Response Statement
Response Statement on Editorial Policies, Article-Level Corrections, and Journal Quality Assurance
The Editorial Office of the Journal of Service, Innovation and Sustainable Development (JSISD) would like to express its sincere appreciation for the observations and recommendations provided during the recent evaluation of the journal. We value such feedback as an important part of strengthening the journal’s editorial standards, publication ethics, and overall scholarly quality.
Following the issues raised in the evaluation, the journal has undertaken a review of its policies, editorial workflows, peer review procedures, and selected previously published articles. As a result, JSISD has initiated a series of corrective and preventive actions aimed at improving policy clarity, article-level transparency, and consistency between declared journal standards and published content.
1. Research Ethics, Human Participants, and Informed Consent
The journal acknowledges the importance of ensuring that research involving human participants is reported in a transparent and ethically appropriate manner. In response to concerns regarding ethics approval and informed consent statements in certain previously published articles, the journal has revised its Publication Ethics and Author Guidelines to provide clearer and more detailed requirements for authors.
The revised policy now explicitly states that, where applicable, manuscripts involving surveys, interviews, questionnaires, experiments, observations, or identifiable personal data must include appropriate ethics and consent statements. It also clarifies that, where formal ethics approval is not required, authors must explain this in the manuscript. In addition, the journal has initiated an article-level review of selected previously published papers in which such statements were not fully presented in the published text. Where appropriate, JSISD will issue addenda, corrigenda, or editorial clarifications to improve the completeness and transparency of the scholarly record.
2. Conflicts of Interest in Peer Review and Editorial Handling
The journal also recognizes the importance of clearly defining and managing conflicts of interest in peer review and editorial decision-making. In response to concerns relating to same-affiliation submissions and the need for greater transparency in this area, JSISD has revised both its Review Process and Publication Ethics policies.
The updated policies now define conflicts of interest more explicitly, including situations involving same-institution affiliations, recent collaborations, supervisory relationships, personal or family relationships, direct competition, and relevant financial interests. The journal has also clarified that manuscripts involving potential same-affiliation or related-party circumstances will be assigned to conflict-free editors and reviewed by independent reviewers who do not have a relevant conflict of interest. Where necessary, the journal may obtain additional reviewer reports to support an independent editorial decision. If the Editor-in-Chief has a relevant conflict of interest, editorial responsibility for that submission is delegated to another qualified editor.
3. Methodological Reporting and Article-Level Clarifications
The journal takes seriously the concern that methodological discrepancies in published articles may make it difficult to fully assess the validity and meaning of reported findings. In response, JSISD has initiated a targeted internal review of selected articles where such concerns were identified.
Where discrepancies are found to arise from insufficiently clear reporting, internal inconsistency in presentation, or production-related errors, the journal will issue methodological clarifications, corrigenda, or editorial notes, as appropriate. At the same time, JSISD has strengthened its editorial and pre-publication checks to improve consistency across the abstract, methods, results, and conclusions of accepted manuscripts.
4. Citations, References, and Scholarly Integration
The journal acknowledges the importance of accurate citation practice and proper integration with the relevant scholarly literature. In response to concerns regarding inconsistencies between in-text citations and reference lists, as well as unsupported factual statements in certain published articles, JSISD has updated its editorial and author-facing policies.
The revised Author Guidelines now require stricter consistency between in-text citations and reference list entries, and explicitly state that factual, statistical, historical, and policy-related claims must be supported by appropriate and verifiable references. The journal has also revised its Review Process to emphasize the evaluation of literature integration, source support, and citation accuracy during editorial screening and peer review. For selected previously published articles where citation omissions or unsupported statements have been identified, the journal will conduct article-level review and issue corrigenda, addenda, or editorial clarifications where necessary.
5. Strengthening Editorial Oversight and Production Control
Beyond policy revision, JSISD has implemented strengthened editorial quality assurance procedures. These measures include enhanced checks for:
- ethics and consent statements, where applicable;
- conflicts of interest in editorial handling and peer review;
- consistency of methodological reporting across manuscript sections;
- citation-reference consistency and adequacy of literature support;
- production-level accuracy, including article metadata, page headers, and final PDF quality.
These improvements are intended not only to address issues identified in relation to previously published content, but also to prevent similar issues in future submissions.
6. Commitment to Continuous Improvement
JSISD regards scholarly publishing as a process that requires continuous learning, transparency, and quality enhancement. The journal is committed to aligning its declared policies with its editorial practice and published record. The concerns raised during the evaluation have been taken seriously, and the journal has treated them as an opportunity to improve both article-level transparency and long-term editorial governance.
Updated policy pages are being implemented on the journal website, and article-level corrective notices will be published where appropriate following internal review and communication with authors. Through these actions, JSISD reaffirms its commitment to ethical publishing, rigorous peer review, and the integrity of the scholarly record.
We are grateful for the evaluation feedback and appreciate the opportunity to strengthen the journal further.
Editorial Office
Journal of Service, Innovation and Sustainable Development (JSISD)
April-16-2026
