Associate Editors' Responsibilities
Associate Editors (AEs) are subject-matter experts responsible for managing the peer-review process of manuscripts within their specific fields of expertise.
Associate Editors are responsible for:
- Checking submitted manuscripts for scientific quality, novelty, and adherence to the journal's scope.
- Rejecting manuscripts that do not meet the journal's quality standards or novelty requirements prior to external review.
- Suggesting and inviting reviewers.
- Keeping the reviewers’ identities anonymous is in line with our single-blinded review process policy.
- Handling the review process of submitted manuscripts and making the editorial decision whether to accept or reject based on the submitted review reports.
- Ensuring that the authors have sufficiently addressed reviewers' comments before acceptance.
- Ensuring a fair, unbiased, objective, and honest peer review process of submitted manuscripts.
- Ensuring that accepted manuscripts are original, novel, and interesting.
- Protecting authors’ confidentiality and handling submitted manuscripts without revealing their data to anyone outside the review process.
- Replying to the authors’ appeals against the rejections.
Associate Editors are expected to follow the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for handling peer-review and post-publication concerns. They play a vital role in identifying potential plagiarism, data fabrication, or ethical breaches during the review process.
AEs must decline handling any manuscript where a conflict of interest exists. AEs also must ensure that reviewers have no conflict of interest or shared institutional affiliation with the authors.
In accordance with journal policy, if the majority (50% or more) of reviewers recommend "Reject," the AE must reject the manuscript.
