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From Principles to Practice: Trust, Transparency, and Accountability in Scholarly Publishing
Building trust in scholarly publishing isn’t just about policies; it’s about putting transparency and accountability into action. Explore how journals, reviewers, and editors can strengthen integrity across the research ecosystem.
Trust is a critical component of scholarly publishing systems, underpinning the legitimacy of peer review, editorial decision-making, and the dissemination of research. When trust weakens, the credibility of journals suffers, authors disengage, and readers question the reliability of published work. In recent years, growing submission volumes, evolving publication models, and increasing pressure on editorial workflows have highlighted weaknesses in the implementation of transparency and accountability across the scholarly publishing ecosystem. Addressing these weaknesses requires moving beyond aspirational values toward operational, context-aware policy measures that strengthen editorial integrity across diverse publishing environments.
Scholarly publishing relies on a complex network of actors, including authors, reviewers, editors, publishers, and institutions. While the system is often presented as merit-based and self-correcting, practical experience reveals uneven application of standards and responsibilities. Authors are routinely required to meet strict ethical, methodological, and reporting requirements, often aligned with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), while expectations placed on reviewers and editors remain informal or inconsistently enforced. This imbalance contributes to frustration, delays, and perceptions of unfairness that ultimately undermine trust.
Transparency as an Editorial Governance Principle
Transparency should function as a governance principle rather than a symbolic commitment. At the policy level, journals benefit from clearly articulated editorial guidelines explaining submission requirements, peer-review models, decision criteria, and expected timelines. These policies should be publicly accessible and written in plain language, aligned with recognised standards such as those promoted by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Regular communication during the review process, particularly when delays occur, remains a simple but effective transparency measure that is often overlooked.
Peer-review workflows represent a critical site for transparency interventions. Standardised reviewer guidelines clarify expectations regarding tone, depth, and scope of reviews, while editorial screening of reviewer reports helps identify unconstructive or biased feedback before it reaches authors. Some journals have introduced partial disclosure mechanisms, such as editorial decision summaries or anonymised review histories, supported by platforms like Publons. While not suitable for all contexts, policy frameworks should encourage experimentation and contextual adaptation rather than uniform adoption.
Rebalancing Accountability Across the Publishing System
- Accountability mechanisms are currently most visible at the author level, including plagiarism screening, ethics approvals, and data-availability requirements, frequently supported by persistent identifiers such as ORCID. Comparable structures for reviewers and editors remain underdeveloped, creating an imbalance in responsibility.
- Policy-level reforms can address this gap without compromising editorial independence. Reviewer accountability may include tracking timeliness, requiring conflict-of-interest declarations, and offering feedback on review quality, while editorial accountability can be strengthened through clear role definitions, board-level oversight, and documented decision-making processes.
Importantly, accountability should be framed as supportive rather than punitive. The objective is not to penalise participants for structural constraints, such as workload pressures or limited resources, but to promote responsibility and consistency. Clearly communicated appeals and complaint procedures further reinforce trust by demonstrating that concerns are addressed through defined and fair processes.
Accountability as Editorial Culture
- Beyond formal mechanisms, accountability is reinforced through an editorial culture that values reflection, learning, and continuous improvement.
- Regular audits of editorial workflows, reviewer performance assessments, and structured author feedback enable journals to identify weaknesses before they become systemic, ensuring accountability functions as a stabilising force rather than a reactive response.
Infrastructure, Systems, and Policy Clarity
Digital infrastructure plays an important role in enabling transparent and accountable workflows. Editorial management systems support documentation of decisions, tracking of review timelines, and internal assessments. However, policy discussions must acknowledge disparities in access to such tools. Support for shared platforms, open-source solutions, and technical assistance helps ensure that transparency requirements do not widen inequalities between journals.
Equally important is policy clarity. Ambiguous or overly complex policies undermine transparency by creating uncertainty about expectations and procedures. Regular policy reviews, informed by feedback from authors, reviewers, and editors, ensure that governance documents remain relevant, accessible, and practically usable.
Contextualising Policy for Regional Publishing Realities
Context sensitivity is essential when translating transparency and accountability principles into policy. Global standards often assume stable funding, robust digital infrastructure, and institutional recognition of editorial labour. Many regional and emerging journals operate under different conditions, relying on volunteer editors and limited technical support. Applying uniform compliance requirements without flexibility risks marginalising these journals and misinterpreting capacity limitations as ethical shortcomings.
Policy frameworks should prioritise capacity building over enforcement alone. Training programmes for editors and reviewers, shared infrastructure initiatives, and regional editorial networks support the adoption of good practices while respecting local realities. Regional perspectives also offer alternative accountability models, including mentorship-based editorial approaches and collaborative decision-making structures, demonstrating that integrity can be maintained without replicating large commercial publishing systems.
Policy Actions for Strengthening Trust and Integrity
To strengthen trust, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing:
- Journals should embed transparency requirements within editorial governance documents and review them periodically.
- Institutions and funders should formally recognise peer-review and editorial work as essential scholarly contributions.
- Publishers and scholarly organisations should invest in training and technical support, particularly for regional journals.
- Ongoing, reciprocal dialogue between global policy bodies and local publishing communities should be encouraged.
Trustworthy scholarly publishing systems are not achieved through isolated reforms or rhetorical commitments. They are built through coordinated, context-aware policy implementation that aligns ethical principles with editorial realities. When transparency and accountability operate as practical standards, supported by clear governance structures and shared responsibility, the scholarly communication ecosystem moves toward greater integrity, fairness, and long-term resilience globally.
Keywords
Scholarly publishing Editorial governance Peer review transparency Accountability frameworks Research integrity Editorial policy Regional journals
Davies Ibienebo Chris, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and a Research Fellow affiliated with INTI International University, Malaysia. His expertise spans aquatic ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, water quality assessment, and health risk analysis in coastal and freshwater ecosystems. He has published extensively in international journals and serves as a peer reviewer for multiple Springer Nature titles. Dr. Chris is an active member of the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE) and several professional scientific societies.
View All Posts by Davies Ibienebo ChrisDisclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their affiliated institutions, the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), or the Editor’s Café editorial team.
