Responsibilities of the Editorial Committee

The Editorial Committee is responsible for ensuring the quality of the articles published in the journal. To guarantee that published content meets the highest standards, the Committee must adhere to a series of good editorial practices, both in the tasks under its responsibility and in its relationships with other stakeholders, while also ensuring that all parties comply with this Code of Ethics.

General Duties and Responsibilities

• Regularly seek feedback from authors, readers, reviewers, and members of external editorial boards regarding the journal’s editorial processes, and gather suggestions for improvement.
• Review up-to-date literature on innovations in peer-review and journal publishing processes in order to reassess editorial practices in light of new findings.
• Seek appropriate resources, expert guidance, and relevant training to perform editorial duties professionally and enhance the journal’s quality.
• Adhere to initiatives designed to eliminate academic misconduct.
• Support and promote projects that educate researchers on ethical guidelines to be followed throughout the publication process.
• Evaluate the effects of the journal’s policies on the conduct of authors and reviewers, and modify them when necessary to encourage responsible behavior and discourage misconduct.

Relationship with Readers

The ethical commitment to readers involves ensuring that the content offered meets high standards of quality, both in substance and presentation. To this end, the following recommendations should be observed:

• Ensure that all research articles are reviewed by appropriately qualified reviewers.
• Verify that sections not subject to peer review are clearly identified.
• Adopt processes that promote the accuracy, integrity, and clarity of research articles.
• Implement an authorship or contributorship system that encourages good practices (ensuring that author lists accurately reflect who conducted the work) and discourages inappropriate conduct (such as ghost authorship and guest or honorary authorship).
• When journals accept manuscripts from members of the Editorial Committee or Editorial Board, readers should be informed of the measures taken to ensure an objective and impartial review process.

Relationship with Authors

The Editorial Committee has an ethical commitment to provide authors with all necessary information for manuscript submission and to ensure that the evaluation process is fair and impartial. To achieve this, the following recommendations should be observed:

• Publish clear and detailed instructions regarding manuscript submission and what is expected from authors during the review and editorial process.
• Provide guidance on authorship criteria, specifying who should and should not be listed as a contributor.
• Regularly review author guidelines to adapt them to changes in editorial policy and newly implemented innovations.
• Provide links to resources that promote good practices in both academic writing and scholarly publishing (e.g., COPE or ICMJE guidelines).
• Require all contributors to disclose any relevant conflicts of interest and to notify the editorial team of necessary corrections should such conflicts arise after publication.
• Ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected for each submission, capable of evaluating the work competently, impartially, and free from disqualifying conflicts of interest.
• Respect authors’ justified requests to exclude specific individuals from reviewing their work.
• Preserve the confidentiality of manuscripts and refrain from disclosing titles or authorship before acceptance for publication.
• Refrain from using the original content of a manuscript (data, methodology, arguments, or results) prior to publication unless written permission has been obtained from the author(s).
• Follow COPE flowcharts when misconduct is suspected or when disputes regarding authorship arise.
• Clearly describe on the journal’s website how suspected misconduct cases will be handled or provide links to the relevant COPE flowcharts.

Relationship with Reviewers

To ensure that the review process adheres to ethical standards and best editorial practices, the Editorial Committee should provide reviewers with clear guidance. The following recommendations should be observed:

• Provide clear and detailed guidelines for reviewers and update them regularly in accordance with changes and innovations in editorial policy.
• Request that reviewers disclose any potential conflicts of interest before agreeing to review a manuscript.
• Encourage reviewers to identify possible ethical concerns and research misconduct in submitted manuscripts (e.g., unethical research designs, insufficient details regarding informed consent, or inadequate protection of participant anonymity).
• Encourage reviewers to assess manuscript originality and remain alert to plagiarism and redundant publication.
• Provide appropriate recognition for reviewers’ contributions to the journal.
• Ensure confidentiality throughout the review process so that authors do not learn the identity of their reviewers.
• Establish clear rules and communicate them to reviewers if the journal decides to publish a list of reviewers as recognition for their contributions. Respect their decision should they decline inclusion.
• Monitor reviewer performance and take measures to ensure high-quality evaluations. Review reports should be examined before being sent to authors; reports that are inadequate, of poor quality, or offensive should be discarded and a new review requested.
• Develop and maintain a database of highly qualified reviewers and update it based on performance. Remove reviewers who consistently provide disrespectful, low-quality, or delayed reviews.
• Ensure that the reviewer database reflects the journal’s academic community.
• Use a broad range of sources—not only personal contacts—to identify potential reviewers (e.g., author suggestions, bibliographic databases, and directories of institutions with related research interests).
• Follow COPE flowcharts when reviewer misconduct is suspected.

Relationship with Members of the External Editorial Board

The support provided by an External Editorial Board depends largely on the selection of its members and the establishment of effective communication with them. To this end, the following recommendations should be observed:

• Identify potential board members who can actively contribute to the development and effective management of the journal.
• Appoint External Editorial Board members for a fixed term (two or three years). If it is deemed appropriate to extend the service of certain members, establish clear rules governing additional terms.
• Provide clear guidelines regarding the functions and responsibilities expected of External Editorial Board members. These may include serving as ambassadors for the journal; supporting and promoting the journal in relevant academic forums; identifying qualified authors and suitable manuscripts; actively encouraging submissions; reviewing manuscripts; accepting assignments to write editorials, reviews, and commentaries in their areas of expertise; and attending and contributing to Editorial Committee meetings.
• Consult External Editorial Board members regularly (at least once a year) to gather their opinions regarding journal management, inform them of editorial policy changes, and identify future initiatives.