For Editors

The editor is guided by the policies of the journal's Editorial Board and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Editors evaluate manuscripts submitted to the journal based solely on their merit (importance, originality, study’s validity, and clarity) and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy or institutional affiliation.

Decisions to edit and publish are not determined by the policies of governments or any other agencies outside of the journal itself. The editor-in-chief has full authority over the entire journal’s content and the timing of its publication.

Editors and editorial staff will not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the authors, peer reviewers, potential peer reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. Unless explicitly permitted by the authors in writing, editors and members of the editorial board will not use any unpublished information disclosed in a submitted manuscript or ideas obtained as a result of handling the manuscript for their own purposes and advantage.

Editors will choose not to consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the papers. The editors ensure that all submitted manuscripts being considered for publication undergo peer review by experts in the field. The editor-in-chief is responsible for deciding which of the manuscripts submitted to the journal will be published, based on the validation of the work in question, its importance to researchers and readers, the reviewers’ comments, and legal requirements.

The editor-in-chief may consult other editors or reviewers in making decisions.
Editors will take responsive measures when ethical concerns are raised regarding a submitted manuscript or published paper, even if the issue is discovered years after publication.

Relations with Readers

Readers should be clearly informed about how the research has been funded or other scholarly studies and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was. The editor should make efforts to ensure that the articles published are aligned with the knowledge and skills of the readers.

 

Relations with Referees

The editor should match the knowledge and expertise of the referees with the manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Mediterranean Cities to be reviewed ensuring that the manuscripts are adequately reviewed by qualified reviewers. The editor should require reviewers to disclose any potential competing interests before accepting to review a submission. The editor should provide necessary information about the review process to the referees about what is expected of them.

The editor must ensure that the review process is double-blind and never reveal the identities of the authors to the referees or vice versa. The editors encourage referees to evaluate manuscripts from an objective and scientific perspective. If necessary, editors may also request that the manuscript be reviewed in terms of English editing. The editor should develop a database of suitable referees and update it based on referee performance and timing. The referee database: it should be attentive to scientists who evaluate the manuscripts objectively, perform the review process on time, evaluate the manuscript with constructive criticism and act in accordance with ethical policies.

 

Relations with Authors

The editor should provide clear publication guidelines and author guidelines of what is expected of them to the authors and continuously review the guidelines and templates. The editor should review the manuscript submitted in terms of guidelines of the journal, importance of the study, and originality, and if the decision to reject the manuscript is made editor should explain it to the authors in a clear and unbiased way. If the decision is made that the manuscript should be revised by the authors in terms of written language, punctuation, and/or rules in the guidelines (spacing, proper referencing, etc.) the authors should be notified and given time to do the corrections accordingly. The authors should be provided with necessary information about the process of their review (at which stage is the manuscript at etc.) complying with the rules of double-blind review. In the case of an editor change, the new editor should not change a decision taken by the previous editor unless it is an important situation.

 

Relations with Editorial Board Members

Through the Publication Policies section, the editor should provide publication policies and guidelines to the editorial board members and explain what is expected of them. The editor should ensure that the editorial board members have the recently updated publication guidelines and policies. The editor should review the editorial board members and include members who can actively contribute to the journal’s development. Editorial board members should be informed about their roles and responsibilities such as.

• Supporting the development of the journal
• Accepting to write reviews in their expertise when asked
• Reviewing publication guidelines and improving them consistently
• Taking responsibility in journal’s operation

Overall, If the academic editor has ethical concerns about a manuscript sent for review or decision or receives information about a possible ethical breach after publication, they must contact the Editorial Office as soon as possible. Our Editorial Office will then conduct an investigation according to COPE guidelines.

To support academic editors, checks are made by Managing Editors and Assistant Editors. However, editors should still report any concerns on any aspect. Checks include:

• Ethics approval and permissions for research involving human subjects, animals, or cell lines.
• Plagiarism, duplicate publication, and that necessary permission from the copyright holder to include already-published figures or images.

 

Author Background and Qualification

When making a final acceptance decision on a manuscript, academic editors should consider the following:

• Any facts that might be perceived as a conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper before submission.
• Authors must accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
• Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper so that other researchers can replicate the work.

 

Editorial Responsibilities

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal will be published. The decisions are made based exclusively on the manuscript's merit. They must be free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. When making decisions the Editor-in-Chief is also guided by the editorial policy and legal provisions relating to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Members of the Editorial Board including the Editor-in-Chief must hold no conflict of interest regarding the articles they consider for publication. Members who feel they might be perceived as being involved in such a conflict do not participate in the decision process for a particular manuscript.

The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential. Information and ideas contained in unpublished materials must not be used for personal gain without the written consent of the authors.

Editors and the editorial staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the authors/reviewers remain anonymous during and after the evaluation process in accordance with the type of reviewing in use.