Editors Roles and Responsibilities – Annals of Phytomedicine (AP)

Editor’s Roles and Responsibilities

General responsibilities

Editor-in-Chief, Editors and Editorial Board

The Editor-in-Chief, is responsible for the overall quality of the intellectual content of the Journal and responsibility to maintain the integrity between the review process and the published scientific articles timely as per the Journal norms. All the editors are equally responsible for upholding the mission and scope of the Journal and for selecting papers that provide new, original, and important contributions to knowledge for the benefits of the society. The Editor-in-Chief selects associate editors, coordinating editors, Editorial Board members, reviewers, and any other editorial positions required in developing content for the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief serves as Chair of the Editorial Board and oversees its work.

Responsibilities

The Editor-in-Chief oversees the mission andscope of the Journal
- The Editor-in-Chief periodically reviews the editorial mission and scope of the Journal, consults with the Editorial Board, and makes recommendations on the suitability of the manuscript.
- The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the papers published are consistent with the editorial mission.
- The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the decision to publish any thematic issues of the Journal and for screening the papers to be published.
- The Editor-in-Chief may select a prestigious guest author for Invited commentary.
- The Editor-in-Chief may recommend to the publisher that a Special Issue be published as and when required, in addition to the regular issues of the Journal.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for overseeing the editorial review process
- The Editor-in-Chief selects Associate editors, Coordinating editors, the Editorial Board members, reviewers, and any other special editors for jointly publication of Journal.
- The Editor-in-Chief will use the publisher-provided peer-review system to conduct the editorial review process.
- The Editor-in-Chief will assign papers to reviewers who have the appropriate knowledge and skill to evaluate them timely.
- The Editor-in-Chief will be the final arbiter regarding the acceptance of papers when reviewers differ in their evaluations.
- The Editor-in-Chief will ensure that the review process is completed on time and that authors receive constructive feedback about papers submitted.
The Editor-in-Chief provides the manuscripts accepted for each issue to the publisher
- The Editor-in-Chief forwards the manuscripts for each issue to the publisher, submitting them to the managing editor assigned to the Journal.
- The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the manuscripts are complete, including illustrations, references, and contact information for the authors.
- The Editor-in-Chief submits the manuscripts for each issue on time, according to the schedule agreed upon with the publisher.
The Editor-in-Chief will see that the Journal follows customary ethical policies
- The Editor-in-Chief will identify, investigate, and address any ethical breaches of conduct by authors and reviewers.
- The Editor-in-Chief will see that authors are treated with fairness, courtesy, objectivity, and honesty.
- The Editor-in-Chief must be prepared to deal with errors and allegations of misbehaviour.
The Editor-in-Chief will seek opportunities to promote the Journal
- The Editor-in-Chief will seek to speak at conferences and other events about the purpose and values of the Journal, inviting potential contributors to consider submitting papers to the Journal.
- The Editor-in-Chief will identify indexes in which the Journal should be included and pass that information on to Human Kinetics.
- The Editor-in-Chief will help the publisher promote the Journal by identifying places, events, and individuals to whom promotional material should be sent.
The Editor-in-Chief will provide the publisher with appropriate information about the editorial activities of the Journal
- The Editor-in-Chief will prepare an annual report according to an agreed upon schedule.
- The Editor-in-Chief will report opportunities about which the publisher should know to help improve the Journal.
- The Editor-in-Chief will report any significant problems that might affect the quality or timely release of the Journal.
- The Editor-in-Chief has the final decision-making responsibility for the acceptance or rejection ofall manuscripts submitted to the The publisher will not become involved in editorial decisions.
- Any ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board has the responsibility and authority of appointing the reviewers and acceptance or rejection of the articles based on the reviewers’ opinions.
All Editorial Board members must obey the direction provided by the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.
The Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief are expected to be professional experts with several They need to be truth-seeking, fair and unbiased with a sense of responsibility and dedication to professional ethics and observe all individual rights. They are also expected to take responsible measures to fulfill the aims of the Journal and its constant improvement.
The Editorial Board is supposed to organize a database of the eligible reviewers and constantly update it based on the reviewers’ performance.
If required, Editor may provide the necessary guidelines and dictate the process of submission to the author.
The decision of the Editorial Board for the acceptance or rejection of an article has to be based on evaluation of the reviewers’ expert opinion and assessment of their credibility, and scientific documents and sufficient reasoning; and there is no room for imposing personal taste and professional, racial and religious bias.
Once the plagiarism check is completed of every article, will be assigned with an Editor and if, the article is in the area of Editor’s research interest, it is expected that assigned Editor will take up the assignment at an earliest possible If, he or she wants to deny the assignment due to some personal reason, that should also be informed to the Editorial office at an earliest possible convenience.
Endorse the Journal to authors, readers and subscribers and encourage colleagues to submit their best work. To bring together a range of key individuals within the field who can advise on Journal strategy. Suggesting reviewers for the assigned manuscript. Maintain highest standards of ethics and competence.
Editorial Board members will encourage the submission of articles to the Journal in their network.
It is mandatory that every Editor treat each author with proper dignity, courtesy, fair behavior irrespective of considering the matter and fate of the article.
Honesty and transparency is must to become an Editorial Board member, where an Editor should judge every submission equally and transparently.
The Editors should provide time-to-time input regarding the targeted readers and their preferences, in other words, creative input from editors will help in understanding the readers and their choices within the scope of the subject.
The Editors may attend the Editorial Board meetings occasionally scheduled by the Editorial office for taking part in the discussion for the improvement of the Journal.
Editor should be responsible for a fast and transparent peer-review process, if required editor may take support from the Editorial office.
Being an integral part of the Journal, Editors are responsible to coordinate and manage the critical decisions along with the cooperation of Editorial office, such as retraction issues or similar matters.
Providing the final judgment on the articles assigned within the allotted time with proper reason and clarification should be done by the Editor.
The Editorial Board members may recommend for the timely topics and suggest potential guest editors considering the scope, importance and timeliness of the topic.
Editor should be responsible for any query regarding reconsideration of editorial decisions and should provide the decision quickly and clearly with proper reasons. Editor is responsible for establishing such protocol.
Once the assigned Editor is notified by the Editorial office regarding any information at any stage of the publication process for an assigned manuscript, the Editor should respond as early as possible.
Along with the publisher, the Editorial Board members are responsible for timely publishing the accepted articles.
For any manuscript assigned, editor is responsible for selecting potential reviewers considering their expertise in particular subject areas and keeps monitoring the review process.
It is editor’s responsibility to inform the selected reviewers that reviewers are not entitled to use the any part of the work in any form provided in the article they are reviewing. Reviewers should be also informed about the complete confidentiality of the assignments they are undertaking.
Editors will be responsible to convey the expectations of the Journal to the reviewers with the review scope, quality and timeliness for an effective, fair and constructive review for the assigned submission.
If, any special issue proposal is submitted to the Journal, the assigned Editorial Board member should review the proposal for suitability with the scope of the Journal, timeliness and assessing the scope and the importance of the topic.
The Editors should ensure the smooth functioning of the whole process in coordination with publishing house.

Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief is the most senior position in Academic Editors. With the assistance from Managing Editor, Editor-in- Chief leads the Journal with the responsibility to:
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are obliged to pay special attention to selecting eligible reviewers considering their expertise, eminence, professional and scientific experience, and ethics. It is also expected to respect the authors’ request of not having their article reviewed by certain reviewers, if the reason is well-founded.
The Editor-in-Chief needs to encourage in-depth and reasoned reviews and prevent simplistic and unsatisfactory reviews and also oppose biased, unfounded or humiliating reviews.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are obliged to take the necessary measures to register and archive the article review documents as scientific documents and maintain the identity of the reviewers confidential.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are obliged to announce the final results about acceptance or rejection of the article to the corresponding author promptly.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are expected to consider all the information available in an article highly confidential and refrain from making it available to or discussing the details with others.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are not authorized to use the data or concepts, provided in the article in favor of or against their own or others’ researches before the publication of the article, or use it to criticize or discredit the authors. In addition, after the publication of the article, the Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief are not allowed to disclose any details about the article beyond what has been published by the Journal The only exception is investigating the matters related to research and publication misconduct by the authors provided there is acceptable evidence.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are obliged to prevent any conflict of interests in the review process regarding any personal, business, academic, and financial contact that can potentially affect the acceptance and publication of the submitted articles.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are expected to encourage attention and expert opinion of the reviewers about authenticity and absence of publication or research violations.
The Editor-in-Chief is required to carefully examine the articles that have allegedly violated the publication and research ethics and have been reported by the reviewers or any other sources and if necessary, take measures based on the process of taking action against ‘research and publication misconduct’ included in this guide.
The Editor-in-Chief must not consider the rejection of articles with alleged violations or those articles that have been proved to be in violation of the regulations sufficient and is obliged to investigate the matter to the last step of the However, the authors accused of ‘research and publication misconduct’ must be given an opportunity to answer for the allegations.
The Editor-in-Chief is expected to remove the published articles that have been found guilty of “research and publication misconduct” promptly and inform the readers and corresponding references in a clear manner.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are responsible for revision of the articles which contain errors and must publish a prompt amendment and clearly notify the readers of the changes applied.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are expected to welcome and publish reasonable and acceptable reviews of the published articles.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board must constantly request for the authors’, readers’ and reviewers’ opinions about the improvement of publication policies and physical and content quality of the Journal.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the editorial control and quality of the Journal, including the soliciting, editing and publication of submissions.
The Editor-in-Chief is always acting as an ambassador for the Journal, commissioning content and fielding submission enquires as appropriate.
The Editor-in-Chief can take the final decision for any publication-oriented issue

Coeditor-in-Chief

The Coeditor-in-Chief who assists the Editor-in-Chief and share his roles and responsibilities for the Journal
In the absence of Editor-in-Chief, the Coeditor-in-Chief will take decisions on his behalf
Coeditor-in-Chief assists the Editor-in-Chief in policy formulation and editorial selection
To guide managing and associate editors in content selection
To give final comments on the manuscripts
Organize special issues
Contributing editorials and relevant scientific articles
Select Editorial Board members for the Journal

Managing Editor

A Managing Editor is the one who coordinates peer-reviewers, co-operate with authors, reviewers and board members, writes short editorials and research highlights, and carries out technical editing of manuscripts.

Maintain highest standards of ethics and competence.
Supervise editing of manuscripts for each issue with respect to scientific writing and layout conventions
Suggesting changes to enhance the content quality of the Journal.
Systematic evaluation of the review reports, hold vital decision on paper acceptance or rejection.
Take an active part in the peer review process.
Maintain highest standards of ethics and competence.
Supervise editing of manuscripts for each issue with respect to scientific writing and layout convent,
Suggesting changes to enhance the content quality of the Journal.
Systematic evaluation of the review reports, hold vital decision on paper acceptance or rejection.
No delays in assessing the review reports

Associate Editor

Associate Editors are responsible for obtaining reviews of each manuscript and for evaluating in a timely manner, the technical and intellectual content and suitability of manuscripts assigned to them.

Suggesting suitable reviewers.
Ensuring that the publication maintains the highest quality while adhering to the publication rules and procedures of the Journal.
Promote the Journal at conferences and meetings.
Submit an inaugural article which may have multiple authors, but the associate editor must be a corresponding author.
Suggest and review the special issues as well.
Systematic evaluation of the review reports, hold vital decision on paper acceptance or rejection.

Executive Editor

Review of manuscripts and suggesting suitable
Ensuring that the publication maintains the highest quality while adhering to the publication rules and proc of the Journal.
Occasionally, solicit articles/interesting work from your colleagues/acquaintances and help
Promote the Journal at conferences and meetings
Submit an Inaugural Article which may have multiple authors, but the Associate Editor must be a corresponding
Suggest and review the special issues as well.

Statistical Editor

To provide statistical direction to the Journal.
Validating statistical methodology, trends and results.
To ensure that the statistical tests used were appropriate, the results are properly interpreted and reported.
Avoid outdated/invalid methods, even if pre-specified in protocol.

Guest Editors for Special Issue

The Guest Editor is responsible for ensuring that the review process for the special issue is conducted in an appropriate manner and in line with normal review practices for the Journal.
The Guest Editor for special issue shall compile a list of authors and proposed titles of their papers.
The Guest Editor only accepts papers that are within the subject matter scope of the conference and are submitted by the attending participants/delegates.
The Guest Editor ensures that papers are from international authors and represent an academic contribution to the subject field.
The Guest Editor will invite the authors to submit their papers by the given deadline.
Once, the list of contents is known and articles are being submitted, the guest editor shall provide a short editorial, outlining and introducing the special issue and its significance.

Advisory Board

Advance the standing of the Journal in the scientific community and increase its impact.
Formulating policies and guidelines on ethical publishing practices.
Contribute an article once in a year.
Training the Journal authors with the aim of improving the content and layout of the articles and observing the principles of research and publication ethics.
Cooperating with the Editor-in-Chief in order to maintain the highest level of research and publication ethics in the Journal and to ensure absence of errors in the contents, layout and format of the Journal.
Protection of the authors’ personal information and the contents and details of the article during the review and assessment process of the articles, except for what is published in the Journal after acceptance of the article. The only acceptable exception is to investigate “research and publication misconduct” of the authors’ provided there is reasonable evidence.
Determining and clearly announcing the publication policies of the Journal regarding independent decision making of the Editorial Board, publication ethics, intellectual property and copyright, conflict of interests, author’s responsibilities, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board, the review process and decision making, reassessment requests and objections, preservation of the scientific documents of the review process, protection of the authors’ and reviewers’ information, modification or omission of the published articles, mediating between the plaintiffs and the accused in a “research and publication misconduct” case.
Publishing of ‘predatory’ or bogus Journals, which would rapidly publish ‘anything’ on payment of a fee but without sensible peer-review is absolutely unethical.