsible for approval, placement rules, and the separation of advertising from editorial content and user behavior. Advertisers or sponsors will have no role in manuscript selection or editorial decisions.

Direct Marketing Policy

Any invitation to submit, review, join the Editorial Board, or participate in a special issue must be truthful, appropriately targeted, identifiable as journal communication, and easy to decline. The journal will not use misleading claims about indexing, metrics, acceptance likelihood, publication speed, fees, affiliations, or recipients' prior relationships with the journal. Purchased or unlawfully obtained contact lists will not be used.

ORCID Number

Authors are strongly encouraged to provide a verified ORCID iD at submission, and editors and reviewers are encouraged to use ORCID where appropriate. ORCID improves attribution and name disambiguation but does not substitute for identity verification, authorship criteria, affiliation disclosure, or contribution statements.

Disclaimer

The journal and publisher take reasonable steps to support accurate, ethical, and reliable publication, but responsibility for the content, opinions, calculations, designs, code, safety statements, and legal permissions in an article remains primarily with its authors. Publication does not constitute endorsement by Building Thermophysics, its editors, reviewers, Alanya University, or associated institutions.

Readers must exercise professional judgment before applying methods or findings, particularly where building safety, fire, structural performance, health, energy systems, refrigerants, hazardous materials, occupant wellbeing, or regulatory compliance is involved. Journal content is not a substitute for project-specific engineering, architectural, medical, legal, or safety advice. External links are provided for reference and do not imply endorsement. Nothing in this disclaimer excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Duties

Duties of Editors

Editors must protect editorial independence, confidentiality, fairness, and the integrity of the record. They select qualified reviewers, manage conflicts, evaluate evidence rather than reputation, avoid citation coercion, communicate decisions respectfully, and pursue credible concerns before and after publication. An editor must not handle a manuscript involving their own work, close collaborators, family members, personal adversaries, recent co-authors, direct institutional colleagues, financial interests, or other relationships that could reasonably impair impartiality.

 

Policy on the Selection of New Editorial Board Members

Candidates are selected for demonstrated expertise in building thermophysics or a closely related field, a credible record of peer-reviewed scholarship or professional contribution, relevant editorial or reviewing experience, ethical reliability, and capacity to perform duties. Appointments should strengthen disciplinary breadth and international representation without using journal metrics alone as a proxy for quality.

Compliance with COPE Guidelines Policy

Editorial Board members are expected to apply the COPE Core Practices and relevant COPE flowcharts or equivalent recognized guidance. The journal will review policy updates and provide guidance where emerging issues affect editorial work. Reference to COPE indicates alignment with its guidance and does not imply COPE membership unless membership is separately confirmed.

Conflict-of-Interest Handling Policy

An editor who is an author, collaborator, competitor, adviser, funder, close associate, or otherwise conflicted must declare the interest and take no part in reviewer selection, correspondence, access to confidential reports, or the decision. The manuscript will be assigned to an independent editor. Undisclosed conflicts may lead to removal from the case or editorial role and correction of the record where necessary.

Policy on Institutional Conflict of Interest for Editorial Board Members

Manuscripts from an editor's current department, research center, or institution will be handled by an editor without that institutional connection. The same principle applies to recent affiliations when a reasonable perception of influence remains. The submitting editor or colleague receives no privileged access and the standard review criteria apply.

Voluntary Service Policy

Unless a written appointment states otherwise, Editorial Board service is voluntary and unpaid. Appointment does not create entitlement to publication, preferential review, citation, authorship, or influence over manuscripts outside the member's assigned duties.

Policy on Special Issues and Guest-Edited Volumes

Special issues must fit the journal's aims and scope and follow the same standards for peer review, conflicts, research integrity, fees, licensing, and corrections as regular content. Proposals should identify the scholarly rationale, topics, guest-editor qualifications, timetable, reviewer strategy, and conflicts. The Editor-in-Chief approves proposals and retains oversight.

Guest Editors may not make decisions on their own submissions or those of close collaborators or institutional colleagues. Such manuscripts are assigned independently. The Editor-in-Chief may reject any contribution that does not meet the journal's requirements, and special-issue content must be clearly identified without implying guaranteed acceptance.

Editorial Authorship Limitation Policy

The journal monitors the proportion of content authored by current editors to prevent editorial capture and perceived self-publication. No numerical limit will be used to conceal or excuse conflicts. Every editor-authored scholarly article must undergo independent handling and the same external peer-review standard, and the published article must disclose the independent process where appropriate.

Policy on Editorial Submissions and Independent Handling

When an editor submits work, the journal assigns a senior independent editor or qualified external guest editor who has no relevant personal, professional, financial, or institutional relationship with the authors. The submitting editor cannot access reviewer identities, reports, deliberations, or decision functions beyond the access ordinarily given to an author.

Policy on Applying for Editorial Board Membership

Expressions of interest may be sent to editor@bthermo.com with a curriculum vitae and a concise statement of relevant expertise and proposed contribution. Selection is based on current journal needs, subject fit, ethical record, reviewing capacity, diversity, and active scholarly or professional engagement. Unsolicited applications do not guarantee appointment.

Commitment to Open Science and Ethical Publishing Policy

The Editorial Board supports transparent methods, appropriate data and code sharing, replication, negative and null results when methodologically sound, registered protocols where applicable, and complete disclosure of funding, interests, ethics approval, and AI assistance. Openness is balanced with privacy, security, intellectual-property, cultural, and legitimate commercial constraints.

The current Editorial Team and affiliations will be published at https://bthermo.com/.

Duties of Authors

Authors must:

•      Submit original work, disclose related outputs, and avoid simultaneous submission.

•      Report methods, data, models, assumptions, uncertainty, limitations, and results honestly and sufficiently for evaluation.

•      Obtain ethics approvals, consent, permissions, and safety authorizations where required.

•      List only eligible authors, obtain approval from all authors, and provide accurate CRediT roles.

•      Disclose funding, sponsor roles, competing interests, preprints, AI assistance, and material third-party support.

•      Provide data, code, images, and source records when reasonably requested for review or integrity assessment.

•      Correct significant errors promptly and cooperate with post-publication inquiries.

•      Cite relevant work accurately without coercive, reciprocal, honorary, or metric-driven citation.

Self-citation Policy

Self-citation is acceptable when it is directly relevant and helps readers understand the present work. Building Thermophysics does not impose a fixed percentage cap, because legitimate citation needs vary by topic and method. Excessive, tangential, coordinated, or strategically concentrated self-citation may be queried or removed when it appears intended to manipulate metrics rather than support scholarship.

Contributors who do not qualify for authorship, including persons providing language editing, routine technical support, administrative help, or general supervision, should be acknowledged with permission. Undisclosed ghostwriting, purchased authorship, gift authorship, and omission of rightful authors are prohibited.

Duties of Reviewers

Reviewers help editors assess reliability, importance, clarity, reproducibility, and scope fit. By accepting an invitation, a reviewer agrees to act confidentially, competently, impartially, respectfully, and on time.

Use of AI Tools

Reviewers must comply with the AI Use by Reviewers policy above. Confidential submission material may not be entered into unapproved AI services, and an AI system may not write the substantive evaluation or recommendation in place of the invited expert.

Timeliness and Objectivity

Reviewers should accept only assignments within their competence and available time. Reports should evaluate the manuscript rather than the authors, identify strengths and limitations, distinguish essential revisions from optional suggestions, and support criticisms with clear reasoning or evidence. Personal attacks and discriminatory language are unacceptable.

Ethical Conduct and Confidentiality

Manuscripts and review materials are confidential and may not be shared, discussed, copied, retained unnecessarily, or used for personal or competitive advantage. If a reviewer needs a co-reviewer, trainee, or specialist to contribute, prior editorial permission is required and the contributor must be identified and bound by the same obligations.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers must promptly disclose relationships or interests that could affect or appear to affect impartiality, including recent collaboration, direct competition, institutional connection, financial interest, personal relationship, or strong prior involvement with the work. The editor determines whether the review can proceed; when in doubt, the reviewer should decline.

Citation Practices

Suggested references must be necessary and accompanied by a scholarly reason. Reviewers may not pressure authors to cite the reviewer's work, the journal, associates, or unrelated papers. Suspected citation manipulation should be reported confidentially to the editor.

Compliance and Originality

Reviewers should assess scope, originality, methods, validation, reporting, data and code availability, interpretation, limitations, safety, and ethical compliance. They should alert the editor to substantial overlap, implausible data, manipulated figures, missing permissions, or other concerns without conducting an independent misconduct investigation.

Adherence to COPE Guidelines

Reviewers are expected to follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and these journal policies. The journal may remove or sanction reviewers who breach confidentiality, misrepresent identity or expertise, plagiarize, misuse privileged information, conceal conflicts, manipulate citations, or submit fraudulent or AI-generated reviews.

Policy on Reviewer Misconduct and Fraudulent Peer Review

Reviewer identity and contact information may be verified. Suspicious recommendations, fabricated accounts, identity theft, review rings, confidential-data misuse, coercive citation, or coordinated manipulation will trigger investigation. Affected manuscripts may be re-reviewed; reviewers may be suspended or removed; and institutions, journals, or service providers may be notified when justified.

Policy on Editorial Submissions and Reviewer Independence

Reviewers of editor-authored manuscripts must be independent of the submitting editor and selected by an unconflicted handling editor. The submitting editor cannot recommend, select, contact, or identify reviewers for their own manuscript beyond any standard author fields available to all submitters.

Policy on Reviewer Performance Monitoring

The journal may evaluate timeliness, depth, constructiveness, evidence, professionalism, citation behavior, confidentiality, and policy compliance. Reviewers who submit inadequate reports may receive guidance, fewer invitations, suspension, or removal. Performance monitoring must not reward acceptance or rejection rates or pressure reviewers toward predetermined outcomes.

Policy on Adherence to COPE Ethical Review Guidelines

Acceptance of a review invitation confirms the reviewer's agreement to the current COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and the journal's confidentiality, conflict, citation, AI, and conduct requirements. Serious breaches may lead to termination of the assignment, removal from the database, re-review of affected work, and institutional notification where proportionate.

Universal Peer-Review Policy

All substantive scholarly research content is subject to the declared external peer-review process regardless of whether authors are invited, prominent, affiliated with the publisher, or members of the Editorial Board. Non-research items that receive editorial review instead are identified by article type and must not be presented as externally peer reviewed.

Policy on Managing Revisions and Reviewer Disagreements

Editors verify whether authors have responded adequately to material comments and may return revisions to original or new reviewers. Conflicting reviews are resolved by evaluating their reasoning and relevance, seeking clarification, or obtaining additional expertise. The final decision rests with the responsible unconflicted editor and considers the complete record, not a numerical vote.

Duties of the Publisher

Alanya University, as publisher of Building Thermophysics, supports the following publisher-level responsibilities.

Editorial Independence Policy

The publisher protects the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board from institutional, commercial, political, or financial interference in individual manuscript decisions. Publisher personnel may act to satisfy law, safety, research-integrity duties, or these published policies, but any intervention affecting the record must be documented and managed transparently.

Research Integrity and Ethical Oversight Policy

The publisher supports confidential reporting channels, preservation of records, independent investigation, access to appropriate expertise, and proportionate publication actions. It will cooperate with institutions, funders, Crossref, preservation services, and indexing bodies when credible findings require coordinated correction of the record.

Open-Access Stewardship and Licensing Policy

The publisher supports immediate open access under CC BY 4.0, author retention of copyright, non-exclusive publishing rights, clear licence display in HTML and PDF, and fee transparency. It will not restrict lawful text-and-data mining or repository deposit permitted by the licence.

Technological Infrastructure and Accessibility Policy

The journal uses a secure scholarly-publishing platform with HTTPS, access controls, updates, monitoring, and routine backups. The publisher works toward conformance with current recognized web-accessibility standards, including WCAG, and seeks to provide usable metadata, readable files, and accessible navigation. Technical capabilities and preservation participation will be described accurately rather than overstated.

Open Science and Reproducibility Policy

The publisher supports the deposit and citation of datasets, software, protocols, model inputs, supplementary files, and other research objects in reliable repositories. Persistent identifiers should be used when available. Legitimate restrictions are respected but must be declared, and the journal may require confidential access for editorial verification.

Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement Policy

Journal operations will be reviewed periodically against COPE guidance, DOAJ transparency principles, relevant Crossref practices, accessibility standards, and the publicly declared criteria of major abstracting and indexing services. Training, platform improvements, integrity tools, and policy revisions will be introduced when needed. Policies will display a revision date, and material changes will not be represented as having applied retrospectively when they did not.

Environmental and Social Responsibility Policy

The journal uses a digital-first workflow to reduce unnecessary printing and travel. Its social responsibilities include fair access, inclusive participation, respectful conduct, accessibility, protection of research participants and occupants, and responsible communication of findings that may affect energy use, health, climate, and building safety.

Publisher address:

Alanya University

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Architecture

Cikcilli District, Saraybeleni Street No: 7, 07400 Alanya, Antalya, Türkiye

Journal email: editor@bthermo.com

Journal website: https://bthermo.com/

Phone: (+90 506) 189 99 66

Fax: (+90 242) 513 69 66

 

Reference Standards

This statement is informed by the following authoritative sources. Links are provided for transparency; responsibility for applying the policy remains with Building Thermophysics and Alanya University.

ü COPE: https://publicationethics.org/

ü DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice: https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/

ü Scopus Content Policy and Selection: https://www.elsevier.com/en-gb/products/scopus/content/content-policy-and-selection

ü Web of Science Journal Evaluation Process and Selection Criteria: https://clarivate.com/academia-government/scientific-and-academic-research/research-discovery-and-referencing/web-of-science/web-of-science-core-collection/editorial-selection-process/journal-evaluation-process-selection-criteria/

ü Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/