Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board of Al-Fateh Journal for Educational and Psychological Research manages the editorial and scientific processing of manuscripts submitted to the journal. Its responsibilities include safeguarding the quality of published content, ensuring fairness in peer review, maintaining the independence of editorial decisions, and enforcing the journal’s policies and publication ethics standards.

First: Initial Editorial Screening

Before a manuscript is sent for peer review, the Editorial Board conducts an initial assessment to verify:

  1. The manuscript’s conformity with the journal’s aims and scope.
  2. Compliance with the submission requirements, journal template, and author guidelines.
  3. The presence of an acceptable level of originality, scientific value, and methodological soundness.
  4. The clarity of the language, scientific organization, and overall presentation.
  5. The completeness of declarations concerning authorship, funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, and the use of artificial intelligence, where applicable.
  6. Compliance with the journal’s research-integrity and textual-similarity policies.

The Editorial Board may return the manuscript to the authors to complete missing requirements or reject it before peer review when it falls outside the journal’s scope or does not meet the minimum scientific and editorial standards.

Second: Selection of Reviewers and Management of Peer Review

The Editorial Board shall:

  1. Select reviewers with appropriate expertise and academic specialization relevant to the manuscript’s subject.
  2. Consider reviewer independence and avoid actual or potential conflicts of interest.
  3. Manage the peer-review process in accordance with the policy published on the journal’s website.
  4. Follow up on reviewers’ responses and reports within the specified timeframes whenever possible.
  5. Ensure that peer-review reports are clear, objective, professional, and based on scientific considerations.
  6. Exclude comments containing personal attacks, bias, or requests unrelated to improving the manuscript.
  7. Communicate reviewers’ comments to the authors in an organized manner while preserving reviewer anonymity in accordance with the journal’s peer-review model.
  8. Appoint an additional or independent reviewer when reports conflict or further specialist assessment is required.

Third: Editorial Decisions

Editorial decisions are based on the initial assessment, reviewers’ reports, the authors’ responses to the requested revisions, and the manuscript’s compliance with the journal’s scientific, editorial, and ethical policies.

Possible decisions include:

  1. Acceptance without revision.
  2. Acceptance subject to minor revisions.
  3. A request for major revisions.
  4. Resubmission for further peer review after revision.
  5.  

The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision in consultation with the Editorial Board. Reviewers’ reports constitute scholarly recommendations and are not automatically binding editorial decisions.

Decisions are based on the manuscript’s scientific value, originality, clarity of objectives, methodological soundness, accuracy of findings, quality of discussion, and proper documentation. They must not be influenced by the author’s nationality, gender, religion, ethnicity, institutional affiliation, social background, or intellectual or political views.

Fourth: Editorial Independence

The Editorial Board safeguards the independence of its scientific and editorial decisions and does not permit publication fees, personal relationships, or administrative, institutional, or financial considerations to influence acceptance, revision, or rejection decisions.

Payment of publication fees does not grant any advantage in peer review, acceptance, or publication scheduling. The publication date of an accepted manuscript is determined according to the completion of its scientific and technical procedures, the journal’s issue schedule, and the available capacity of each issue.

Fifth: Confidentiality and Protection of Unpublished Content

The Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board members, and journal staff must maintain the confidentiality of:

  1. Submitted manuscripts and their accompanying files.
  2. Authors’ and reviewers’ personal information.
  3. Peer-review reports and editorial correspondence.
  4. Internal decisions and discussions concerning manuscripts.

Such information may be disclosed only to individuals authorized to participate in editorial screening, peer review, editing, or publication.

Unpublished manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. Their ideas, data, findings, or materials must not be used for personal or scholarly purposes before publication without the authors’ explicit written permission.

Unpublished manuscripts or their data must not be entered into artificial intelligence tools or external platforms when doing so may compromise confidentiality or authors’ rights.

Sixth: Conflicts of Interest

The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members must disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest that may affect their handling of a manuscript.

Conflicts may include personal, academic, professional, financial, or institutional relationships with an author or an institution associated with the manuscript, or a direct interest in its subject or findings.

When a conflict of interest exists, the editor concerned must recuse themselves from handling the manuscript, which shall be assigned to an independent editor with no relevant relationship to the authors or the subject.

Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief or an Editorial Board member shall be processed through the journal’s standard procedures without their participation in reviewer selection, access to reviewer identities, or influence over the editorial decision.

Seventh: Communication with Authors

The Editorial Board shall:

  1. Communicate the manuscript’s status and editorial decisions through the journal’s official channels.
  2. Send reviewers’ comments and revision requirements clearly and without altering their scientific meaning.
  3. Allow authors a reasonable period to complete the requested revisions.
  4. Evaluate authors’ responses and justifications objectively.
  5. Refrain from requesting changes unrelated to the manuscript’s quality or scientific integrity.
  6. Protect authors from unprofessional practices or unjustified demands during peer review.
  7. Correct any administrative or editorial error that may affect manuscript processing or the decision issued.

Eighth: Research Integrity and Misconduct

The Editorial Board handles allegations of plagiarism, duplicate publication, simultaneous submission, data fabrication or falsification, manipulation of findings, authorship misconduct, or other breaches of research and publication ethics seriously, confidentially, and fairly.

Depending on the nature of the case, the Editorial Board may:

  1. Request explanations or supporting documents from the parties concerned.
  2. Temporarily suspend manuscript processing until the matter has been examined.
  3. Consult an independent expert or relevant academic body.
  4. Reject the manuscript when misconduct is established before publication.
  5. Take appropriate action regarding published content under the journal’s correction, expression-of-concern, and retraction policies.
  6. Notify the relevant institution when warranted by the nature or seriousness of the misconduct.

Such cases are handled in accordance with the journal’s Publication Ethics Policy and the related detailed policies published on its website.

Ninth: Maintaining the Integrity of Published Content

The Editorial Board follows up on substantial errors or serious concerns identified after publication and takes action appropriate to their nature and effect on the reliability of the article.

Such action may include:

  1. Correcting limited errors that do not invalidate the principal findings.
  2. Publishing a clarification when additional information is required or ambiguity must be resolved.
  3. Issuing an expression of concern when serious unresolved doubts exist.
  4. Retracting the article when its findings become unreliable because of a substantial error or serious ethical violation.

Post-publication notices must be clear, dated, publicly accessible, and electronically linked to the original article.

Tenth: Complaints and Appeals

The Editorial Board handles complaints and appeals concerning editorial or peer-review procedures fairly and confidentially, in accordance with the policies published on the journal’s website.

Any member who participated in the decision under complaint or has an interest connected to it must recuse themselves from reviewing the complaint or appeal. The matter should be referred to an independent individual or committee whenever possible.

Submitting a complaint or appeal in good faith must not result in unfair treatment of the author or adversely affect their future interactions with the journal.

Eleventh: Editorial Performance Improvement

The Editorial Board periodically reviews the journal’s policies and procedures and considers feedback from authors, reviewers, and readers, as well as recurring complaints, in order to:

  1. Improve the quality of peer review and editorial decisions.
  2. Reduce unjustified delays in manuscript processing.
  3. Develop the author guidelines and peer-review forms.
  4. Strengthen integrity, transparency, and editorial independence.
  5. Maintain the quality of published content and the regularity of journal publication.