Editors
Submissions by JOIE Editors
Full-scale articles submitted by Editors of JOIE shall be refereed. Another editor (who is not an author of the submission) shall administer the refereeing and editorial decision-making processes. The submitting editor(s) shall not take part in the decision-making on their papers. They shall be informed of neither the identity of the referees nor the votes of the other editors on their submissions. Editors of JOIE may also submit comments on, responses to, or introductions to, other articles. Generally these need not go through a full refereeing process. But if it is decided by the editorial team to send these out to referees, then the process shall be conducted as if the submission were a full-scale article.
Submissions by Directors of Millennium Economics Ltd or Members of the JOIE International Advisory Board
Submissions by Directors of Millennium Economics Ltd or Members of the JOIE International Advisory Board are also allowed, but the decision process will be handled in such a way that the submitting author does not have access to information or correspondence relating to the submission, except for the anonymous reports by referees.
Submission by an author at the same institution as, or was formerly a student or collaborator of, an Editor
A paper submitted by an author who is at the same institution as an Editor, or was a student or research collaborator of an Editor within the last five years, will be overseen by the other Editors. Editors linked with authors in the aforementioned manner will not take part in the editorial decision on the paper.
Submission by author whose relationship with Editor might create the perception of bias
If a paper is submitted by an author whose relationship with one of the Editors might create the perception of bias (e.g. close family/partner/friendship or conflict/rivalry), then the Editor concerned will declare a potentially perceptible conflict of interest and the paper will be handled by the other Editors. The Editor who has declared a conflict of interest will not be involved in selecting referees or making decisions on the paper.
General policy
If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, they will declare it to the other Editors, and the paper will be handled in the same way as described above.
Referees
Potential conflict of interest for referee
The invitation letter to referees will include the following words: ‘If you think you know the identity of the author and feel there is a strong conflict of interest in your refereeing this paper, please let me know. By accepting this invitation, it is assumed there is no such conflict of interest.’ Standard policy will be not to use a referee if a serious conflict of interest has been declared, but the Editors may use their discretion.
Authors
Sources of funding
On or before acceptance, authors will be asked to provide a statement declaring all sources of funding relating to their paper, and this funding will be acknowledged in the paper.
[Last amended 3 April 2014.]