Editor Responsibilities
Accountability
The editor of a peer-reviewed journal holds the primary responsibility for deciding which submitted manuscripts are accepted for publication and is ultimately accountable for all content published in the journal. While making such decisions, the editor should be guided by the journal’s editorial policies, legal requirements concerning libel, copyright, and plagiarism, as well as input from reviewers or other editors when necessary. Editors must protect the integrity of the scholarly record, ensure that business or commercial interests do not compromise academic and ethical standards, and be prepared to issue corrections, clarifications, retractions, or apologies whenever appropriate.
Fairness
Editors must assess manuscripts solely on their scholarly value, without bias toward an author’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or political views. Information regarding a submitted manuscript may only be shared with the authors, reviewers, potential reviewers, or editorial board members when necessary.
Confidentiality
Editors and editorial staff are obliged to maintain confidentiality regarding all manuscripts under review. Information should only be shared with those directly involved in the editorial process, such as the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisors, or the publisher.
Conflicts of Interest, Disclosure, and Ethical Issues
When considering article retractions, corrections, or expressions of concern, the editor should follow COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Articles. Editors must not use unpublished material from a manuscript in their own work without the author’s explicit written permission. Similarly, knowledge gained through peer review must not be used for personal gain. Editorial decisions should remain independent of commercial influences such as advertising or reprints.
Editors are also responsible for ensuring a fair peer review process. If an editor has a conflict of interest due to personal, professional, or institutional ties to the authors or subject matter, they should step aside and assign the manuscript to another qualified editor. Authors are required to disclose any competing interests, and if such conflicts emerge after publication, appropriate actions—including corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions should be taken.
Involvement and cooperation in investigations
Editors must safeguard the integrity of the academic record by issuing corrections or retractions when necessary and addressing any instances of misconduct in research, reviewing, or editorial practices. They are expected to take fair and reasonable measures to respond to ethical complaints concerning both submitted and published work.
Reviewer Responsibilities
Contribution to Editorial Decisions
Reviewers play an essential role in assisting editors with publication decisions and in providing constructive feedback to help authors improve their manuscripts.
Timeliness
If a reviewer feels unqualified to evaluate a manuscript or unable to provide a review in a timely manner, they should immediately inform the editor so that another reviewer can be assigned.
Confidentiality
All manuscripts sent for review must be treated as confidential. They should not be shared or discussed with others unless explicitly permitted by the editor.
Objectivity
Reviews must be impartial and based on academic merit. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewer feedback should be expressed clearly and supported with sound reasoning.
Acknowledgement of Sources
Reviewers should highlight any relevant, uncited literature and ensure that prior work is properly referenced. They must also alert the editor if they identify significant overlap or similarity between the manuscript and existing publications.
Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure
Information or ideas obtained during the peer review process must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Reviewers should decline to assess manuscripts where conflicts of interest exist due to personal, professional, or institutional relationships with the authors or related organizations.
Author Responsibilities
Research Reporting Standards
Authors must present an honest, accurate, and objective account of their research and its significance. Manuscripts should provide sufficient detail and references to allow replication. Deliberately false or misleading statements are considered unethical.
Originality and Plagiarism
Authors are expected to submit only original work. If they use words or ideas from other sources, these must be properly cited or quoted. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable.
Multiple, redundant, or concurrent publications
Authors must not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time. Furthermore, publishing articles that present fundamentally similar research in multiple primary publications is prohibited.
Acknowledgment of sources
Scholars must always recognize the contributions of other researchers. Furthermore, it is crucial to provide citations for landmark studies that guided the nature and direction of their own work.
Authorship of a manuscript
Authorship must be restricted to individuals who have substantially contributed to the study's conception, design, implementation, or analysis. Anyone meeting this criterion should be included as a co-author. Those who have contributed to specific parts of the research should be acknowledged appropriately. The corresponding author is responsible for verifying that the author list accurately reflects these contributions, that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript, and have consented to its submission
Hazards and human or animal subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors must declare in their submitted work any financial conflicts of interest or other substantive potential influences that could be perceived as affecting the research findings or their interpretation. Additionally, all funding sources supporting the project must be explicitly disclosed to ensure transparency
Fundamental errors in published works
Upon identifying a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, authors are obligated to promptly inform the journal editor or publisher and collaborate with them to address the issue through either the retraction of the paper or the publication of an appropriate correction.
Publisher’s Confirmation
In instances of suspected or confirmed scientific misconduct, fraudulent research publications, or plagiarism, the publisher will collaborate closely with journal editors to initiate appropriate procedures to address the issue and rectify the affected work. Such measures may include promptly issuing an erratum to correct the content. In particularly severe cases, the publisher may proceed with the formal retraction of the work to uphold academic integrity and ensure transparency.
