1. RESPONSIBILITIES OF EDITORS
1.1. General Duties and Responsibilities of Editors
1. Strive to meet the needs of readers and writers.
2. Strive to continuously improve their journals.
3. Conduct the process in a favorable manner to ensure the quality of the journal they publish.
4. Support freedom of expression.
5. Protect the integrity of the academic record (index).
6. Business needs should not compromise intellectual and ethical standards.
7. Always be ready to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when necessary.

1.2. Relations with Readers
1. Readers should be informed about who funds research or other academic work and whether funders have any role in the research and publication, and if so, what that role is.

1.3. Relations with Authors
1. The editors' decision to accept or reject a manuscript for publication should be based on the importance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the validity of the work and the journal's scope of work.
2. Editors should not reverse their decision to accept submissions unless serious problems with the submission are identified.
3. New editors should not overturn the previous editor's decision to publish a submission unless serious problems are identified.
4. A description of the peer review process should be published, and editors should verify any deviation from this description.
5. Journals should have an established process for authors to appeal editorial decisions.
6. Editors should publish a guide for authors that includes everything that is expected of them. These guidelines should be regularly updated and linked to the rules in the guidelines.
7. Editors should provide guidance on who should be listed as a submitter, following the criteria for authorship and standards in the relevant field.

1.4. Relations with Editors
1. Editors should treat all expectations of reviewers with confidentiality and provide an overarching guide on how to review submitted manuscripts.
2. Editors should consider whether reviewers have potential competing interests before agreeing to review a manuscript.
3. Editors should have a system in place to guarantee the anonymity of the identity of the review panel unless the editors declare to reviewers and authors that they are using an open review system.

1.5. Relations with Editorial Board Members
1. Editors should provide new editorial board members with guidelines on everything that is expected of them and keep existing members informed about new policies and developments.

1.6. Relationships with Journal Owners and Publishers
1. Editors' relationships with publishers and authors are often complex, but should be based firmly on the principle of editorial independence.

2. The editor should decide, without interference from the journal owner or publisher, which articles to publish based on the quality of the article and its suitability for the journal.

3. Editors should have a written contract that specifies their relationship with the owner and/or publisher of the journal.

1.7. Editorial and Peer Review Process
1. Editors should strive to ensure that peer review in their journal is fair, impartial and timely.

2. Editors should have systems in place to ensure that materials submitted to their journals remain confidential while being reviewed.

3. Editors should take reasonable steps to ensure the quality of the material they publish, recognizing that departments within the journal have different goals and standards.

1.8. Protecting Individual Data
1. Editors must comply with privacy laws in their jurisdictions. However, regardless of local laws, they must always protect the confidentiality of individual information obtained during research or professional interactions (e.g. between doctors and patients). Therefore, it is always necessary to obtain written informed consent for publication from people who may recognize themselves or who may be recognized by others (e.g. recognizable from case reports or photographs).

1.9. Promoting Ethical Research (e.g. Research Involving Humans or Animals)
1. Editors should endeavor to ensure that the research they publish is conducted according to relevant internationally recognized guidelines (e.g. the Declaration of Helsinki8 for clinical research, AERA and BERA guidelines for educational research).
2. Editors should ensure that all research is approved by an appropriate existing body (e.g. research ethics committee, institutional review board). However, editors should recognize that this approval does not guarantee that the research is ethical.

1.10. Combating Possible Inappropriate Behavior
1. Editors have a duty to act if they suspect inappropriate behavior or if they receive an allegation of inappropriate behavior. This duty applies to both published and unpublished articles.
2. Editors should not reject articles outright because of growing suspicions about possible inappropriate behavior. They are ethically obliged to follow up on alleged cases.
3. Editors should first seek answers about suspected misconduct. If they are not satisfied with the answer, they should contact the relevant staff, institutes or appropriate organizations (perhaps a regulatory agency or national research integrity organization) and ask them to investigate the matter.

4. Editors should make every effort to ensure that an appropriate investigation of the alleged misconduct is conducted; if this fails, editors should take all necessary steps to find a solution to the problem. This is a laborious but important task.

1.11. Ensuring the Integrity of the Academic Record

1. Errors, false or misleading statements must be corrected immediately in order of importance.

1.12. Intellectual Property
1. Editors should be alert to intellectual property issues and work with their publishers to address potential violations of intellectual property laws and conventions.

1.13. Encouraging Discussion
1. Editors should be courageous and willing to publish rational criticism in their journals.
2. Authors of criticized material should be given the opportunity to respond
3. Studies reporting negative results should not be excluded.

1.14. Commercial Considerations
Journals should have policies and systems in place to ensure that commercial concerns do not influence editorial decisions (for example, advertising departments should operate independently of editorial departments).
Reprints should be printed in the same way as they appear in the journal. If a correction is required, this should be clearly indicated.

1.15. Conflicts of Interest
1. Editors should have systems in place to manage their own conflicts of interest, as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers and editorial teams.
2. Journals should have a submission process that ensures that submissions from editors, staff or editorial board members are treated as impartial reviews.