For editors
The editor's responsibility
An editor of the Journal of Respiratory Diseases protects the quality of what the journal publishes, the fairness of how it decides, and the confidence authors and reviewers place in the process.
Handling
Taking a manuscript through review
Scope
Read the manuscript against the journal's scope first. A manuscript belongs here when its research question, analytical focus, interpretation or principal contribution materially advances understanding of respiratory disease or health, including the physiology of breathing where it informs that subject. Work whose respiratory element is incidental is returned early rather than sent to reviewers.
Assignment
Take on a manuscript only where you can judge it competently, and pass it to a colleague where you cannot. Handle each manuscript in the order it arrives unless a stated ethical or safety concern requires otherwise.
Reviewers
Select reviewers for their subject competence and their independence from the work. Seek the range of expertise the manuscript needs, and avoid reviewers who have recently collaborated with the authors or hold a competing interest in the result.
Review model
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. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Judgment
Weighing the evidence and deciding
Evaluation
Weigh the reviewers' assessments alongside your own reading. A recommendation is advice, not a verdict: where reviewers disagree, seek a further opinion or resolve the disagreement yourself and say how in the decision letter.
Criteria
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Decisions are independent of fees, services, membership, and editorial or reviewer roles.
Independence
Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions, and those manuscripts are handled independently. Declare any competing interest in a manuscript you are handling and step aside where it would compromise the assessment.
Confidence
Treat every manuscript as confidential. Its content is discussed only with the people handling it, and is never used for your own work or shared before publication.
AI use
Obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with an editorial assessment. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
After publication
When something needs correcting
Corrections
Factual and metadata errors are corrected through a published correction linked to the original article. Findings that are no longer reliable are retracted through a published notice stating the reason and who requested it.
Concerns
Where a concern is substantiated but not yet resolved, an expression of concern may be published while the matter is investigated. Published articles are never removed; the original and its notice both remain available.
Escalation
Allegations of misconduct, disputed authorship and unresolved competing interests go to the editorial office, which involves the authors' institution where that is required. Write to [email protected].