Duties of Editors

• The editor is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the academic record, for having processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish and for precluding business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
• Editors' decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal. Each manuscript should be judged without regard to the race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political philosophy of the authors.
• Articles may be rejected without review if the Editor considers the article obviously not suitable for publication.
• The editor must not use privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review for personal gain or discredit others.
• The editor ensures that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests).
• The editor has systems in place to give authors the opportunity to make original research articles freely available.
• The editor has systems to ensure that material submitted to their journal remains confidential while under review.
• Using the singer-blind peer review system neither reviewers’ identities are revealed to the other party to ensure the quality of research published in the journal. There are at least two or more reviewers for the total number of articles in each issue.

Publication decision

The editor of Communications in Physics is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to this peer reviewed journal should be published. Validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

An editor at any time evaluates manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. 

Disclosure and Conflicts of interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor's own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Editors should excuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations

An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher. Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behavior must be looked into, even if it is discovered years after publication.