The Editor’s Role

At Global Journals®, our editors are not only decision makers, they are key influencers in shaping quality, visibility, and the evolution of our journals. Every editorial decision echoes across the research landscape, so we expect integrity, insight, and leadership from those who serve. Below is a refined, comprehensive guide to the responsibilities, expectations, and collaborative functions of editors, including the special roles of the Editor-in-Chief and Guest Editors.

Core Responsibilities & Functions

  • Screening & Initial Assessment
  • Conduct an early review to check scope fit, completeness, and ethical compliance.
  • Filter out unsuited manuscripts before sending them for peer review, saving time and maintaining quality.
  • Managing Peer Review
  • Choose appropriate, unbiased experts to review manuscripts.
  • Monitor review progress and follow up as needed.
  • Resolve conflicting reviews by seeking additional perspectives or mediating decisions.
  • Provide clear, constructive feedback to authors for revision.
  • Final Decision Authority
  • Decide on acceptance, revision, or rejection based on reviewer input, manuscript merit, and policy compliance.
  • Recuse yourself from decisions where you hold a conflict (personal, professional, or institutional).
  • Ethics, Quality & Trust
  • Uphold and enforce publication ethics: plagiarism checks, data integrity, authorship disputes, and compliance with declarations.
  • Maintain strict confidentiality over manuscript content, review reports, editorial deliberations, and author correspondence.
  • Strategic & Editorial Leadership
  • Propose ideas for special issues, thematic clusters, or invited collections.
  • Offer guidance to editorial board members, reviewers, and authors on standards, policy updates, or best practices.
  • Champion journal visibility, indexing, and reputation-building in your scholarly networks
  • Community Engagement & Representation
  • Serve as an ambassador for the journal in academic forums, conferences, and networks.
  • Engage with authors, reviewers, and readers to encourage submissions and promote excellence.
  • Mentor early-career researchers and promote diverse, inclusive participation in editorial among scholars.
  • Operational Oversight & Metrics
  • Work with staff and publisher to ensure smooth workflow: handovers to production, metadata accuracy, scheduling.
  • Monitor key metrics: turnaround time, backlog, review performance, submission trends.
  • Prepare periodic reports for journal leadership: submissions, acceptance ratios, delays, areas needing improvement.
  • Participate in editorial board meetings and help evolve policies, processes, and tools

Essential Qualities & Expectations

  • Fairness & Impartiality
  • Editors are entitled to technical, procedural, and legal support from the publisher, including advice on ethical or misconduct matters.
  • Efficiency & Punctuality
  • Maintain consistent, reasonable timelines and proactively address delays
  • Professional Communication
  • Frame feedback clearly, respectfully, and helpfully, with empathy and decisiveness
  • Commitment & Availability
  • Dedicate sufficient time and attention to your role; avoid overcommitment.
  • Continuous Growth
  • Stay informed about evolving practices, e.g. AI tools, open data, peer review innovations, reproducibility.

Extended Duties of the Editor-in-Chief (EIC)

In addition to the core editor role, the EIC carries unique responsibilities, especially when the journal publishes supplemental issues, special series, or launches calls for papers

  • Guest Editor Selection & Oversight
  • Invite qualified Guest Editors with strong domain expertise and integrity.
  • Formalize responsibilities via written agreement (roles, timelines, deliverables, conflict policy).
  • Ensure Guest Editors regularly renew conflict-of-interest disclosures.
  • Coordination & Representation
  • Act as the central liaison for internal staff, Guest Editors, authors, and external stakeholders.
  • Provide orientation and training to Guest Editors in using the manuscript system and upholding journal standards.
  • Standards & Transparency
  • Clarify the journal’s review criteria, decision thresholds, and editorial standards before Guest Editors begin work.
  • Oversee initial screening, plagiarism checks, and permissions workflows for supplement submissions.
  • Final Decision & Consistency
  • Approve which submissions advance to Guest Editors.
  • Confirm or make final decisions to maintain alignment with the journal’s ethics and quality policies.
  • Keep a transparent decision log shared with Guest Editors.
  • Policy Compliance
  • Ensure that the supplement or special series adheres to journal policies and recognized standards (e.g. COPE, ICMJE, relevant ethics guidelines).

Role & Responsibilities of Guest Editors

When a supplement, theme collection, or call for papers is launched, Guest Editors may undertake key editorial duties, under EIC oversight

  • Disclose Conflicts
  • Declare any financial, institutional, or personal interests relevant to the subject.
  • If they are authors on submissions, recuse themselves and ensure independent review paths.
  • Solicit & Manage Submissions
  • Invite or accept manuscripts aligned with the theme.
  • Ensure consistent evaluation in line with the journal’s review standards and policies.
  • Review Oversight & Decisions
  • Assign qualified reviewers (excluding themselves).
  • Recommend decisions (accept, revise, reject) while keeping the EIC informed.
  • If granted authority, make final decisions but within the guardrails defined in the agreement.
  • Use & Master the System
  • Participate in orientation to the journal’s submission platform, track deadlines, and use reporting tools effectively.
  • Adhere to Caps & Timing
  • Respect timelines for review, revision, and finalization.
  • Consult with EIC before granting extensions or deviating from schedule.
  • Editorial Collaboration
  • Work with the editorial team and EIC to draft promotional material, calls for papers, and thematic commentary.

Special Duties & Added Responsibilities

  • Maintaining Speed & Transparency
  • Monitor and improve turnaround times across all manuscript stages.
  • Leverage performance data to detect bottlenecks, backlog, or longer-than-expected delays.
  • If the journal publishes editorial audits (e.g. submissions volume, acceptance rates, timing), include receipt / acceptance dates in articles to increase transparency.
  • Corrections, Retractions & Concern Notices
  • Act decisively when errors or ethical issues emerge.
  • Publish corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions as necessary, linked clearly to original work.
  • Track error types or frequency; rising errors may prompt internal review of editorial or review procedures.
  • Handling Authorship Disputes
  • When authors raise concerns (e.g. omission, ordering, honorary authorship), the editor first contacts the corresponding author.
  • If unresolved, refer the case to appropriate institutions for investigation.
  • Pause or delay decisions until disputes are resolved.
  • When authors raise concerns (e.g. omission, ordering, honorary authorship), the editor first contacts the corresponding author. If unresolved, refer the case to appropriate institutions for investigation. Pause or delay decisions until disputes are resolved. For published articles, issue corrections or notices explaining the change.
  • Decision Delegation & Team Structure
  • Distribute workload: associate or section editors may manage certain manuscript types or subject areas.
  • Editorial board members may advise, propose topics, or assist with reviews.
  • Managing editorial staff handle administrative, metadata, and communications tasks.
  • All roles should be clearly defined and coordinated to avoid overlap or confusion.
  • Managing Reviewer Comments
  • When reviews are unduly harsh, personally offensive, or contravene policy, the editor must determine whether to redact or edit for tone — but must not alter the scientific content.
  • The journal policy should state when editing or withholding reviews is allowed, how the reviewer is notified, and how changes are documented.
  • Maintain original versions, track modifications, and record the rationale and communication with reviewers.
  • Content Planning & Editorial Direction
  • Identify emerging or underexplored themes and propose special issues or collections.
  • Work collaboratively with the editorial board to commission high-quality invited content.
  • Ensure the journal maintains a balance of article types, disciplines, and voices.
  • Research Impact & Metrics Awareness
  • Understand journal-, article- and author-level metrics (e.g. citations, altmetrics) and how they reflect performance.
  • Use data to guide editorial decisions, identify impactful topics, and adapt strategy.
  • Encourage authors to consider impact and audience when crafting their work.
  • Visibility & Discoverability
  • Advocate for SEO best practices: clear titles, robust abstracts, clean metadata, and web optimizations.
  • Support social media, press, and outreach efforts that amplify article reach.
  • Collaborate with communications teams to promote the journal’s content to new audiences.
  • Visibility & Discoverability
  • Understand journal-, article- and author-level metrics (e.g. citations, altmetrics) and how they reflect performance.
  • Use data to guide editorial decisions, identify impactful topics, and adapt strategy.
  • Encourage authors to consider impact and audience when crafting their work.
  • Ethical Integrity & Editorial Diligence
  • Be vigilant about ethical concerns: plagiarism, data falsification, duplicate publication, authorship disputes.
  • Ensure transparent decision-making and maintain confidentiality throughout the editorial process.
  • Stay current with industry standards (e.g. COPE, ICMJE) and adapt journal policy as needed.
  • Performance Monitoring & Accountability
  • Track metrics like submission trends, acceptance rates, review delays, and backlog.
  • Periodically report editorial performance to leadership or stakeholders.
  • Use this insight to improve workflows, allocate resources, or fine-tune editorial strategy.
  • Community Building & Scholarly Engagement
  • Represent the journal at conferences, symposia, workshops, and within professional networks.
  • Foster relationships with authors, reviewers, and societies.
  • Mentor emerging scholars in editorial service and promote diversity within your editorial team.