Editorial responsibilities and policy

Editorial responsibilities and policy

The editorial board of The Appalachian makes recommendations on all editorial policy decisions. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal will be published. Decisions are made based exclusively on the manuscript’s merit and following the following role: They must be free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. When making decisions the Editor-in-Chief is also guided by the editorial policy and legal provisions relating to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editorial board meets twice, first during online production and second before production of each print issue, to determine the editorial position of the unsigned editorial and to assign the writing of that editorial.

Members of the Editorial Board, Associate Editors, and Assistant Editors including the Editors-in-Chief must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. Members who feel they might be perceived as being involved in such a conflict do not participate in the decision process for a particular manuscript.

The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential. Information and ideas contained in unpublished materials must not be used for personal gain without the written consent of the authors.

Editors-in-Chief and the editorial staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the authors/reviewers remain anonymous during and after the evaluation process in accordance with the type of reviewing in use.

The Editorial Board is obliged to assist reviewers with additional information on the manuscript, including the results of checking manuscript for plagiarism.