Complaints and Appeals

The Journal of Leadership in Sport and Management (JLSM) is committed to fair, transparent, and accountable editorial procedures. Authors, reviewers, readers, and other interested parties may raise concerns regarding the journal’s editorial process, published content, ethical procedures, or conduct of individuals acting on behalf of the journal.

Complaints and appeals will be considered objectively, confidentially where appropriate, and without retaliation against the person raising a concern in good faith.

Appeals Against Editorial Decisions

Authors may appeal an editorial decision when they believe that a significant factual, scientific, or procedural error affected the outcome of the review process.

An appeal should:

identify the manuscript concerned;
clearly state the grounds for the appeal;
identify the specific aspects of the editorial decision or reviewer assessment considered to be incorrect; and
provide a reasoned scientific or procedural justification for reconsideration.

Disagreement with reviewer recommendations or an editorial decision, without substantive justification, is not in itself sufficient grounds for an appeal.

Appeals should normally be submitted by the corresponding author.

Consideration of Appeals

Appeals are initially assessed by the Editor-in-Chief. Where appropriate, the Editor-in-Chief may seek advice from another editor, members of the Editorial Board, the original reviewers, or an additional independent expert.

If the appeal concerns a decision made directly by the Editor-in-Chief or a potential conflict of interest exists, responsibility for considering the appeal will be assigned to an independent member of the editorial team or another suitably qualified individual who was not involved in the original decision.

The outcome of an appeal may be to uphold the original decision, reopen editorial consideration, obtain additional independent review, or take another action considered appropriate.

An appeal does not guarantee that a manuscript will be reconsidered or accepted.

Complaints About Editorial Procedures

Complaints concerning unreasonable delays, inappropriate communication, failure to follow declared editorial procedures, conflicts of interest, peer-review conduct, or other aspects of journal management should be submitted to the editorial office with sufficient information to allow the matter to be assessed.

JLSM will seek to establish the relevant facts and provide a reasoned response.

Where possible, complaints should first be addressed by the Editor-in-Chief or the person responsible for the relevant editorial process.

Complaints Concerning the Editor-in-Chief

A complaint concerning the conduct, decision-making, or potential conflict of interest of the Editor-in-Chief will not be investigated solely by the Editor-in-Chief.

Such complaints will be referred to an independent senior member of the Editorial Board or another suitably qualified independent person who has not been involved in the matter concerned.

Complaints About Published Content

Concerns regarding possible errors, plagiarism, research misconduct, undisclosed conflicts of interest, authorship problems, ethical violations, or other integrity issues in published articles will be considered under the journal’s Publication Ethics and Research Integrity policy and, where appropriate, its Corrections, Retractions and Expressions of Concern policy.

Confidentiality and Good-Faith Complaints

JLSM will handle complaints and appeals as confidentially as reasonably possible.

The journal will not disadvantage authors, reviewers, or other individuals because they have raised a substantiated concern or complaint in good faith.

At the same time, abusive, threatening, discriminatory, knowingly false, or persistently repetitive communications that do not raise new substantive issues need not be considered further.

External Guidance

Where a complaint raises a complex publication ethics issue, JLSM may seek independent advice and will consider relevant guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The journal will cooperate, where appropriate, with institutions, ethics committees, research integrity offices, funders, or other competent organisations when a matter falls within their responsibility.