Editorial Independence Policy

SAER Journal is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions are made independently on the basis of scholarly quality, research integrity, the journal's aims and scope, and publication ethics. Editorial processes should be protected from inappropriate commercial, institutional, personal, political, or other external influence.

1. General Principle

Decisions concerning the evaluation and publication of manuscripts are based on originality, scholarly quality, methodological soundness, ethical acceptability, and relevance to the journal's scope.

An author's identity, institution, academic status, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, political views, or other personal characteristics unrelated to scholarly evaluation must not determine editorial decisions.

2. Authority for Editorial Decisions

Decisions to send a manuscript for peer review, request revision, accept, or reject a submission are made by authorized editors.

Peer-review reports are an important component of editorial decision-making but reviewer recommendations are advisory rather than automatically binding. Final decisions are made after considering reviewer reports together with editorial assessment, scholarly quality, ethical requirements, and journal policies.

3. Independence from Publisher and Journal Ownership

The journal owner, publisher, technical service providers, or administrative structure should not intervene in the acceptance or rejection of individual manuscripts on grounds unrelated to scholarly evaluation.

The role of the publisher or journal owner is limited to supporting the journal's sustainability, technical infrastructure, administrative operations, and overall publishing framework. Scientific decisions concerning individual manuscripts remain within the authority of the editorial structure.

4. Independence from Financial and Commercial Influence

Article processing charges, publication fees, advertising revenue, sponsorship, or other financial sources of the journal do not influence editorial decisions.

An author's ability to pay a fee, institutional affiliation, or financial relationship with the journal does not provide an advantage in acceptance, and the absence of such a relationship does not create a disadvantage.

5. Role of Sponsors and Funders

Financial support or sponsorship of a study is not, by itself, a positive or negative factor in editorial decision-making.

Where funders or sponsors have had a role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish, authors are expected to disclose that role transparently.

Sponsors and funders may not interfere with reviewer selection, peer review, or final publication decisions at SAER Journal.

6. Conflicts of Interest of Editors

Where an editor has a financial, academic, institutional, personal, or other significant conflict of interest concerning a manuscript, that editor must recuse themselves from its evaluation and decision-making process.

The manuscript will then be handled independently by another authorized editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.

7. Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members

Editors, editorial board members, and other individuals involved in the journal's editorial processes may submit scholarly work to SAER Journal. However, such individuals must not participate in the initial assessment, reviewer selection, correspondence, or final decision concerning their own manuscripts.

These submissions will be handled by an independent editor without a relevant conflict of interest and will be subject to the same scholarly and ethical standards as other submissions.

8. Editorial Independence in Special Issues

Guest editors and special issue editors are required to follow the journal's scholarly and ethical evaluation standards when handling manuscripts within their assigned issue.

Where a guest or special issue editor is an author of a submitted manuscript, that manuscript will be managed by an independent editor.

The existence of a special issue does not suspend the journal's peer review, conflict-of-interest, or research-integrity policies.

9. Editorial Pressure or Improper Intervention

Editors must not be pressured to accept or reject manuscripts for reasons unrelated to scholarly evaluation.

Where an allegation of inappropriate external interference arises, the journal's authorized editorial structure may review the matter and take additional measures necessary to preserve the independence of the decision-making process.

10. Scientific and Ethical Accountability of Editors

Editorial independence does not constitute unrestricted discretion. Editors are responsible for making decisions in accordance with the journal's published policies, principles of scholarly publishing, research integrity, and fair evaluation.

Where appropriate, reasons for editorial decisions may be communicated to authors and may be reconsidered through the journal's complaints or appeals procedures.

11. Confidentiality

Unpublished manuscripts, peer-review reports, author correspondence, and other confidential information obtained during editorial decision-making must be used only for legitimate purposes related to the publication process.

Such information must not be used to obtain personal, academic, commercial, or competitive advantage.

12. Changes in Editorial Roles

Changes in editors or editorial structure should not improperly influence the scholarly evaluation of manuscripts already under consideration.

Where editorial responsibilities change, reasonable efforts should be made to preserve the review history of ongoing submissions and maintain continuity of the editorial process.

13. Transparency and Accountability

SAER Journal recognizes that editorial independence should operate together with transparency and accountability. The journal's editorial structure, principal publishing policies, and conflict-of-interest principles are made publicly available.

14. Policy Updates

SAER Journal may review and update this policy in response to developments in scholarly publishing standards and editorial good practice.