At the JPADR, we have the following editorial roles:

• Editor-in-Chief (EiC): Head of the entire editorial process and who makes decisions about the operations and policies of the journal.
• Managing Editor (ME): Coordinates all editorial activities and supervises that the entire operation of the journal is carried out properly and on time.
• Associate Editor (AE): Carries out the editorial process of the articles assigned by the Editor-in-Chief and proposes preliminary decisions regarding their publication or not.
• Copy Editor (CE): In charge of editing the articles accepted for publication.
• Proofreading and Layout Editor (PLE): Execute the final revisions of the articles so that they get published with the highest possible formal and grammatical quality.
• Section Editor (SE): In charge of carrying out the editorial process of the articles in a certain section assigned to them by the Editor-in-Chief.
• Review Editor (RE): Responsible for the peer-review process.

Initial editorial assessment

The Managing Editor will check whether the composition and format of the paper comply with the Editorial Guidelines, to ensure it includes the required sections and styles. If the manuscript fails to meet one or more requirements, the Managing Editor will return it to the authors for amendments.

Editorial assignment

The EIC performs pre-screening and may reject papers upfront and decide not to forward them to the peer-review process. This may occur in the case of submission of clearly plagiarized or previously published papers, as well as of papers that fall outside the scope of the Journal, are not innovative, or are of low relevance for readers.

The study must meet all ethical requirements as outlined in the Journal’s Publication Ethics. If the manuscript meets all requirements, the EIC will assign it to an AE with relevant expertise, who will be responsible for managing the peer-review process. AEs may reject manuscripts that they deem highly unlikely to pass peer review.

Peer-review process

Every article submitted to the JPADR will undergo a double-blind review process. The quality of manuscript content is assessed by the AE and a minimum of two external reviewers.

The AE sends invitations to individuals he/she maintains would be appropriate reviewers. Potential reviewers consider the invitation in light of their expertise, conflicts of interest, and availability and are free to accept or decline the invitation. If possible, when declining, they may also suggest alternative reviewers. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of reviewers is obtained.

The reviewers will rate several aspects of the manuscript, offer specific suggestions for improvement, and make a recommendation concerning its suitability for publication. They are required to possess specific expertise in the field of individual submission, have time to produce a report within the deadline established by the editor, and be devoid of any conflict of interest with the Authors or the content of the submission. They are expected to be balanced and consistently fair in evaluating papers and their reports should be analytical and constructive.

The review is submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject the paper or with a revision request (major or minor), that should be well substantiated and justified.
If major issues are identified on first reading the manuscript, the reviewer may decide to reject the paper without further input. All information contained in the manuscript and acquired during the review process will be held in the strictest confidence.

Making a final decision

The AE considers all reviews received before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ considerably, the AE may invite additional reviewers to obtain further opinions before making a decision. The key parameters to be applied in the final evaluation of all types of submissions are:

• Innovation (Is the manuscript original? Does it provide new evidence or ideas capable of furthering knowledge in the given social-economic context?)
• Quality (clarity, logic, English language and grammar, thoroughness, layout, etc.)
• Relevance (interest to readers, not too specific, applicability, the importance of the topic, impact on social life, economy, the scientific community, etc.)

Four possible decisions may therefore be reached:

• Accept – the manuscript satisfies all publication parameters and is worthy of publication
• Minor/Major Revisions – further revision of the manuscript is required to satisfy all parameters (a deadline for submission of the revised version is set)
• Reject and Resubmission Suggested – the paper fails to satisfy key parameters and substantial revision of the manuscript is required to address its shortcomings (no deadlines are set)
• Reject – the paper fails to satisfy key parameters and it is highly unlikely that further work can address its shortcomings.

Notification of final decision to authors

All decisions are confirmed by the EIC before notification. The Managing Editor sends a decision email to the corresponding author including any relevant reviewer comments. All comments and related files will be provided in an anonymized form.

Final editorial steps

If accepted, the paper is sent to production. Reviewers will receive an email informing them of the outcome of their review. The JPADR will make every effort to ensure articles are published rapidly and accurately. The corresponding author will receive an e-mail with a link to the online proofing system (implementation in progress), and he/she should submit all corrections within 48 hours. Following the implementation of the corrections and signing of the Copyright Assignment by the authors, the article is published online under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Copyright for commercial and associated uses will remain with the Publisher.

If the article is returned to the authors for major or minor revision, the Managing Editor will provide constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the article and set a deadline for submission of the revised manuscript. Whenever possible, the revised manuscript will be assessed by the original AE and by the assigned reviewers. Should only minor changes be requested this follow-up review may be performed directly by the AE.

If rejected, the reviewers will receive an email informing them of the final decision.

Appeals

If the author believes that the editorial decision reached for the manuscript is not fair, he/she may contact the Managing Editor at editor@jpadr.com, stating the manuscript number and describing in detail the reasons for the appeal. The EIC will evaluate all requests and make a final decision, consulting the AE and revising the previous decision, if necessary.

Errata and corrigenda

The JPADR will publish corrections to the article if significant errors are discovered after publication. An Erratum will be published in the Journal is responsible for the error, whilst a Corrigendum will be provided if the author is responsible.

Retractions

Articles may be withdrawn, retracted, removed, or replaced after publication if they contain substantial errors that cannot be corrected by publishing an Erratum or a Corrigendum, or if ethical violations become known after publication. For more information, please visit our Publication Ethics section.

Copyright and permission

All materials published by the JPADR are subject to applicable copyright laws.  In submitting a manuscript to the JPADR journal, an author represents that all included materials are the author’s work unless otherwise identified. To avoid any potential issues with plagiarism (i.e., representing someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own) or copyright infringement (i.e., violating the exclusive copyright rights of another) or any other violation of the rights of other parties (including, but not limited to, personal rights, an expectation of privacy, or other confidentiality requirements), authors should identify any third-party materials and their respective rights holders in their submissions.  The author shall additionally ensure that any needed permissions are secured and provided to the journal with their accepted article. While authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions and other releases for third-party materials, JPADR is happy to guide copyright permissions and other rights releases. If you do not see your question addressed below, you can contact the journal’s Managing Editor for additional clarification.

Disclaimer

Facts and opinions in articles published in the JPADR are solely the personal statements of respective authors.  Authors are responsible for all contents in their article(s) including accuracy of the facts, statements, citing resources, and so on. The JPADR and editors disclaim any liability of violations of other parties’ rights or any damage incurred as a consequence of using or applying any of the contents of the Journal. Manuscripts submitted to the JPADR must be original and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Authors submitting a contribution to the JPADR who have related manuscripts under consideration or in press elsewhere should upload a marked copy at the time of submission and draw the editor’s attention to it in their cover letter. If a part of a contribution that an author wishes to submit to the JPADR has appeared or will appear elsewhere, the author must specify the details in the cover letter. Consideration by the Journal of current scientific research is possible if the main result, conclusion, or implications are not apparent from the other work, or if there are other factors, for example, if the other work is published in a language other than English. The author is responsible to get permission from the previous publisher or copyright holder if an author is re-using any part of the paper (i.e. figure or figures) published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted. The editors consider all material in good faith that their journals have full permission to publish every part of the submitted material including illustrations.