Purpose
This policy guarantees the editorial independence of every journal operating under the LMI publishing framework. It is the primary LMI instrument on this subject: other policies apply it and cross-refer to it rather than restating it.
The Core Guarantee
Decisions to review, accept, reject, correct, mark with an Expression of Concern, retract or otherwise take record action upon scholarly content are scholarly and editorial decisions. They shall be made exclusively by the appropriately authorised editorial authority of the journal — ordinarily the Editor-in-Chief or an editor acting under delegated editorial authority — on the basis of scholarly merit, validity, relevance and compliance with applicable ethical and reporting standards.
Prohibited Influences
No editorial decision shall be determined or conditioned by any of the following, and LMI shall not permit any of them to be brought to bear:
- payment, non-payment or waiver of any article processing charge or other fee (F2);
- advertising, sponsorship, reprint or other commercial arrangements (F3);
- the interests, preferences or relationships of LMI's owners, directors, shareholders or managers;
- the institutional affiliation, prestige, seniority or connections of an author or their institution;
- political, religious, governmental or reputational pressure, including pressure to suppress unwelcome findings or to publish favoured ones;
- the prospect of citation advantage, media attention or commercial benefit to the journal or publisher.
Research Agreements, Sponsor Review and Author Access
Research, funding, collaboration and sponsorship agreements shall preserve investigators’ access to the data supporting the reported results, freedom to conduct an independent analysis, and freedom to submit an accurate account of the findings. A funder or sponsor may be allowed a defined and reasonable period to identify confidential or proprietary information, but shall not hold a veto over publication, require favourable conclusions, delay publication unreasonably, or prevent a necessary record action. Editors may require authors to identify who had access to the primary data and whether any agreement restricted analysis or publication. Data-access requirements are further governed by Research Data, Availability & Reproducibility (E2); funding and sponsorship disclosure are governed by Competing Interests & Funding Disclosure (E1) and Advertising, Sponsorship & Commercial Independence (F3).
Conflicted Editorial Leadership and Conflicted Publisher
Where the Editor-in-Chief or other editorial leadership has a competing interest in a matter — including any matter concerning their own conduct — the decision shall pass to an editor or external adviser independent of the conflict, and the arrangement shall be recorded. Where LMI itself is the source of the conflict, or is credibly alleged to have interfered, the matter shall be handled under the independent escalation mechanism in A4. Competing-interest definitions and disclosure duties are governed by E1; recusal standards for ordinary editorial work are implemented under B1.
Publisher Support for Inconvenient Decisions
LMI shall operationally support the publication of justified record actions determined under G2, with the same diligence applied to ordinary publication, even where the action is commercially inconvenient, embarrassing to the publisher, or adverse to an influential author or institution. Withholding platform, staff or financial support in order to delay or prevent such an action constitutes interference in breach of this policy.
Lawful Obligations
LMI and its journals shall comply with binding legal obligations, and content decisions may in rare cases be constrained by law (G2, on removals). Legal review shall be completed promptly and shall not be used as a pretext to delay or suppress record action that is otherwise warranted.
Journal Responsibilities
Each journal shall vest editorial decision authority as described above, publish a statement of its editorial independence, record any attempted interference and report it to LMI under A4, and refrain from creating any internal arrangement — financial, institutional or personal — that subordinates editorial judgement to non-scholarly interests.
Standards and Guidance
Informed by WAME positions on editorial independence, the ICMJE Recommendations on the relationship between journal owners and editors, and the COPE Core Practices.