Editorial Board Responsibilities

Editorial Board structure:
The Editorial Board of the iMedPub LTD journals comprise of Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members. Editor-in-Chief remains the chairperson of the board, hence allowed to take the final decision in any regard.

The formation of the Editorial Board is done through incorporating global experts with excellent academic track record and expertise in the respective journal subject. There is no restriction in the number of the Editorial Board members. Editorial board members must qualify the following major facts:

1. Should a Ph.D degree in the relevant subject.
2. Must have good publication record.
3. Should hold some academic position in Universities, Research Institutes or other such organizations.

Editorial Board responsibilities:

• All Editorial board members must obey the direction provided by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
• Once the plagiarism check is completed every article will be assigned with an Editor and if the article is in the area of Editor’s research interested, it is expected that assigned Editor will take up the assignment at an earliest possible time. 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.
• Assigned Editor should not have any conflict of interest with any assignment, if so then he or she should decline the assignment stating the proper reason to the Editorial Office.
• 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.
• Editor-in-Chief can take the final decision for any publication oriented issue.
• If required Editor may provide the necessary guidelines and dictate the process of submission to the author.
• Editor should not reveal any information regarding the author, reviewer or the article information to anyone, complete confidentiality maintenance is mandatory.
• Editor should be responsible for a fast and transparent peer review process, if required Editor may take support from the Editorial Office.
• Providing the final judgment on the articles assigned within the allotted time with proper reason and clarification should be done by the Editor.
• Editor should remember the policy of fast and effective peer review and further  process, therefore, should communicate with the reviewers or authors depending on the stage of article processing in case of any delay.
• 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.
• Every Editor should keep in mind the time required for reviewing articles before sending any reminder to the reviewer so that assigned reviewer should get appropriate time he or she requires.
• 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.
• Editorial Board members may recommend for the timely topics and suggest potential guest Editors considering the scope, importance and timeliness of the topic.
• Guest Editor can handle a special issue independently while maintaining a regular communication with the Editorial Board member and Editorial Office.
• Once a special issue is finalized and
• Review the special issue proposals for relevance to current research in the concerned field.
• Recommend suitable proposals and their guest editors along with their biographies.
• Once a proposal has been accepted by the EB members for creating a special issue, the corresponding guest editors will be responsible for handling and processing of the special issue articles.
• 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.
• 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.
• Being the path director of the journal, Editors are expected to inform the Journal Office regarding the potential timely topics and author pool through their constant communication.
• Editors should ensure the smooth functioning of the whole process in coordination with publishing house.
• 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.
• Editors should comply with the guidelines and protocols provided by the publishing house.