The Employee Relations Law Journal (Empl. Relat. Law J.) is committed to maintaining high standards of academic quality, editorial independence, fairness, transparency, and publication ethics. Editors play a central role in ensuring that manuscripts are evaluated objectively and that the journal's scholarly and ethical standards are consistently upheld.

These guidelines outline the responsibilities and expected conduct of Editors involved in the editorial and peer-review process.

Editorial Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for overseeing the evaluation, peer review, revision, and publication of submitted manuscripts. Editorial decisions should be based primarily on the manuscript's academic quality, originality, relevance, significance, and compliance with the journal's policies.

Editors should treat all authors fairly and should not discriminate on the basis of nationality, gender, institutional affiliation, academic status, personal characteristics, or other irrelevant considerations.

Initial Manuscript Assessment

Editors should conduct an initial assessment of each submitted manuscript to determine whether it:

• Falls within the scope of the journal
• Meets the journal's basic submission requirements
• Demonstrates sufficient academic or scholarly merit
• Contains appropriate and relevant subject matter
• Meets applicable research and publication ethics requirements
• Provides sufficient originality and contribution to the field

Manuscripts that do not meet the journal's scope or minimum editorial standards may be declined before external peer review.

Peer Review Management

The journal follows a single-blind peer-review process. Editors are responsible for selecting appropriate reviewers with relevant expertise and ensuring that the review process is fair, independent, and confidential.

Editors should consider reviewer expertise, availability, academic or professional qualifications, and potential conflicts of interest when selecting reviewers.

Where necessary, Editors may seek additional reviewers or clarification when reviewer recommendations are substantially different or insufficient to support an editorial decision.

Reviewer Confidentiality

Editors must protect the confidentiality of the peer-review process and should not disclose reviewer identities to authors unless permitted by the journal's established policies.

Editors should ensure that reviewers understand their obligations concerning confidentiality, conflicts of interest, objectivity, and responsible peer review.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors must disclose and appropriately manage any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest relating to a manuscript.

An Editor should not participate in the editorial decision-making process for a manuscript where their personal, professional, financial, academic, or other interests could reasonably compromise their impartiality. Where appropriate, the manuscript should be assigned to another qualified Editor.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions must remain independent of commercial interests, advertising relationships, financial considerations, institutional influence, or personal relationships.

Editors must not allow advertisers, sponsors, authors, reviewers, or other external parties to improperly influence editorial decisions.

Confidentiality

Editors must treat submitted manuscripts and associated editorial materials as confidential. Information contained in unpublished manuscripts should not be disclosed to unauthorized individuals or used for personal or professional advantage.

Editors should share manuscript information only with individuals who are directly involved in the legitimate editorial and peer-review process.

Research and Publication Ethics

Editors should remain alert to possible violations of research and publication ethics, including:

• Plagiarism
• Duplicate or redundant publication
• Fabrication or falsification of data
• Authorship disputes
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Peer-review manipulation
• Inappropriate citation practices
• Ethical approval concerns
• Copyright infringement
• Other forms of research or publication misconduct

Where credible concerns arise, Editors should follow the journal's applicable ethics procedures and take appropriate action.

Corrections and Retractions

Editors are responsible for responding appropriately when significant errors or ethical concerns are identified in published work.

Depending on the circumstances, the journal may publish a correction, clarification, expression of concern, or retraction. Editorial action should be based on the seriousness and reliability of the available evidence and should follow recognized publication ethics principles.

Editorial Decisions

Editors may make decisions such as:

• Accept
• Accept subject to minor revisions
• Major revision
• Reject

Editorial decisions should be communicated clearly and professionally. When appropriate, authors should receive sufficient explanation to understand the basis of the decision.

Reviewer recommendations should be carefully considered, but the final editorial decision remains the responsibility of the Editor.

Handling Revisions

Editors should evaluate revised manuscripts to determine whether the authors have adequately addressed substantive editorial and reviewer concerns.

Where necessary, revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers or sent to additional reviewers for further assessment.

Timeliness

Editors should make reasonable efforts to ensure that manuscripts are processed and reviewed within an appropriate timeframe. Delays should be minimized, and significant unavoidable delays should be communicated to authors where appropriate.

Editorial Conduct

Editors should maintain professional and respectful communication with authors, reviewers, and other members of the scholarly community.

Editors should not use their position to obtain personal, academic, financial, or professional advantage from unpublished information or editorial access.

Appeals and Complaints

The journal should provide authors with an appropriate mechanism for raising concerns or appealing an editorial decision. Appeals should be considered objectively and independently, taking into account the relevant editorial policies and circumstances of the case.

Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, or journal procedures should be handled fairly and confidentially.

Ethical Standards and Guidance

The Employee Relations Law Journal encourages its Editors to follow recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing and peer review, including relevant guidance provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and other applicable international publishing standards.

Editorial Board Responsibilities

Members of the Editorial Board should support the journal's academic objectives, uphold publication ethics, contribute to the peer-review process where appropriate, and maintain the confidentiality of editorial information.

Editorial Board members should disclose conflicts of interest and should not interfere improperly with independent editorial decisions.