EDITORIAL OVERSIGHT

Editorial Governance and Oversight

SUKUK: International Journal of Banking, Finance, Management and Business is committed to maintaining transparent editorial governance, independent scholarly evaluation, and publication standards. The journal's editorial oversight framework is designed to ensure that manuscripts are evaluated fairly, consistently, and in accordance with established principles of academic integrity, confidentiality, impartiality, and research ethics.

Editorial responsibility is organized through the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editors, Editorial Board, and independent peer reviewers. These roles operate collaboratively while maintaining clearly defined responsibilities for manuscript administration, scholarly assessment, peer-review coordination, editorial decisions, and publication preparation.

The Editor-in-Chief exercises overall editorial authority, supported by the Managing Editors in administrative coordination and the Editorial Board in scholarly advisory and manuscript-specific responsibilities. Independent reviewers provide expert evaluations through the journal's double-blind peer-review process. The editorial framework distinguishes administrative responsibilities from scholarly evaluation and final decision-making authority.

Editor-in-Chief: Editorial Authority and Accountability

The Editor-in-Chief holds overall responsibility for the journal's editorial direction, academic standards, publication ethics, and the integrity of editorial decisions. The responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief include:

• Establishing and maintaining the journal's editorial standards and publication policies.
• Conducting or supervising the preliminary academic assessment of submitted manuscripts.
• Determining whether manuscripts proceed to external peer review or are rejected during initial editorial screening.
• Supervising reviewer selection and manuscript-handling assignments.
• Evaluating reviewers' recommendations and additional editorial assessments.
• Making final decisions regarding manuscript acceptance, revision, or rejection.
• Overseeing publication scheduling, issue composition, and scholarly content.
• Addressing concerns related to editorial impartiality, research integrity, and publication ethics.

Final editorial decisions are based on the academic merit of submitted manuscripts, independent reviewers' evaluations, and compliance with the journal's policies. The Editor-in-Chief may consult Editorial Board members or additional subject specialists when further expertise is necessary. Editorial authority must be exercised independently of inappropriate personal, institutional, commercial, or financial influence.

Managing Editors: Editorial Administration and Coordination

The Managing Editors oversee the operational administration of manuscript submissions and facilitate communication throughout the editorial process.

Their responsibilities include coordinating manuscript submissions, conducting preliminary administrative checks, facilitating similarity screening, monitoring review progress, managing editorial correspondence, and assisting authors and reviewers throughout the submission and revision process. The Managing Editors support the Editor-in-Chief in ensuring that manuscripts progress through the appropriate editorial stages and that communication is conducted consistently and professionally.

Administrative coordination does not independently confer authority to accept or reject manuscripts. Scholarly assessments and final editorial decisions remain subject to the journal's established editorial decision-making procedures.

Editorial Board: Scholarly Guidance and Manuscript Oversight

The Editorial Board comprises scholars from international academic institutions who contribute subject-area expertise, academic guidance, and independent perspectives to support the journal's scholarly standards.

The Editorial Board supports the journal in evaluating the relevance and quality of submitted research, maintaining disciplinary coverage, providing guidance on emerging research areas, and strengthening the integrity of its publication practices.

Where appropriate, the Editor-in-Chief may designate an Editorial Board member to undertake manuscript-specific editorial responsibilities. Such responsibilities may include identifying qualified reviewers, examining peer-review reports, assessing revised submissions, and providing recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief.

A member performing these responsibilities may be described functionally as a Handling Editor (Designated Editorial Board Member). This designation refers to the handling of an individual manuscript rather than a separately established editorial position. Editorial Board members are expected to exercise professional independence, disclose potential conflicts of interest, and maintain the confidentiality of unpublished research.

Membership of the Editorial Board does not automatically confer decision-making authority for every manuscript. The composition and academic affiliations of Editorial Board members are publicly available on the journal's Editorial Team page.

Independent Peer Review and Scholarly Evaluation

SUKUK applies an international double-blind peer-review process involving at least two qualified expert reviewers for manuscripts proceeding to external assessment. Reviewers are selected according to their disciplinary expertise, academic qualifications, research experience, independence, and suitability for the manuscript under consideration.

Under double-blind review, the identities of authors are concealed from reviewers, while the identities of reviewers remain concealed from authors. Reviewers evaluate manuscripts based on originality, academic contribution, theoretical foundation, methodological quality, analytical accuracy, clarity, relevance, and compliance with recognized scholarly standards.

Reviewers provide independent reports and recommendations concerning acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection. These recommendations inform editorial decisions but do not independently constitute final publication decisions.

The Editor-in-Chief retains responsibility for determining the editorial outcome after considering the available evidence and assessments. The journal's published reviewers roster provides information about the scholars associated with its review activities. Inclusion on this roster does not disclose the reviewer assigned to any particular manuscript.

Editorial Decision-Making and Accountability

Editorial decisions are made through a structured process involving preliminary screening, scholarly assessment, independent peer review, editorial evaluation, and, where required, further manuscript revision.

The Editor-in-Chief exercises final authority over acceptance and rejection decisions. Managing Editors coordinate administrative procedures, while designated Editorial Board members may provide scholarly recommendations and support the evaluation of review reports.

Editorial decisions may include desk rejection, rejection following peer review, requests for major or minor revision, and acceptance for publication.

Where reviewers provide differing recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief considers the substance of their assessments, the manuscript's methodological and scholarly quality, and any additional expert advice required to reach a reasoned decision.

Authors receiving revision requests are expected to address relevant reviewers' and editors' comments. Revised manuscripts may undergo additional editorial assessment or further external review. Editorial decisions must be based on scholarly considerations rather than author identity, institutional affiliation, nationality, personal relationships, or financial interests.

Conflict of Interest and Editorial Independence

All individuals participating in editorial assessment and peer review are expected to disclose circumstances that may compromise, or reasonably appear to compromise, their impartiality.

Potential conflicts of interest may arise from personal relationships, academic collaborations, institutional affiliations, financial interests, professional competition, or other circumstances involving authors, editors, and reviewers.

An editor with a conflict of interest concerning a submitted manuscript must not exercise editorial decision-making authority over that submission. Responsibility should instead be assigned to an appropriately qualified and independent member of the editorial team.

Where a manuscript is submitted by the Editor-in-Chief, a Managing Editor, an Editorial Board member, or another individual closely associated with the journal, the submission must be handled independently of the author concerned. An appropriate unconflicted editor should oversee the assessment, reviewer selection, and final decision.

Editorial Board members and reviewers must recuse themselves when their independence cannot be reasonably maintained. Editorial decisions are based exclusively on academic merit and publication ethics. Financial contributions, institutional relationships, or other external considerations must not influence peer-review outcomes, editorial decisions, or publication priority.

Confidentiality and Ethical Responsibilities

Editors, Managing Editors, Editorial Board members, and reviewers are required to maintain the confidentiality of unpublished manuscripts, reviewer identities, peer-review reports, and editorial correspondence.

Manuscripts submitted for consideration are treated as confidential scholarly documents and must not be disclosed or used for personal research or professional advantage without appropriate authorization.

Editorial personnel are responsible for identifying and appropriately addressing suspected plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification, authorship disputes, and other concerns regarding research integrity.

Potential ethical issues should be evaluated fairly, based on available evidence, and with appropriate opportunities for relevant parties to provide clarification.

The journal's editorial oversight also extends to ethical concerns arising after publication, including the assessment of corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions where warranted.

Editorial Complaints, Appeals, and Disputes

Authors may raise concerns regarding editorial procedures, review conduct, perceived conflicts of interest, or decisions affecting their submissions through the journal's official communication channels.

Editorial complaints and appeals should be assessed fairly, confidentially, and with appropriate consideration of the information provided by the parties concerned.

An appeal against a manuscript decision should identify the specific procedural concern, factual error, or scholarly issue that the author believes warrants reconsideration. Disagreement with a reviewer recommendation alone does not automatically justify a reversal of an editorial decision.

Where a complaint concerns an editor personally, the matter should be referred to an appropriately independent and unconflicted editorial representative.

The journal seeks to resolve editorial disputes through transparent procedures that preserve scholarly independence, confidentiality, and fairness.

Editorial Transparency and Continuous Improvement

SUKUK recognizes editorial oversight as a continuing responsibility extending beyond individual publication decisions. The journal is committed to maintaining accurate information concerning its editorial personnel, peer-review procedures, publication policies, and editorial decision-making responsibilities.

Its editorial governance practices should be periodically reviewed to ensure consistency between published policies, the journal's editorial organizational structure, and the procedures implemented through Open Journal Systems.

The journal's Publication Process describes its manuscript-specific editorial workflow, while the Publication System explains the general functions of the OJS publishing platform. These distinct resources are intended to provide complementary information without creating ambiguity regarding editorial responsibilities.

The journal remains committed to improving its editorial procedures in accordance with internationally recognized principles of research integrity, scholarly publishing, accountability, and transparent peer review.