The Employee Relations Law Journal (Empl. Relat. Law J.) is committed to maintaining a rigorous, transparent, fair, and ethically responsible editorial process. The journal's editorial policies are designed to protect the integrity of the scholarly record, support authors and reviewers, and ensure that editorial decisions are based on academic merit and relevance rather than commercial or personal considerations.

The journal follows recognized principles of scholarly publishing and takes into consideration relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), where applicable. The journal also seeks to maintain editorial and publishing practices consistent with internationally recognized standards expected of reputable scholarly journals and indexing services.

Managing the Peer-Review Process

The journal uses a single-blind peer-review process. Submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment before being considered for external review.

Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate reviewers with relevant expertise and for ensuring that reviewers can provide an independent and objective assessment. Reviewers are expected to maintain confidentiality, disclose conflicts of interest, and provide constructive and professional comments.

The Editor is ultimately responsible for the editorial decision and is not required to follow a particular reviewer recommendation. Editorial decisions may include acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection.

Initial Editorial Screening

Each manuscript is initially evaluated for:

• Relevance to the journal's scope
• Originality and scholarly contribution
• Basic academic and structural quality
• Compliance with manuscript submission requirements
• Appropriate referencing and citation practices
• Plagiarism or substantial text similarity
• Ethical and conflict-of-interest requirements
• Compliance with applicable publication policies

Manuscripts that are outside the journal's scope or do not meet the minimum requirements may be rejected before peer review.

Reviewer Selection and Management

Reviewers are selected based on their subject expertise, academic or professional qualifications, research experience, and ability to provide an impartial assessment.

Editors should avoid assigning reviewers who have conflicts of interest with the authors or the submitted work. Reviewers are expected to complete reviews within the agreed timeframe and should notify the Editorial Office promptly if they are unable to do so.

The journal maintains appropriate confidentiality throughout the peer-review process.

Assistance With Manuscript Submissions

The Editorial Office may provide authors with administrative and procedural assistance concerning manuscript submission, required documents, formatting requirements, manuscript status, revisions, and publication procedures.

Editorial assistance does not guarantee acceptance or publication and does not influence the independent editorial evaluation or peer-review outcome.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy, originality, completeness, ethical compliance, and final content of their manuscripts.

Editorial Communication

The Editorial Office aims to communicate with authors, reviewers, and other stakeholders professionally and within a reasonable timeframe.

Authors may contact the Editorial Office regarding manuscript status, revisions, withdrawal requests, editorial decisions, technical matters, or other legitimate concerns.

The journal seeks to process manuscripts and respond to author inquiries in a timely manner, consistent with available editorial resources.

Manuscript Revisions

When revisions are requested, authors should address reviewer and editorial comments carefully and provide a clear response explaining the changes made.

Editors may assess revised manuscripts themselves or return them to reviewers for further evaluation. Additional rounds of revision may be requested where necessary to ensure the quality and integrity of the final manuscript.

Proofreading and Copyediting

Accepted manuscripts may undergo editorial proofreading and copyediting before publication to improve clarity, consistency, grammar, formatting, references, tables, figures, and overall presentation.

Proofreading and copyediting do not alter the authors' substantive findings, arguments, or conclusions without appropriate editorial consultation.

Authors may be asked to review proofs before publication and are responsible for identifying any remaining factual or typographical errors within the specified proofing period.

Compiling and Publishing Issues

The Editorial Office is responsible for organizing accepted articles into journal issues according to the journal's publication schedule, editorial priorities, subject relevance, and production requirements.

Only manuscripts that have completed the required editorial, peer-review, revision, and production stages will normally be considered for inclusion in an issue.

The journal may determine the sequence and grouping of articles while maintaining editorial independence and scholarly integrity.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are based on the scholarly quality, originality, relevance, and contribution of manuscripts. Decisions must not be improperly influenced by commercial interests, advertising, sponsorship, personal relationships, institutional pressure, or the potential commercial success of an article.

The journal maintains editorial independence from advertising and other commercial activities.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and other unpublished information are treated as confidential.

Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose confidential manuscript information to unauthorized individuals or use unpublished information for personal or professional advantage.

The journal maintains appropriate records of submissions, reviews, revisions, decisions, and correspondence in accordance with its editorial and record-retention practices.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors, reviewers, and authors must disclose actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence the publication process.

Editors should recuse themselves from decisions where their relationships or interests could compromise impartiality. Where necessary, another qualified Editor may be assigned to handle the manuscript.

Plagiarism and Research Misconduct

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, inappropriate manipulation of the scholarly record, authorship misconduct, peer-review manipulation, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.

Manuscripts may be screened using Turnitin or an equivalent similarity-detection system. Where concerns arise, the journal may conduct an investigation and take appropriate action in accordance with its publication ethics procedures and recognized COPE principles.

Corrections and Retractions

The journal is committed to maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the published scholarly record.

When a significant error is identified after publication, the journal may publish a correction or other appropriate notice. Where an article contains serious errors that invalidate its findings or where research or publication misconduct is established, the journal may issue a retraction or expression of concern.

Corrections and retractions will be clearly identified and linked to the original publication where appropriate to maintain transparency and proper indexing of the scholarly record.

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant procedural error, misunderstanding, or relevant issue has affected the decision.

Appeals should provide a clear explanation and supporting information. Appeals are reviewed independently and do not guarantee reversal of the original decision.

The journal also maintains procedures for handling complaints relating to editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, authorship, conflicts of interest, or other publishing matters. COPE guidance emphasizes that journals should have clear mechanisms for handling appeals, disputes, corrections, and post-publication concerns.

Post-Publication Discussion

The journal recognizes the importance of responsible scholarly discussion after publication. Legitimate scholarly concerns, correspondence, corrections, and other post-publication matters may be considered by the Editorial Office.

Where a credible concern is raised about a published article, the Editor may assess the matter and take appropriate action to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Artificial Intelligence and Editorial Work

The journal expects editors, reviewers, and authors to use artificial intelligence responsibly and in a manner that protects confidentiality, originality, authorship, and research integrity.

Confidential manuscripts and peer-review materials should not be uploaded to external AI systems where confidentiality cannot be assured. Editors should also ensure that any use of AI-assisted tools within editorial workflows does not compromise the confidentiality or integrity of submitted work.

Editorial Board and Staff

Editorial Board members and editorial staff are expected to perform their responsibilities professionally, ethically, and independently. They should maintain confidentiality, disclose conflicts of interest, support rigorous peer review, and contribute to the continuous improvement of the journal.

The journal seeks to maintain a qualified and appropriately diverse Editorial Board and reviewer community in accordance with good scholarly publishing practices.

Transparency and Publishing Standards

The journal is committed to maintaining clearly defined policies concerning peer review, authorship, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, copyright, corrections, retractions, complaints, appeals, advertising, and editorial independence.

These policies are intended to promote transparency and responsible journal management and may be reviewed periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing standards and applicable ethical guidance.