Who is the Editor-in-Chief of a scientific journal: supreme judge or mailman?

The editor-in-chief plays a vital role in ensuring a journal’s scientific integrity and quality. Their primary responsibilities include managing the peer-review process, selecting qualified reviewers, and making final decisions on manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection. In cases of scientific misconduct, conflicts of interest, authorship disputes, or ethical concerns, the editor has the ultimate authority. An editor’s vision for the journal shapes which manuscripts are reviewed and accepted, influencing the journal’s academic direction. While the role offers benefits such as scientific prestige, greater research visibility, and financial compensation, it also entails significant ethical responsibilities. Academic editor malpractice refers to any actions that violate ethical standards or compromises the integrity of the peer-review process. Editors typically serve five-year terms, often with the possibility of renewal, and are frequently evaluated based on the journal’s impact factor trend. However, their role extends beyond editorial duties—they act as gatekeepers, literary agents, accountants, mediators, and judges, navigating the complex relationships among authors, reviewers, and publishers. Editors of major journals hold an extraordinary amount of power within the publication process. They act as an umpire to judge the scientific research that is being published. Like an umpire, they must know about the sport and rules of play, but they themselves should never be in the competition. The problem is that this ideal is not always met. Whether the subject is the efficacy of an antihypertensive drug, the value of a new costly biomarker, or the origin of a pandemic, editors often make decisions for multi-parametric—and also extra-scientific—reasons. On this basis, some papers are published while others are declined, and the stream of scientific evidence can be polluted. In summary, the editor-in-chief is a cornerstone of academic publishing, ensuring that scientific quality and integrity are upheld while balancing multiple responsibilities.