1. Editorial Independence and Mission

TSUJCMS is committed to promoting rigorous, high-quality scholarship within the fields of communication, media, and adjacent interdisciplinary studies. The journal maintains absolute editorial independence. Publishing decisions are based solely on the intellectual merit, originality, methodological rigour, and topical relevance of the submitted work, completely independent of commercial influence, institutional politics, or the authors' backgrounds.

2. Overview of Evaluation Thresholds

All submissions undergo a strict double-blind peer-review process to ensure fairness and objectivity. To maintain this standard, manuscripts must be entirely anonymised by the authors prior to submission by removing names, institutional affiliations, and explicit self-citations within the text. For an exhaustive, step-by-step operational breakdown of evaluation criteria, reviewer selection, and review timelines, please refer to our dedicated Peer Review Policy document or section below.

3. Authorship and Contributorship Criteria

TSUJCMS adheres to standard international criteria for authorship. To be listed as an author, an individual must have made significant intellectual contributions to the study, specifically regarding:

· The conception, design, data acquisition, or statistical analysis and interpretation of the data (e.g., executing correlation matrices, regression models, or thematic qualitative structures).

· Drafting the article or critically revising it for intellectual content.

· Giving final approval of the version to be published.

Corresponding Author Responsibilities

One author must be designated as the Corresponding Author. They act on behalf of all co-authors and bear primary responsibi lity for managing communication with the editorial office, ensuring all co-authors have verified the submission list, and handling post-publication queries.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Generative AI tools (such as large language models) cannot be listed as authors or co-authors on any manuscript submitted to TSUJCMS. If AI tools were utilized to assist in grammar correction or style refinement, their use must be explicitly declared within the acknowledgements or a dedicated methods disclosure section. The fabrication of literature citations or datasets using AI is strictly classified as research misconduct.

4. Duplicate Submission and Plagiarism Policy

· Originality: Manuscripts submitted to TSUJCMS must represent original, unpublished work and must not be under concurrent consideration by any other journal or edited volume.

· Plagiarism, Text Recycling, and AI Integration: The journal enforces a zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism, data fabrication, and redundant publication (self-plagiarism). Every submission is systematically screened using professional text-matching and content-authentication software. Submissions exhibiting a text-matching similarity index above 20% will be desk-rejected immediately. Furthermore, while the journal upholds the responsible and ethical assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for language refinement, any manuscript displaying an AI-generated text threshold exceeding 20% will face immediate desk rejection. Authors are strictly required to explicitly declare the use of any AI tools, detailing the specific model employed (e.g., ChatGPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet) and the exact scope of its application, within the methodology or acknowledgement section of the manuscript.

5. Research Ethics and Informed Consent

For studies involving human participants (such as audience surveys, focus groups, or experimental communication designs), authors must confirm that their research was conducted ethically.

· Ethics Clearances: Authors must include a statement certifying that institutional or departmental approval was obtained prior to data collection.

· Informed Consent: Authors must explicitly state within their methodology section that informed consent was secured from all participants, and that privacy and anonymity have been maintained.

6. Data Availability and Transparency

To foster scientific verification and academic trust, TSUJCMS encourages authors to maintain the integrity of their empirical findings. Authors should be prepared to provide raw datasets, correlation tables, or qualitative transcripts to the editorial board if requested during the review process. The journal highly recommends depositing verified research data into public repositories (such as Zenodo, Research Gate, or institutional archives).

7. Post-Publication Corrections and Retractions

The scholarly record published by TSUJCMS is permanent. However, if a genuine, inadvertent error is detected post-publication, the journal will issue a formal amendment:

· Errata/Corrections: Used to amend minor errors that do not compromise the conclusions of the study.

· Expressions of Concern: Issued if there is inconclusive evidence of research misconduct or an ongoing institutional investigation regarding the paper.

· Retractions: If a paper is found to contain fabricated data, pervasive plagiarism, or severe ethical breaches, a formal retraction notice will be issued in alignment with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, and the article metadata will be updated to reflect the retraction.

8. Appeals and Complaints

Authors have the right to appeal an editorial rejection if they believe the decision was influenced by a demonstrable misunderstanding of the text or a breach of peer-review protocol.

· Appeals Process: A formal appeal must be sent to the Editor-in-Chief via email within 30 days of the decision, providing a detailed, point-by-point rebuttal of the reviewers' or editors' remarks.

· The Editorial Board will review the case and decide whether to sustain the rejection, request a third independent review, or invite a revised submission. Decisions made on appeals are final.