Duties of Editors

Publication Decisions. Editors-in-Chief are responsible for organising the workflow of the submissions. They assess the submissions with respect to the journal profile and take one of the following decisions: (i) reject the paper without review, (ii) return to the authors for a revision, (iii) pass on to the reviewers for further assessment, or (iv) accept the paper. The editors are primarily focused on the scientific merits of the submission and should not be impacted by other criteria as long as the legal requirements in force on libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism are met. In case such requirements are not met, the editors may reject a paper without assessment of its scientific contents. The Editors-in-Chief may delegate the handling of the paper to another member of the Editorial Board based on the research profile. The Editors-in-Chief make the final decision.

Reviewing. The editors must ensure that the reviewing is carried out in a timely, impartial, professional, and respectful manner. The editors must keep the confidentiality of the reviewing process. The journal applies the double-blind reviewing. The reviewers are chosen outside the organisations of the submitting authors and the Editorial Board.

Fair Play. The editors must follow the principle of non-discrimination in that the papers are purely judged based on scientific terms rather than those of social groups, political views or similar ones.

Conflicts of Interest. The editors must abstain from handling the papers in case a potential conflict of interest may arise.

Vigilance. The Editorial Board oversees the submissions and contents of the journal for possible breaches of research ethics. In the event such cases are noted, the Editors-in-Chief and Publisher decide over the corrective measures. The appeals in regard to material published in the Journal may be submitted to the Editorial Office. The Editors-in-Chief will then cooperate with the Publisher in deciding over the case.  

Advisory Board. Members of the Advisory Board are consulted on strategic development of the journal. They are also expected to convey suggestions for improvement of the journal contents with respect to the principles outlined in the journal policies.