Accountability and Editorial Authority

The Editor of NSMJ is fully accountable for all published content, holding the authority to select which submitted articles proceed to publication. This decision-making process is guided by journal editorial policies and legal requirements pertaining to libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The Editor maintains the integrity of the academic record, ensuring that business considerations never compromise intellectual or ethical standards. The Editor is also responsible for issuing necessary corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies in a timely manner. The Editor may consult with other editors or reviewers as needed during the decision process.

Fairness and Confidentiality

The Editor must evaluate manuscripts based solely on intellectual content, without regard to the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.

The Editor and editorial staff must treat submitted manuscripts as strictly confidential. Information about a manuscript under consideration will not be disclosed to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial board members, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Oversight

The Editor must not use unpublished material disclosed in a manuscript for their own research without the author's explicit written consent. Privileged information obtained through the peer-review process must be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

The Editor is committed to a fair and appropriate peer review process, ensuring that commercial revenue (e.g., from advertising or reprints) does not influence editorial decisions.

Editors must recuse themselves from considering any manuscript where a conflict of interest exists, stemming from competitive, collaborative, or personal relationships with the authors or institutions connected to the paper. Furthermore, the Editor is responsible for requiring all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and for publishing corrections or taking appropriate action (such as retraction) if conflicts are discovered after publication.

Investigation and Integrity

The Editor is required to safeguard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions as necessary, and by actively pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct by authors, reviewers, or editorial staff. The Editor must take prompt, responsive measures when ethical complaints arise concerning any submitted or published paper.