Editorial Board Policy

The editorial board of Technosphere Safety (E-ISSN 2181-3981) supports the journal's scientific expertise and professional development. This policy establishes requirements for board composition, appointment, participation and performance assessment, as well as procedures for renewing appointments and publicly identifying board members.

01. Purpose and status of the board

The editorial board of Technosphere Safety brings together specialists who contribute to the development of the journal's scientific profile, maintenance of publication quality and improvement of editorial practice. Membership requires substantive participation rather than merely having one's name displayed on the website.

The journal's founder is the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers National Research University (TIIAME NRU), and its publisher is I-EDU GROUP LLC. The founder formally approves the board's composition following a reasoned proposal from the Editor-in-Chief, with the publisher participating within its organisational authority. The appointment of the Editor-in-Chief and the relationship between the editorial office, founder and publisher are governed by the Editorial Governance and Independence Policy.

This document governs editorial board membership. The names of individual members are published separately on the Editorial Board page. Membership does not automatically confer authority to decide on all manuscripts or access to the entire editorial archive.

02. Composition and selection criteria

The board must include at least five specialists with verifiable qualifications and must not consist exclusively of employees of one organisation. Its size and distribution of expertise must reflect the journal's scope, manuscript volume and actual workload.

  • Subject expertise: research and publication experience in industrial and occupational safety, fire and environmental safety, emergency prevention, technological risk assessment or related areas covered by the journal's aims and scope; where appropriate, expertise in methodology, modelling and data analysis.
  • Professional integrity: willingness to comply with editorial policies, disclose significant interests and provide reasoned assessments of scientific work.
  • Capacity for meaningful participation: sufficient time for agreed duties, reliable communication with the editorial office and proficiency in the language required for assigned work.
  • Diversity of scientific perspectives: participation by specialists from different organisations, regions and research traditions, consistent with the journal's subject matter and audience. International participation must be supported by actual contributions.

Academic degrees, positions, citation metrics or reputation do not replace assessment of relevant expertise and willingness to contribute. Membership cannot be purchased and is not conditional on attracting paid submissions, publishing one's own articles or promising to increase journal citations.

03. Nomination, verification and consent

Candidates may be nominated by the Editor-in-Chief, current board members or research organisations; specialists may also express interest directly. Applications include a professional biography, current affiliation, principal research interests, examples of relevant publications and information about other editorial responsibilities.

The editorial office verifies identity and qualifications through available institutional profiles, publications and direct correspondence. ORCID and other identifiers assist with identity verification but do not replace substantive checks. An unresolved allegation of possible misconduct is assessed on its merits and is not itself treated as proven wrongdoing.

Before appointment, candidates receive a description of the role, anticipated workload, limits of authority, term of service and conditions for renewal or termination. Written consent, including confirmation by email, is mandatory. Names, affiliations and roles are published only after consent and formal appointment. Honorary or former membership, if displayed, is distinguished from the current board and is not represented as active editorial service.

04. Terms of appointment and induction

New appointments and renewals made after this policy takes effect have a three-year term. The appointment document records the start and end dates. Reappointment may occur more than once based on assessment of contributions and the journal's needs; automatic renewal does not apply. Terms of existing appointments are clarified during the next board review without retrospectively changing dates.

Before beginning their duties, new members are introduced to the journal's scope, current policies and working procedures. For roles involving manuscript handling, decision-making limits are explained separately and necessary training in OJS is provided. Access is granted individually and limited to assigned tasks; sharing user accounts is prohibited.

Agreed responsibilities and expected workload are recorded at appointment and revised as needed. Board members must promptly report prolonged unavailability, changes of affiliation or inability to complete an assignment so that the editorial office can redistribute the work.

05. Roles and allocation of responsibilities

  • The Editor-in-Chief coordinates the board, identifies expertise requirements, proposes membership and organises performance assessment. Responsibility for editorial decisions and delegation procedures is defined in the governance and peer-review policies.
  • The Deputy Editor-in-Chief performs specifically delegated duties and coordinates designated areas. The deputy position does not itself establish independence where a conflict of interest exists.
  • A subject editor or handling editor, where appointed, manages assigned materials within their expertise and documented authority. The appointment specifies whether the editor makes recommendations or final decisions.
  • Board members without decision-making authority advise on subject matter and methods, suggest qualified experts and contribute to discussions of publication quality and policy review. Their recommendations do not replace decisions by an authorised editor.
  • The editorial secretariat manages correspondence, assignment records and the accuracy of public information; technical processing does not confer authority to make scientific decisions.

Tasks are allocated according to expertise, independence and availability. Collective voting by the board does not replace the established decision-making process for individual articles. Discussion of organisational matters does not entitle participants to access confidential manuscripts that have not been assigned to them.

06. Practical participation and professional boundaries

The board holds a working discussion at least once a year, in person, remotely or through documented written consultation. Topics include the alignment of publications with the journal's scope, needs for additional expertise, editorial quality and proposals for journal development. Outcomes, responsible persons and agreed actions are recorded.

Members help identify qualified experts and inform the research community about the journal without intrusive solicitation or promises of acceptance. They must not demand scientifically unjustified citations to their own work or the journal, or assess colleagues according to acceptance rates or publication revenue.

Information about unpublished work may be used only for assigned editorial tasks. Confidentiality and digital-tool requirements are governed by the relevant policies and continue after membership ends. Members may not delegate their authority to assistants or use the board's name to approve publications without permission.

07. Other responsibilities and participation in publications

At appointment and whenever significant changes occur, board members inform the Editor-in-Chief of other editorial roles, related commitments and material interests. Multiple roles are permitted where members can fulfil agreed duties and no unmanageable conflict arises. Participating simultaneously in decisions on the same manuscript at different journals, or using confidential information to divert submissions, is prohibited. Matters concerning the Editor-in-Chief are referred to an independent responsible person under the governance policy.

Articles authored by board members are considered under the Peer Review Policy by an independent handling editor, without the interested person's involvement in processing or decisions. Membership confers no advantage in acceptance or publication scheduling.

The editorial office monitors the proportion of published research articles with at least one author who is an editor, board member or reviewer of the journal, ensuring that it does not exceed 25% in each of the two most recent issues considered separately. An article is counted once regardless of the number of such authors. Compliance is checked during issue preparation; board membership and historical participation records must not be altered to circumvent the limit. This rule does not replace scientific assessment or create a guaranteed quota for editorially affiliated authors.

08. Assessment, renewal and termination of membership

At least annually, the Editor-in-Chief organises an assessment of members' participation, including fulfilment of agreed duties, quality of advice, adherence to deadlines, disclosure of interests and continued relevance of expertise. Actual workload, availability and justified interruptions are taken into account. Assessment may lead to role changes, additional training, renewal or changes in board composition; the number of accepted articles and personal citation metrics are not independent measures of performance quality.

Membership may end through written resignation, expiry of the term without renewal, persistent inability to fulfil duties, an unmanageable conflict of interest or an established serious breach of obligations. Where participation is insufficient, circumstances and possible redistribution of tasks are first examined. Before an adverse decision, the individual is informed of the reasons and given a reasonable opportunity to respond.

During an investigation, access may be restricted or an individual temporarily removed from a particular assignment to protect the process; this does not establish misconduct. The final decision to change board composition is formally made by the founder following documented consideration that excludes conflicted individuals. Good-faith scientific disagreement, refusal to accept a weak manuscript or reporting a concern are not grounds for removal. Objections are considered under the Complaints and Appeals Policy.

When membership ends, unfinished assignments are transferred to an authorised editor, access permissions are reviewed and the public membership list is updated. Editorial records are retained with appropriate access restrictions; a member's departure does not justify deleting the history of editorial decisions.

09. Public information and accuracy of board membership

The Editorial Board page identifies each current member's full name, editorial role, current institution and country. Where possible, an institutional profile and verified ORCID are included; areas of expertise help readers assess the board's alignment with the journal's scope. The page displays its last update date and an official editorial contact channel.

Membership and roles must be consistent across all language versions of the website. The secretariat verifies information at least annually and updates confirmed changes without waiting for the next annual review. Personal contact details and other non-public information are not displayed without consent. If a member prefers communication through the editorial office, professional enquiries are forwarded through that channel.

10. Related policies and implementation

The Peer Review Policy governs the review model and manuscript decisions; the Editorial Governance and Independence Policy defines management authority; and the Conflicts of Interest Policy regulates recusals. Ethical concerns and appeals are addressed under the separate policies on misconduct, complaints and appeals. This page does not replace those procedures.

Enquiries about membership, corrections to public information and agreed duties should be sent to technosphere@tiiame.uz. Editorial telephone: +998 71 237-19-86. This document takes effect following approval and official publication. Approval and subsequent revision dates are recorded in editorial records; new versions must not be used to misrepresent previous membership or earlier work.

Methodological references

Applicable COPE recommendations and published transparency and quality criteria for scholarly journals inform the composition and assessment of the editorial board. The appointment and working conditions set out above are internal journal rules.

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ISSN 2181-3981 (Online)