Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal within one month of receiving a decision by sending the manuscript title or identifier, challenged decision, arguments and evidence to the journal’s email address on the Contacts page. Receipt is acknowledged within three working days; a response is normally sent within one month. If extended, the editors give reasons and the next response date. Appeals are free and do not guarantee acceptance.

The editorial board considers the appeal with an editor who has no conflict and did not make the challenged decision; additional independent assessment is arranged if needed. The decision may be upheld or revised, or assessment reopened. Repetition without substantial new arguments does not start a new procedure, but new evidence of breaches is considered after an appeal has ended.

Complaints about ethics, errors or editorial process go to the same email address. The one-month submission limit does not apply to concerns about the reliability of published work. Substance and evidence are assessed regardless of complainant status; substantiated anonymous reports may also be considered. Complaints about the Editor-in-Chief go to the publisher and independent board members; the person investigated does not decide the complaint. The editors maintain necessary confidentiality, seek participants’ and institutions’ explanations and follow COPE practice (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices). The complainant receives the outcome within appropriate disclosure limits; the scholarly record is corrected publicly under the corrections and retraction policy.