International Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases - Editor Guidelines
Comprehensive guidance for editorial board members ensuring consistent, fair, and timely manuscript evaluation.
Core Editorial Responsibilities
Editors are responsible for fair, unbiased evaluation of all manuscripts assigned to them regardless of author identity, institutional affiliation, geographic origin, or funding source. Editorial decisions should be based solely on scientific merit, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and contribution to STI knowledge. Editors must maintain confidentiality regarding all manuscripts under consideration and avoid using unpublished information from submissions for personal advantage.
When handling manuscripts, editors should provide timely initial assessments, identify appropriate reviewers with relevant expertise and no conflicts of interest, monitor review progress, synthesize reviewer feedback with their own evaluation, and communicate clear decisions to authors with constructive guidance for improvement regardless of outcome.
Scientific Evaluation
Assess research questions, study design appropriateness, methodological rigor, statistical analysis validity, results interpretation accuracy, and conclusions supported by presented data. Ensure manuscripts advance STI knowledge meaningfully.
Reviewer Coordination
Identify qualified reviewers, manage invitations and timelines, evaluate review quality, resolve conflicting recommendations, and ensure authors receive comprehensive feedback supporting manuscript improvement.
Ethical Oversight
Verify ethics approval documentation, assess informed consent procedures, identify potential ethical concerns, and ensure research involving human subjects or animals meets required standards.
Decision Communication
Provide clear, constructive decision letters explaining rationale, specific revision requirements, and guidance for addressing reviewer concerns. Maintain professional, respectful tone in all correspondence.
Conflict of Interest Management
Editors must identify and disclose any conflicts of interest that might affect their ability to evaluate manuscripts objectively. Conflicts include personal relationships with authors, collaborative or competitive relationships, financial interests in research outcomes, institutional affiliations with authors, and any other circumstances that might create bias or appearance of bias. When conflicts exist, editors should recuse themselves from handling affected manuscripts entirely.
Response Timelines: Editors should respond to manuscript assignments within three business days, provide initial reviewer recommendations within one week, and deliver final decisions within two weeks of receiving complete reviews.
Communication Standards: All editorial communications should be professional, constructive, and respectful. Decisions should be explained clearly with specific guidance enabling authors to understand requirements and improve their work.
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Contribute your expertise to advancing STI research publication standards.
