Duties of authors

The authors of JWTS should submit an original research paper. This means that the work should offer novel contributions to the field of world trade studies. The submitted manuscripts should not have been published and are not currently submitted to other journals. JWTS considers a duplicate submission or publication as unacceptable misconduct.

Authors should accurately and detailedly present their research. They are responsible to appropriately cite, quote, and reference their works, ideas, images, and/or words of others. Failure to do this will be considered as plagiarism. Authors of JWTS may refer to their past works in the submitted manuscript, insofar as the re-use is properly referenced and compliant with copyright policies. However, JWTS discourages authors to re-use large proportions of their past works or to excessively cite their publications in the submitted manuscript. In some cases, these acts may be considered as a form of self-plagiarism which is unethical and unacceptable.

JWTS considers data fabrication and manipulation as serious misconducts. When necessary, the editor may ask the authors to disclose data, computer codes, software tools, or algorithms that have been used to generate the findings of the submitted manuscript for review. The authors should immediately notify the editor once they identify errors and inaccuracies. The authors and editor will then cooperate to retract or correct the publication.

Individuals who have substantially contributed to the design, execution, interpretation, drafting, and revision of the reported study should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should ensure that the co-authors have agreed to submit the manuscripts to JWTS. The corresponding author and co-authors are collectively responsible for the accuracy and integrity of their article. They are also responsible to determine the order of authorship. Since JWTS is unable to arbitrate authorship disputes, the editor will ask the institutions that host the research to investigate the disputes.

Authors are obliged to disclose potential conflicts of interest that may influence the interpretations of their research, including the source of financial support that they have received.

If the reported research involves studies on humans, authors are required to ensure that their research has been conducted ethically without harming human subjects in its process.

Duties of editors

Editors of JWTS should treat each submitted manuscript fairly and judge them based solely on their merits. The gender, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnicity, citizenship, and political philosophy of authors should not in any way affect the treatment of the manuscripts. Personal information of the authors and the unpublished drafts of their articles are confidential documents that should not be publicly shared, except for the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher. The editors are not allowed to use materials from the submitted manuscripts for their research without written consent from the authors.

Editors are responsible for conducting initial review regarding the originality of the submitted manuscripts. They also identify problems that may compromise the research integrity of the manuscripts, including plagiarism, defamation, copyright infringement, citation manipulation, duplicate submission or publication, failure to appropriately reference the works of others, and failure to disclose conflict of interests. They may contact the authors to clarify these issues.

Editors are responsible to select reviewers with the necessary and sufficient expertise. In doing so, they should not select reviewers that may have potential conflicts of interest. If an editor is potentially involved in the conflicts, the editor should abstain from the review and editorial processes. The editors should also ensure that the peer-review process is constructive. The procedure of peer-review and sections of JWTS that are peer-reviewed should be made transparent to the authors.

Editors are responsible for making the publication decision. This decision must be determined solely by the quality and integrity of the submitted manuscripts. In making the decision, editors may consult the reviewers.

Duties of reviewers

Reviewers assist the editors in making the publication decision. They should provide an objective, fair, and high-quality feedback to the submitted manuscripts in order to help the authors improve their articles. They need to evaluate the scientific rigor of the reported study, the adequacy of the data, the validity of the interpretations, the importance and originality of the studies, the clarity of presentation, and the relevance of the manuscripts to JWTS’ readers. The views of the reviewers should be supported with sufficient arguments and references. Personal criticism against authors is not allowed.

Reviewers should ensure, as far as possible, that the authors have cited works that are relevant to their manuscripts and properly attributed ideas that they use in the manuscripts to their original sources. Reviewers should notify the editor if they find that the submitted manuscripts are significantly similar to other published manuscripts or if they detect potential issues that may compromise the integrity of the submitted papers.

Before accepting editors’ requests for manuscript review, reviewers should declare their potential conflicts of interest to the editors. In the case in which potential conflicts of interest may arise, reviewers should decline the request for review. They should also notify the editors if they believe that they are unqualified to perform the review or unable to provide timely feedback.

The peer-review process is confidential. Reviewers are not allowed to disclose information regarding the submitted manuscripts without the authorisation of the editors or to use the information for personal advantage.