Editorial Independence
Decisions on what JIFSAM publishes are made by its editors, on the evidence of peer review, and by no one else. This page explains how that is protected, including when an editor or reviewer submits their own work.
1. Principle
Every submission is judged on scholarly merit, method and fit with the journal's scope. The publisher, World Research Union, takes no part in decisions on individual manuscripts. The Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board work independently of the publisher's commercial or organisational interests, and the publisher accepts this as a condition of publishing the journal.
2. Submissions from editors and reviewers
Editors and active reviewers sometimes submit their own research to the journal. To avoid any real or apparent conflict, such submissions follow the protocol below, based on COPE guidance on editorial conflicts of interest.
2.1 Who is covered
A manuscript is treated as an editorial submission if at least one author, at the time of submission, is:
- the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor or a member of the editorial board; or
- an active reviewer, meaning someone who has completed a review for JIFSAM in the previous 24 months.
2.2 How it is handled
- Independent editor. The manuscript goes to an editor who is not an author, has no reporting line to the author and does not share their institution. If no board member qualifies, the Editor-in-Chief invites an external editor.
- Recusal. The author-editor loses workflow access to the submission and takes no part in any discussion of it.
- External review. Reviewers come from outside the editorial board and must declare no conflict with the author.
- Independent decision. The handling editor decides on the basis of the reviews, without consulting the author-editor.
- Declaration. The published article states: "This article was submitted by a member of the journal's editorial team. It was handled by an independent editor, reviewed double-blind by external reviewers, and the author took no part in the editorial process."
- Audit trail. The full OJS workflow record, including editor and reviewer assignments and the recusal, is kept and can be shown on request.
3. Limit on editorial submissions
Articles with at least one author who is an editor or active reviewer will make up less than 15% of the articles published in any rolling 12-month period. The count is by article, not by author. The Editor-in-Chief monitors it for every issue.
4. Annual report
The first issue of each year carries a short note giving the previous year's share of editorial submissions and any action taken. The note is also posted under Announcements.
5. Editors' own interests
Every editor makes a conflict-of-interest declaration each year covering personal, financial, institutional and intellectual interests. An editor withdraws from any manuscript where they have co-authored with an author in the last five years, share an institution, have a supervisory relationship, or hold a financial interest.
6. Separation from the publisher
World Research Union is responsible for hosting, the technical platform, finances and dealings with registries and indexing services. It has no access to the editorial workflow and does not see manuscripts or reviews before publication. Any attempt by the publisher to influence a decision on a manuscript would breach this policy, and the editors would be entitled to disclose it publicly.
7. Concerns
Concerns about independence or about the handling of a particular submission can be raised in confidence with the Editor-in-Chief through the Contact page. If the matter is not resolved, it can be taken to the publisher at info@wrunion.org.
