Editor's Guidelines

Trends in Computer Science and Information Technology (TCSIT) upholds the highest standards of editorial integrity, transparency, and scholarly excellence. Editors play a crucial role in maintaining the quality and credibility of published research. These guidelines outline the responsibilities and ethical expectations for editors managing the peer-review and publication process.

▪ Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for overseeing the review and decision-making process, ensuring fairness, efficiency, and academic rigor. Key editorial responsibilities include:

  • Manuscript Evaluation: Ensuring all submissions align with the journal’s scope, relevance, and research quality.
  • Fair and Unbiased Decision-Making: Assessing manuscripts based on scientific merit, without discrimination.
  • Maintaining Confidentiality: Protecting author and reviewer identities and handling all manuscript details confidentially.
  • Preventing Conflicts of Interest: Declaring and recusing themselves from handling manuscripts where conflicts exist.
  • Ensuring Timely Processing: Managing the peer-review and editorial workflow within the journal’s specified timelines.
  • Compliance with Ethical Standards: Upholding research integrity, ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines, and addressing any ethical concerns.

▪ Peer Review Oversight

Editors play a key role in managing the peer-review process to ensure objective and constructive evaluations:

  • Reviewer Selection: Assigning competent, qualified, and independent reviewers based on manuscript subject matter.
  • Double-Blind Review Process: Ensuring that authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other.
  • Quality Control: Ensuring reviewer feedback is constructive, detailed, and aligned with the journal’s standards.
  • Ethical Review Practices: Identifying potential plagiarism, redundant publications, or conflicts of interest.

▪ Handling of Ethical Issues

Editors must address ethical concerns and research misconduct following best publishing practices. Ethical considerations include:

  • Plagiarism and Similarity Checks: Ensuring all manuscripts undergo plagiarism screening using tools such as iThenticate.
  • Data Integrity: Verifying the authenticity of research data and conclusions.
  • Duplicate Submissions: Ensuring that manuscripts are not under review elsewhere.
  • Corrections and Retractions: Taking appropriate action in case of publication errors, ethical breaches, or fraudulent research.

▪ Editorial Independence

Editors must ensure independence from external influences and make decisions solely based on academic merit. This includes:

  • No Influence from Funding Bodies: Editorial decisions should not be affected by financial, institutional, or personal relationships.
  • Transparent Decision-Making: Manuscript acceptance or rejection should be based on quality, originality, and journal fit.
  • Author & Reviewer Anonymity: Ensuring an unbiased and impartial peer-review process.

▪ Communication with Authors & Reviewers

Editors must maintain clear and professional communication with authors and reviewers, ensuring a smooth editorial process:

  • Providing Clear Guidelines: Ensuring authors and reviewers understand the journal’s expectations and policies.
  • Timely Updates: Keeping authors informed about the status of their manuscript.
  • Constructive Feedback: Ensuring reviewers provide meaningful comments that help improve manuscript quality.
  • Conflict Resolution: Addressing disputes, ethical concerns, or author complaints transparently and fairly.

▪ Decision-Making Process

Editors are responsible for making final decisions on manuscript acceptance or rejection. This process should be:

  • Objective: Decisions should be based on the quality of research and alignment with the journal’s scope.
  • Transparent: Authors should receive a clear explanation of the decision.
  • Reviewer-Based: Editorial decisions should incorporate reviewer feedback and recommendations.
  • Ethically Sound: Any ethical concerns must be resolved before publication.

▪ Conflict of Interest Policy

Editors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest and avoid handling manuscripts where such conflicts exist. Common conflicts include:

  • Institutional Affiliation: If the editor and author are from the same institution.
  • Personal Relationships: If the editor has a personal or professional connection with the author.
  • Competing Research: If the editor is working on similar research.

▪ Confidentiality and Data Protection

Editors must uphold confidentiality standards and protect the integrity of submitted research. Key aspects include:

  • Manuscript Confidentiality: Ensuring that unpublished work remains confidential.
  • Reviewer Anonymity: Protecting the identity of peer reviewers.
  • Secure Data Handling: Safeguarding author information and research data.

▪ Continuous Editorial Development

Editors are encouraged to engage in professional development and stay informed about emerging trends in scholarly publishing. This includes:

  • Attending Editorial Training: Participating in workshops and conferences.
  • Staying Updated: Keeping up with best practices in peer review and research ethics.
  • Engaging with the Research Community: Actively collaborating with scholars and institutions.

The role of editors in TCSIT is integral to maintaining research quality, ethical publishing, and academic integrity. By adhering to these guidelines, editors contribute to a fair, transparent, and high-quality scholarly publishing process.