Editorial Guidelines

Journal of Advancing Global Order, Regions, and Antiquity (J-AGORA) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial integrity, academic independence, and scholarly excellence. The journal follows internationally recognized best practices in scholarly publishing and adheres to the ethical principles and Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

These Editorial Policies define the roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes that govern the editorial management of the journal and ensure transparency, fairness, accountability, and academic rigor throughout the publication process.

1. Editorial Governance and Structure

The journal operates under a transparent editorial structure designed to uphold academic quality, ethical publishing standards, and efficient manuscript management across the humanities and social sciences.

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for the scholarly quality, editorial integrity, and strategic direction of J-AGORA. The Editor-in-Chief oversees the peer review process, ensures compliance with publication ethics, maintains editorial standards, and makes the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

The Deputy Editor-in-Chief assists the Editor-in-Chief in managing editorial operations, coordinating manuscript processing, ensuring consistency in editorial decisions, and supporting the overall editorial workflow.

Editors

Editors manage manuscript submissions within their respective areas of expertise, including global order, international relations, governance, public policy, regional studies, sociology, cultural studies, history, archaeology, heritage studies, historiography, and related interdisciplinary fields.

Editors conduct initial editorial assessments, oversee the peer review process, evaluate reviewer reports, and provide recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief regarding editorial decisions.

View our Editorial Team & Institutional Affiliations →

External Reviewers

External reviewers are independent subject experts who evaluate submitted manuscripts through a double-blind peer review process. Their objective, confidential, and constructive assessments support the journal in maintaining high scholarly standards and ensuring the publication of rigorous and impactful research.

2. Editorial Independence and Integrity

Editorial decisions are based exclusively on the scholarly merit of submitted manuscripts, including originality, theoretical contribution, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, significance, clarity of presentation, and relevance to the aims and scope of J-AGORA.

The editorial team operates independently of the publisher, sponsors, funding organizations, or commercial interests. Editorial decisions are made without external influence or discrimination based on nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, geographical origin, or other non-scholarly considerations.

When members of the editorial board submit manuscripts to the journal, those submissions are managed by an independent editor to ensure a fair, unbiased, and confidential review process.

3. Confidentiality

Editors and reviewers must treat all submitted manuscripts and related correspondence as confidential documents throughout the editorial and peer review process.

Unpublished data, arguments, interpretations, methodologies, archival materials, or findings obtained through manuscript evaluation must not be used for personal research, publication, or professional advantage without the explicit written consent of the authors.

4. Conflict of Interest

Editors are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that could influence their editorial judgment.

Examples of conflicts include personal relationships, institutional affiliations, research collaborations, financial interests, political or professional relationships, or direct academic competition with the authors.

Editors with a conflict of interest must recuse themselves from handling the manuscript. Such manuscripts will be reassigned to another qualified editor to ensure an impartial and transparent editorial process.

5. Manuscript Evaluation Process

All submitted manuscripts follow a structured editorial workflow designed to ensure fairness, transparency, academic quality, and ethical compliance.

Initial Editorial Screening

  • Compliance with the journal's aims and scope, including global order, regional studies, antiquity, history, archaeology, governance, and related humanities and social sciences.
  • Originality and scholarly significance.
  • Adherence to the journal's submission and formatting requirements.
  • Screening for plagiarism, research integrity, and ethical compliance.
  • Overall suitability for external peer review.

Manuscripts that do not satisfy these initial requirements may be rejected without external peer review (desk rejection).

Peer Review

Eligible manuscripts undergo a double-blind peer review process involving at least two independent experts with appropriate subject knowledge and disciplinary expertise.

Editorial Decision

The Editor-in-Chief makes the final publication decision after considering reviewer reports, editorial assessments, and authors' responses to reviewer comments where applicable.

Editorial decisions include:

  • Accept
  • Accept with Minor Revisions
  • Major Revisions Required
  • Reject

6. Appeals and Complaints

Authors who believe an editorial decision was based on a misunderstanding, factual error, or procedural irregularity may submit a formal appeal supported by appropriate evidence.

Appeals, complaints regarding editorial conduct, and publication ethics concerns are handled fairly, confidentially, and in accordance with procedures recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

7. Ethical Oversight

The editorial team is responsible for identifying, investigating, and responding appropriately to potential breaches of publication ethics, including but not limited to:

  • Plagiarism or inappropriate textual overlap.
  • Fabrication or falsification of research materials, evidence, or findings.
  • Duplicate or redundant publication.
  • Improper authorship or contributorship practices.
  • Citation manipulation.
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest.
  • Unethical research involving human participants, communities, cultural heritage, or archival materials.

Where concerns arise, investigations will be conducted in accordance with internationally accepted ethical standards and the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Appropriate editorial actions, including corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions, will be taken when necessary to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.