Complaints Policy

Complaints policy

Acknowledging and addressing any issues related to research conduct and publication of their results are a fundamental aspect of the editorial policy. Complaints provide an opportunity for the editorial board to constructively improve the journal quality and its publishing policies and procedures.

Complaints may arise for various reasons and be of a different nature. Complaints regarding articles, authors, or reviewers should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief at complaints@globalresearchjournal.org. Such complaints include, but are not limited to:

• Authorship disputes;
• Plagiarism in published research materials;
• Duplicate publication of papers already published or simultaneously submitted for consideration to several journals;
• Appropriation of research results and fabrication of data;
• Presence of errors or fraudulent actions in the research process;
• Violation of research standards;
• Undisclosed conflict of interest by authors or reviewers;
• Violations of confidentiality by reviewers;
• Bias or harmful actions of reviewers;
• Misuse of privileged information by reviewers.

Complaints regarding Editorial Board, its employees, Editorial Office or Publisher should be sent to the Publisher’s address complaints@globalresearchjournal.org. These may include such complaints as:

• Undisclosed conflict of interest by members of the editorial board or editorial office;
• Violations of confidentiality by members of the editorial board or editorial office;
• Bias or harmful actions of members of the editorial board or editorial office;
• Misuse of privileged information by members of the editorial board or editorial office;
• Violations in editorial processes;
• Misconduct of the journal’s staff (impolite or delayed response);
• Administration policy of the article publication process or recommendations for improving the publishing policy.

The Journal and the Publisher undertake to review all complaints, whether they are from open sources or anonymous. The complaint must clearly state the nature of the complaint, its subject matter, and convincing evidence of misconduct. If the complaint concerns the content of a published article, we ask for an annotated PDF/Microsoft Word document of the article with the parts of the text that cause concern.

Complaints procedure and timeframes

The Publisher and Editorial Board review complaints in a timely and efficient manner. Within no more than 7 days, a letter of acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint is sent to the complainant. The Publisher and Editorial Board conduct all investigations in accordance with COPE recommendations. In order to make an appropriate decision, the Publisher or Editor contacts all parties involved, examines the history of correspondence and submissions, and contacts the relevant parties for additional information. The investigation may also include additional involvement of relevant institutions, research, funding bodies and other third parties.

The investigation usually takes two weeks, after which the complainant receives a response with the results. However, if the investigation requires more time, the complainant will receive interim responses on the status of the complaint every two weeks until the final results are received.

If the complaint is substantiated, the Editorial Board organizes the publication of an expression of concern or correction, withdrawal and/or removal of the article or data set related to the issue.

All communication is done by e-mail. The Editorial Board/Publisher documents all investigations and decisions.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the decision, he or she may appeal to COPE.

Appeals policy and procedure

The Editorial Board makes every effort to ensure that each submitted article receives a fair, in-depth, and timely review. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision to reject or accept a manuscript based on the expert evaluation of the reviewers, the scientific value of the article, and its relevance to the journal’s subject matter. However, mistakes in decision-making can occur even if all procedures are followed honestly and in good faith.

If authors do not agree with the decision of the Editor, they can send a letter of appeal to the Editorial Board with a detailed explanation of the grounds for the appeal.

The appeal must contain:

• detailed justification of the reasons for appealing the Editor’s decision. We encourage authors to point out every comment of the Editor or reviewers that they consider unacceptable;
• a manuscript with color-coded areas where there are questionable statements;
• evidence of editorial or reviewer error;
• any additional information that the authors would like the Editorial Board to consider.

The Editor-in-Chief considers appeals only for those manuscripts that have been rejected after the review. The appeal must be sent within 14 days after the date of the decision.

Consideration of the appeal involves cooperation with all parties involved in the submission of the manuscript (authors, managing editors, editors-in-chief, handling editors, and reviewers). The Editor-in-Chief may uphold the decision to reject the manuscript, conduct an additional review, or request a revised manuscript.

The decision on the appeal is provided within six weeks after receiving the appeal. The decision is final.