Responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief

Strategic Responsibilities

  • Sets the editorial direction of the journal in consultation with the Editorial Board and the Advisory Board;
  • Defines the scope and the article types accepted by the journal;
  • Leads the journal's strategy for indexing, including applications to DOAJ, Crossref, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Arcif, and other discovery services;
  • Oversees the annual journal performance review and reports to the Faculty of Dentistry.

Editorial Responsibilities

  • Holds final authority over all publication decisions;
  • Assigns handling editors to submitted manuscripts on the basis of subject expertise and absence of conflict of interest;
  • Makes the final editorial decision (Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, Reject);
  • Decides on appeals, complaints, and disputes;
  • Decides on corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions.

Governance Responsibilities

  • Appoints and reappoints handling editors, members of the Editorial Board, and members of the Advisory Board;
  • Approves the annually updated reviewer panel;
  • Ensures that the Editorial Board reflects a diversity of expertise, geography, gender, and career stage;
  • Convenes meetings of the Editorial Board at least twice a year and of the Advisory Board at least annually;
  • Maintains the journal's policy documents and oversees their periodic review.

Standards and Policy Responsibilities

  • Ensures that the journal complies with the standards of COPE, ICMJE, WAME, and the Council of Science Editors;
  • Ensures the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and of all editorial correspondence;
  • Ensures the journal's transparency on funding, conflicts of interest, open-access policy, and editorial process.

Accountability and Independence

  • Acts independently of commercial interests, advertising, institutional pressure, and any external influence in making editorial decisions;
  • Recuses themselves from any manuscript for which they have a conflict of interest;
  • Reports annually to the Faculty of Dentistry on the journal's editorial performance.

Term and Succession

The Editor-in-Chief is appointed by the Faculty of Dentistry / President of the University of Benghazi for a renewable term of three years, as established by Decree 1715/2025.