Pitt Open Library Publishing (POLP) journals must adhere to a rigorous, detailed editorial process to ensure academic quality and accuracy.
Journals must have a designated Editor(s) In Chief, as well as an Editorial Board comprised of individuals with suitable expertise relevant to the topic and goals of the publication. Names and affiliations of the editors and editorial board must be published on the journal’s website.
Journals are solely responsible for determining the content of the journal and control all editorial decisions relating to the journal content. Using the platform provided by Pitt Open Library Publishing, journals are responsible for all editorial workflow management, including the work of soliciting submissions; conducting peer reviews; copyediting; layout; publication scheduling; and all correspondence with readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial staff.
Journals must not make any changes to content once it has been officially published, except as specifically directed or approved by Pitt Open Library Publishing. For retractions and errata handling, please refer to our policy on Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern.
Authors submitting to journals in our program must warrant that their work is the author’s original work; the work has not previously been published; the work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the work or property of other authors or third parties; and the work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
Prior to publication of any article, Pitt Open Library Publishing staff perform a set of quality checks to ensure standards are met with respect to article metadata, formatting, and completeness.Pitt Open Library Publishing recognizes the important role peer review plays in the publication process. We recommend editors and their editorial boards refer to the following peer review standards:
Editors must select a consistent model for peer-review that best suits their journal and clearly communicate the selected model to authors; they must also identify whether the same model will be used for all submission types (e.g. double-anonymized model used for original manuscripts but not editorials). Further, editors must apply consistent standards in their peer review processes for both regular issues as well as special issues, supplements, or other published material where peer review was managed by a guest editor. Peer reviewers should be asked to disclose conflicts of interest prior to being granted access to manuscripts, and editors should ensure that manuscripts are handled confidentially in accordance with COPE guidelines and any terms and conditions agreed upon by the author at the time of manuscript submission.
Journals may accept advertisements as long as they follow the requirements below as well as abide by the guidance on transparency from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (as found in the 2019 “Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing”): “Advertising: Journals shall state their advertising policy if relevant, including what types of adverts will be considered, who makes decisions regarding accepting adverts and whether they are linked to content or reader behavior (online only) or are displayed at random. Advertisements should not be related in any way to editorial decision-making and shall be kept separate from the published content.”
Pitt Open Library Publishing recognizes it as an essential practice for journals to ensure work published represents ethical and responsible research. We share the COPE position on studies requiring ethics approval; editors must ensure that journal-level policies consider and adhere to standards in their field of research related to research subject consent, data privacy, bias reduction, and other research ethics issues. As noted by COPE, “standard practice is to ask authors to provide an ethics statement or similar, with details of ethics approval or a statement that no ethics approval was required.”
Editors should be conscious of cultural sensitivities or restrictions on the publication of materials (including names, photographs, or film footage) dealing with cultural heritage or human remains. Editors are encouraged to confer with authors about the appropriate representation of cultures, heritage, ethnicity, and race in published work. The US Office for Human Research Protection maintains a searchable database of independent community institutional review boards that approve research and publication of culturally sensitive materials.
For journals publishing medical research involving human participants, editors should hold their published research to the principles of the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Participants, and in particular the Declaration’s “Free and Informed Consent” section.
Editors of medical journals should also be familiar with and abide by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals. The recommendations include:
Pitt Open Library Publishing recognizes that maintaining the integrity of the publication record is crucial for transparent scholarship. Our policies for issuing errata notices and retractions closely align with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ (ICMJE) “Corrections and Version Control” procedures and the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) guidance on “Errata, Retractions, and Other Linked Citations in PubMed.” When issues of errata or retraction arise, we ensure timely and transparent corrections are made to the publication record.
Editors must promptly notify the POLP team of any requests for errata. The journal will correct the article in question and add a notice of the change underneath the article abstract. The journal will also issue a notice of correction in the publication of its next issue. POLP enforces this errata procedure for any changes to article metadata and errors that significantly impact the interpretation of the text.
Editors must also notify the POLP team of requests for retractions. Like errata, the journal will issue a notice of retraction in the next published issue.
