Summary
INCOSE is committed to ethical, transparent, and high-quality publication practices. These general publication policies and ethics guidelines apply to INCOSE journals, INSIGHT, conference proceedings, technical products, and other INCOSE publication channels. Individual publications may provide additional author instructions or review procedures. INCOSE follows COPE-informed publication ethics principles and expects all authors, contributors, editors, reviewers, and publication volunteers to uphold the standards described here.
Scope
What This Policy Covers
Content submitted to, reviewed by, accepted for, published by, hosted by, or distributed through:
- Systems Engineering journal
- INSIGHT — traditional magazine format through 2026, moving to a year-round online blog beginning January 2027
- INCOSE Applications & Case Studies (IACS), an open-access practitioner journal
- INCOSE Technical Products — primers, white papers, guides, manuals, case studies, technical reports, and similar products
- International Symposium proceedings
- Regional conference proceedings
- Other INCOSE-sponsored reports, guides, white papers, case studies, books, and standards-related publications
Who It Applies To
Authors, coauthors, contributors, editors, guest editors, reviewers, conference publication chairs, technical product leads, working groups, staff, contractors, and volunteers involved in publication activities.
How It Relates to Other Requirements
This policy works alongside INCOSE publication agreements, Wiley requirements for Systems Engineering, conference author instructions, Technical Product process requirements, and COPE guidance.
Bottom Line: where a publication-specific requirement is stricter than this general policy, the stricter requirement applies.
Relationship to Existing INCOSE and Publisher Requirements
This policy should be interpreted consistently with INCOSE publication agreements, permissions and copyright guidance, Wiley requirements for Systems Engineering and any other externally hosted INCOSE publications, conference author instructions, Technical Product process requirements, and COPE guidance. If a publication-specific requirement is stricter than this general policy, the stricter requirement should apply for that publication.
INCOSE currently distinguishes publication categories such as conference proceedings, technical publications, and technical products. INCOSE’s public permissions and copyright guidance explains that conference proceedings generally use a non-exclusive license model, while many technical publications involve transfer or exclusive licensing of copyright to allow INCOSE to publish, preserve, protect, and maintain the version of record. This policy preserves that distinction and does not replace publication-specific agreements.
Core Publication Ethics Principles
Integrity: Published content should be honest, accurate, responsibly sourced, and not misleading.
Transparency: Authors and contributors should disclose conflicts of interest, funding, prior publication, permissions issues, and other information material to editorial evaluation.
Accountability: Authors, editors, reviewers, and contributors remain responsible for their work and decisions.
Fairness: Submissions should be evaluated on merit, relevance, quality, originality, and fit, without discrimination or inappropriate favoritism.
Confidentiality: Materials under review, reviewer identities, editorial deliberations, and unpublished content should be protected unless an applicable review model explicitly provides otherwise.
Respect for the scholarly and professional record: Corrections, clarifications, expressions of concern, retractions, withdrawals, and version updates should be used when necessary to maintain the integrity of the record.
Professional conduct: Participants in INCOSE publication activities should communicate respectfully, meet deadlines, and support inclusive and accessible publication practices.
Authorship, Contributorship, and Acknowledgment
Authorship criteria
Authors should be identifiable individuals who have made a meaningful intellectual, technical, editorial, or creative contribution to the work and who accept responsibility for the content submitted or published under their names. The corresponding author or designated lead contributor is responsible for confirming that all listed authors or contributors have approved the submitted version and that no appropriate author has been omitted.
Contributors and working groups
Some INCOSE technical products are prepared by working groups, committees, or volunteer teams. Group authorship or contributor lists may be appropriate when permitted by the specific publication type; however, the publication should still identify responsible contacts, editors, leads, or accountable contributors. Individuals who contributed but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged where appropriate.
Changes to authorship
Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission should be made in writing, include an explanation, and confirm agreement from affected authors. Editors or publication leads may decline authorship changes that appear inconsistent with ethical authorship standards.
Originality, Prior Publication, and Text Recycling
Originality
Submissions should be original to the authors except where reuse, adaptation, or republication is expressly permitted and transparently disclosed. Authors should not submit work that is under consideration by another publication unless the relevant publication explicitly permits simultaneous consideration.
Fragmentation
Authors should avoid dividing a single body of work into multiple minimally distinct publications in a way that misleads readers, inflates publication counts, or obscures the full context of the work.
Text recycling
Limited reuse of an author’s own previously published text may be acceptable when it is necessary for clarity, methods, background, or continuity and when the original source is cited. Excessive reuse without citation, reuse that misleads readers about originality, or reuse that violates copyright or license terms is not acceptable.
Prior publication and conference-to-journal development
INCOSE recognizes that technical work may evolve from presentations, abstracts, workshop materials, conference papers, proceedings papers, technical products, and later journal articles. Expanded or revised versions of prior work may be appropriate when allowed by the receiving publication, but authors must disclose the earlier version, cite it, and make clear how the new work differs or expands on it. Submitting an identical or minimally changed work as if it were new may be treated as duplicate publication or self-plagiarism.
Citation, Sources, Data, and Evidence
- Authors should cite sources accurately and sufficiently so readers can evaluate the basis for claims. Citations and references should follow the current edition of the APA Style guidelines, unless otherwise specified by INCOSE for a particular publication.
- All sources cited in the text should be included in the reference list, and all works included in the reference list should be cited in the text.
- Quotations, figures, tables, diagrams, data, standards excerpts, and third-party materials must be properly cited and attributed and used only with permission or under an applicable license or exception.
- References should not be added solely to manipulate citation counts, favor colleagues, satisfy inappropriate reviewer demands, or create misleading authority.
- Claims based on data, case experience, surveys, interviews, models, or simulations should be described with enough context to allow responsible interpretation.
- Authors should not fabricate, falsify, selectively report, or misrepresent data, findings, case details, credentials, affiliations, sources, citations, or permissions.
- When confidentiality, proprietary restrictions, national security, privacy, or contractual obligations limit disclosure, authors should explain the limitation to the extent possible without violating those obligations.
Human Participants, Sensitive Information, and Case Studies
Research or case studies involving human participants, interviews, surveys, organizational data, proprietary information, personal data, or sensitive operational details should comply with applicable institutional, legal, contractual, and ethical requirements. Authors should obtain necessary approvals, permissions, releases, or consent before submission. When a case study includes client, employer, government, proprietary, or identifiable organizational information, authors should confirm that publication is authorized.
Publications should not disclose sensitive, classified, export-controlled, confidential, personally identifiable, or proprietary information unless disclosure is lawful, authorized, and appropriate for publication. When anonymization or aggregation is used, it should be sufficient to protect confidentiality.
Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure
Authors, reviewers, editors, publication chairs, technical product leads, and other decision-makers should disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence, or appear to influence, submission, review, acceptance, publication, endorsement, or promotion. Conflicts may be financial, professional, organizational, personal, competitive, intellectual, or related to employment, sponsorship, funding, consulting, patents, products, vendors, or leadership roles.
Editors and publication leads should manage conflicts by recusal, reassignment, additional review, disclosure to readers, or other appropriate steps. Funding, sponsorship, and organizational support should be acknowledged when material to the work.
Peer Review and Editorial Review
Appropriate review model
All INCOSE publications should receive an appropriate level of review before publication. The review model may vary by publication type. Systems Engineering uses formal peer review, while other journals and proceedings follow the review procedures established for those publications. Technical Products may require technical, editorial, working group, committee, or blue-ribbon review. INSIGHT content may receive editorial review. The applicable publication page, author instructions, or call for submissions should describe the review model where practical.
Reviewer responsibilities
- Reviewers should evaluate submissions fairly, constructively, and within their expertise.
- Reviewers should disclose conflicts of interest and decline or seek guidance when a conflict exists.
- Reviewers should keep submissions, reviews, and editorial communications confidential unless the applicable review process explicitly permits disclosure.
- Reviewers should not use unpublished information from submissions for personal, professional, competitive, or organizational advantage.
- Reviewers should not request citations or changes for inappropriate personal benefit or unrelated agenda advancement.
- Reviewers should identify suspected ethical issues, including plagiarism, duplicate submission, data concerns, conflicts, or permissions problems, and report them to the editor or publication lead.
Editor and publication lead responsibilities
- Editors and publication leads should make decisions based on quality, relevance, originality, technical soundness, ethical compliance, audience value, and fit with the publication.
- Editors should protect the confidentiality of submissions and review materials.
- Editors should manage conflicts of interest and assign conflicted submissions to independent editors or reviewers where needed.
- Editors may reject submissions that are out of scope, insufficiently developed, ethically problematic, duplicative, promotional, inaccurate, or inconsistent with INCOSE’s publication standards.
- Editors should provide authors with clear expectations, decisions, and reasonable opportunities to respond when concerns arise.
Permissions, Copyright, Licensing, and Reuse
Authors must comply with INCOSE publication agreements and permission requirements. Authors are responsible for securing permission for third-party material before publication unless the use is clearly permitted by license, law, or INCOSE’s publication process. Third-party material includes figures, tables, standards excerpts, photographs, screenshots, diagrams, survey instruments, software code, datasets, and extended quotations.
INCOSE publication agreements may differ by publication type. Conference proceedings may allow authors to retain copyright while granting INCOSE a non-exclusive license to publish and distribute. Technical publications may require copyright transfer or exclusive license so INCOSE can maintain the authoritative version of record, manage permissions, protect against misuse, and preserve access. Publication-specific agreements control the exact rights granted and retained.
Authors should cite the original INCOSE publication when reusing their own INCOSE-published material in later works and should disclose prior publication when submitting substantially related work elsewhere.
Inclusive, Professional, and Accessible Publication Practices
- Use professional, respectful, inclusive, and precise language.
- Define acronyms on first use and avoid unnecessary jargon where possible.
- Maintain consistency with INCOSE terminology and publication style.
- Distinguish individual opinions, case-specific lessons, working group positions, and INCOSE consensus positions.
- Use accessible formatting, meaningful headings, readable tables, alt text or captions for essential visuals where practical, and clear figure/table references.
- Avoid language, imagery, examples, or assumptions that unnecessarily exclude or demean people or communities.
Publication Records, Versions, Corrections, and Retractions
Versioning
INCOSE publications should include sufficient bibliographic and version information for readers to identify the publication, including title, author or contributor information, publication date, version or revision date where applicable, DOI or persistent identifier where applicable, and update or review cadence where appropriate.
Corrections and updates
Authors and readers should notify INCOSE when they identify significant errors, omissions, permissions issues, ethical concerns, or outdated information in an INCOSE publication. INCOSE may issue a correction, clarification, addendum, updated version, expression of concern, withdrawal, or retraction depending on the nature and severity of the issue.
Retractions and withdrawals
Retraction or withdrawal may be appropriate in cases involving serious error, plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, duplicate publication, unethical research, unauthorized disclosure, compromised peer review, unresolved rights issues, or other circumstances that undermine the reliability or legality of the publication. Decisions should follow COPE-informed procedures and be documented.
Ethical Concerns, Complaints, and Investigations
Concerns about publication ethics may be raised by authors, reviewers, editors, readers, staff, volunteers, conference organizers, working group participants, or other parties. Concerns should be directed to the relevant editor, publication chair, technical product lead, INCOSE Publications, or another designated INCOSE contact.
Possible outcomes include no action, editorial guidance, additional review, correction, disclosure statement, permission remediation, rejection, withdrawal, retraction, publication ban for a defined period, referral to an institution or employer, or other action appropriate to the circumstances.
| Publication type | How the umbrella policy applies |
|---|---|
| Systems Engineering journal | Applies together with Wiley author guidelines, journal-specific editorial policies, COPE guidance, peer-review requirements, and the journal’s publication agreement. |
| INSIGHT | Applies to INSIGHT content, including interviews, professional perspectives, articles, and accessible conversations with members of the systems engineering community. Beginning January 2027, INSIGHT will publish year-round online content through the INSIGHT blog, with selected content curated into two downloadable PDF editions each year. Publication-specific editorial, permissions, and contributor requirements may also apply. |
| INCOSE Applications & Case Studies (IACS) | Applies to practitioner articles, applied methods, case studies, field research, and documented experience from systems engineering practice. IACS is an open-access practitioner journal. Publication-specific author, review, permissions, and submission requirements also apply. |
| Conference proceedings | Applies to submitted and accepted proceedings papers. Individual calls for papers may specify additional submission, originality, permissions, and review requirements. |
| Technical Products | Applies to primers, white papers, guides, manuals, case studies, and similar products. The Technical Product process may supplement this policy with review gates, versioning, working group approvals, and editorial requirements. |
| Other INCOSE materials | Applies when INCOSE publishes or distributes the content as an official or sponsored publication. Informal communications may use lighter editorial review but should still follow integrity, attribution, and professionalism principles. |
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