Editor Roles and Responsibilities

Editorial board is a very privileged and honourable position in Eureka Journals. Editors have full control over the selection and review process as we give them complete access to all the articles and always expect blind and justified review of any manuscript.

Editors of Eureka Journals have responsibilities toward the authors who provide the content of the journals, the peer reviewers who comment on the suitability of manuscripts for publication, the journal's readers and the scientific community, the owners/publishers of the journals, and the public as a whole.

A. Editor Responsibilities toward Authors:

• Providing a clear statement of the Journal's policies on authorship criteria
• Treating all authors with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, honesty, and transparency
• Protecting the confidentiality of every author's work
• Establishing a system for effective and rapid peer review
• Making editorial decisions with reasonable speed and communicating them in a clear and constructive manner
• Being vigilant in avoiding the possibility of editors and/or referees delaying a manuscript for suspect reasons
• Establishing clear guidelines for authors regarding acceptable practices for sharing experimental materials and information, particularly those required to replicate the research, before and after publication
• Establishing a procedure for reconsidering editorial decisions
• Describing, implementing, and regularly reviewing policies for handling ethical issues and allegations or findings of misconduct by authors and anyone involved in the peer review process

B. Editor Responsibilities toward Reviewers:

• Assigning papers for review appropriate to each reviewer's area of interest and expertise
• Establishing a process for reviewers to ensure that they treat the manuscript as a confidential document and complete the review promptly
• Informing reviewers that they are not allowed to make any use of the work described in the manuscript or to take advantage of the knowledge they gained by reviewing it before publication
• Providing reviewers with written, explicit instructions on the journal's expectations for the scope, content, quality, and timeliness of their reviews to promote thoughtful, fair, constructive, and informative critique of the submitted work
• Requesting that reviewers identify any potential conflicts of interest and asking that they recuse themselves if they cannot provide an unbiased review
• Allowing reviewers appropriate time to complete their reviews
• Requesting reviews at a reasonable frequency that does not overtax any one reviewer

C. Editor Responsibilities toward Readers and the Scientific Community:

• Evaluating all manuscripts considered for publication to make certain that each provides the evidence readers need to evaluate the author's conclusions and that author's conclusions reflect the evidence provided in the manuscript
• Providing literature references and author contact information so interested readers may pursue further discourse
• Creating mechanisms to determine if the journal is providing what readers need and want (e.g., reader surveys)
• Disclosing all relevant potential conflicts of interest of those involved in considering a manuscript or affirming that none exist.
• Providing a mechanism for a further discussion on the scientific merits of a paper, such as by publishing letters to the editor, inviting commentaries, article blogs, or soliciting other forms of public discourse
• Explicitly stating journal policies regarding ethics, embargo, submission and publication fees, and accessibility of content (freely available versus subscriber only)
• Working with the publisher to attract the best manuscripts and research that will be of interest to readers

D. Editor Responsibilities toward Journal Owners/Publishers:

• Conducting peer review of submitted manuscripts
• Complying with the guidelines and procedures of the owner organisation, including any terms specified in the contract with that organisation
• Making recommendations about improved evaluation and dissemination of scientific material
• Adhering to the owner's and publisher's fiscal policies towards the Journal, at least in so much as they do not encroach upon editorial independence
• Adhering to the agreed-upon mission, publication practices, and schedule