SEAFARER: Journal of Shipping Affairs is committed to maintaining a fair, transparent, independent, and academically rigorous editorial process. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, relevance to the journal's Focus and Scope, and contribution to shipping operations, seafarer studies, maritime safety, ports, logistics, and maritime transportation systems.
Editorial decisions are made independently of commercial, financial, institutional, operational, governmental, maritime-industry, or personal interests. The publisher does not determine whether an individual manuscript is accepted or rejected.
Editors evaluate manuscripts on the basis of academic quality, originality, methodological soundness, ethical compliance, transparency, relevance, and contribution to shipping and maritime transportation scholarship.
All submitted manuscripts undergo initial editorial screening before external peer review. The editorial team evaluates whether a manuscript fits the journal's Focus and Scope and meets minimum standards of academic quality, research integrity, and presentation.
Initial screening may include assessment of:
Manuscripts that are clearly outside the journal's scope, lack sufficient scholarly contribution, or do not meet minimum editorial standards may be declined without external peer review.
SEAFARER applies a double-anonymous peer review process. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other during the review process.
Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are normally evaluated by at least two independent reviewers with relevant expertise in shipping, maritime transportation, seafarer studies, safety, ports, logistics, human factors, or related disciplines.
Reviewers are expected to provide objective, constructive, confidential, evidence-based, and academically independent assessments.
Reviewer recommendations inform but do not automatically determine the final editorial decision. The responsible editor considers reviewer reports together with the manuscript's scholarly merit, originality, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance.
Editorial decisions may include:
Submission of a revised manuscript does not guarantee acceptance. Final publication decisions remain the responsibility of the editorial team.
Authors, editors, and reviewers must disclose financial, institutional, professional, operational, commercial, or personal relationships that could reasonably influence or appear to influence the research, peer review, or editorial decision-making process.
Potential conflicts may include relationships with shipping companies, port authorities, maritime regulators, classification societies, training institutions, equipment manufacturers, logistics providers, or other maritime organizations. Editors should transfer responsibility for manuscripts where a relevant conflict exists.
SEAFARER supports internationally recognized principles of responsible scholarly publishing and publication-ethics practices informed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, manipulated peer review, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, misrepresentation of operational or accident data, and undisclosed conflicts of interest are not acceptable.
Allegations of misconduct will be assessed objectively, confidentially, and proportionately based on available evidence.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity-detection software. Similarity reports are evaluated contextually and are not judged solely on the basis of a numerical percentage.
Unattributed copying, inappropriate paraphrasing, redundant publication, duplicate submission, or substantial reuse of previously published material may result in rejection or appropriate post-publication action.
Artificial intelligence systems, generative AI tools, large language models, or autonomous software agents cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for scholarly content, ethical compliance, originality, or accountability.
Authors remain fully responsible for all AI-assisted content, including text, analysis, coding, figures, references, simulations, classifications, interpretations, and maritime operational recommendations.
Substantive use of AI in manuscript preparation, data analysis, simulation, route optimization, accident classification, image processing, navigation studies, coding, translation, or literature synthesis should be transparently disclosed where relevant.
Editors and reviewers should not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished operational data, accident records, reviewer reports, or editorial correspondence to publicly accessible AI systems where confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or data security cannot be assured.
Research involving seafarers, maritime workers, cadets, passengers, port workers, or other human participants should comply with applicable ethical requirements, including informed consent and institutional ethics approval where required.
Authors should protect confidential or commercially sensitive information concerning vessels, shipowners, shipping companies, ports, cargoes, accident investigations, safety management systems, and operational records.
Vessel names, IMO numbers, crew identities, operational logs, AIS records, incident reports, company records, or port data should be used responsibly and in accordance with applicable permissions, confidentiality obligations, and legal requirements.
Studies using simulations, AIS data, navigation models, risk assessments, accident databases, operational performance records, or maritime logistics datasets should describe data sources, preprocessing, assumptions, limitations, and analytical procedures sufficiently clearly.
Authors may submit a reasoned appeal when they believe that a significant factual, methodological, procedural, or ethical issue affected an editorial decision.
Appeals should identify the specific issue being challenged and provide a clear scholarly justification rather than merely expressing disagreement with the decision.
Complaints concerning editorial conduct, peer review, conflicts of interest, publication ethics, or published content will be considered objectively by an appropriate journal representative.
SEAFARER is committed to preserving the accuracy and integrity of the scholarly record.
Corrections may be issued when errors affect the accuracy, attribution, interpretation, metadata, calculations, or completeness of a published article without invalidating its principal findings.
Retractions may be considered when findings are unreliable because of major error, fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, duplicate publication, unethical research, manipulated data, or other serious integrity concerns.
An Expression of Concern may be issued when substantial concerns exist but sufficient information for a definitive editorial action is not yet available.
