Editor Guidelines

Editorial Role and Responsibilities

• Editor-in-Chief

• Associate Editor

• Guest Editor

Editor-in-Chief Responsibilities

The Editor-in-Chief is the head of the journal, and is mainly responsible for the scientific quality of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for assisting the Editorial Office in the management of the journal, which entails:

1. scientific decisions about the journal's scope,

2. inviting distinguished scholars to join the editorial board,

3. suggesting topics for special issues,

4. assisting the Guest Editors in the setup of special issues,

5. overviewing the editorial process for individual manuscripts (mainly by taking the final decision whether a paper can be published after peer-review and revisions).

The Editor-in-Chief position is honorary. As a reward for the efforts, the Editor-in-Chief can publish one or two papers per year free of charge in JFMCE. The initial term for the Editor-in-Chief position is two years and can be renewed.

Associate Editor Responsibilities

Associate editors are experts in the specific field of practice underpining journal content and they are responsible for assisting the Editor-in-Chief in:

1. review a few manuscripts submitted to the journal per year 

2. help to identify peer reviewers and provide second opinions on papers (i.e. where    there is a conflict between reviewers)

3. help to edit a special issue on a topic related to his or her research interests

4. feedback regarding new regulations relating to the journal from time to time

The initial term for an associate editor position is two years and can be renewed. 

Guest Editor Responsibilities

Guest Editors are invited scientists who are responsible for the process of setting up special issues, which entails:

1. edit special issues

2. invites colleagues from the same research field to contribute an article on a topic within their expertise

3. works together with the Editorial Office to prepare a description and keywords for the special issue webpage. 

4. write an editorial paper for the special issue

5. make decisions on the acceptance of manuscripts submitted to his or her special issue (depending on the journal’s policy—in some cases they may make a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief)

We aim for at least ten articles published per special issue. Papers belonging to a special issue are published online in the journal immediately after acceptance and collected together on the special issue webpage. This means that there is no delay for authors who submit their work: it will appear shortly after acceptance, even if other papers in the special issue are still being processed.

Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing, e.g. if they are from the same institution or collaborate closely. In this case the Editor-in-Chief or a suitable editorial board member will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers.