Editor Guidelines
Editors of Computational Methods are responsible for maintaining scholarly quality, editorial independence, peer-review integrity, confidentiality, and publication ethics.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly quality, originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the journal's scope, research integrity, and appropriate peer review.
Decisions must not be improperly influenced by nationality, gender, religion, institutional affiliation, personal relationships, commercial interests, financial considerations, or other irrelevant factors.
Editor-in-Chief Responsibility
The Editor-in-Chief has overall responsibility for the journal's editorial direction, peer-review integrity, publication ethics, and final editorial decisions.
The Editor-in-Chief may delegate manuscript handling and decision-making to a qualified Senior Editor, Associate Editor, or other formally designated editor with appropriate subject expertise. Such delegation does not remove the Editor-in-Chief's overall responsibility.
Initial Editorial Assessment
Editors should determine whether a manuscript:
- falls within the journal's aims and scope;
- contains sufficient scholarly or scientific content;
- provides an appropriate methodological or computational basis;
- meets basic research-integrity requirements; and
- is suitable for external peer review.
Manuscripts that are clearly outside the journal's scope or unsuitable for publication may be rejected without external peer review.
Peer Review
Computational Methods uses a single-blind peer-review process.
Editors should select reviewers with appropriate expertise in the manuscript's computational, mathematical, scientific, engineering, medical, or application-specific subject area.
Reviewer independence, conflicts of interest, availability, and relevant expertise should be considered when selecting reviewers.
Editorial Decisions
Editorial decisions may include acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection.
Reviewer recommendations are advisory. Editors must independently evaluate the manuscript, reviewer reports, author responses, and relevant scientific, methodological, and ethical considerations before making a decision.
Computational and Methodological Quality
Editors should consider whether manuscripts provide sufficient information to evaluate the mathematical formulation, computational methodology, algorithms, datasets, validation, experiments, simulations, statistical analysis, or other methods relevant to the work.
For interdisciplinary manuscripts, editors may seek additional subject or methodological expertise when required.
Research Ethics
Editors should ensure appropriate ethical consideration for research involving human participants, animals, medical information, identifiable personal information, sensitive datasets, or other regulated activities.
Where necessary, editors may request ethics approvals, consent information, institutional documentation, trial registration information, or other supporting evidence.
Research and Publication Integrity
Editors should investigate credible concerns involving:
- plagiarism;
- fabrication or falsification;
- duplicate or redundant publication;
- inappropriate image manipulation;
- unreliable computational results;
- data or code integrity concerns;
- authorship disputes;
- undisclosed conflicts of interest;
- peer-review manipulation; and
- other forms of research or publication misconduct.
Editors should follow the COPE Core Practices when addressing publication-ethics concerns.
Conflicts of Interest
Editors must disclose and appropriately manage actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest.
An editor should not handle a manuscript where a personal, professional, institutional, financial, or other relationship could compromise impartiality.
Confidentiality
Editors must maintain confidentiality concerning submitted manuscripts, unpublished research, datasets, source code, reviewer identities, editorial correspondence, and personal information.
Artificial Intelligence
Editors must use AI-assisted tools responsibly and must not compromise manuscript confidentiality, unpublished research, personal information, intellectual property, or peer-review confidentiality.
Editors should follow relevant principles in the ICMJE AI guidance where applicable.
Corrections and Retractions
The journal may publish corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other editorial notices when necessary to maintain the integrity of the published record.
Post-publication actions should be based on credible evidence and handled transparently and consistently.
Editorial Independence and Charges
Editorial decisions must remain independent of article processing charges and optional production or technical services.
The optional USD 50 Production and Technical Support service offered by Jagua Publication must have no influence on peer review, editorial assessment, acceptance, rejection, or publication decisions.
Complaints and Appeals
Editors should consider legitimate author appeals and complaints fairly and confidentially. Appeals should address substantive concerns regarding the editorial process, scientific assessment, or decision.
Publication-ethics complaints should be handled according to the journal's procedures and recognized principles such as the COPE Core Practices.