Editorial Guidelines
Journal of SPHERES is committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial integrity, academic independence, transparency, 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 guide the editorial management of the journal and ensure fairness, accountability, transparency, and academic rigor throughout the publication process.
1. Editorial Governance and Structure
The journal operates through a transparent editorial structure designed to maintain academic quality, ethical publishing practices, and effective manuscript management across interdisciplinary fields represented by the S.P.H.E.R.E.S. framework.
Editor-in-Chief
The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for the scholarly quality, editorial integrity, and strategic direction of JSPHERES. The Editor-in-Chief oversees editorial policies, ensures compliance with publication ethics, supervises the peer review process, maintains academic standards, and makes final decisions regarding manuscript acceptance or rejection.
Deputy Editor-in-Chief
The Deputy Editor-in-Chief supports the Editor-in-Chief in managing editorial operations, coordinating manuscript workflows, ensuring consistency in editorial decisions, and assisting with strategic development of the journal.
Editors
Editors manage manuscript submissions according to their academic expertise across areas including education, educational technology, philosophy, ethics, history, sociology, culture, economics, politics, arts, linguistics, psychology, geography, and interdisciplinary studies.
Editors conduct preliminary evaluations, select appropriate reviewers, oversee the peer review process, assess reviewer reports, communicate editorial decisions, and provide recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief regarding publication outcomes.
View our Editorial Team & Institutional Affiliations →
External Reviewers
External reviewers are independent subject specialists who evaluate submitted manuscripts through a double-blind peer review process. Their objective, confidential, and constructive assessments assist the journal in maintaining rigorous academic standards and ensuring the publication of original and impactful interdisciplinary research.
2. Editorial Independence and Integrity
Editorial decisions are based solely on the scholarly quality of submitted manuscripts, including originality, theoretical contribution, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, significance, clarity, and alignment with the aims and scope of JSPHERES.
The editorial team operates independently from the publisher, sponsors, funding organizations, and commercial interests. Editorial decisions are made without discrimination based on nationality, institutional affiliation, gender, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, geographical location, or other non-scholarly factors.
When members of the editorial board submit manuscripts to the journal, such submissions are managed by an independent editor to ensure confidentiality, impartiality, and a fair review process.
3. Confidentiality
Editors and reviewers must treat all submitted manuscripts, reviewer reports, author correspondence, and editorial communications as confidential materials throughout the publication process.
Unpublished information, research findings, theoretical arguments, methodologies, datasets, interpretations, or other materials obtained through manuscript evaluation must not be used for personal research, publication, or professional advantage without explicit permission from the authors.
4. Conflict of Interest
Editors and reviewers are required to disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that may influence their judgment or decision-making.
Conflicts of interest may include personal relationships, institutional affiliations, previous collaborations, financial interests, professional relationships, ideological conflicts, or direct academic competition with the authors.
Editors or reviewers with a conflict of interest must withdraw from handling the manuscript. The manuscript will be reassigned to another qualified editor or reviewer 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
- Alignment with the aims and scope of JSPHERES and relevance to one or more areas of the S.P.H.E.R.E.S. framework.
- Originality, scholarly significance, and potential contribution to existing knowledge.
- Compliance with journal submission requirements, formatting standards, and ethical guidelines.
- Screening for plagiarism, research integrity concerns, and appropriate use of sources.
- Assessment of suitability for external peer review.
Manuscripts that do not meet the journal's requirements, ethical standards, or scope 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 reviewers with appropriate expertise relevant to the manuscript topic.
Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on originality, theoretical contribution, research methodology, ethical standards, clarity, interdisciplinary relevance, and overall scholarly contribution.
Editorial Decision
The Editor-in-Chief makes the final publication decision after considering reviewer evaluations, editorial assessments, and author responses 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 made due to factual misunderstanding, procedural irregularity, or inappropriate evaluation may submit a formal appeal supported by relevant evidence.
Appeals, complaints regarding editorial conduct, and concerns related to publication ethics are handled confidentially, fairly, and according to 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, self-plagiarism, or inappropriate textual overlap.
- Fabrication or falsification of research data, evidence, sources, or findings.
- Duplicate or redundant publication.
- Improper authorship, contributorship, or acknowledgment practices.
- Citation manipulation or excessive self-citation practices.
- Undisclosed conflicts of interest.
- Unethical research involving human participants, communities, cultural materials, educational settings, or archival sources.
- Failure to disclose appropriate use of artificial intelligence tools in research or manuscript preparation.
Where ethical concerns arise, investigations will be conducted according to internationally accepted standards and the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Appropriate editorial actions, including corrections, expressions of concern, article withdrawals, or retractions, will be implemented when necessary to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.
