ASCE serves the civil engineering community and society at large in several ways, including the publication of technical journals that present the results of current engineering and scientific research and practice. Fundamental to that service is the responsibility of editors, authors, and reviewers to maintain high ethical standards relating to the submittal, review, and publication of manuscripts. These ethical standards derive from ASCE's definition of the scope of the journal and from the community's perception of standards of quality for engineering and scientific work, and its presentation. The ethical standards that follow reflect a conviction that the observance of high ethical standards is so vital to the entire engineering and scientific enterprise that a definition of those standards should be brought to the attention of all concerned.
These standards were developed by a committee of journal editors and approved by the Board Publications Committee in 1992 as policy. They were initially drafted using the AGU Policies and Procedures of the American Geophysical Union. ASCE acknowledges its appreciation to thc AGU for granting permission to quote from that work.