1. Editorial Team Responsibilities (The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board)

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are primarily responsible for ensuring the quality, integrity, and smooth flow of content through the journal.

A. Integrity and Oversight

The Editorial Team's core duty is to act as the guardian of ethics and quality:

• Independent Decision-Making: All acceptance/rejection decisions must be based strictly on a manuscript's scientific merit, originality, and relevance, free from any commercial, political, or personal bias.
• Ethical Enforcement: The Editor must maintain and enforce strict ethical policies (e.g., proper authorship, disclosure of competing interests, data sharing).
• Misconduct Handling: They must promptly investigate all suspected cases of publication misconduct (like plagiarism or data fabrication), often consulting Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and collaborating with the Publisher and external institutions.
• Confidentiality: They are responsible for keeping all submissions, reviewer identities, and communications strictly confidential.
• Conflict of Interest Management: Editors must actively identify and recuse themselves from any manuscript where they have a conflict of interest, including their own submissions.

B. Peer Review Management

The Editorial Team oversees the fairness and effectiveness of the review process:

• They must select qualified, objective reviewers.
• They must ensure all reviewer feedback is constructive and professional, rejecting or editing any offensive language.
• They must be transparent about the peer review model the journal uses.

C. Strategic Development

The team works to enhance the journal's standing:

• They aim to build a diverse Editorial Board in terms of geography, expertise, gender, and ethnicity.
• They partner with the Publisher on long-term strategy to boost the journal's reputation and attract top-tier research.

2. Publisher Responsibilities

The Publisher provides the operational, legal, and financial framework necessary for the PTJI to function sustainably and ethically.

A. Upholding Editorial Standards

The Publisher's most vital role is to protect the integrity of the journal:

• Editorial Independence: They must guarantee that the Editors have complete freedom to make content decisions without interference from commercial or corporate interests.
• Ethical and Legal Support: They provide essential resources, advice, and guidance to the Editor on complex ethical issues (like COPE guidance) and legal compliance (e.g., data privacy).
• Maintaining the Record: They are responsible for accurately and promptly publishing formal documents such as Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions as required by the journal's policies.

B. Operations and Infrastructure

The Publisher manages the technical and legal components of publishing:

• They oversee production (copyediting, typesetting) and ensure the content is widely disseminated and easily discoverable online.
• They manage author rights through copyright or licensing agreements.
• They ensure the content is properly indexed (e.g., in databases like Google Scholar, SINTA, and Scopus) and permanently archived.

C. Journal Growth

They provide the necessary support for the journal's outreach:

• They handle marketing and promotion to increase submissions and readership.
• They provide clear, transparent policies for all involved parties (authors, reviewers, editors).