To protect fairness, manuscripts authored by members of the editorial team or active reviewers are handled as follows:
- The author must declare their role in the cover letter.
- They are excluded from all editorial handling and decisions on their own manuscript.
- The paper is assigned to an independent editor and reviewers, and the double-blind process is applied in full.
- Acceptance is based on merit alone; no fee waiver or priority is implied.
Published papers of this kind carry a note: “One or more authors are members of the editorial team; handled independently under the Editorial Submissions Policy.”