Editors Roles and Responsibilities

Journal of Sports, Exercise, and Performance (JOSEP)

The Journal of Sports, Exercise, and Performance (JOSEP) is committed to scientific quality, impartiality, transparency, ethical responsibility, and editorial independence. This page explains the roles and responsibilities of the editor-in-chief, section editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, and the editorial office.

General Principles of Editorial Responsibility

Editorial decisions at JOSEP are based on the scientific quality, originality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal’s aims and scope, and peer-review reports. The author’s institution, academic title, gender, nationality, personal characteristics, or commercial/institutional relationships do not influence editorial decisions.

The journal regards double-blind peer review, confidentiality, disclosure of conflicts of interest, research ethics, and publication ethics as essential editorial responsibilities.

Editor-in-Chief / Managing Editor

The editor-in-chief is responsible for maintaining the journal’s scientific direction, editorial integrity, and publication ethics standards.

Manages initial editorial screening and editorial assignment processes.
Ensures that peer review is conducted fairly, confidentially, and in a timely manner.
Makes decisions regarding acceptance, rejection, revision, or reconsideration based on scientific grounds.
Initiates appropriate action in cases involving conflicts of interest, ethical concerns, plagiarism, data reliability, or author complaints.
Oversees compliance with the journal’s aims, scope, editorial policies, and quality standards.

Section Editors

Section editors manage the scientific evaluation process for manuscripts assigned to them according to their area of expertise.

Conduct preliminary assessment regarding journal scope and basic scientific suitability.
Contribute to the identification of appropriate reviewers.
Evaluate reviewer reports and provide decision recommendations to the editor.
Check whether author revisions adequately respond to reviewer and editorial comments.
Act in accordance with confidentiality and conflict-of-interest principles.

Editorial Board Members

Editorial board members serve as academic advisors and representatives who support the scholarly development, quality, and visibility of the journal.

Contribute to the development of the journal’s scientific scope and editorial policies.
Provide editorial advice on manuscripts related to their area of expertise when needed.
May support the journal by suggesting reviewers and academic networks.
Promote the journal’s scientific recognition and ethical publishing culture.
Uphold publication ethics, impartiality, and academic independence.

Editorial Office

The editorial office supports the technical, administrative, and communication aspects of the journal’s publication workflow.

Assists the orderly progress of processes within the OJS submission system.
Supports communication among authors, reviewers, and editors.
Checks pre-publication files, metadata, DOI information, issue details, and article records.
Contributes to the resolution of technical problems during the publication process.
Does not interfere with the scientific content of editorial decisions.

Responsibilities of Reviewers

Reviewers are essential contributors to the scientific evaluation process. Reviewer reports are intended not only to support editorial decisions but also to help authors improve their manuscripts.

Reviewers should provide objective, constructive, respectful, and scientifically grounded evaluations.
They should comment on originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, relation to the literature, and interpretation of findings.
They must maintain confidentiality throughout the review process.
They should notify the editor if a conflict of interest or lack of sufficient expertise exists.
They should complete their reports as promptly as possible and within the journal’s requested timeframe.

Responsibilities of Authors

Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts submitted to JOSEP are original, ethically compliant, scientifically valid, and not previously published elsewhere.

Authors must clearly report requirements such as ethics committee approval, informed consent, and research permissions.
They are responsible for the accuracy of data, reliability of analyses, and honest presentation of results.
They must ensure that all authors made meaningful contributions and that authorship order was agreed upon by all contributors.
They must disclose financial support, institutional support, and possible conflicts of interest.
They should respond to reviewer and editor comments in a clear, systematic, and respectful manner.

Confidentiality

Submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, editorial correspondence, and decision processes are confidential. Editors and reviewers must not share information accessed during review with third parties.

Conflicts of Interest

Editors, reviewers, and authors must disclose any personal, academic, institutional, or financial conflicts of interest that may influence the review or publication process.

Editorial Independence

Publication decisions at JOSEP are based solely on scientific and ethical criteria. Institutional, commercial, or personal relationships cannot direct editorial decision-making.

Editorial Decision Process

Initial Check: The manuscript is checked for formatting, scope relevance, file completeness, and basic ethical declarations.
Editorial Pre-Evaluation: The manuscript is assessed for journal scope, scientific quality, and publication priorities.
Peer Review: Suitable manuscripts are assigned to double-blind peer review.
Revision: Authors revise the manuscript according to reviewer and editor comments and submit a response file.
Final Decision: The editor makes the final decision based on reviewer reports, revision responses, and journal policies.
Publication Preparation: Accepted manuscripts proceed through final checks, layout, DOI preparation, and issue publication processes.