Editorial board responsibilities and publishing standards
Guidance for editorial board members on transparent editorial practice, peer-review oversight, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, ethics, corrections, and open access responsibilities.
Learning topics in this section
Each topic is written for practical use, with emphasis on transparency, responsible authorship, accurate attribution, publication ethics, and open access publishing standards.
Guidance is prepared to support ethical publishing practice: clear journal information, transparent fees where applicable, responsible peer review, proper citation, licensing awareness, data integrity, and accountable AI use.
Editorial Role and Accountability
Editorial board members should support journal scope, uphold editorial independence, protect the scholarly record, and make recommendations based on academic merit rather than personal, financial, institutional, or commercial influence.
Scope-Based Editorial Assessment
Editors should assess whether a submission fits the journal aims, article type, audience, ethics requirements, and methodological expectations before external review is considered.
Peer Review Oversight
Editorial oversight includes selecting qualified reviewers, avoiding conflicts of interest, monitoring review quality, ensuring confidentiality, and making fair decisions based on evidence and journal policy.
Conflicts of Interest for Editors
Editors should recuse themselves when personal, financial, academic, collaborative, or institutional relationships could affect impartial handling of a manuscript.
Editorial Confidentiality
Manuscript content, reviewer identities where applicable, author correspondence, and editorial discussions must be treated as confidential and not used for personal advantage.
Publication Ethics Decisions
Editors should respond to plagiarism, duplicate submission, authorship disputes, data concerns, image manipulation, consent issues, and research integrity concerns through documented, fair, and policy-based processes.
Corrections and Retractions
Post-publication concerns should be handled transparently using corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions when needed to preserve the accuracy of the scholarly record.
Open Access Editorial Responsibilities
Editors should support transparent open access policies, clear licensing information, fee disclosure, ethical peer review, and accurate indexing or archiving claims.