Information for Editors

Information for Editors

The strength, integrity, and international impact of Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience (SCPE) rely heavily on the scientific leadership of our Editorial Board. This comprehensive guide details the rigorous standards, expectations, and specific responsibilities associated with each editorial role within our journal.

Editorial Board Roles & Detailed Responsibilities

SCPE operates a structured, multi-tier Editorial Board to ensure rigorous manuscript handling and strategic journal development. Each position carries distinct duties as outlined below.

1. Editor-in-Chief (EiC)

The Editor-in-Chief is the ultimate scientific authority of SCPE, bearing the primary responsibility for the journal’s academic quality, strategic direction, and ethical standards.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Final Decision Making: Retains the exclusive right to make the final decision (Accept/Reject) on all manuscripts, ensuring that decisions are scientifically justified and unbiased.
  • Journal Strategy & Scope: Continuously monitors the landscape of scalable and distributed computing to update the journal's aims, scope, and strategic development plans.
  • Board Management: Invites, appoints, and regularly evaluates Associate Editors, Editorial Board Members, and Guest Editors to maintain an active and diverse board.
  • Adjudication: Serves as the final arbiter in cases of ethical disputes, plagiarism allegations, or appeals from authors regarding rejected manuscripts.
  • Journal Representation: Acts as the primary ambassador for SCPE at international conferences, fostering relationships with leading research institutions.
  • Annual Review: Chairs the annual Editorial Board meeting and publishes an annual editorial summarizing the journal's progress and future goals.

2. Associate Editor (AE)

Associate Editors are highly experienced scholars who assist the EiC in managing the journal's daily operations within their specific areas of expertise.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Pre-Screening (Desk Triage): Conducts the initial assessment of new submissions to determine if they meet the journal’s scope, novelty requirements, and language standards. AEs have the authority to recommend immediate desk rejection.
  • Managing Peer Review: For manuscripts passing the initial check, AEs assign them to appropriate Editorial Board Members or directly invite expert reviewers.
  • Synthesizing Reports: Evaluates the returned reviewer reports, resolves conflicting recommendations between reviewers, and provides a clear, justified editorial recommendation (e.g., Major Revision, Accept) to the EiC.
  • Handling COI Cases: Steps in to handle manuscripts submitted by the EiC or other board members to ensure strict double-blind evaluation and avoid conflicts of interest.
  • Commissioning Content: Actively invites high-impact review papers or cutting-edge research articles from leading researchers in their sub-fields.

3. Editorial Board Member (EBM)

EBMs form the backbone of SCPE’s review process. They are established experts who act as Handling Editors for individual manuscripts, ensuring a rigorous, fair, and timely peer-review cycle.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Manuscript Handling: Accepts assignments from the EiC or AEs to manage the peer-review process of specific papers.
  • Reviewer Selection: Identifies and invites a minimum of 2-3 independent, highly qualified reviewers per manuscript. EBMs must ensure that reviewers have no conflicts of interest with the authors.
  • Report Assessment: Critically evaluates the quality and tone of the reviewers' comments. If a review is superficial or biased, the EBM must seek additional reviewers.
  • Decision Recommendation: Submits a comprehensive recommendation (Accept, Revise, Reject) based on the reviewers' feedback and their own expert assessment of the manuscript.
  • Journal Promotion: Acts as an advocate for SCPE. EBMs are expected to submit or invite at least 1-2 high-quality manuscripts to the journal annually and promote SCPE within their academic networks.

4. Guest Editor (GE)

Guest Editors are specialized scholars invited to spearhead Special Issues on highly focused, emerging, or transformative topics within scalable computing.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Proposal & CFP: Drafts a compelling Special Issue proposal and a detailed Call for Papers (CFP), outlining the scope and target audience.
  • Solicitation: Actively utilizes their professional network to solicit high-quality submissions from renowned research groups globally.
  • Rigorous Review Management: Acts as the Handling Editor for all submissions to the Special Issue, strictly adhering to standard SCPE peer-review protocols. (Note: GEs cannot make final acceptance decisions; all recommendations are subject to final approval by the EiC to prevent "citation cartels" or compromised quality).
  • Editorial Contribution: Authors the opening Editorial paper summarizing the findings and significance of the Special Issue once all papers are published.

5. Reviewer Board Member (RBM)

The Reviewer Board comprises active, highly qualified early-to-mid-career researchers. It serves as an essential talent pool and a stepping stone toward becoming an EBM.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Consistent Reviewing: Agrees to review a minimum of 3 to 5 manuscripts per calendar year when invited by the handling editors.
  • High-Quality Feedback: Provides thorough, constructive, and timely evaluation reports that significantly help authors improve their work.
  • Timeliness: Strictly adheres to the agreed-upon deadlines (typically 14-21 days) to ensure the journal maintains its rapid publication metrics.
  • Promotion Path: RBMs whose reviews consistently demonstrate exceptional academic insight and reliability are prioritized for promotion to full Editorial Board Members.

6. Benefits of Serving on the Editorial Board

Serving on the SCPE Editorial Board is a prestigious academic appointment. We highly value the time and expertise of our editors and offer the following benefits in return for their dedicated service:

  • Academic Prestige & Visibility: Your name, institutional affiliation, and profile will be prominently featured on the official SCPE website, significantly enhancing your global academic footprint and reputation.
  • Influence the Field: Editors have the unique opportunity to shape the direction of research in scalable computing by selecting high-impact papers and leading Special Issues.
  • Professional Networking: Collaborate and engage with a distinguished international network of leading scientists, EiCs, and fellow board members.
  • Official Certification: Editors receive a formal Letter of Appointment and an annual Editor Certificate, which are highly valuable for academic promotions, tenure evaluations, and grant applications.
  • Editorial Support: Active editors receive dedicated administrative support from the SCPE Editorial Office to minimize their workload when handling manuscripts.

7. Editorial Independence & Ethics

SCPE strictly complies with the Core Practices defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All editors must observe the following ethical principles:

  • Conflict of Interest (COI): Editors must explicitly declare any conflicts of interest. An editor must not handle a manuscript if they share an affiliation with the authors, have co-authored a paper with them recently, or have any personal/financial ties.
  • Handling Own Manuscripts: To maintain absolute impartiality, if an Editor (including the EiC) submits a manuscript to SCPE, they are entirely blinded from the review process. The manuscript will be assigned to a different, independent editor, and the submitting editor will not have access to any reviewer identities or editorial discussions.
  • Citation Integrity: Editors must never coerce authors into citing their own papers (or those of the journal) as a condition for acceptance. Any suggested citations must be genuinely critical to improving the scientific quality of the manuscript.
  • Confidentiality: Editors must protect the confidentiality of all submitted materials, reviewer identities (under double-blind review), and internal editorial communications.