Journal Policies: The Complete List and How to Write Each One (2026 Guide)

Why Every Journal Needs a Complete, Written Set of Policies

A journal policies list is more than a page of legal text. It is the journal's public promise about how it treats manuscripts, people and the scholarly record. Authors read policies to decide whether to trust you with their work. Reviewers read them to understand their duties. Librarians, research offices and indexing services read them to judge whether the journal meets accepted standards. When something goes wrong, such as a plagiarism allegation or an authorship dispute, the written policy is what the editor follows and what everyone else checks the decision against.

The reference point for most of this is the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, published jointly by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME. The fourth version, released in September 2022, covers what a journal's website should disclose, peer review, access, author fees, publication ethics, ownership and management, copyright and licensing, and editorial policies, and it applies to all content including special issues and proceedings. DOAJ expects key information such as aims and scope, the editorial board, peer review, licensing, copyright and author charges (even if zero) to be easy to reach from the homepage. Scopus asks every suggested title for a clear, public publication ethics and malpractice statement. In India, UGC's Suggested Parameters for Choosing Peer-Reviewed Journals, issued in 2025 after the UGC-CARE list was discontinued, also look at editorial policy and research ethics.

A policy that is not followed is worse than no policy at all, because it is a promise the journal breaks in public.

The Complete Journal Policies List

The table below is the full set of policies a modern scholarly journal should publish, with the purpose of each and the main standard or reference it should follow. Small journals can combine some of them on one page, but every topic should be covered somewhere.

Many journals also publish shorter supporting pages: aims and scope, author guidelines, reviewer guidelines, editorial board responsibilities, ownership and management, special issue policy, and a policy on research involving humans and animals. Treat these as part of the same set and keep them consistent with the sixteen above. The JMVRA policy index shows one way to group them on a single page.

How to Write Journal Policies: A Template That Works for Every Policy

Every policy answers the same six questions. Using one template across all of them makes the set easier to read, easier to enforce and easier to update.

1. ScopeWhat and whom the policy covers
2. RuleWhat is required or not allowed
3. ProcessStep by step, who does what
4. ConsequenceWhat happens if it is breached
5. VersionDate, owner, next review

Writing principles

• Use plain language: "Authors must declare…" rather than "It is incumbent upon contributors to…"
• Prefer "must" and "should" consistently: "must" is mandatory, "should" is strongly recommended
• Name roles, not people: "the handling editor", "the editor-in-chief"
• Link to the standards you follow (COPE, ICMJE, Creative Commons) instead of copying them
• Write each policy yourself; copying another journal's text produces contradictions and duplicate content
• State facts once in a master record and reuse them, so fees, licence and ISSN never differ between pages

Peer Review Policy: What It Must Contain

The peer review policy is the most important document on the list, because peer review is what distinguishes a scholarly journal from a website that posts papers. The fourth version of the Transparency Principles asks journals to describe their review process clearly, including the type of review used.

Required contents

• The model: single-anonymous, double-anonymous, open, or transparent (with reports published)
• Which article types are peer reviewed and which are editor-reviewed (for example editorials)
• Desk screening criteria: scope, completeness, similarity, ethics declarations
• Minimum number of independent external reviewers per paper and how they are selected
• Decision categories (accept, minor revision, major revision, reject) and who makes the final decision
• Typical timelines, stated as ranges, and what happens when reviewers are late
• How editors' own submissions and those of board members are handled without conflict
• How special issues and conference papers are reviewed, to the same standard

As an example of stating the model plainly, JMVRA describes its process as transparent double-blind peer review on its peer review page. A journal management system such as JWJMS (jwjms.org) makes the policy enforceable in practice: it handles desk screening, reviewer invitations and reminders, revision rounds and decisions, with a full record of each step, so an editor can show exactly how any paper was reviewed.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement (COPE)

The publication ethics and malpractice statement sets out the duties of editors, reviewers, authors and the publisher, and explains how the journal handles allegations of misconduct. COPE's ten Core Practices make a good checklist for this statement: allegations of misconduct; authorship and contributorship; complaints and appeals; conflicts of interest; data and reproducibility; ethical oversight; intellectual property; journal management; peer review processes; and post-publication discussions and corrections.

Ethical oversight of research

Include a section on research involving human participants, personal data or animals: require evidence of ethics committee approval where applicable, informed consent for participants and for publishing identifiable images, and appropriate handling of vulnerable groups. State what authors must do when approval was not required and why.

Misconduct handling

Say that the journal follows COPE's flowcharts when it suspects fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, image manipulation, citation manipulation, paper-mill activity or peer review manipulation, and list the possible outcomes: no action, a request for clarification, correction, expression of concern, retraction, notification of the author's institution, or a ban on future submissions.

Plagiarism and Similarity Policy

A plagiarism policy explains how the journal checks originality and what it does when it finds problems. Its most common weakness is relying on a single percentage. A similarity score shows how much text matches other sources; it does not show whether the matching is acceptable, such as properly quoted methods or a reference list, or whether a low score hides paraphrased or translated copying.

What to include

• When screening happens (on submission, and again on the final version if changes are large)
• The tool or service used and who interprets the report
• That editors assess where the similarity occurs, not only the overall number
• Treatment of self-plagiarism, text recycling and the author's own thesis or preprint
• Graded consequences: revision request, rejection, or post-publication correction or retraction
• How the journal handles image duplication and data reuse

Illustrative example only: the bars show relative concern, not measured data or thresholds.

For screening, JWSCAN (jwscan.org) checks a manuscript for similarity before submission using iThenticate (by Turnitin) similarity detection and provides an overall similarity index plus a source-by-source report, which is exactly the level of detail an editor needs to apply a nuanced policy. You can also see the plagiarism checking service page.

Authorship, Contributorship and Conflict of Interest Policies

Authorship and contributorship

Authorship disputes are among the most common ethics cases a journal faces, and a clear policy prevents most of them. Define who qualifies as an author; many journals adopt the ICMJE criteria, which require a substantial contribution to the work, drafting or critical revision, approval of the final version, and agreement to be accountable for it. Ask for a contribution statement, ideally using the CRediT taxonomy, a NISO standard with fourteen roles such as conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis and writing.

• Everyone who meets the criteria is listed; people who do not are acknowledged instead
• No gift, guest or ghost authorship
• A corresponding author handles communication and confirms all co-authors agree
• Changes to the author list after submission need written agreement from all authors and the editor's approval
• AI tools cannot be authors (see the AI policy)

Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest policy covers financial and non-financial interests: funding, employment, consultancies, patents, personal relationships and academic rivalries. It should apply to authors, reviewers and editors alike.

Data Availability and AI Use Policies

Data availability policy

A data availability policy states what the journal expects authors to do with the data behind their findings. Options range from "data available on request" to mandatory deposit in a public repository. Whatever level you choose, require a data availability statement in every research article, and explain acceptable exceptions such as confidential participant data, commercial restrictions or legal limits. Encourage repositories that issue persistent identifiers and follow the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), and ask authors to cite datasets in the reference list.

AI use policy

Since generative AI tools became widespread, every journal needs a policy on them. COPE's position statement, first published in February 2023, says AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, declare conflicts of interest or manage copyright and licence agreements, and asks authors who use AI to disclose how and which tool they used. Build your policy around those points.

State where disclosure goes (for example the methods or acknowledgements section), that authors remain fully responsible for all content, and how the journal treats undisclosed use discovered later.

Copyright, Licensing and Open Access Policies

The copyright and licensing policy answers two questions: who owns the copyright, and what others may do with the article. The Transparency Principles expect the copyright holder to be named on the full text of every article, in HTML and PDF, and open access content to carry an open licence.

JMVRA publishes under CC BY 4.0, the most permissive of these and the one many funders and open access definitions prefer. Whatever you choose, state it on the policy page, in the article footer and in the DOI metadata, and make sure your author agreement matches it.

Open access policy

Say whether all content is free to read immediately on publication, without registration, and whether any embargo applies. Explain self-archiving: which version (submitted, accepted or published) authors may deposit in institutional or subject repositories, and when. If the journal is fully open access, say so in one clear sentence; if it is hybrid or subscription, explain the routes to open access.

Article Processing Charge, Waiver and Refund Policy

Hidden or changing fees are one of the clearest warning signs researchers look for, so the fee policy must be complete and unambiguous. The Transparency Principles expect journals to state all charges clearly before submission.

• Every charge, in each currency you accept, including optional extras
• When the charge is payable (on submission, or only after acceptance)
• That ability to pay plays no role in editorial decisions
• Waiver or discount criteria and how to request one before submission
• Refund conditions: for example, duplicate payments or payments made in error
• Accepted payment methods and who to contact with payment problems

As a model of the level of detail authors expect, JMVRA lists its fee as ₹971 for Indian authors and US$41 for international authors, payable only after acceptance, on its publication charge page. Keep the amounts in one master record so the policy, the call for papers and the payment page always agree.

Corrections, Retractions and Post-Publication Policy

Published articles sometimes need to change. A post-publication policy tells readers how the journal will correct the record openly, without silently editing articles. COPE's Retraction Guidelines are the standard reference.

Each notice should be a citable item, linked both ways to the original article. When a journal registers Crossref DOIs, the notice can receive its own DOI and the article's metadata can be updated so that readers and databases see the change. JWDOI (jwdoi.org) registers Crossref DOIs and deposits article metadata, and gives journals a sponsored DOI prefix without joining Crossref directly; JMVRA's articles use the prefix 10.56975, which is shared by the group's journals. Also describe how readers raise concerns about published work and how authors request corrections.

Archiving, Preservation and Privacy Policies

Archiving and digital preservation

An archiving policy answers a question every librarian asks: what happens to the articles if the journal or its website stops? Describe where content is preserved beyond your own server. Options include dedicated preservation services such as LOCKSS, CLOCKSS and Portico, the PKP Preservation Network for journals on Open Journal Systems, national library deposit and deposit in open repositories. Also state that authors may self-archive under the licence, and that DOIs will continue to resolve to a copy of the content.

Privacy policy

Journals collect personal data from authors, reviewers, readers and payers: names, emails, affiliations, sometimes ORCID iDs and payment details. A privacy policy must say what is collected, why, who it is shared with (for example DOI and indexing services receive author names and affiliations as part of article metadata), how long it is kept, and how people can access, correct or delete it. Data-protection laws such as the EU's GDPR and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, whose Rules were notified in November 2025 and come into force in phases, make this a legal matter as well as a courtesy.

• Separate consent for newsletters and calls for papers from the data needed to process a submission
• Never sell or share author and reviewer contact lists
• Explain how reviewer identities are protected under anonymous review
• Name a contact for privacy requests

Advertising, Complaints and Appeals, and Preprint Policies

Advertising and marketing

If the journal carries advertisements or sponsorship, the advertising policy should state which types are accepted, that advertising decisions are independent of editorial decisions, and that ads are clearly distinguishable from content. Include a direct marketing section: the Transparency Principles expect any marketing, such as invitation emails, to be appropriate, well targeted and unobtrusive. Commit to opt-out links and no bought mailing lists.

Complaints and appeals

1. SubmitWritten appeal or complaint to a named address
2. AcknowledgeReceipt confirmed within a stated period
3. ReviewHandled by an editor not involved in the original decision
4. DecideReasoned response; decision on appeal is final
5. EscalateRoute to the publisher or an ethics body if unresolved

State what can be appealed (normally editorial decisions where the author believes there was a factual error or a reviewer misunderstanding, not simple disagreement), what the author should provide, and typical timelines as ranges. Complaints about the journal's conduct, delays or ethics should have their own route. JMVRA's contact for such matters is [email protected].

Preprints and prior publication

Say whether the journal accepts manuscripts previously posted as preprints, and whether theses, dissertations and conference abstracts count as prior publication. Many journals accept preprints and ask authors to disclose them on submission and link the preprint to the published version. Make clear that full publication of the same work in another journal is not acceptable, and explain how extended versions of conference papers are treated.

Publishing, Enforcing and Maintaining Your Journal Policies

Writing the policies is half the job. They must also be easy to find, built into the editorial workflow and kept up to date.

Where to publish policies

• One policy index page linked from the main menu and the footer, like the JMVRA all-policies page
• Each policy on its own section or page with a stable URL that you can cite in emails
• Links from the submission form, the reviewer invitation and the author agreement
• Key facts (licence, fees, peer review model) repeated consistently in the call for papers

Build policies into the workflow

Turn each "must" into a checkpoint. The submission form should collect conflict of interest, funding, data availability, AI use and ethics approval statements. Desk screening should include the similarity report. Reviewer invitations should link to confidentiality and AI rules. In a system such as JWJMS, where desk screening, reviewer invitations, revisions and decisions are recorded step by step, editors can show that the policy was applied to each paper.

Review cycle

1. Every year

   Review all policies against current COPE guidance, indexing criteria and your actual practice. Update dates and version numbers.

2. After any ethics case

   Check whether the policy was clear enough; fix gaps immediately.

3. When standards change

   Update when COPE, data-protection law, funders or indexers publish new requirements.

4. When you change practice

   Change the policy first, announce it, then apply it to new submissions.

A complete journal policies list, written in your own words, linked to recognised standards and enforced through the workflow, is one of the strongest quality signals a journal can send. If your journal needs help with the systems behind these policies (JWJMS for submissions and review, JWSCAN for similarity checks, JWDOI for DOI registration and metadata), or with anything beyond those capabilities, contact the team at [email protected] or on WhatsApp at +91 91063 65667 to discuss your requirement.

How Journey & Wisdom Helps

JMVRA is published within the Journey & Wisdom group, which runs four shared services — similarity checking, journal management, DOI registration and conference management — and thirteen publication platforms. These are the ones that matter most for this guide. For anything not listed here, email [email protected] or message WhatsApp +91 91063 65667 to discuss your requirement.

JWJMS

Journal management system

Runs the editorial workflow: online submission portal, author dashboard, desk screening, reviewer invitations and reminders, revision rounds, decisions, issue building and publication scheduling — with a full record of every step.

jwjms.org →

JWSCAN

Plagiarism & similarity check

Checks a manuscript for similarity before submission with iThenticate (by Turnitin) and returns an overall similarity index with a source-by-source report editors can act on.

jwscan.org →

JWDOI

Crossref DOI registration

Registers Crossref DOIs and deposits article metadata, and gives journals a sponsored DOI prefix without joining Crossref directly — for journals, books, chapters and proceedings.

jwdoi.org →

See every Journey & Wisdom product and platform · JW ecosystem map

How to write a complete set of journal policies: step by step

1. 1

   Collect your facts

   Create one master record of the journal's name, ISSN, publisher, fees, licence, review model and contacts.

2. 2

   List the policies you need

   Start from the sixteen-policy list and add supporting pages such as aims and scope and author guidelines.

3. 3

   Map against standards

   Check each draft against COPE Core Practices, the Transparency Principles and the criteria of any index you plan to approach.

4. 4

   Use one template

   For every policy write scope, rule, process, responsibilities, consequences and version details.

5. 5

   Write peer review and ethics first

   These two documents shape most of the others and are what indexers read first.

6. 6

   Draft the remaining policies

   Cover plagiarism, authorship, conflicts, data, AI, licence, open access, fees, corrections, archiving, privacy, advertising, complaints and preprints.

7. 7

   Check for contradictions

   Read the whole set together and make sure fees, licence, timelines and roles match on every page.

8. 8

   Publish on a policy index page

   Give each policy a stable URL and link it from the menu, footer, submission form and reviewer invitations.

9. 9

   Build checkpoints into the workflow

   Collect declarations at submission, attach similarity reports to screening and record each decision.

10. 10

    Train your editors and reviewers

    Brief the team on what changed and how to apply each policy.

11. 11

    Review every year

    Update policies after ethics cases, standard changes or practice changes, with version dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Related Guides

Useful pages on JMVRA

• See all JMVRA policies
• Read the JMVRA policy overview
• JMVRA peer review policy
• Plagiarism checking service
• JMVRA publication charges
• DOI registration