For Editors

The material on this page is designed to support you in every aspect of your responsibilities as an Editor, from manuscript assessment to selecting peer reviewers and upholding publishing ethics.

Manuscript Handling Information

We are currently operating within the Open Journal System (OJS) and follow the guidance outlined below.

Ethical Guidelines for Journal Editors

We encourage journal editors to adhere to these ethical principles when managing articles submitted for peer review in Trends in Plant Biology, in alignment with COPE guidelines:

• Impartial Evaluation: Editors must assess each manuscript fairly based on its scientific merit, without consideration of the author's race, religion, nationality, gender, seniority, or institutional affiliation.
• Confidentiality: Editors must preserve strict confidentiality throughout the peer-review process and should not disclose manuscript information to individuals outside the peer-review workflow.
• Misconduct Allegations: When there is a credible allegation of misconduct involving an author, reviewer, or editor, editors should conduct an appropriate investigation in collaboration with Trends in Plant Biology editorial office.
• Appropriate Manuscript Handling: Editors may reject a manuscript without formal peer review if it is outside the journal’s scope or unsuitable for publication.
• Timely Processing: Editors should strive to process submissions in a timely manner.
• Peer Review Delegation: Editors should assign the peer review of any original research article they authored to a suitable editor or advisory board member.
• Correction of Errors: If there is compelling evidence that a published article contains substantial errors, editors should work with Trends in Plant Biology to publish a suitable correction notice.
• Non-Use of Manuscript Data: Editors must not use data or analyses from submitted manuscripts for their personal research without the author’s consent.
• Confidentiality of Submission and Peer Review Details: Editors must protect the confidentiality of submission and peer-review information. They should avoid uploading files, images, or unpublished manuscript data to databases or tools that lack confidentiality, are publicly accessible, or could be used for other purposes. This includes avoiding use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT for such tasks.

For best practices, please refer to For best practices, we recommend editors refer to COPE Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Please contact our editorial office if you have any questions or concerns.