Overview

Members of the Editorial Board are considered as a part of the journal governance and their role is very important to protect the quality, credibility and academic integrity of published materials. They assist the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial team in upholding strict peer review practices, ethical practices, and in advancing the strategic direction of the journal.

Board Members are distinguished professionals in their fields and they are anticipated to play a crucial intellectual and operational role in the development, visibility and scholarly influence of the journal.

Core Functions of Editorial Board Members

The Members of Editorial Board are entrusted with specific responsibilities that will contribute to the scholarly impact and reputation of the journal. These include:

• Maintaining the academic quality and relevance of published material.
• Supporting editorial decision-making based on subject knowledge.
• Providing insights into emerging research trends and developments.
• Contributing to the continuous improvement of editorial policies and standards.
• Improving the visibility of the journal in the academic and professional circles.

Manuscript and Peer Review Responsibilities

Board Members will be expected to help in the peer review process by:

• Accepting and reviewing manuscripts in a timely, objective and constructive fashion in their area of specialization.
• Providing in-depth technical assessments and suggesting qualified peer reviewers where necessary.
• Assessing reviewer reports and giving more feedback when solicited by managing editors.
• It is necessary to make sure that the reviews will be carried out according to the principles of confidentiality and ethics.
• Detecting possible problems like plagiarism, ethical concerns or methodological weaknesses.

Board Members could also be invited to oversee peer review of assigned manuscripts or provide an advisory role with regard to complex or high-impact manuscripts.

Advisory and Strategic Role

Along with manuscript-related responsibilities, Editorial Board Members work strategically in the journal by:

• Defining and refining the journal’s scope, objectives and editorial direction.
• Recommending the topics of special issues, thematic sections or emerging research areas.
• Suggesting topics to enhance the journal’s academic visibility through ethical dissemination practices.
• Giving feedback on editorial processes, policies, and guidelines to authors.
• Participating in periodic consultations or meetings (where applicable)

Scholarly Outreach and Community Engagement

Editorial Board Members act as representatives of the journal and are encouraged to:

• Engage in scholarly outreach in their academic institutional and professional circles.
• Invite high-quality scholarly contributions from leading researchers in their field.
• Represent the journal at conferences, seminars, and academic events.
• Fostering collaborations that enhance the journal’s reputation.

Ethical Responsibilities and Compliance

The journal operates under a strict policy of editorial independence. Payment of any fees, including Article Processing Charges (APCs), does not influence editorial decisions. All manuscripts are evaluated solely on academic merit, originality, and peer review outcomes. The Editorial Board Members should all follow internationally acknowledged publishing ethics and best practice. This includes:

• Strictly keeping confidential all the submitted and unpublished materials.
• Disclosure and control of any conflicts of interest.
• Avoiding bias and discrimination in the review of the manuscript.
• Policies supporting research integrity, prevention of plagiarism and ethical approval.
• Adhering to the rules set by organizations, e.g., the Committee on Publication Ethics.
• Editorial practices are aligned with the ICMJE Recommendations.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Member of the Editorial Board is chosen after a stringent review of:

• Education and experience.
• A strong publication record in indexed journals (e.g., Scopus, Web of Science).
• Previous experience in peer review or editorial positions.
• Demonstrated contributions to their research field.
• Align with the scope and vision of the journal.

Term, Contribution, and Renewal

Appointments to the Editorial Board are typically made for a defined term and are subject to periodic review based on contribution indicators such as:

• Promptness and quality of reviews of manuscripts.
• The extent of involvement into editorial work.
• Journal development and scholarly outreach.
• Compliance with professional and ethical practices.

Benefits and Recognition

Being an Editorial Board Member can offer a number of professional benefits, such as:

• Recognition as an expert and leader in the field
• The possibility to impact the course of the scholarly research.
• Improved academic presence and connections.
• Access to the latest research before publication.
• Official recognition in the journal web site and publications.

Overview

The editors are key players in maintaining integrity, quality, and credibility of publication process of the journal. Editors make decisions independently of the publisher and are not influenced by commercial considerations. Their work involves overseeing manuscript submission and editorial handling, peer review, informed editorial decision-making and maintenance of ethical and professional standards.

Editors are expected to perform their duties fairly, transparently, and accountably without compromising the scope, scholarly integrity, and integrity of the journal.

Editorial Responsibilities

The overall management of submitted manuscripts is bestowed on the editors who are expected to:

• Evaluate submissions in terms of scope, originality and subject relevance.
• Make sure that the process of peer review of all manuscripts is fair, unbiased and timely.
• Decide on editorial matters using reviewer comments, scholarly quality and journal criteria.
• Be consistent in decision making and in editorial practices.
• Make sure that the manuscripts that were accepted are up to the quality and formatting standards of the journal.

Initial Manuscript Assessment

When submitting, Editors have a preliminary evaluation to decide on whether the manuscript should be sent to the peer review or not. This includes:

• Ensuring that it aligns with the journal aims and scope.
• Assessment of novelty, importance and methodological soundness of the work.
• Checking against plagiarism, duplication or ethical issues.
• Compliance with submission guidelines and ethical requirements.

Peer Review Management

The responsibility of the editors is to supervise the process of peer review and to guarantee its quality and integrity. This includes:

• Choosing qualified and independent reviewers who possess relevant expertise.
• Eliminating reviewers who may have a conflict of interest.
• Monitoring reviewer contribution in terms of timeliness and quality.
• Making sure that reviewer feedback is constructive, objective and respectful.
• Making editorial decisions after considering all the inputs of the reviewers.

Editorial Decision-Making

Final decision making on manuscripts is done by the editors who can either accept, revise or reject the manuscript. By so doing they must:

• Base decisions on academic merit, originality and relevance.
• Consider reviewer’s comments when using independent judgment.
• Give authors clear, reasoned and constructive feedback.
• Ensuring consistency and transparency in the decision-making.

Ethical Standards and Integrity

The editors should maintain the best publication ethics and are required to:

• Keep all the submitted materials and communications confidential.
• Declare and manage any conflicts of interest
• Adhere to ethical standards regarding the human/animal research, consent, and data integrity.
• Handle cases of suspected misconduct, plagiarism or falsification of data.
• Adhere to standards that are internationally accepted like those of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Confidentiality

All manuscripts should be handled as confidential documents by the editors. This includes:

• Not sharing manuscript content with unauthorized individuals
• Not using unpublished material for personal research or advantage
• Maintaining the anonymity of the reviewers (where necessary to the review model used by the journal).

The editorial process and post-publication processes should be confidential.

Conflict of Interest

In cases where there is a competing interest, editors should not deal with their manuscripts. This includes:

• Personal, professional or financial connections with authors or institutions.
• Personal participation in the assessed research.

In this instance, the manuscript ought to be passed to a different competent editor to be objective.

Timeliness and Accountability

The work of an editor is supposed to be effective and to meet the established deadlines. This includes:

• Immediately designate reviewers and oversee the review progress.
• Making decisions within established editorial timelines.
• Communicating effectively with authors and reviewers.

Communication with Authors and Reviewers

As editors, we will ensure that there is professional and transparent communication by:

• Giving specific guidelines and expectations to reviewers.
• Providing positive and courteous feedback to authors.
• Responsive to author inquiries and issues.
• Making sure that no communication is less than professional and neutral.

Continuous Improvement and Contribution

To help the journal continue to develop, the editors are invited to:

• Giving feedback on editorial policies and workflows.
• Making recommendations on how to increase the quality, efficiency, and impact.
• Determining new research areas and trends.
• Supporting initiatives to improve indexing, visibility and readership.

Compliance and Engagement Review

Editors’ contributions may be periodically reviewed based on:

• Timeliness and quality of editorial decisions
• Involvement in editorial work.
• Compliance with professional and ethical standards.
• Contribution to the growth and reputation of the journal.

Editors play a central role in maintaining the journal’s standards. Their adherence to equity, honesty, and high academic standards guarantees the journal the status of high standards of publishing and keeps on serving the international research community.

Overview

The editorial process is structured in a manner that facilitates a clear, effective and transparent peer review. It provides the process that should be followed to process manuscripts until the final decision is made, consistency and quality control as well as compliance with the ethical publishing criteria.

The editorial team handles all manuscripts via a formal workflow and Editors supervise the workflow, which is supported by reviewers and editorial personnel.

Step 1: Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts are sent to the journal by a submissions system as per the author guidelines.

At this stage:

• Authors should make sure that they follow the formatting and submission rules.
• Documents needed (e.g., cover letter, ethical approvals, declarations) should be attached.
• The submissions should be in line with the scope and policies of the journal.

Step 2: Initial Screening and Quality Check

Manuscripts are first vetted by the editorial office/handling editor once they have been submitted.

This includes:

• Checking of scope and relevance.
• Basic quality and structure evaluation.
• Checking plagiarism, duplication, or ethical issues.
• Check of compliance with submission guidelines.

Manuscripts that do not satisfy the minimum requirements can be desk rejected at this point.

Step 3: Editor Assignment

Manuscripts meeting the technical screening criteria are allocated to an Editor according to the expertise in a particular subject.

The designated Editor will take care of:

• Carrying out a more in-depth technical and scholarly assessment.
• Deciding on whether the manuscript is to pass on to peer review.
• Identifying potential reviewers

At this step, the manuscript can be rejected by the editors when they fail to comply with the standards of the journal.

Step 4: Peer Review Process

Manuscripts approved for review are sent to independent expert reviewers.

The important points of this phase are:

• Selection of qualified, unbiased reviewers
• Maintenance of confidentiality and anonymity (based on review model)
• Reviewers who give constructive, objective and timely feedback.
• Assessment of methodology, originality, significance, and clarity.

The journal follows a double-blind peer review process in which both authors and reviewers remain anonymous. Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers. The average review timeline ranges between 3–6 weeks, depending on reviewer availability and revisions.

Step 5: Editorial Evaluation of Reviews

After the reviewer reports have been obtained, the Editor checks the feedback.

This involves:

• Evaluating the quality and consistency of reviewer comments.
• Agreement of conflicting opinions of reviewers, where needed.
• Establishing the need to have extra reviews.

The editors make sure that all feedback is in line with the standards of the journal before making a decision.

Step 6: First Decision

The Editor makes a decision based on the reviewer feedback, as well as, editorial evaluation:

• Accept (infrequent first round)
• Minor Revision
• Major Revision
• Reject

Authors are provided with a detailed reviewer feedback and editorial feedback to help them revise.

Step 7: Revision and Resubmission

Authors must make changes to their manuscript when responding to reviewers and editors.

During this stage:

• All the comments need to be answered point by point.
• The Editor reviews revised manuscripts, and, when needed, refers them to reviewers.
• Several revision cycles could be made based on the degree of changes necessary.

Step 8: Final Decision

After revisions that fulfill all reviewer and editorial requirements, the Editor makes a final decision:

• Acceptance for publication
• Rejection (in case concerns are not addressed)

Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions. Appeals must be submitted in writing with detailed scholarly justification and will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief according to our formal Appeals and Complaints Policy.

The ultimate decision is made upon the quality, clarity and adherence to journal standards of the manuscript.

Step 9: Production and Publication

Accepted papers are transitioned to the technical production teams and involve:

• Copyediting and proofreading
• Formatting and typesetting
• Final proofs to be approved by the author.
• Online publication and/or print publication.

The journal will make sure that all the published materials are of professional publishing standards.

Step 10: Post-Publication Responsibilities

After publication:

• There might be post-publication questions or corrections that authors need to respond to.
• Editors can administer the issuance of errata, corrigenda, or retractions.
• The journal maintains continuity with ethical and indexing procedures.

Ethical Management Throughout the Workflow

The journal follows established procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. The journal also ensures strict compliance with ethical standards at all the different stages of the editorial workflow, such as:

• Manuscripts are handled in a confidential manner.
• Screening for plagiarism and misconduct.
• Handling conflicts of interest.
• Adhering to the international best practice like COPE guidelines.

Timelines and Efficiency

The journal is committed to maintain timely editorial process by:

• Reducing the time spent in selecting reviewers and response time.
• Measuring turnaround times per phase.
• Keeping a good contact with the authors and reviewers.

Overview

The journal believes in upholding the principles of the utmost academic integrity, transparency and ethical publication. Everyone participating in the publication procedure, such as Editors, Editorial Board Members, and Reviewers, will have clearly defined roles to play in order to make published research credible and of high quality.

Such roles are informed by the internationally accepted best practices in scholarly publishing.

Responsibilities of Editors

The management and integrity of the editorial process are the main responsibilities of editors. They will:

• Provide fair, unbiased timely peer review.
• Make decisions based on academic merit, originality and relevance.
• Keep all materials submitted confidential.
• Detect and mitigate possible challenges due to plagiarism, data integrity, or ethical violations.
• Deal with conflicts of interest in a proper way.
• Communicate effectively and positively with authors and reviewers.
• Be consistent with editorial choices and journal policies.

Editorial Board Member Responsibilities

Members of the Editorial Board assist the editorial process and help to develop the journal. Their responsibilities include:

• Facilitating the peer review process by reviewing manuscripts or suggesting reviewers.
• Advisory services and providing subject knowledge to Editors.
• Promoting the journal within academic and professional networks.
• Working on the strategic direction and policy formation of the journal.
• Upholding ethical standards and maintaining confidentiality

The Board Members will be expected to be actively involved and responsive in their position.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

The role of reviewers is to provide quality and validity of research published. They are supposed to:

• Give unbiased, positive and prompt reviews of manuscripts.
• Keep all the review materials confidential.
• State any conflict of interest prior to taking review assignments.
• Determine possible problems regarding plagiarism, ethical issues, or methodological problems.
• Provide feedback to help the authors to improve their work.

Evaluations should be done professionally, fairly and respectfully by the reviewers.

Journal Responsibilities

The journal itself must take care of a clear and ethical publishing atmosphere. This includes:

• Creating and implementing clear editorial and ethical policies.
• A sound and clear peer review process.
• Provision of easy-to-follow instructions to authors, editors and reviewers.
• Observing and countering concerns to do with publication ethics and misconduct.
• Updating the integrity of the academic record by correcting, retracting, or updating when necessary.
• Compliance with indexing and international standards of publishing.

The journal adheres to the DOAJ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. The journal maintains full editorial independence. Payment of any fees, including Article Processing Charges (APCs), does not influence editorial decisions. All submissions are evaluated solely based on academic merit, originality, and peer review outcomes.

Ethical Responsibilities and Compliance

High ethical standards, are required of all the parties involved in the publication process, such as:

• Prevention and reporting of conflict of interest.
• Avoidance of plagiarism, data fabrication and falsification.
• Human and animal research, adherence to ethical standards.
• Adequate credit given to sources and contributions.
• Honoring of rules set by well-known organizations like the Committee on Publication Ethics.

The journal encourages authors to make research data available where possible and to comply with data transparency and reproducibility standards relevant to their discipline. Any ethical violation will be dealt with following laid down policies and procedures.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All those involved in the editorial process should:

• Consider manuscripts and the communications associated with them as confidential documents.
• Fail to disclose or use unpublished data to personal or professional benefit.
• Guarantee safe management of sensitive data.

Conflict of Interest Management

In order to be transparent and unbiased:

• Any financial, institutional or personal conflict of interest is required to be disclosed by all participants.
• In a case of conflict, editors should recuse themselves from handling or overseeing the peer review of such manuscripts.
• Reviewers should refuse to work on assignments, in which their impartiality might be questionable.

Trust in the editorial process should be maintained by proper management of conflicts.

Accountability and Performance

Periodically, the journal can examine the work and behavior of Editors and Board Members in accordance with:

• Quality and promptness of editorial contribution.
• Compliance with professional and ethical rules.
• Participation in journal and editorial development.

Non-fulfillment of core editorial responsibilities may result in conclusion of editorial tenure.

Continuous Improvement

To continuously improve the journal, all the stakeholders are invited to:

• Providing formal assessments on editorial procedures and policies.
• Supporting initiatives to improve quality, visibility, and impact.
• Keeping up with the changing standards of scholarly publishing.

The combination of the roles of the Editors, Board Members, Reviewers, and the journal as a whole maintains integrity, quality, and credibility of the publication process. By following these ideals, the journal creates a credible and effective academic publishing platform.

The journal is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against publication malpractice. All parties involved in the publication process—authors, editors, reviewers, and the publisher—are expected to adhere to internationally recognized ethical standards, including those established by the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Plagiarism

All submitted manuscripts are screened using plagiarism detection tools to ensure originality. Manuscripts found to contain significant overlap with previously published work without proper citation will be rejected. In cases where plagiarism is detected after publication, appropriate actions such as retraction or correction will be taken in accordance with COPE guidelines.

Data Fabrication and Falsification

The journal does not tolerate data fabrication or falsification. Authors are required to present accurate data and a truthful account of their research. Any manipulation or misrepresentation of data will result in rejection of the manuscript or retraction of the published article.

Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication

Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are not under consideration or published elsewhere. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously or publishing redundant content is considered unethical and will lead to immediate rejection. If detected post-publication, such cases may result in retraction.

Authorship and Contribution Disputes

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Any disputes regarding authorship will be handled in accordance with COPE guidelines, and may involve institutional investigation where necessary.

Handling of Ethical Misconduct

All allegations of ethical misconduct are taken seriously and will be investigated following established procedures. The journal follows the ethical frameworks and flowcharts provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics to ensure fair and transparent resolution of such cases.

Corrections, Retractions, and Editorial Actions

In cases where significant errors or ethical concerns are identified after publication, the journal may issue corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions as appropriate. These actions are taken to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.