1. These terms and conditions (“Terms & Conditions”) apply to this Scientific Steps Group website, available at https://www.ScientificSteps-Group.com and its subdomains and any services offered through it.

Please also read our Privacy Policy, which contains important information regarding the ways in which we collect and use your personal information in connection with our business

2. Certain parts of this Web Site may be subject to registration. You may access the Site as an unregistered user but will need to register with us for an account in order to submit, edit or review any articles intended for publication in one of our journals. Any submissions, edits, information or data (in any form) you make via your Account including without limitation uploading of any articles or edits to articles are described in these Terms as your Contribution. In addition to these Terms, you acknowledge and agree that you will comply with any Author Guidelines, Editorial Workflows, Publication Ethics or other policies applicable to the journal(s) you contribute to via your Account (Policies).

3. SSG offers scientific publication and editorial services, which can be ordered by the Customer through the Website.

3.1. The user asks for contracting publication and editorial services with SSG the moment she/he submits an original scientific article (“Article”) for evaluation through peer-review and possible publication by SSG.

3.2. The user agrees to support open access publishing, which allows unlimited access to his/her published paper. In addition, the user agrees to the article processing charge (APC) and is bound to pay the APC after acceptance of the paper for publication.

3.3. When purchasing publication services from SSG, the user has the following cancellation right: The user can withdraw her/his article and cancel the declared intention to conclude the contract any time during the evaluation (peer-review) of the Article. Once the Article is accepted for publication, it may no longer be withdrawn by the user. Any benefits or interests received by the user up to the cancellation must be restituted to SSG.

3.4. When offering services to the users, SSG has the following cancellation right: SSG may turn down or reject the Article anytime without specifying any reason and thus cancel the conclusion of the contract. After the cancellation through SSG, both parties are freed from any previous commitments of these Terms and Conditions. The user shall be fully refunded if any service fees were already paid before the cancellation of the contract, with the exception of English editing charges.

3.5. Once an article is published, SSG will refund authors in exceptional circumstances only and a decision will be made on a case-by-case basis.

4. In these terms “Intellectual Property Rights” means any patents, registered and unregistered trade-marks and service marks, domain names, registered designs and design rights, copyright (including such rights in computer software and databases), database rights and moral rights (in each case for the full period thereof and extensions, revivals and renewals thereof), applications for the foregoing and the right to apply for any of the foregoing anywhere in the world, and all similar rights anywhere in the world including those subsisting in inventions, designs, drawings and computer programs.

Unless otherwise indicated, this website and its contents are the property of SSG. The copyright in the material contained on this website belongs to SSG or its licensors. The trademarks appearing on this website are protected by the laws of UAE and international trademark laws.

5. All articles published by SSG on this website marked “Open Access” are licensed by the respective authors of such articles for use and distribution by SSG subject to citation of the original source in accordance with the Open Access license.

5.1. If material from other publications is reproduced in your manuscript, please provide proof that you have obtained the necessary copyright permission. 

5.2. Your manuscript is accepted for processing on the understanding that it has not been published elsewhere (or submitted to another journal). Exceptions to this rule are papers containing material disclosed at conferences, however please inform us if this is the case. For papers with multiple authors, please also confirm that all authors are familiar with, and agree with, the contents of the manuscript. We reserve the right to contact all authors to confirm this in case of doubt. Please provide e-mail addresses for all authors and at least one institutional email address for one of the co-authors, and specify the name, address and E-mail for invoicing purposes.

6. Publication of an article with us requires payment of a non-refundable article processing charge in accordance with our Article Processing Charges Policy listed for each journal in the “Journal Menu”

6.1. Prices are stated at Article Processing Charge (APC), The applicable price for the publication service regarding an accepted Article is based on the date of the original submission of the Article to SSG.

6.2. Payments to SSG are due within 5-10 days of sending the invoice to the Customer.

6.3. Invoices are sent by e-mail to the payment contact person provided by the Customer soon after acceptance of an article for publication.

7. We shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor Submissions to determine compliance with these Terms and Conditions and any operating rules we establish and to satisfy any law, regulation or authorized government request. We shall have the right in our sole discretion to edit, refuse to post, or remove any Submission.

8. SSG reserves the right to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms as it.

9. You confirm that you have read and accept our Privacy Policy.

We may revise the Terms at any time by amending this page. Your use of the Site will be subject to the most recent version of the Terms available on the Site. We recommend that you read through the Terms available on the Site regularly so that you can be sure that you are aware of any changes that may apply to you.