Complaints & Appeals

International Center for Promoting Knowledge (ICPK) and its journals welcome concerns raised in good faith. Making a complaint or submitting an appeal in good faith will have no adverse effect on how an author's current or future submissions are assessed or treated.

This policy explains the editorial appeals process for authors who wish to challenge an editorial decision, the journal complaints procedure for concerns about process or conduct, and the route for publisher escalation. Editorial authority remains with each journal's Editor-in-Chief and editorial board. ICPK provides publishing infrastructure, policy, and administrative support; it does not review manuscripts or make acceptance or rejection decisions.

Appeals against editorial decisions

An author may appeal a rejection or another editorial decision when the author can identify:

• a factual error that materially affected the decision;
• a significant misunderstanding of the manuscript; or
• a reviewer comment that is demonstrably incorrect.

An appeal should identify the manuscript, state the decision being challenged, specify the permitted ground or grounds, and provide concise supporting evidence. The purpose of an appeal is to correct a material error or misunderstanding, not to obtain another assessment simply because the author disagrees with the outcome.

Disagreement with a reviewer's academic judgement is not grounds for appeal. A decision will not be reopened merely because the author reaches a different conclusion about the work's novelty, significance, quality, interpretation, or overall merit.

Appeals are considered by the journal's Editor-in-Chief or by an editor who was not responsible for the original decision. The reviewing editor may examine the relevant submission record, correspondence, reports, and the author's supporting explanation. The resulting decision is final. There is no second round of appeal.

Authors should submit an appeal to the relevant journal's editorial office using the contact route published by that journal. For IJSPE, the editorial office is editor@ijspe.com.

Complaints about process or conduct

Anyone may complain about how a journal handled a submission. Matters suitable for this procedure include undue delay, failure to respond, a possible breach of confidentiality, or concerns about the conduct of a reviewer or editor.

The complaint should first be addressed to the relevant journal. It should identify the submission or matter concerned, describe what occurred, explain the concern clearly, and include any relevant correspondence or evidence. The journal will consider the complaint under its stated policies and refer it to an appropriate person who can examine the issue fairly.

Concerns alleging fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, inappropriate authorship, undisclosed conflicts, or other research-integrity issues may fall under the Research Integrity & Misconduct policy. Related standards are also set out in Publication Ethics.

Publisher escalation

If the journal has not addressed a process or conduct complaint, has failed to respond, or the complainant reasonably believes the journal did not apply its policy fairly, the matter may be escalated directly to ICPK:

Dedicated complaints and appeals email: complaints@theicpk.org

The escalation should include the journal name, relevant manuscript or case details, the original complaint or appeal, the journal's response if one was received, and the reason publisher review is requested.

ICPK's review is limited to determining whether the journal followed its own stated policies and applied them fairly. ICPK may examine the handling of the matter and seek clarification from the journal. ICPK does not overturn academic judgements about a manuscript's merit, because that authority rests with the journal's editors. Publisher escalation is therefore not an additional academic appeal and cannot be used to secure a new merits assessment after the editorial appeals process has concluded.

This separation protects the editorial independence described in ICPK's Editorial Independence policy.

What complainants can expect

A complaint or appeal will be acknowledged on receipt. The responsible journal or ICPK, as applicable, will review the information provided and issue a substantive response within a reasonable period. The complainant will be told the outcome and given the reasoning for it, subject to confidentiality and applicable privacy obligations.

General enquiries that are not complaints or appeals may be directed through Contact.