For editors
Editors Guidelines
Editors hold the journal’s scholarly judgment. The work is to establish whether a manuscript belongs in the journal, to obtain competent independent assessment of it, and to reach a decision the evidence supports.
These guidelines describe that responsibility. They do not replace the Editorial Policies, which govern in any conflict.
ISSN 2578-8590 · Published by Open Access Pub · Open access under CC BY 4.0
The editorial sequence
From arrival to decision
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Fit
Assess the manuscript against the Aims and Scope. Physiology must be the subject of the work; the level of organization, the species and the method are not grounds for exclusion. A manuscript outside remit is returned promptly so the authors can place it elsewhere.
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Reviewers
Select reviewers whose expertise matches the claims the manuscript makes, and who have no competing interest in it. Where profile information is incomplete, establish expertise from the reviewer’s published work rather than inferring it.
Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
When double-blind review is requested, editors must ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers.
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Assessment
Read the reviews against the manuscript rather than counting recommendations. Where reviewers disagree, the editor resolves the disagreement on the evidence, seeking a further opinion when the disagreement is substantive.
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Decision
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Give authors reasons they can act on, and hold the decision to the standard the manuscript’s own claims require rather than to a single preferred study design.
Conduct
Confidentiality, interests and integrity
A submitted manuscript is confidential. Its existence, content and fate are not discussed outside the editorial process, and its material is not used before publication.
Editors recuse themselves from decisions on their own submissions; those manuscripts are handled independently. An editor with a competing interest in a manuscript declares it and withdraws from its handling.
Where a concern about research or publication integrity arises, the editor refers it to the editorial office rather than resolving it alone, and the authors are given the opportunity to respond.
Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
Editorial decisions are independent of fees, services, membership, and editorial or reviewer roles.
International Physiology Journal
ISSN 2578-8590 · Published by Open Access Pub · Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license · Article DOIs use the publisher prefix 10.14302.