EDITORIAL AND REVIEWER RESPONSIBILITIES

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the overall academic direction and editorial integrity of PGJSRT.

Responsibilities include:

• safeguarding editorial independence;
• ensuring that published material meets the journal's scholarly and ethical standards;
• overseeing peer-review quality;
• assigning manuscripts to qualified editors;
• managing conflicts of interest;
• making or supervising final editorial decisions;
• ensuring appropriate handling of complaints, appeals, corrections, and allegations of misconduct; and
• protecting the integrity of the scholarly record.

ASSOCIATE AND SECTION EDITORS

Editors must evaluate manuscripts fairly and exclusively on scholarly merit, relevance, methodological or theoretical quality, originality, and ethical compliance.

Editors must:

• maintain manuscript confidentiality;
• declare conflicts of interest;
• select reviewers with appropriate expertise;
• avoid reviewers with evident conflicts;
• assess reviewer reports critically rather than automatically following recommendations;
• provide reasoned editorial decisions;
• ensure that manuscripts submitted by editors or board members receive independent handling; and
• report suspected research or publication misconduct to the Editor-in-Chief.

PEER REVIEWERS

Reviewers provide independent scholarly advice to editors.

Reviewers must:

• accept assignments only when they possess appropriate expertise;
• complete reviews within an agreed reasonable period or promptly decline;
• maintain strict confidentiality;
• not share manuscripts or review materials without authorization;
• disclose financial, professional, academic, personal, or other conflicts of interest;
• provide objective, evidence-based and constructive comments;
• avoid personal criticism or discriminatory language;
• identify significant methodological, theoretical, interpretive, or reporting weaknesses;
• alert editors to suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated or falsified material, citation manipulation, or other integrity concerns;
• avoid requesting unnecessary citations to their own work or particular journals; and
• not use unpublished information obtained through peer review for personal advantage.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Submitted manuscripts and associated peer-review materials are confidential.

Editors and reviewers must not disclose manuscript content, author information, reviewer identities, editorial correspondence, or unpublished findings except where authorized as part of a legitimate research-integrity investigation.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Editors and reviewers must recuse themselves whenever a financial, professional, collaborative, competitive, supervisory, personal, institutional, or other relationship could reasonably affect impartial judgment.