Guidelines for Editors

The Editor’s Core Role
As a member of the MycoAsia editorial team, your primary role is to serve as a guardian of the scholarly record. You are responsible for the scientific quality and integrity of the content published in the journal. This involves managing the peer-review process with fairness and rigor, making objective editorial decisions, and upholding the journal’s commitment to the highest ethical standards.

Manuscript Handling and Peer Review
Fairness and Objectivity: Editors must give impartial consideration to all manuscripts submitted for publication, judging each on its scientific merit without regard to the author’s race, gender, religion, nationality, or institutional affiliation.
Managing the Review Process: You are responsible for ensuring a fair, timely, and rigorous peer-review process. This includes selecting qualified and impartial reviewers, providing them with clear guidelines, and ensuring their feedback is constructive and professional.
Confidentiality: All submitted manuscripts, and their associated materials must be treated as confidential documents. Information must not be disclosed to anyone outside the peer-review process.

Editorial Decisions
Basis for Decisions: The decision to accept or reject a manuscript for publication must be based solely on its scientific importance, originality, clarity, and relevance to the journal’s scope.
Independence: Editorial decisions must be independent of any commercial interests or external pressures. They should not be influenced by the origin of the manuscript or the identity of the authors.

Upholding Publication Ethics
Adherence to COPE: All editorial processes must be guided by the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors are expected to be familiar with and apply COPE’s best practice guidelines.
Conflicts of Interest: Editors must declare any potential conflicts of interest that could affect their judgment on a manuscript and must recuse themselves from the editorial process in such cases. You are also responsible for managing conflicts of interest for authors and reviewers.
Investigating Misconduct: Editors have a duty to act on any suspicion or allegation of scientific misconduct. This includes investigating claims of plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication, or authorship disputes.
Using COPE Flowcharts: In all cases of suspected misconduct, editors should follow the procedural flowcharts provided by COPE to ensure a systematic, fair, and defensible investigation.

Correcting the Scholarly Record
Editors are responsible for the integrity of the literature they publish. If a significant error or inaccuracy is discovered in a published article, the editor must take prompt action to correct the record by publishing a formal correction (corrigendum) or, in cases of serious misconduct, a retraction.

Contributing to Journal Development
Editors are encouraged to contribute to the continuous improvement of MycoAsia. This includes actively participating in editorial board meetings, providing feedback on journal policies, and helping to attract high-quality submissions to enhance the journal’s reputation and impact within the global mycology community.