Editorial Governance and Editorial Independence Policy
The Herald of the National Children's Medical Center maintains a clearly defined system of editorial governance designed to protect scientific integrity, accountability, transparency, and editorial independence.
The journal distinguishes between the responsibilities of the journal owner, publisher, Editor-in-Chief, other editors, Editorial Board, editorial office, reviewers, and external partners. Administrative, financial, institutional, commercial, or technical responsibilities must not be used to interfere improperly with scientific editorial decisions.
Editorial decisions are based on the scientific merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical acceptability, relevance to the journal’s scope, reporting quality, and reliability of the work.
ICMJE states that medical journals should explicitly describe their governance and relationship with the journal owner and that journal owners should not interfere in the evaluation, selection, scheduling, or editing of individual articles.
Ownership and Publishing Responsibilities
The journal is owned and issued by the National Children’s Medical Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
I-EDU GROUP LLC provides publishing and technical support.
The owner may exercise legitimate responsibilities concerning the journal’s overall mission, institutional governance, financial sustainability, appointment of senior editorial leadership, and compliance with applicable legal and administrative requirements.
The publisher may provide services relating to the journal platform, production workflow, metadata, digital publishing, DOI-related processes, dissemination, technical support, preservation, and other publishing operations within its assigned responsibilities.
Neither ownership nor publishing responsibility gives a person or organization the right to determine the acceptance or rejection of an individual manuscript for institutional, financial, commercial, reputational, or personal reasons.
Authority of the Editor-in-Chief
The Editor-in-Chief has primary responsibility and appropriate authority for the scientific and editorial content of the journal.
Within the journal’s governance framework, the Editor-in-Chief has final editorial authority over individual publication decisions.
This includes responsibility for maintaining appropriate standards of peer review, scientific quality, research integrity, publication ethics, research ethics, editorial consistency, and the overall credibility of the scholarly record.
The Editor-in-Chief may delegate the handling of manuscripts to appropriately qualified editors, but such delegation does not remove the Editor-in-Chief’s overall responsibility for the integrity of the editorial process.
ICMJE adopts the principle that editors-in-chief should have authority over editorial content and that publication decisions should be based on the validity and importance of the work rather than its commercial implications.
Editorial Decision-Making
Decisions on individual manuscripts must be based on scholarly considerations.
Positive, negative, inconclusive, controversial, institutionally inconvenient, or commercially unattractive findings must not be treated differently merely because of the direction or perceived desirability of the results.
Payment of an article processing charge, institutional affiliation, sponsorship, advertising relationship, personal connection, academic status, nationality, or relationship with the journal must not influence the scientific decision.
Peer reviewers provide expert recommendations, but the final decision rests with an appropriately authorized editor.
ICMJE states that editorial decisions should be based on relevance, originality, quality, and contribution to knowledge, and should not be influenced by commercial interests, personal relationships, agendas, or the fact that findings are negative or challenge accepted views.
Editorial Roles and Responsibility Chain
Editorial responsibilities are assigned according to defined roles.
The Editor-in-Chief provides overall scientific and editorial leadership and holds final responsibility for editorial decisions.
A Deputy Editor, Associate Editor, or other authorized handling editor, where appointed, may manage individual manuscripts and make recommendations or decisions within the authority delegated by the Editor-in-Chief.
The Executive Secretary and editorial office may coordinate submissions, correspondence, workflow, documentation, metadata, deadlines, and administrative procedures but must not alter independent scientific decisions without appropriate editorial authority.
The Editorial Board contributes scientific expertise, policy advice, disciplinary guidance, peer-review support, and other functions defined in the journal’s Editorial Board Policy.
Technical publishing staff support production and dissemination but do not substitute for scientific editorial judgment.
Separation of Editorial and Commercial Functions
Editorial decision-making must remain separate from revenue generation and commercial activities.
Article processing charges, publishing fees, institutional contracts, sponsorship, advertising, technical-service arrangements, or other financial relationships must not determine the outcome of an individual manuscript.
Where editorial personnel are aware of payment information, that information must not be used as a scientific selection criterion.
A manuscript must not receive preferential treatment because its author, institution, sponsor, or funder has a financial or institutional relationship with the owner or publisher.
Editorial Conflicts of Interest and Recusal
Editors and other persons participating in editorial decisions must disclose relationships or activities that could influence, or reasonably appear to influence, their judgment.
An editor must recuse themselves from handling a manuscript where a significant conflict exists, including circumstances involving their own work, close collaborators, substantial personal or financial relationships, or another relationship that could reasonably compromise independent judgment.
The manuscript must then be assigned to another appropriately independent editor.
Editorial personnel must not use confidential information acquired through manuscript handling for personal, academic, financial, institutional, or competitive advantage.
ICMJE requires editorial staff involved in decisions to disclose relevant relationships and to recuse themselves from decisions where a potential conflict exists.
Manuscripts from Editors, Board Members, and the Owner Institution
Manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, editors, Editorial Board members, journal staff, employees of the owner institution, or persons closely connected with journal governance are not entitled to preferential treatment.
Such manuscripts must meet the same scientific, ethical, reporting, and peer-review requirements as other submissions.
A conflicted editor must have no role in reviewer selection, review management, or the final decision.
Where necessary, the manuscript is transferred to an independent editor who has no relevant conflict of interest.
The existence of an institutional relationship with the journal owner does not itself justify acceptance or rejection.
Appointment, Evaluation, and Removal of Senior Editors
The journal owner has responsibility for appointing senior editorial leadership within the journal’s governance structure.
The rights, duties, authority, term or conditions of appointment, performance expectations, and mechanisms for resolving governance conflicts should be clearly defined.
Assessment of an Editor-in-Chief should be based on legitimate and previously understood criteria such as scientific leadership, integrity, editorial performance, quality improvement, adherence to journal policies, and responsible management of the editorial process.
Dismissal should not be used to punish an editor for a scientifically justified decision, responsible criticism, publication of valid findings that are inconvenient to the owner, or refusal to compromise publication ethics.
ICMJE recommends that owners appoint and dismiss editors under clearly defined arrangements and that dismissal should occur only for substantial reasons; it further recommends independent expert involvement in such decisions.
Access to Ownership and Resolution of Governance Conflicts
The Editor-in-Chief should have an appropriate mechanism for direct communication with the highest responsible level of journal ownership when a serious matter concerning editorial independence, integrity, legal responsibility, resources, or governance cannot be resolved through ordinary administrative channels.
Disagreements between the editor, owner, publisher, or other stakeholders should be addressed through documented and professional procedures.
Where the disagreement concerns the scientific merits of an individual manuscript, the independent editorial process must be protected.
Where the issue concerns law, participant safety, research integrity, or another serious obligation, appropriate legal, ethical, institutional, or professional advice may be sought without transferring scientific decision-making to an interested party.
ICMJE specifically recommends that editors have direct access to the highest level of ownership in order to safeguard editorial freedom in practice.
Complaints and Appeals Independence
Complaints and appeals must be considered fairly and, where appropriate, independently from the original disputed decision.
An editor whose own conduct or decision is the subject of a substantive complaint should not be the sole person deciding the outcome of that complaint.
Where necessary, the matter may be assigned to another senior editor, an independent member of the Editorial Board, or another appropriately qualified and impartial person.
Complaints concerning the Editor-in-Chief may be referred through an appropriate independent governance mechanism that preserves the distinction between procedural oversight and scientific editorial judgment.
Detailed procedures are set out in the journal’s Complaints and Appeals Policy.
ICMJE recommends that journals clearly state their appeals process and maintain a system for handling complaints and appeals.
Research Integrity and Ethical Concerns
Editors must be able to act independently when credible concerns arise regarding plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, inappropriate authorship, unethical research, missing consent, peer-review manipulation, undisclosed conflicts of interest, or other research-integrity concerns.
The owner, publisher, sponsor, or institution must not suppress a legitimate investigation or require an editor to accept, retain, correct, or retract an article for an improper institutional or reputational reason.
Where appropriate, the journal may contact an ethics committee, institution, funder, sponsor, regulator, or other competent body while retaining responsibility for the journal’s own editorial actions.
Special Issues and Guest Editors
Special issues, thematic collections, supplements, and Guest Editor arrangements remain under the journal’s established governance framework.
Guest Editors must follow the same requirements concerning peer review, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, publication ethics, research ethics, and editorial independence as regular editors.
Guest Editors must not guarantee publication, reduce normal review standards, or independently handle manuscripts where they have a conflict of interest.
The Editor-in-Chief retains appropriate oversight of special content and may intervene where journal standards, integrity, or independence are at risk.
The joint COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing state that transparency and best-practice requirements apply to all published content, including special issues.
Sponsorship, Partnerships, and Advertising
Sponsorship, partnership, advertising, institutional support, or commercial arrangements must be clearly separated from editorial decision-making.
External partners may not determine which individual scientific manuscripts are accepted, rejected, delayed, accelerated, or promoted because of financial or reputational interests.
Sponsored or specially funded content must remain subject to appropriate editorial oversight and relevant disclosure requirements.
Advertising or sponsorship must not be presented in a manner that could reasonably be confused with independently evaluated editorial content.
Confidentiality and Editorial Information
Editors, Editorial Board members, staff, publishers, and other persons legitimately involved in editorial processes must respect the confidentiality of manuscripts, peer-review information, unpublished research, author information, ethical documentation, and other protected editorial material.
Access should be limited to persons who require the information for legitimate editorial, technical, ethical, or legal purposes.
Confidential editorial information must not be used for private or competitive advantage.
Artificial Intelligence and Editorial Responsibility
Editors remain personally responsible for editorial judgments and decisions.
Confidential manuscripts, peer-review reports, unpublished data, patient information, and other protected material must not be disclosed to external generative-AI systems where confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or appropriate authorization cannot be assured.
Artificial intelligence must not be treated as an autonomous editorial decision-maker.
Detailed requirements are provided in the journal’s Artificial Intelligence Policy.
Development and Maintenance of Journal Policies
The journal’s policies are developed and reviewed under the scientific leadership of the Editor-in-Chief with appropriate input from the Editorial Board, editorial staff, publisher, and relevant experts.
Technical, legal, or operational input may be considered where appropriate, but changes to editorial policy must not be imposed for the purpose of obtaining improper influence over scientific decisions.
Policies should be publicly available, internally consistent, accurately reflect actual journal practice, and be updated when standards, regulations, technologies, or journal procedures materially change.
Material changes should be implemented responsibly and should not be applied retrospectively in a manner that unfairly alters completed editorial decisions.
Accountability and Transparency
Editorial independence does not mean absence of accountability.
Editors are accountable for applying the journal’s policies consistently, managing conflicts of interest, protecting confidentiality, maintaining appropriate peer review, responding to integrity concerns, correcting the scholarly record when necessary, and explaining editorial processes transparently.
The owner and publisher are likewise responsible for supporting an environment in which the editorial team can perform these functions without improper pressure.
Web of Science evaluates whether a journal demonstrates editorial rigour, adherence to community standards, appropriate Editorial Board composition, and consistency between its stated scope, board, authorship, and published content.
Policy Application
This policy applies to the journal owner, publisher, Editor-in-Chief, other editors, Editorial Board members, editorial staff, Guest Editors, and other persons exercising editorial authority or influence.
In all cases, scientific editorial decisions must remain protected from inappropriate institutional, financial, commercial, political, personal, or reputational interference.
The journal’s publicly stated governance arrangements must correspond to its actual editorial practice.