1. Purpose and Scope
AMG Transcend Association is committed to protecting the editorial independence of the journals it publishes and to maintaining a clear distinction between publisher-level responsibilities and journal-level editorial decision-making.
This policy establishes the principles governing editorial authority, independence, competing interests, dual roles, external influence, and accountability across the AMG Transcend Association journal portfolio.
Individual journals may maintain additional or more detailed editorial procedures appropriate to their aims and scope, editorial structure, peer-review model, and types of published content.
2. Principle of Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions must be based on the scholarly merit, scientific validity, relevance, originality, integrity, and suitability of submitted work in accordance with the aims, scope, and policies of the relevant journal.
Decisions concerning whether an individual manuscript is sent for peer review, revised, accepted, or rejected must remain within the journal’s editorial structure.
AMG Transcend Association will not require or direct an editor to accept or reject an individual manuscript for financial, commercial, institutional, personal, reputational, or other non-scholarly reasons.
Editors must be able to exercise independent editorial judgment without inappropriate interference from publisher management, advertisers, sponsors, donors, commercial partners, institutions, authors, reviewers, or other external parties.
3. Publisher and Journal Responsibilities
AMG Transcend Association is responsible for establishing and maintaining the publisher-level framework within which its journals operate. This includes publishing standards, editorial and ethical policies, infrastructure, administrative support, and mechanisms for addressing concerns affecting publication integrity.
Each journal is responsible for implementing appropriate editorial and peer-review procedures within that framework.
Editors-in-Chief and other appropriately appointed editors are responsible for the scientific and editorial assessment of manuscripts and for applying the journal’s policies to individual submissions.
Publisher-level responsibility for the integrity and appropriate operation of the publishing process does not authorize the publisher to replace, override, or improperly influence the independent scientific judgment of the editor responsible for an individual manuscript.
4. Authority for Editorial Decisions
The Editor-in-Chief, or another appropriately qualified editor to whom responsibility has been delegated, has authority over the editorial handling of individual manuscripts.
This authority may include:
- determining whether a submission is suitable for editorial consideration;
- selecting or approving appropriately qualified peer reviewers;
- evaluating reviewer reports and author responses;
- requesting revisions;
- determining whether additional review or expert assessment is required;
- making the final editorial decision, or exercising final decision authority according to the journal’s editorial structure.
Editorial responsibilities may be delegated where appropriate, provided that the editor assuming responsibility has sufficient subject expertise, independence, and genuine authority to conduct the editorial process.
Administrative or technical personnel may support editorial workflows but must not independently determine the scientific acceptability of a manuscript or override an editorial decision.
5. Commercial, Financial, Institutional, and External Influence
Editorial decisions must be independent of the financial model of the journal and of any commercial, institutional, or organizational relationship involving the publisher.
Advertising, sponsorship, donations, partnerships, service arrangements, institutional relationships, or other sources of financial or organizational support must not influence:
- manuscript selection;
- reviewer selection;
- peer-review outcomes;
- editorial recommendations;
- acceptance or rejection decisions;
- the presentation of scientific conclusions.
Sponsors, advertisers, commercial partners, funders, donors, and other external organizations must not be given control over editorial decisions or access to confidential editorial deliberations merely because of their financial or organizational relationship with the publisher or journal.
Where sponsored content, supplements, special issues, thematic collections, or other externally supported publishing activities are undertaken, applicable funding, sponsorship, competing-interest, peer-review, and editorial-independence requirements remain fully applicable.
6. Conflicts of Interest and Recusal
Editors must not participate in the editorial handling of a manuscript when a financial, professional, institutional, academic, personal, or other relationship could reasonably compromise, or appear to compromise, their impartiality.
Where a relevant competing interest exists, the editor must recuse themselves from the relevant editorial process.
Responsibility must then be transferred to another appropriately qualified editor who does not have the relevant competing interest and who has independent authority over reviewer selection, peer review, revision requirements, and the editorial decision.
Recusal must involve genuine transfer of editorial responsibility. A conflicted individual must not direct, approve, reverse, or otherwise influence the independent editor’s handling or decision concerning the manuscript.
More detailed requirements concerning competing interests are addressed in the publisher’s Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests policy and in applicable journal-level policies.
7. Dual Publisher and Editorial Roles
AMG Transcend Association recognizes that an individual may hold both publisher-level and journal-level responsibilities. Such roles remain distinct even when they are held by the same person.
The President of AMG Transcend Association currently also serves as (Founding) Editor-in-Chief. This dual role is publicly disclosed and does not remove the requirement for independent editorial handling whenever a relevant competing interest arises.
Authority associated with a publisher-level position must not be used to influence the outcome of an individual manuscript outside the legitimate editorial role assigned for that manuscript.
Where an individual holding both publisher and editorial responsibilities:
- is an author or co-author of a submission;
- has a relevant competing interest;
- has a close personal, professional, institutional, academic, or collaborative relationship relevant to the submission; or
- is otherwise unable to act impartially,
that individual must take no part in the editorial evaluation or decision.
The manuscript must be assigned to another appropriately qualified editor with no relevant competing interest and with independent authority over the editorial process and final decision.
8. Manuscripts Submitted by Editors or Editorial Board Members
Editors, Editors-in-Chief, and Editorial Board members are not prohibited from submitting scholarly work to a journal with which they are affiliated. Their editorial position, however, must provide no advantage in manuscript evaluation, peer review, or publication decisions.
Such manuscripts must be subject to the same scientific, ethical, editorial, and peer-review standards applied to other submissions.
A manuscript authored or co-authored by an individual who would normally participate in its editorial handling must be managed independently.
The author-editor must not:
- select or influence the selection of reviewers;
- participate in the evaluation of reviewer reports;
- participate in confidential editorial deliberations concerning the manuscript;
- establish or influence revision requirements;
- make, approve, or influence the final editorial decision.
Another appropriately qualified editor without a relevant competing interest must assume responsibility for the manuscript and must have full authority to conduct the editorial and peer-review process.
The same principle applies whenever another relationship involving an editor or Editorial Board member could reasonably call editorial impartiality into question.
9. Special Issues and Guest Editorial Roles
Special issues, thematic collections, and manuscripts handled by guest editors remain subject to the same standards of editorial independence, peer review, competing-interest management, and research integrity as other journal content.
Guest editors must not be permitted to override journal policies or use an editorial role to obtain preferential treatment for their own work, the work of collaborators, or submissions from individuals or organizations with which they have relevant competing interests.
Where a guest editor has a relevant competing interest concerning a submission, editorial responsibility must be transferred to another appropriately qualified editor without that competing interest.
Ultimate responsibility for maintaining appropriate editorial standards remains within the journal’s established editorial governance structure.
10. Citation and Journal-Metric Integrity
Editorial decisions must not be used to manipulate citation indicators, journal metrics, rankings, or other measures of publication performance.
Authors must not be required to add citations to articles from the journal, another AMG Transcend Association journal, an editor’s publications, or any other source solely for the purpose of increasing citation counts or journal metrics.
Editors and reviewers may recommend additional references where those references are genuinely relevant to the scholarly content of the manuscript. Such recommendations must be based on academic relevance rather than personal, journal, publisher, or metric-related interests.
Editorial decisions must not be conditioned on inappropriate citation practices.
11. Editorial Appointments and Organizational Authority
Publisher-level authority concerning journal administration, editorial appointments, resources, or organizational arrangements must not be used to improperly influence the outcome of individual manuscripts.
Changes in editorial appointments, responsibilities, or organizational arrangements must not be used as retaliation for a legitimate editorial decision made in accordance with journal policies and professional standards.
Editors remain accountable for exercising their authority responsibly and in accordance with the policies, ethical standards, and scope of the journal.
Editorial independence does not exempt editors from accountability for misconduct, unmanaged competing interests, failure to follow established editorial procedures, or actions that compromise the integrity of the publication process or scholarly record.
12. Concerns About Editorial Independence
Concerns that an editorial decision or process may have been affected by inappropriate influence, an unmanaged competing interest, or a failure to maintain editorial independence may be raised through the applicable journal or publisher complaints, appeals, or publication-ethics procedures.
Where appropriate, AMG Transcend Association will ensure that the matter can be considered by an individual who was not involved in the disputed decision and who does not have a relevant competing interest.
A complaint or appeal does not provide the publisher, an author, a sponsor, or another interested party with authority to substitute a preferred scientific decision for the judgment of an appropriately independent editor.
Where a procedural, ethical, or integrity-related problem is established, appropriate corrective action may be taken in accordance with the relevant journal and publisher policies.
13. Relationship with Other Policies
This policy should be read together with other applicable AMG Transcend Association and journal policies, including those concerning:
- Peer Review Principles;
- Conflict of Interest and Competing Interests;
- Publication Ethics and Research Integrity;
- Advertising, Sponsorship and Commercial Activities;
- Complaints and Appeals;
- Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern.
Journal-specific policies and procedures may establish additional requirements, provided that they remain consistent with the principles of editorial independence established in this policy.