Editorial Process

1. Overview

The editorial process at Impaxon is designed to protect research integrity, support fair peer review, and ensure that published articles meet accepted scholarly and ethical standards. All manuscripts submitted to Impaxon journals pass through editorial screening, ethical checks, peer review where applicable, editorial evaluation, revision handling, final decision, production, and post-publication oversight.

Editorial decisions are based on the quality, originality, validity, clarity, ethical compliance, and relevance of the work. Decisions are not influenced by the authors’ nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, religion, political views, personal background, or commercial considerations.

2. Submission

Authors must submit manuscripts through the journal’s official submission system or approved submission channel. The submitted manuscript must comply with the journal’s aims and scope, author guidelines, formatting requirements, ethical standards, authorship rules, and reporting expectations.

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work is original, has not been published elsewhere, is not under consideration by another journal, and that all listed authors have approved the submission.

3. Initial Administrative Check

After submission, the editorial office conducts an initial administrative check. This may include verifying manuscript completeness, author information, declarations, figures and tables, references, ethical approval statements, funding information, conflict of interest declarations, data availability statements, and compliance with the journal’s basic formatting requirements.

Manuscripts that are incomplete or do not meet basic submission requirements may be returned to the authors for correction before editorial assessment begins.

4. Scope and Editorial Screening

The Editor-in-Chief or a designated editor evaluates whether the manuscript fits the journal’s scope and meets the minimum scholarly standard required for peer review. At this stage, the editor may consider originality, relevance, technical soundness, ethical compliance, language clarity, and contribution to the field.

Manuscripts may be rejected without external review if they are outside the journal scope, lack sufficient originality, contain serious methodological weaknesses, fail to meet ethical requirements, or are not suitable for the journal.

5. Research Integrity and Similarity Checks

Impaxon may screen submissions for plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate text reuse, image manipulation, authorship concerns, citation manipulation, undeclared use of artificial intelligence tools, and other research integrity issues.

Where concerns are identified, the editorial office may request clarification from the authors, return the manuscript for correction, reject the manuscript, or take further action in accordance with the journal’s publication ethics and corrections policies.

6. Assignment to Handling Editor

Manuscripts that pass the initial screening may be assigned to a handling editor, associate editor, or subject editor with relevant expertise. The handling editor manages the peer review process, evaluates reviewer comments, and provides a recommendation or decision according to the journal’s editorial workflow.

Editors must declare any conflict of interest and should not handle manuscripts where their impartiality may reasonably be questioned.

7. Peer Review

Manuscripts considered suitable for review are normally sent to independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Impaxon journals generally follow a single-blind peer review model, where reviewers know the identity of the authors but reviewer identities are not disclosed to the authors.

Reviewers are asked to assess the manuscript’s originality, methodology, analysis, interpretation, presentation, ethical compliance, references, and contribution to the field. Reviewers must provide constructive, evidence-based comments and must keep the manuscript confidential.

Further details are available in the Peer Review Policy.

8. Editorial Decisions

After considering the reviewers’ reports and the editor’s own assessment, the journal may issue one of the following decisions:

• Accept: The manuscript is accepted for publication without further substantive changes.
• Minor Revision: The manuscript requires limited changes before further editorial consideration.
• Major Revision: The manuscript requires substantial revision and may require further review.
• Reject and Resubmit: The manuscript is not acceptable in its current form but may be reconsidered as a new submission after major redevelopment.
• Reject: The manuscript is not suitable for publication in the journal.

A decision to invite revision does not guarantee acceptance. Revised manuscripts are evaluated based on how fully and appropriately the authors respond to the editorial and reviewer comments.

9. Revisions

When revision is invited, authors must submit a revised manuscript together with a clear response to all editorial and reviewer comments. Authors should explain the changes made and indicate where those changes appear in the manuscript.

If authors disagree with a comment, they should provide a clear academic justification. The editor will consider the response and may accept the explanation, request further revision, consult reviewers again, or reject the manuscript.

10. Final Acceptance

A manuscript may be accepted only after the editor is satisfied that the work meets the journal’s scholarly, ethical, and technical requirements. Before final acceptance, the editorial office may verify declarations, authorship information, funding details, ethical approval statements, data availability, competing interests, and licensing information.

Acceptance confirms that the manuscript has passed editorial evaluation, but the article may still undergo production checks before publication.

11. Production and Publication

Accepted manuscripts proceed to production, which may include copyediting, typesetting, metadata preparation, DOI registration, reference checking, proof generation, and final author proof review. Authors are responsible for checking proofs carefully and responding within the requested timeframe.

Once published, articles become part of the scholarly record. Impaxon aims to maintain accurate article metadata, clear licensing information, and long-term accessibility of published content.

12. Post-Publication Responsibilities

After publication, Impaxon may investigate concerns related to errors, authorship, ethics, plagiarism, data reliability, conflicts of interest, or other matters affecting the integrity of the published record.

Corrections, expressions of concern, retractions, or other notices may be issued when necessary. Further details are available in the Corrections & Retractions Policy.

13. Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal editorial decisions if they believe there has been a procedural error, misunderstanding, or conflict of interest affecting the decision. Appeals must provide clear reasons and supporting evidence. Disagreement with reviewer or editor judgment alone is not normally sufficient grounds for appeal.

Complaints about editorial conduct, peer review, publication ethics, or journal processes are handled according to the Complaints & Appeals Policy.

14. Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently by the journal’s editors. The publisher does not interfere with editorial decisions, and commercial interests do not influence acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.

Further information is provided in the Editorial Independence Policy.

15. Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to Impaxon journals are treated as confidential documents. Editors, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose manuscript content, reviewer comments, author information, or editorial discussions except as required for the proper handling of the submission.

16. Contact

Questions about the editorial process may be sent to the relevant journal editorial office or to Impaxon through the official contact details provided on the journal website.