Publication Integrity & Ethics (PIE) was developed over a decade ago to address several areas of concern and promote real editorial freedom.Read more.
Duties
Editor
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Whether the publisher assumes editing responsibilities or not, they are usually the main duties of the editor-in-chief. He or she oversees the editing procedures and controls the authenticity, quality, language and aesthetics of the content being published within the pages of the journal they manage.
Based on various grounds, the editor-in-chief approves or rejects the materials provided by the authors; he will modify or paraphrase the content in order to enhance its quality. They are also responsible for the authenticity of the article released for the public as well as dealing with complaints on copyright, infringements or plagiarism.
The duty of the editor-in-chief is the most challenging one as they have to deal with various authors, writing qualities and styles and all the topics their publication discusses. They also need excellent communication skills and the ability to build a good relationship with each author whether or not they reject or accept the articles or news provided. Listed below, are the main editor-in-chief responsibilities:
Cross checking the articles and other editorial matters
Prior to publishing the content, the editor-in-chief checks all the materials provided by the authors and editors in order to approve or reject them. Usually, the articles have already gone through the peer-review and editing process but they must be cleared in order to be of sufficient standard to be published. It’s the editor-in-chief that has the final say. He is accountable for any editorial problems and must check the content thoroughly before releasing it to the public. Finally, the editor-in-chief may be required to provide his or her own pieces of editorial content.
Checking for plagiarism and responsibility
Whether the content has been previously checked by other members of the editorial staff for ghost writing or plagiarism, the editor-in-chief should check the articles again and ensure that the particular article or image has not been published elsewhere, or plagiarised. As this can be very difficult to achieve today, many authorities believe that if such an issue is identified, then the authors should take full responsibilities for these actions and not the reviewers, editorial board members or editor-in-chief.
The editor-in-chief is the main person to be made accountable for the ethical and moral integrity of the editorial staff and the articles published. Usually, the publication’s standard of performance and quality depend on the qualifications and capabilities of the editor-in-chief. Hence, they have the responsibility to ensure that no piece of work should pass their supervising and correction without being accurate and free of plagiarism.
Light and heavy edits to the content
The editor-in-chief usually supervises the editing process and makes the final edits to the content in order to ensure it is according to the line, style, ethical and professional concept of the journal they lead. There are two forms of editing, light and heavy. While the heavy editing duty requires maximum attention and significant changes to be made, the light editing job requires minor theme or structure changes that are being made on the spot and do not involve the entire editing staff.
Managerial skills and duties
Whether the publisher is involved in the editorial process or not, the editor-in-chief must act like a manager for the editorial team under him or her, constantly working on motivating, developing and improving them. He shapes the authors and the other editors according to his own ethical image and publishing skills. Sometimes, the editor-in-chief has also strategic planning and marketing duties that cannot be delegated to other editorial board members.
Managerial duties also include the formation of regular team meetings and updates provided to each individual involved in the editorial process. The editor-in-chief assigns all the responsibilities to the team members and ensures the tasks are completed in due time and without problems.
Ethical standards
The editor-in-chief has the main duty of setting and implementing the ethical standards. As a member of PIE, he or she must comply with the main ethical rules and guidelines; he must certify that any complaints from the readers or authors and/or the institutes or publishers are handled and accounted for as soon as possible and with the utmost proficiency and professionalism.
The editor-in-chief has the responsibility not only to oversee the editorial process in its entirety but also to check the content is technically sound and of high quality. An editor-in-chief that works for a technical journal must therefore have the technical skills required in order to be able to check the accuracy of the materials published.
