LEGAL's editors must follow the following ethical duties and responsibilities.
General Duties and Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for all the publications LEGAL publishes. Within the scope of this duty, editors bear the following roles and responsibilities:
* To make efforts to provide readers' and authors' need for knowledge;
*To ensure the consistent development of the Journal;
*To direct the process for advancing the quality of the published articles;
*To promote Freedom of Speech
* To provide academic integrity;
*To contiune with the work process without compromising Intellectual Property Rights, and Ethical Standards;
*To be transparent, and clear on subjects regarding corrections, and on matters requiring an explanation.
Relations with Readers
Editors must make decisions considering the information, skills, and experience expectations of all readers, researchers, and practitioners. They should ensure that published articles contribute to the reader, researcher, practitioner, and scholarly literature, and they are original. Furthermore, editors are obligated to consider feedback from readers, researchers, and practitioners and to provide clarifying and informative feedback.
Relations with the Authors
The duties and responsibilities of the editors towards the authors are as follows:
* Editors should make positive or negative decisions based on the importance, originality, validity, clarity of expression, and alignment of articles with the journal's aims and objectives:
*Editors should not ignore positive peer reviewer feedback on the paper;
* New editors should not change the decisions made by previous editors regarding the paper.
* The "Blind Peer Review Process" must be followed and editors must prevent any deviations from the defined processes.
* It must publish in detail the ethical rules governing the relationships between the editors and the authors.
* Authors should be notified and answered in a detailed and informative manner.
Relations with Peer Reviewers
The following are the editors' duties and responsibilities towards the peer reviewers:
* They should select the peer reviewers from experts who are suitable for the subject of the paper;
* They are obligated to provide the information and documents that the peer reviewers might need during the review process;
* They have to consider whether there is a conflict of interest between the authors and the peer reviewers;
* They have to keep the identities of the peer reviewers confidential during the double blind peer reviewing process;
* They should encourage the peer reviewers to review the paper in an impartial, scholarly, and an objective language;
* They should evaluate the peer reviewers with criteria such as timely return and performance;
* They should define practices and policies that would enhance the performanc of the peer reviewers;
* They should take the necessary steps to dynamically update the peer review pool;
* They should prevent unacademic assessments;
* They should take steps to make sure that the peer review pool is comprised of a wide range of candidates.
Relations with Editorial and Advisory Board
Editors must ensure that all editorial and advisory board members carry out the processes in accordance with the publication policies. The editorial and advisory board must inform its members about the publication policies and keep them informed of the developments. It should train new editorial and advisory board members on publication policies and provide them with the information they need.
Furthermore editors:
* should ensure that the editorial and advisory board members evaluate the papers impartially and independently;
* should determine the new editorial and advisory board members from among contributing and suitably qualified people;
* They should submit papers for review that would be appropriate to the expertise of the editorial and advisory board members when necessary;
* They should regularly interact with the editorial and advisory boards;
* They should hold periodic meetings with the editorial, and the advisory board to discuss publication policies and the journal's development.
Relations with the owner of the Journal and the Publisher
The relationship between the editors and the publisher is based on the principle of editorial independence. In accordance with the agreement between the editors and the publisher, all decisions taken by the editors are independent of the publisher and the journal owner.