Submit to the journal
Submissions to Digital Transformation and Society are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access is available at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dts. Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre.
Registering on ScholarOne Manuscripts
If you have not yet registered on ScholarOne Manuscripts, please follow the instructions below:
- Please log on to: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dts
- Click on "Create Account"
- Follow the on-screen instructions, filling in the requested details before proceeding
- Your username will be your email address and you have to input a password of at least 8 characters in length and containing two or more numbers
- Click "Finish" and your account will have been created.
Submitting an article to DTS on ScholarOne Manuscripts
- Please log on to DTS at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dts with your username and password. This will take you through to the welcome page (to consult the Author Guidelines for this journal, click on the homepage link in the "Resources" column)
- Click on the "Author Centre" button
- Click on the "Submit a manuscript" link which will take you through to the manuscript submission page
- Complete all fields and browse to "Upload your article"
- When all required sections are completed, preview your PDF proof
- Submit your manuscript.
Authors submitting papers for publication should specify which section of the journal they wish their paper to be considered for: "Research Papers" or "Viewpoints", etc. The editors and publisher will do everything possible to ensure that the manuscripts are dealt with promptly and that those which are accepted are quickly published.
Review process
Each paper submitted is reviewed by at least two external reviewers and the editors to assess its suitability to the journal. All manuscripts which format does not follow the guidelines indicated below will be rejected without further consideration.
To upload the revised version of the manuscript, authors need to go into "Review and Submit" section of their draft and submit.
Copyright
Articles submitted to the journal should not have been published before in their current or substantially similar form, or be under consideration for publication with another journal. Please see Emerald's originality guidelines for details. Authors submitting articles for publication warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright and will indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranty.
The editor may make use of iThenticate software for checking the originality of submissions received.
This is an open access journal. All works are published under Creative Commons CC-BY license, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. View the license in full.
Third party copyright permissions
Prior to article submission, authors should clear permission to use any content that has not been created by them.
Failure to do so may lead to lengthy delays in publication. Emerald is unable to publish any article which has permissions pending. The rights Emerald requires are:
- Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the article or book chapter.
- Print and electronic rights.
- Worldwide English language rights.
- To use the material for the life of the work (i.e. there should be no time restrictions on the re-use of material e.g. a one-year licence).
When reproducing tables, figures or excerpts (of more than 250 words) from another source, it is expected that:
- Authors obtain the necessary written permission in advance from any third party owners of copyright for the use in print and electronic formats of any of their text, illustrations, graphics, or other material, in their manuscript. Permission must also be cleared for any minor adaptations of any work not created by them.
- If an author adapts significantly any material, the author must inform the copyright holder of the original work.
- Authors obtain any proof of consent statements
- Authors must always acknowledge the source in figure captions and refer to the source in the reference list.
- Authors should not assume that any content which is freely available on the web is free to use. Authors should check the website for details of the copyright holder to seek permission for re-use.
Informed consent
If your article involves human participants, you must ensure you have considered whether or not you require ethical approval for your research, and include this information as part of your submission. Find out more about informed consent.
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Emerald supports the development of, and practical application of consistent ethical standards throughout the scholarly publishing community. All Emerald’s journals and editors are members of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) which provides advice on all aspects of publication ethics. Emerald follows the Committee’s flowcharts in cases of research and publication misconduct, enabling journals to adhere to the highest ethical standards in publishing. Read more information on Emerald’s publication ethics policy.
Copyright forms
Upon acceptance of an article authors will be requested to sign a Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Publishing under a CC BY 4.0 license means:
- Copyright in the article is retained by the author.
- The author grants Emerald a licence to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
- Your article can be shared freely, including copying and redistributing the material in any medium or format.
- Your article can be adapted, remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- Full attribution to the original work must be included in any derivatives, indicating if/where changes have been made.
Authors will be asked to complete the CC BY 4.0 licence through ScholarOne. All authors are sent an e-mail with links to the licence form, which they must check for accuracy and submit electronically.
Author fees
The journal is published under a Platinum Open Access arrangement, in that all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the journal are funded by The College of Tourism, Beijing Union University. This journal does not charge APCs or submission charges.
Emerald Editing Service
Emerald is pleased to partner with Editage to provide editorial support for authors wishing to submit papers to Emerald journals. Peerwith is a platform for author services, connecting academics seeking support for their work with the relevant expert who can help out with language editing and translation, visuals, consulting, or anything else academics need to get their research submission-ready.
Final submission
The author must ensure that the manuscript is complete, grammatically correct and without spelling or typographical errors. Before submitting, authors should check their submission completeness using the available Article Submission Checklist. Proofs will be e-mailed prior to publication.
Archiving policy
Emerald provides perpetual access for all e-journal and book content by working with digital preservation schemes Portico, LOCKSS and CLOCKSS. Read further information on Emerald’s archiving policy.
Manuscript requirements
The journal's policy is open access and creative commons. Authors retain their rights to republish this material in other works written or edited by them, subject to full acknowledgement of the original source of publication.
Please prepare your manuscript before submission, using the following guidelines:
Format |
Article files should be provided in Microsoft Word format. While you are welcome to submit a PDF of the document alongside the Word file, PDFs alone are not acceptable. LaTeX files can also be used but only if an accompanying PDF document is provided. Acceptable figure file types are listed further below. |
Article length |
Articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words in length. This includes all text, for example, the structured abstract, references, all text in tables, and figures and appendices. Please allow 280 words for each figure or table. |
Article title |
A concisely worded title should be provided. |
Author details |
All contributing authors’ names should be added to the ScholarOne submission, and their names arranged in the correct order for publication.
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Biographies and acknowledgements | Authors who wish to include these items should save them together in an MS Word file to be uploaded with the submission. If they are to be included, a brief professional biography of not more than 100 words should be supplied for each named author. |
Structured Abstract |
All submissions must include a structured abstract, both via the online submission system and within the Word document, following the format outlined below. These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included:
The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable:
The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total, including keywords and article classification (see the sections below). |
Keywords |
Authors should provide appropriate and short keywords in the ScholarOne submission that encapsulate the principal topics of the paper (see the How to... ensure your article is highly downloaded guide for practical help and guidance on choosing search-engine friendly keywords). The maximum number of keywords is 12. |
Article classification |
During the submission process, you will be asked to select a type for your paper; the options are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit:
For the first two types of submissions, the following paper structure is recommended: Research Paper
Practitioner Paper
However, your paper structure is allowed to be flexibly adjusted to disciplines dominant practices. You will also be asked to select a category for your paper. The options for this are listed below. If you don’t see an exact match, please choose the best fit: |
Headings | Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the distinction between the hierarchy of headings. The preferred format is for first level headings to be presented in bold format and subsequent sub-headings to be presented in medium italics |
Notes/endnotes |
Notes or endnotes should be used only if absolutely necessary and must be identified in the text by consecutive numbers, enclosed in square brackets and listed at the end of the article. |
Figures |
All Figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, web pages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be submitted in electronic form.
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Tables |
Tables should be typed and included in a separate file to the main body of the article. The position of each table should be clearly labelled in the body text of article with corresponding labels being clearly shown in the separate file. |
Supplementary files |
Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content hosting platform, or on an institutional or personal repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance. If you choose to host your supplementary files on Insight, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article, there is no need to include the content of the file but only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication. Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copyedited, typeset, and authors will not receive proofs. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article. Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions:
If you choose to use an institutional or personal repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process). |
References |
All references in your manuscript must be formatted using one of the recognised Harvard styles. You are welcome to use the Harvard style Emerald has adopted – we’ve provided a detailed guide below. Want to use a different Harvard style? That’s fine, our typesetters will make any necessary changes to your manuscript if it is accepted. Please ensure you check all your citations for completeness, accuracy and consistency. Emerald’s Harvard referencing style References to other publications in your text should be written as follows:
A few other style points. These apply to both the main body of text and your final list of references.
At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference. |
For books |
Surname, Initials (year), Title of Book, Publisher, Place of publication. |
For book chapters |
Surname, Initials (year), "Chapter title", Editor's Surname, Initials, Title of Book, Publisher, Place of publication, pages. |
For journals |
Surname, Initials (year), "Title of article", Journal Name, volume issue, pages. |
For published |
Surname, Initials (year of publication), "Title of paper", in Surname, Initials (Ed.), Title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, Publisher, Place of publication, Page numbers. |
For unpublished |
Surname, Initials (year), "Title of paper", paper presented at Name of Conference, date of conference, place of conference, available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date). |
For working papers |
Surname, Initials (year), "Title of article", working paper [number if available], Institution or organization, Place of organization, date. |
For encyclopedia entries |
Title of Encyclopedia (year) "Title of entry", volume, edition, Title of Encyclopedia, Publisher, Place of publication, pages. |
For newspaper |
Surname, Initials (year), "Article title", Newspaper, date, pages. |
For newspaper |
Newspaper (year), "Article title", date, pages. |
For archival or other unpublished sources |
Surname, Initials, (year), "Title of document", Unpublished Manuscript, collection name, inventory record, name of archive, location of archive. |
For electronic sources |
If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as a date that the resource was accessed. |
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Editor-in-Chief
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Prof.
Robin
Qiu
Dept. of Information Science, Pennsylvania State University, USA
[email protected]
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Prof.
Robin
Qiu
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Managing Editor
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Dr.
Jiale
Ren
Chengdu University, China
[email protected]
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Dr.
Jiale
Ren
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Editor Assistant
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Weizhen
Yang
Journal Center of Chengdu University, China
[email protected]
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Weizhen
Yang
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Editors
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Lian J
Ruan
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
[email protected]
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Lian J
Ruan
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Associate Editors
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Ahmed
Bounfour
Université Paris-Saclay, France
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Kwang-Jae
Kim
Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea
[email protected] -
Christian
Matt
University of Bern, Switzerland
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Fabio
Sgarbossa
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
[email protected] -
Emmanuel
Fragnière
University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais), Switzerland
[email protected] -
Norita
Ahmad
American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
[email protected] -
Weiwei
Chen
Rutgers University, USA
[email protected] -
YouaKim
Badr
Pennsylvania State University, USA
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Lik Hang
Tsui
City University of Hong Kong, China
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Feng
Yang
University of Sichuan, China
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Peng
Xiao
Sun Yat-sen Univeristy, China
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Wei
Liu
Library of Shanghai - People's Republic of China
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Wenhong
Zhou
Renmin University of China, China
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Benjun
Zhu
Peking University, China
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Brian
Han
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
[email protected] -
Tingyan (Tina)
Wang
University of Oxford, UK
[email protected] -
Changrui
Ren
Beijing Academy of Blockchain and Edge Computing, China
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Na
Geng
Shanghai JiaoTong University, China
[email protected] -
Lefei
Li
Tsinghua University, China
[email protected] -
Wencui
Han
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
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Elaine
Mosconi
École de gestion - Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
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Cuijuan
Xia
Shanghai Library, China
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Xiaolei
Xie
Tsinghua University, China
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Dr.
Yuxiang (Chris)
Zhao
Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China
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Shan
Li
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
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Chuanmin
Mi
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
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Lan
Yang
University of Galway, Ireland
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Wencheng
Su
Jiangsu University, China
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Vishnu
Prabhu
UNC Charlotte, NC, USA
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Zhaohui
Geng
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA
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Ammar
Aamer
Northeastern (Toronto), Canada
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Youqin
Pan
Salem State University, USA
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Hao
Zhang
Wuhan University, China
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John
Levendis
Loyola University New Orleans, USA
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Fereshteh
Mafakheri
University of Quebec, Canada
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Jonathan
Fowler
Logicie Analytics, USA
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Sugandha
Aggarwal
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, India
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Deepa
Bhatt
Montpellier Business School, France
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Ho-Chang Michael
Chae
University of Central Oklahoma, USA
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Vincent Tsz Fai
Chow
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
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Guihong
Wan
Harvard University, USA
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Noel
Carroll
University of Galway, Ireland
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Arij
Lahmar
Dubai Business School, UAE
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Tung Francis
Cu
Northeastern Illinois University, USA
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Ahmed
Bounfour
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Advisory Board
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Prof.
Huiling
Feng
Renmin University of China, China
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Prof.
Huiling
Feng
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Journal Editorial Office (For queries related to pre-acceptance)
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Shivani
Verma
Emerald Publishing
[email protected]
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Shivani
Verma
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Supplier Project Manager (For queries related to post-acceptance)
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Ananthi
Anandhan
Emerald Publishing
[email protected]
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Ananthi
Anandhan
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Publishing Services Manager
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Eva
Chen
Emerald Publishing
[email protected]
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Eva
Chen
This journal is included in the following abstract and indexing services:
- EBSCO Discovery Service
- Google Scholar
- Summons (ProQuest)
- WorldCat
Digital Transformation and Society publishes peer-reviewed research in the interdisciplinary field of digital transformation and society. It’s an international journal fostering discussions how digital technologies disrupt and transform society, nationally and internationally. It promotes critical analysis and inquiries into the theory and development of digitalization in business and society.
eISSN: 2755-077X

This journal is open access
Aims and scope
Digital Transformation and Society (DTS) publishes innovative and original papers on all topics related to digital technology, development, and transformation in business and society, promoting work that crosses technical, business, social, and other disciplinary boundaries. It is the primary forum for presenting new theories and new empirical results in the emerging, interdisciplinary field of digital transformation and society, incorporating research, education, and practice. It aims to present empirical, modelling, and theoretical studies of business and society digitalization and transformation. Topics covered include but are not limited to the following:
Theory and Fundamentals
- The Theory and Development of Digital Transformation and Society
- Values and Impacts of Digital Transformation
- Digitality and Intangibility
- Digital Transformation and Intellectual Property
- Digital Identify, Trust, Security, and Privacy
- Governance, Regulations, and Policies
Business and Organization Transformation
- Digital Transformation in Business
- Digital Transformation in Organizations
- Service Digitalization
- Industry Digitalization
- Digital Logistics and Supply Chain
Society Transformation
- Digital Arts and Life
- Digital Citizenship
- Digital Transformation in Cultural Institutions
- Digital Transformation and Cultural Change
- Digital Literacy and Societal Engagement
- Digital Community and Urban Development and Sustainability
- Digital Divide and Societal Challenges
Platforms and Technology
- Blockchain
- Digital Twin Technology
- Metaverse and Immersive Technology
- Data, Systems, and Society
- Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Analytics in Digitalization
- Platformization and Digital Transformation
Applications and Trends
- Digital Economy
- Digital Healthcare
- Digital Currency and FinTech
- Digital and Smart City
- Digital Education and Workforce
- The Future of Work, Life, and Society
To submit to the journal, please go to ScholarOne manuscripts portal. Please follow the author guidelines before submitting.
All articles are published open access, so are made freely available at no charge to the author.
DTS is published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Chengdu University, who owns the title. DTS is published under a platinum OA arrangement, in that all charges for publishing an OA article in the Journal are funded by the Chengdu University. Therefore, there is no charge to the author.
Latest articles
These are the latest articles published in this journal (Last updated: May 2023)
Top downloaded articles
These are the most downloaded articles over the last 12 months for this journal (Last updated: May 2023)
Top cited
These are the top cited articles for this journal, from the last 12 months according to Crossref (Last updated: May 2023)
Transparency statement for Digital Transformation and Society
- Journal Ownership: Digital Transformation and Society is published by Emerald Publishing on behalf of the Chengdu University.
- Governing Body: The editorial team is appointed and managed by the Chengdu University. The journal is governed by the editorial team in collaboration with Emerald Publishing.
- Peer Review Process: The journal operates a double blind peer review model. All articles undergo an initial assessment by the journal editor. If they are considered suitable for consideration, articles will then be a reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers to assess suitability for publication. Final responsibility for editorial decisions rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
- Editorial team/contact information: Contact details for the editorial team can be found above. Queries may also be directed to Emerald’s Publishing team as follows: Eva Chen – [email protected]
- Copyright: All articles in the journal are published Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-4.0). This allows authors to retain copyright of their work whilst others can share, use and build upon this work created as long as appropriate attribution is given.
- Author Fees: The journal is published under a Platinum Open Access arrangement, in that all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the journal are funded by the Chengdu University. There are currently no Article Processing Charges to the author(s).
- Allegations of Misconduct: All journals published by Emerald are members of and subscribe to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics. In the event of any allegation of research or publication misconduct the publisher and editor will adhere to COPE guidelines in dealing with such allegations.
- Conflicts of interest: Authors are asked to declare any financial or ethical conflicts of interest upon submitting their work to the journal. Difficult cases will be referred to the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) for advice.
- Frequency: The journal publishes two issues per annum.
- Access: All journal articles are published Open Access on EmeraldInsight.com - http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/dts under a CCBY 4.0 licence (please see section 5).
- Revenue sources: The journal is published under a platinum Open Access arrangement, in that all costs associated with publishing an Open Access article in the journal are funded by the Chengdu University.
- Advertising: The journal does not accept direct advertising.
- Archiving: Emerald provides perpetual access for all e-journal content by working with digital preservation schemes Portico, LOCKSS and CLOCKSS.
- Direct marketing: On occasion the journal will use direct marketing activities (primarily email campaigns) to raise awareness of the journal and to invite authors to submit articles. Marketing activities are conducted by the Chengdu University unless otherwise agreed with Emerald.
This statement was prepared by Eva Chen (Emerald Publishing) on 10 January 2022.