For Editors
Editorial stewardship at this journal
Editors of the Journal of Digestive Disorders and Diagnosis hold the manuscript, the reviewers and the published record in trust. These are the responsibilities that come with that.
An editor’s authority is procedural rather than personal: to apply the journal’s stated criteria consistently, to protect the confidentiality of work not yet published, and to stand back where their own interests are engaged.
Responsibilities
What the role requires
Scope
Assess whether the manuscript is about digestive disease or its diagnosis, and whether it meets the journal’s minimum requirements, before it goes to review.
Fair evaluation
Judge the work on what it reports. Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Selecting reviewers
Match reviewers to the subject and the method, and to the claims the manuscript makes. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Confidentiality
Treat the manuscript and every review as confidential. Do not disclose, distribute or use unpublished material.
Competing interests
Declare any interest in a submission and hand it on. Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions, which are handled independently.
Independence
Editorial decisions are independent of fees, membership, editorial or reviewing roles, and optional author services.
Handling review
The model, and what it asks of an editor
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
When double-blind review is requested, editors must ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers.
AI in the editorial process
Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
The same expectation applies to editorial assessment: confidential manuscript content is not placed where its confidentiality cannot be assured.
The record
Integrity after publication
An editor’s responsibility does not end at acceptance. Where an error is established the record is corrected; where findings are no longer reliable the article is retracted, with a published notice linked to it.
Concerns raised about a published article are assessed on their evidence, with the authors given the opportunity to respond, and the outcome is published.