This page describes the roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority of the editorial team of the International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Food Sciences. The ethical framework governing editorial work is set out in the Ethical Principles and Publication Policy, and the workflow is described on the Peer Review Process page.

Editor Resources

• DergiPark editor login — manuscript handling, reviewer invitations, and decisions
• Editorial Board — current members and their fields of expertise
• COPE Core Practices and COPE flowcharts — reference framework for handling ethical concerns
• Peer Review Process — the workflow as published to authors and reviewers

Editorial Roles

• Editor-in-Chief. Holds final responsibility for the content of the journal and for all editorial decisions. Appoints the editorial team, safeguards editorial independence, and represents the journal before indexing services and other external bodies.
• Managing Editor. Oversees the day-to-day operation of the editorial workflow, monitors timelines, and coordinates the work of the Editorial Office.
• Associate Editors. Handle manuscripts within their fields of expertise: they assess suitability, select and invite reviewers, evaluate the reports, and recommend a decision to the Editor-in-Chief.
• Editorial Board members. Advise on the scope and development of the journal, review manuscripts within their expertise, and promote the journal within their research communities.
• Editorial Office. Carries out the editorial screening set out on the Peer Review Process page — scope, article type, originality, formatting compliance, ethical documentation, and similarity — and manages all correspondence with authors and reviewers.

Core Responsibilities

• Decisions are based solely on the scientific merit, originality, and scope relevance of the manuscript, and are never influenced by the nationality, institution, gender, seniority, or beliefs of the authors, nor by any commercial consideration, including payment of the Editorial Processing Charge.
• Manuscripts that do not meet the published screening criteria are declined or returned without external review. Editors are expected to apply these criteria consistently; declining a manuscript at screening is a normal editorial outcome and is reported separately in the journal's editorial statistics.
• Editors ensure that each manuscript that passes screening is reviewed by at least two independent reviewers with appropriate expertise, and that the process is completed within the internal targets set out below.
• The confidentiality of manuscripts, reviewer identities, and review correspondence is preserved at all times. Manuscript content must not be uploaded to generative artificial intelligence tools.
• Editors do not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript for their own research.
• Suspected misconduct is investigated in accordance with the COPE flowcharts, and corrections, retractions, or expressions of concern are issued where necessary.
• Appeals and complaints are handled impartially, by an editor who was not involved in the original decision.

Editorial Timelines

The following internal targets govern the editorial workflow. Editors are expected to complete each task within the period indicated, and the Editorial Office monitors overdue tasks.

• Initial editorial screening: 5 days from submission
• Assignment of the handling editor: 3 days
• Selection and invitation of reviewers: 5 days
• Reviewer response to an invitation: 5 days
• Completion of a review: 21 days
• Evaluation of the reports and recommendation: 7 days
• Final editorial decision: 5 days
• Author revision: 14 days (minor) or 30 days (major)
• Assessment of a revised manuscript: 7 days
• Production and online publication: within 14 days of acceptance

Extensions may be granted where justified and are recorded in the submission system. These are internal working targets, not guarantees given to authors; the intervals actually achieved in the preceding year are reported on the Statistics page. Publication dates printed in the article reflect the actual dates recorded in the submission system.

Conflicts of Interest

• Editors declare any conflict of interest and withdraw from handling manuscripts authored by close colleagues, recent co-authors, or researchers from their own institution.
• Manuscripts submitted by an editor or a member of the Editorial Board are handled independently by another editor. The authors have no access to the review records of their own submissions, and the Editor-in-Chief takes no part in decisions on manuscripts of which they are an author.
• Guest Editors of special issues are subject to the same restrictions and may publish at most one manuscript in their own special issue.

Editorial Independence

Editorial decisions are made independently of the publisher and of any commercial interest. The journal carries no advertising or sponsored content, and revenue from the Editorial Processing Charge has no bearing on the assessment of any manuscript. Payment status is not recorded in the editorial file on which decisions are taken, and handling editors are not informed whether a charge has been paid, reduced, or waived. Editors are expected to report to the Editor-in-Chief any attempt to influence an editorial decision.

Appointment and Term

Editorial team members are appointed by the Editor-in-Chief on the basis of their academic standing and publication record in the fields covered by the journal, with attention to international and disciplinary balance. Appointments are made for renewable terms of two years and are reviewed on the basis of contribution to the journal. Members who wish to resign are asked to inform the Editorial Office so that the Editorial Board page can be kept current.

Joining the Editorial Board

Researchers interested in serving on the Editorial Board are invited to write to editorialoffice@jaefs.com, enclosing a short curriculum vitae, their areas of expertise, and their ORCID iD.