Three Teachings Studies: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism (TTS) requires all authors to uphold the principles of academic integrity, originality, transparency, accurate documentation, and responsible scholarly conduct. These responsibilities extend throughout the research, writing, submission, peer review, revision, publication, and post-publication stages. Authors must ensure that their work represents a genuine scholarly contribution, that sources and evidence are presented accurately, and that relevant ethical, legal, and editorial requirements have been satisfied. This policy applies to all submission categories according to their scholarly content and research methods. It complements the journal's broader Publication Ethics Policy and is informed by relevant principles of responsible scholarly publishing, including guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Fundamental Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for the scholarly reliability of their manuscripts and for the accuracy of the information supplied during submission. They must exercise independent academic judgment and take reasonable steps to ensure that their research methods, interpretations, citations, translations, and conclusions are supported by appropriate evidence.

The journal expects authors to observe the following fundamental obligations:

• Honesty: Present research evidence, scholarly arguments, and findings accurately, without deliberate fabrication, falsification, or misleading omission.
• Originality: Clearly identify the manuscript's original contribution and acknowledge relevant prior research and intellectual influences.
• Accountability: Accept responsibility for the submitted work, including relevant contributions made with external assistance or automated tools.
• Transparency: Disclose relevant prior dissemination, funding arrangements, competing interests, and material assistance where required.
• Responsible Research: Comply with applicable requirements concerning research participants, privacy, intellectual property, archival materials, and cultural restrictions.
• Editorial Cooperation: Provide truthful submission information, respond appropriately to editorial inquiries, and cooperate in the correction of significant errors.

These responsibilities apply regardless of the author's academic position, institutional affiliation, geographic location, discipline, or financial arrangements for publication.

Originality, Prior Publication, and Exclusive Submission

Manuscripts submitted to TTS must contain an identifiable original scholarly contribution. Originality may be demonstrated through new historical findings, philosophical analysis, textual interpretation, translation, critical annotation, methodological development, or another contribution appropriate to the selected publication category.

• Plagiarism: Authors must not reproduce another person's language, arguments, findings, interpretations, translations, or other intellectual contributions without appropriate acknowledgment.
• Redundant Publication: Authors must not present substantially the same previously published research as a new scholarly contribution without adequate disclosure, justification, and applicable editorial authorization.
• Translation Plagiarism: Translating existing scholarly work into another language does not create independent authorship of the underlying research. The original source and publication history must be identified.
• Exclusive Submission: The same manuscript must not be under consideration for publication by another journal or publisher during the TTS editorial process, unless an exceptional arrangement has been expressly authorized.
• Previous Dissemination: Relevant theses, dissertations, preprints, conference papers, working papers, repository versions, and related publications must be disclosed where they may affect originality or publication eligibility.
• Substantial Overlap: Authors must explain significant relationships between the submitted manuscript and their earlier publications, including overlapping evidence, arguments, translations, or textual material.

Previous dissemination does not automatically render a manuscript ineligible. The editorial office evaluates relevant disclosures according to the nature of the earlier material, the extent of overlap, publication rights, and the additional scholarly contribution of the new submission.

Scholarly translations, critical editions, annotated documents, and textual studies may legitimately reproduce existing historical sources. Authors must distinguish the original material from their own translation, editorial reconstruction, interpretation, or critical apparatus and accurately identify previously published translations or editions where applicable.

Authorship, Contributions, and Corresponding Author Responsibilities

Authorship must accurately represent substantive scholarly contributions. A person's academic rank, administrative position, institutional authority, professional reputation, or financial support does not independently justify inclusion as an author.

• Substantive Contributions: Authorship should reflect meaningful intellectual participation in research conception, source investigation, analytical or methodological development, interpretation, substantial writing, or critical scholarly revision.
• Author Agreement: All listed authors must approve the submitted manuscript, agree to its submission, and accept appropriate responsibility for their contributions.
• Misleading Authorship: Guest, gift, honorary, ghost, or otherwise misleading authorship arrangements are prohibited.
• Contributors and Acknowledgments: Individuals providing technical, editorial, administrative, linguistic, or other assistance without qualifying for authorship should be acknowledged where appropriate and with necessary consent.
• Translation and Annotation Contributions: Translators, textual editors, annotators, and researchers responsible for substantial original scholarly interpretation must receive appropriate attribution consistent with the nature of their contributions.
• Changes to Authorship: Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be explained to the editorial office. The agreement of affected contributors and relevant supporting information may be required.

The corresponding author coordinates communication with TTS, ensures that author information and required declarations are accurate, communicates relevant editorial decisions to co-authors, and submits revised or final materials through the appropriate journal procedures.

All authors should have the opportunity to review and approve substantive changes to the manuscript before publication. If an authorship dispute cannot be resolved through reasonable clarification, the journal may seek relevant institutional assistance before proceeding.

Integrity of Historical Sources, Religious Texts, and Research Evidence

Scholarship on Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism frequently depends on classical writings, religious canons, manuscripts, inscriptions, historical commentaries, archival collections, material objects, oral accounts, and other complex forms of evidence. Authors must represent such materials accurately and make their evidentiary foundations sufficiently clear for academic evaluation.

• Authenticity of Evidence: Authors must not fabricate or falsify historical documents, scriptural passages, archival records, inscriptions, research observations, interview material, or other evidence.
• Source Identification: Primary sources should be identified through relevant titles, editions, collections, canonical numbers, manuscript locations, archival references, or other established identifiers.
• Textual Variants: Significant variant readings, disputed attributions, dating uncertainties, and editorial interventions should be disclosed when they materially affect the analysis.
• Translation Accuracy: Translations must be based on identifiable source materials. Authors should explain important interpretive decisions, terminology choices, and departures from existing translations where relevant.
• Evidence and Interpretation: Authors must distinguish documented historical evidence, philosophical argument, textual interpretation, traditional belief, and empirical findings when their differences are relevant to the research.
• Analytical Transparency: Research methods, source-selection criteria, and significant limitations should be explained sufficiently to permit informed scholarly assessment.
• Research Documentation: Relevant research records and supporting materials should be retained where reasonably practicable to address legitimate questions concerning scholarly reliability.

Authors must not present a later genealogical narrative, religious claim, or traditional account as independently verified historical fact without adequate supporting evidence. Similarly, the presence of a philosophical concept or ritual prescription in a classical text does not automatically establish its historical implementation or contemporary social effect.

Public access to supporting materials is encouraged where appropriate and legally permissible, but it is not universally required. Copyright restrictions, archival rules, confidentiality obligations, cultural restrictions, and participant protections may limit disclosure. Authors should explain significant access limitations without revealing protected information.

Citations, Attribution, and Bibliographic Integrity

TTS requires all scholarly manuscripts to follow The Chicago Manual of Style, Notes and Bibliography system. This citation requirement applies regardless of the manuscript's language, submission category, disciplinary approach, or flexible page layout.

• Accurate Attribution: Direct quotations, paraphrases, borrowed arguments, distinctive interpretations, translations, and other intellectual contributions must be acknowledged.
• Verifiable References: Authors must verify publication details, source titles, authorship, editions, page references, canonical identifiers, and available DOIs or other relevant identifiers.
• Classical Source Conventions: Established reference systems for Buddhist canons, Daoist scriptural collections, Confucian classics, manuscripts, and archival materials may be incorporated into Chicago-style notes where necessary.
• Original-Language Accuracy: Chinese characters, Japanese scripts, Korean writing, Vietnamese texts, transliterations, and other relevant source-language information must be presented accurately.
• Prohibited Citation Practices: Fabricated references, false DOIs, misleading attribution, unjustified citation manipulation, and references included solely to distort scholarly recognition are unacceptable.

The journal does not require a standardized manuscript template, but flexible formatting does not remove the mandatory citation requirements. Manuscripts using Chicago Author–Date, APA, MLA, Harvard, or other incompatible citation systems may be returned for correction. Further information is provided in the Manuscript Formatting Guidelines.

Preliminary Similarity Screening

Authors are required to conduct a preliminary similarity check before submission. The journal's administrative threshold requires a total similarity index below 15%, excluding references and bibliography.

Authors are expected to:

• Examine the preliminary similarity report and review the sources associated with matched passages.
• Correct inappropriate overlap and incomplete source attribution before submission.
• Preserve appropriate quotations and source documentation rather than manipulating the text solely to lower a similarity score.
• Recognize that classical scripture, historical documents, standardized terminology, and legitimate textual comparison may generate meaningful matches.
• Retain the results of their preliminary check and provide clarification or a report when reasonably requested by the editorial office.

TTS conducts randomized similarity spot checks and targeted verification rather than necessarily screening every submission with the same automated service. Similarity results may differ according to the software, comparison databases, language coverage, and exclusion settings used.

A similarity index below 15% does not guarantee originality or acceptance. A score of 15% or higher does not independently establish plagiarism, although it does not satisfy the journal's ordinary submission threshold. Editorial assessment considers the nature of the matched material, attribution, context, and relevant explanations. See the Plagiarism & Similarity Screening Policy.

Funding Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose relevant financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably influence, or appear to influence, the design, conduct, interpretation, presentation, or evaluation of their research.

Relevant disclosures may involve:

• Research grants, sponsorship, publication support, or other funding that materially relates to the work.
• Institutional, professional, organizational, or commercial relationships creating a material interest in the findings or conclusions.
• Relevant close professional or personal relationships that could reasonably affect impartiality.
• Religious, political, or other organizational relationships only when they create a specific and material conflict relevant to the submitted research.

Authors should identify relevant funding sources and describe the funder's role in the research where applicable. When required by the submission process, an author may state that no relevant external funding or competing interests exist.

A person's religious beliefs, philosophical commitments, political opinions, or institutional affiliation do not automatically constitute conflicts of interest or academic misconduct. Disclosures should be limited to interests materially relevant to the research, and authors are not expected to disclose unrelated sensitive personal information.

Human Participants, Fieldwork, and Cultural Research Ethics

Research involving living participants, communities, interviews, oral histories, ethnographic observation, personal information, or other human-related materials must comply with the ethical requirements applicable to the research setting, institution, discipline, and jurisdiction.

• Informed Consent: Obtain appropriate consent where required and ensure that participants understand the relevant nature and purposes of the research.
• Ethics Review: Obtain institutional ethics approval, an applicable exemption, or other necessary authorization where required.
• Privacy: Protect identifiable personal information through suitable confidentiality, anonymization, pseudonymization, and information-security measures.
• Community Research: Consider the social and cultural consequences of representing living religious communities and their members.
• Restricted Religious Materials: Respect legitimate restrictions concerning confidential rituals, restricted teachings, sacred materials, and community-specific knowledge.
• Recording and Images: Obtain necessary permission for interviews, photographs, audio recordings, video materials, and identifiable participant representations.
• Ethical Reporting: Describe relevant ethical procedures accurately without unnecessarily disclosing protected or sensitive information.

Authors should distinguish the statements and beliefs of research participants from conclusions independently established through historical, philosophical, or empirical methods. Research involving religious experiences, spiritual practices, healing traditions, or ritual efficacy must describe the relevant evidentiary basis without presenting unverified claims as demonstrated outcomes.

The journal does not assume that every historical, textual, or philosophical study requires approval from a human research ethics committee. Authors remain responsible for determining which requirements apply to their research and for making accurate declarations when requested.

Artificial Intelligence, Automated Tools, and Author Accountability

TTS recognizes that artificial intelligence and automated technologies may assist research preparation, language editing, translation, analysis, and scholarly writing. Authors remain fully responsible for all materials submitted in their names, regardless of the tools used during preparation.

• Human Authorship: AI tools must not be listed as authors or treated as substitutes for accountable human scholarly contributors.
• Material Use Disclosure: Substantive AI assistance affecting research analysis, interpretation, translation, content generation, or other scholarly components must be disclosed in accordance with the journal's requirements.
• Independent Verification: AI-assisted references, quotations, translations, source descriptions, historical claims, and analytical conclusions must be checked against reliable evidence.
• Research Confidentiality: Authors must not disclose confidential participant data, restricted manuscripts, unpublished protected materials, or other sensitive information to external AI services without appropriate authorization and safeguards.
• Scholarly Judgment: Authors must independently evaluate the accuracy and relevance of AI-assisted outputs and must not use automated material to conceal gaps in evidence or substitute for necessary research.
• Prohibited Fabrication: Invented citations, fictitious historical sources, fabricated quotations, misleading translations, and unsupported findings remain unacceptable regardless of whether they were generated manually or through automated systems.

Where material AI use is disclosed, authors should provide an appropriately concise description of the tool's role and the scholarly activities affected. Such disclosure does not transfer responsibility from the authors to the service provider or establish the validity of the resulting research.

Responsibilities During Submission and Peer Review

Authors must participate in the editorial process honestly, professionally, and in accordance with the journal's established procedures. Research Articles ordinarily undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent external reviewers.

• Accurate Metadata: Enter correct author names, affiliations, titles, abstracts, keywords, and other required information through the journal's online submission system.
• Anonymization: Remove author names, affiliations, identifying acknowledgments, and unnecessary identifying metadata from Research Articles prepared for double-blind review.
• Separate Author Information: Provide identifying details and a brief author biography through the designated submission fields or supporting materials, rather than within the anonymized manuscript.
• Professional Communication: Respond respectfully to editorial and reviewer comments and provide reasoned explanations when scholarly recommendations are disputed.
• Transparent Revisions: Address requested revisions accurately and provide a point-by-point response or other documentation when required.
• Integrity of Peer Review: Do not impersonate reviewers, submit fraudulent reviewer information, attempt to manipulate reviewer selection, or exert inappropriate influence on editorial decisions.
• Confidentiality: Treat confidential reviewer comments, editorial correspondence, and unpublished review materials responsibly.
• Correct Submission Channel: Submit original and revised manuscripts through the appropriate functions of the journal's official online submission system.

Authors should not deliberately seek to identify anonymous reviewers or contact them privately concerning an active review. Concerns about the fairness or substance of a review should be communicated to the editorial office through the appropriate procedure.

A request for revision does not guarantee acceptance. Authors remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of all new information, quotations, sources, figures, and arguments added during revision. Consult the Peer Review Policy for the journal's evaluation arrangements.

Copyright, Permissions, and Third-Party Materials

Authors retain copyright in their original scholarly contributions and grant TTS the non-exclusive rights necessary for publication, dissemination, and preservation. Published scholarly articles are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Authors are responsible for identifying and appropriately handling third-party content, including:

• Photographs, illustrations, maps, diagrams, and previously published figures.
• Manuscript facsimiles, archival reproductions, museum collection images, and other protected documentary materials.
• Musical notation, audio recordings, video materials, and other artistic or performance-related content.
• Modern translations, substantial copyrighted textual extracts, and other intellectual property owned by third parties.

Authors must obtain necessary permission where required, provide accurate attribution, and identify any third-party content excluded from the article's CC BY 4.0 license. The public availability of a source does not necessarily establish unrestricted permission to reproduce or adapt it.

Further details are provided in the Copyright & Licensing Policy and Open Access Policy.

Responsibilities After Formal Acceptance

Formal acceptance does not end the author's responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the scholarly work. Authors must cooperate with reasonable requests related to copyediting, bibliographic verification, publication metadata, author proofs, licensing, and applicable administrative requirements.

• Proof Verification: Review publication proofs carefully and identify material errors in text, notes, references, author details, figures, or other content.
• Source and Metadata Accuracy: Confirm relevant bibliographic information, author identifiers, affiliations, acknowledgments, and source documentation when requested.
• Permissions: Resolve necessary publication permissions and licensing questions concerning third-party materials.
• Substantive Changes: Obtain editorial approval before introducing major post-acceptance changes to the research findings, evidence, authorship, or central arguments.
• Publication Administration: Cooperate with applicable post-acceptance procedures, including the resolution of publication charges or approved fee waivers where relevant.

TTS does not charge submission or peer review fees. The standard APC for accepted Research Articles is USD 350, subject to the journal's published exemptions and approved reductions or waivers. Financial arrangements do not determine scholarly acceptance and must not affect the independence of peer review or editorial judgment.

Post-Publication Corrections and Continuing Accountability

Authors have a continuing responsibility to protect the accuracy and reliability of the scholarly record after publication. Discovering an error does not automatically constitute misconduct, but substantive concerns must be addressed responsibly.

• Reporting Errors: Authors who identify significant mistakes in historical evidence, citations, translations, research findings, author information, or other material content should notify the editorial office promptly.
• Providing Clarification: Authors should respond to reasonable requests concerning source evidence, analytical procedures, research documentation, or other issues affecting publication reliability.
• Corrections: Where an identifiable error requires amendment without fundamentally invalidating the work, the journal may issue an appropriate correction notice.
• Expressions of Concern: The journal may inform readers when serious questions remain unresolved and the reliability of a publication requires further assessment.
• Retractions: A publication may be retracted when its central evidence or conclusions are substantially unreliable or other serious circumstances justify such action under the journal's ethics procedures.
• Scholarly Dialogue: Authors are encouraged to respond constructively to documented criticism, interpretive disagreement, and legitimate requests for clarification.

Editorial action must be proportionate to the available evidence and the seriousness of the issue. A retraction does not necessarily establish intentional misconduct, and a complaint or allegation alone does not constitute proof of wrongdoing.

Authors are expected to cooperate with fair and appropriately confidential assessments. Detailed procedures for ethical concerns, corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions are set out in the journal's Publication Ethics Policy.

Reporting Concerns and Resolving Ethical Questions

Authors who become aware of credible concerns involving plagiarism, authorship, research integrity, source documentation, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, peer review manipulation, or the reliability of published materials should communicate the relevant information to the editorial office.

Reports should identify the manuscript or publication concerned, describe the issue clearly, and provide available supporting evidence. The journal considers such concerns in accordance with its publication ethics procedures, including appropriate safeguards for confidentiality, impartiality, and the opportunity of affected individuals to respond.

Depending on the circumstances, the editorial office may request further documentation, consult independent specialists, communicate with relevant institutions, or take proportionate editorial action. The editorial office does not automatically treat every scholarly disagreement or unsubstantiated accusation as research misconduct.

Submission and Editorial Contact

Formal manuscripts, revised files, and submission-related documentation must be submitted through the journal's official online submission system. Authors should not use ordinary email as an alternative submission channel.

Author Registration: Create an Author Account

Online Submission System: Access the Journal's Submission System

The editorial email address is available for questions regarding authorship, ethical declarations, source documentation, manuscript integrity, policy interpretation, and reporting publication-related concerns. The journal's ethical framework is informed by recognized scholarly publishing principles, including relevant COPE Core Practices. Reference to such guidance does not constitute a claim of formal membership or endorsement.