Editorial Leadership

Main Handling Editors and Section Editors

Publication and Technical Support

Editorial Independence

Qualified academic editors retain responsibility for scholarly evaluation and scientific-editorial decisions, based on relevance, originality, methodological rigor, research integrity, peer-review evidence, and author responses. Editors must disclose material conflicts of interest and must not participate in screening, reviewer selection, review assessment, revision evaluation, or decision-making for their own submissions or other conflicted manuscripts. Such manuscripts are assigned to another appropriate independent academic editor.

Editor-authored manuscripts receive no preferential treatment. Eligible manuscripts normally undergo double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent reviewers. Reviewer recommendations are advisory; the responsible academic editor evaluates the complete scholarly record before reaching or recommending the final decision.

After final acceptance, administrative, indexing, production, communication, and technical personnel support publication preparation but do not independently determine scientific acceptance or rejection. Detailed responsibilities are stated on the Ownership & Management page.

The current editorial-governance framework applies prospectively from 1 September 2026. Changes to appointments do not retrospectively alter valid historical editorial decisions, reviewer records, publication dates, DOI records, or other established scholarly records.

Publication Ethics   ·   Publisher Governance   ·   Peer Review Procedures   ·   Editorial Contact