JMEP is committed to follow and apply guidelines and flowcharts of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in its reviewing and publishing process and issues. For more information on COPE’s Guidelines & Flowcharts please see: (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts-new/translations). 

 

COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices for Editors

(https://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf), (https://publicationethics.org/files/2008%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf)

  • Everything published in the journal is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief. This means that the editors must:
  • Strive to meet the needs of readers and authors;
  • Strive to constantly improve their journal;
  • Have processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish;
  • Champion freedom of expression;
  • Maintain the integrity of the academic record;
  • Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards;
  • Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
Best Practice for Editors would include:
  • Actively seeking the views of authors, readers, reviewers and editorial board members about ways of improving their journal’s processes.
  • Encouraging and being aware of research into peer review and publishing and reassessing their journal’s processes in the light of new findings.
  • Supporting initiatives designed to reduce research and publication misconduct.
  • Supporting initiatives to educate researchers about publication ethics.
  • Assessing the effects of their journal policies on author and reviewer behavior and revising policies, as required, to encourage responsible behavior and discourage misconduct.

Relations with Readers
  • Readers should be informed about who has funded research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was.
Best practice for editors would include:
  • Ensuring that all published reports and reviews of research have been reviewed by suitably qualified reviewers including statistical review.
  • Adopting processes that encourage accuracy, completeness and clarity of research reporting including technical editing and the use of appropriate guidelines and checklists.
  • Considering developing a transparency policy to encourage maximum disclosure about the provenance of non-research articles.
  • Adopting authorship or contributorship systems that promote good practice (i.e. so that listings accurately reflect who did the work) and discourage misconduct (e.g. ghost and guest authors).
  • Informing readers about steps taken to ensure that submissions from members of the journal’s staff or editorial board receive an objective and unbiased evaluation.

Relations with authors
  • Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
  • Editors should not reverse decisions to accept submissions unless serious problems are identified with the submission.
  • New editors should not overturn decisions to publish submissions made by the previous editor unless serious problems are identified.
  • Journals should have a declared mechanism for authors to appeal against editorial decisions.
  • Editors should publish guidance to authors on everything that is expected of them. This guidance should be regularly updated and should refer or link to this code.
  • Editors should provide guidance about criteria for authorship and/or who should be listed as a contributor following the standards within the relevant field.
Best practice for editors would include
  • Reviewing author instructions regularly and providing links to relevant guidelines.
  • Publishing relevant competing interests for all contributors and publishing corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication.
  • Ensuring that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests).
  • Respecting requests from authors that an individual should not review their submission, if these are well-reasoned and practicable.
  • Publishing details of how they handle cases of suspected misconduct.
  • Publishing submission and acceptance dates for articles.

Relations with reviewers
  • Editors should provide guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them including the need to handle submitted material in confidence. This guidance should be regularly updated and should refer or link to this code.
  • Editors should require reviewers to disclose any potential competing interests before agreeing to review a submission.
  • Editors should have systems to ensure that peer reviewers’ identities are protected unless they use an open review system that is declared to authors and reviewers.
Best practice for editors would include:
  • Encouraging reviewers to comment on ethical questions and possible research and publication misconduct raised by submissions (e.g. unethical research design, insufficient detail on patient consent or protection of research subjects (including animals), inappropriate data manipulation and presentation)
  • Encouraging reviewers to comment on the originality of submissions and to be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism
  • Considering providing reviewers with tools to detect related publications (e.g. links to cited references and bibliographic searches)
  • Sending reviewers’ comments to authors in their entirety unless they contain offensive or libelous remarks
  • Seeking to acknowledge the contribution of reviewers to the journal
  • Encouraging academic institutions to recognize peer review activities as part of the scholarly process.
  • Monitoring the performance of peer reviewers and taking steps to ensure this is of high standard.
  • Developing and maintaining a database of suitable reviewers and updating this on the basis of reviewer performance.
  • Ceasing to use reviewers who consistently produce discourteous, poor quality or late reviews.
  • Using a wide range of sources (not just personal contacts) to identify potential new reviewers (e.g., author suggestions, bibliographic databases).
  • Following the COPE flowchart in cases of suspected reviewer misconduct.

Relations with editorial board members
  • Editors should provide new editorial board members with guidelines on everything that is expected of them and should keep existing members updated on new policies and developments.
Best practice for editors would include:
  • Having policies in place for handling submissions from editorial board members to ensure unbiased review
  • Identifying suitably qualified editorial board members who can actively contribute to the development and good management of the journal regularly reviewing the composition of the editorial board.
  • Providing clear guidance to editorial board members about their expected functions and duties, which might include:
  • Acting as ambassadors for the journal.
  • Supporting and promoting the journal.
  • Seeking out the best authors and best work (e.g., from meeting abstracts) and actively encouraging submissions.
  • Reviewing submissions to the journal
  • Accepting to write editorials, reviews and commentaries on papers in their specialist area
  • Attending and contributing to editorial board meetings
  • Consulting editorial board members periodically (e.g., once a year) to gauge their opinions about the running of the journal, informing them of any changes to journal policies and identifying future challenge.