For Editors

There are some guides for editors in a journal. Journal editors must agree to adhere to the COPE Core Practices, the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by the COPE, and the journal’s ethics and policies.

Editors include the members of editorial board, editorial staff, and guest editors. All the editors must follow the peer review process, and declare the conflicts of interest. In terms of suspected misconducts, please deal with them in accordance with the polices on appeal and complaint, misconduct, AI or AI-assisted tools, and correction, withdrawal, and retraction of the journal.

Editorial Board Members

Usually, Editorial Board Members are responsible for the quality of the publication. They may include the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board Members. The positions vary depending on different journals.

An Editor-in-Chief is usually invited by the journal office depending on his/her academic achievements, community reputation, publishing experience, etc. Scholars with extensive academic backgrounds are also welcome to apply for this position. An Editor-in-Chief takes charge of the whole peer review process, and ensures that manuscripts are evaluated fairly and objectively. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision is generally final. The Editor-in-Chief is also responsible for receiving complaints and, where appropriate, conducting investigations into allegations and making final decisions on the allegations.

Main responsibilities of an Editor-in-Chief are as follows:

• To act as an ambassador for the journal to increase its visibility and impact.
• To determine the journal’s aim and scope.
• To invite distinguished experts to join the Editorial Board.
• To oversee the entire editorial process, and make final decisions.
• To support and guide editors and reviewers when appropriate.
• To understand all the ethical and editorial policies of the journal, and offer promotional advice.
• To chair the annual editorial board meeting.

 

Associate Editors are usually responsible for quality control of manuscripts in a particular section area. The handling editor assigns manuscripts to an Associate Editor to act as an academic editor, and he/she performs initial review of the manuscript. The Associate Editor reviews the manuscript for research areas, critical statements, authors’ approval, etc., and screens manuscripts for the next stage. Manuscripts that do not meet the scope and requirements of the journal will be rejected at the initial review stage. The Associate Editor is responsible for inviting external-independent reviewers, collecting at least two high-quality review reports, and summarizing comments for the Editor-in-Chief’s decision.

If a journal does not have an Associate Editor, other editors will be assigned as academic editors, such as Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors.

 

Main responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• To keep communication with the journal office, and contribute to the promotion of the journal.
• To ensure that the journal is published on schedule with a collection of high-quality articles (all the editors should work together to achieve it, including not limited to the members on Editorial Board, managing editors, and editorial staff).
• To conduct activities in accordance with the publishing standards described on the journal website.
• To participate in the annual editorial board meeting, and address suggestions on issues for journal’s development.
• To promote the journal to more scholars.
• To monitor the editorial process to eliminate academic misconducts.
• To enhance the impact of the journal.

 

Editorial Board Members should have an international dimension, such as diversity in research interests, internationalization of regions, internationalization of ethnicity, and gender balance. Members are normally appointed for a period of three years. The journal office will decide on the appointment of members for the next term based on their performance during the term. Any failure to perform will result in the cancellation of the appointment at any time.

Guest editors

Some journals conduct a special issue or a section collection program, where guest editors are invited to promote this program. Please refer to the special issue policy or section collection policy for more details.

Editorial staff

The internal staff of the editorial office in a journal include managing editors, assistant editors, production editors, copyeditors, et al. They work with Editorial Board Members employed by institutes around the world to develop an academic journal. Managing editors take charge of the general management of the journal, and assistant editors support the peer review process, copyeditors and production editors will edit accepted manuscripts according to the journal’s template. The editorial office receives any inquiries, appeals and complaints. Please contact us at editorial_office@sin-chn.net for more details.

 

Development of a journal

All the participants in a journal have the responsibility to promote the journal in various ways.

• To invite scholars in the field to contribute to the journal, including but not limited to peers, colleagues, and scholars who have published works in the field.
• To act as a publicity ambassador and add the journal information to your profile/business card to expand the journal’s visibility.
• To promote the journal on various venues/platforms, such as media, conferences, and communications.
• When new cases are encountered, procedures should be discussed according to the journal’s publishing and ethics policies. Improved procedures should be developed to handle the cases accordingly.
• To hold regular meetings to stimulate journal operations.