Journal of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders

Editorial Policy

1. Editorial Independence

Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders is committed to maintaining the highest standards of editorial independence, scientific integrity, and transparency. Editorial decisions are based solely on the scientific merit, originality, clarity, and relevance of submitted manuscripts.

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board operate independently of the publisher, sponsors, and any affiliated organizations. Editorial decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, advertising revenue, or external pressures, ensuring impartiality and integrity throughout the publication process.

Editorial Team Responsibilities The editorial team is responsible for: ensuring a fair, unbiased, and timely peer review process; maintaining the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts; managing conflicts of interest among editors and reviewers; and upholding ethical standards in accordance with the guidelines of COPE and ICMJE.

Manuscripts that do not fall within the scope of the journal or fail to meet basic scientific or ethical standards may be rejected without external peer review.

2. Roles and Responsibilities of Editors

Editors are responsible for maintaining and continuously improving the scientific quality, integrity, and academic value of the journal. They are expected to respond to the needs of authors and readers, support academic discourse, and adhere to internationally recognized editorial standards and best practices.

Editorial Board

The Editorial Board is composed of internationally recognized experts in Parkinson's disease, movement disorders, and related disciplines. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that the full names, academic affiliations, and up-to-date contact information of all board members are clearly presented and regularly updated on the journal's website.

Publication Decisions The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on manuscript publication based on scientific merit, originality, methodological rigor, clarity, and relevance. Decisions comply with applicable legal and ethical standards, including copyright, plagiarism, and research misconduct policies.
Fair Play Editors evaluate all submissions solely on scientific and intellectual content, without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political views.
Confidentiality Editors and editorial team members must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher. All submitted materials are handled securely throughout the process.
Conflicts of Interest Editors must not be involved in decisions about manuscripts in which they have competitive, collaborative, or other conflicts of interest. Such manuscripts will be handled by another qualified editor.
Ethical Oversight Editors are responsible for taking appropriate action when ethical concerns arise, including plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate publication, and other forms of research misconduct. The journal follows COPE guidelines in handling such cases.

3. Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to the journal undergo a rigorous and structured peer review process to ensure the highest standards of scientific quality, originality, and ethical integrity. The process is designed to provide authors with fair, constructive, and transparent feedback.

  1. Initial Editorial Assessment Every submitted manuscript is screened by the Editorial Office and/or the Editor-in-Chief for compliance with the journal's scope and aims, adherence to submission guidelines (formatting, word limits, references, figures, and tables), and ethical compliance (ethics committee approval, informed consent, plagiarism check). Manuscripts not meeting these requirements are rejected without external review. Authors receive an explanation and may revise and resubmit if appropriate.
  2. Double-Blind Peer Review Manuscripts passing the initial assessment are sent to at least two independent external reviewers with subject-matter expertise. Authors' and reviewers' identities are kept confidential to avoid bias. Reviewers are selected based on expertise, academic and clinical experience, and previous reviewing reliability.
  3. Evaluation Criteria Reviewers assess manuscripts on: scientific validity (study design, methods, data analysis, and results); originality and novelty; clinical or academic relevance; ethical standards; clarity and structure (title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, tables, figures, references); and reference accuracy.
  4. Reviewer Feedback Reviewers provide detailed comments and categorize their recommendation as: Accept without revisions / Minor revisions required / Major revisions required / Reject. Reviewers justify recommendations, highlight strengths and weaknesses, and suggest improvements. Overlap with published manuscripts or missing prior citations should also be identified.
  5. Revision Process Authors receive reviewer comments and are expected to address all points, provide a point-by-point response letter, and submit the revised manuscript within the given timeframe. Major revisions may be re-evaluated by the original reviewers.
  6. Final Decision The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with Associate Editors, makes the final decision: Acceptance / Conditional Acceptance / Further Revision Required / Rejection. Decisions are based on reviewer recommendations, revision quality, and journal standards. Authors are notified with rationale to ensure transparency.
  7. Transparency and Ethical Standards The journal follows ICMJE, WAME, CSE, COPE, EASE, NISO, and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. Conflicts of interest are disclosed and managed. Peer review is conducted fairly, objectively, and confidentially.
  8. Reviewer Responsibilities
    • Maintain manuscript confidentiality
    • Conduct objective and constructive evaluations
    • Identify unreferenced relevant literature
    • Declare conflicts of interest
    • Disclose any AI-based tool usage in reviews, ensuring confidentiality and objectivity
Publication Ethics Detailed ethical standards, authorship criteria, and misconduct procedures are described in the journal's Publication Ethics section.