Editorial Independence and Separation of Commercial Services

Editorial decisions at SSG journals are made only by editors, based only on scholarly merit. The publisher, its staff, and any commercial consideration have no part in them.

• No one at SSG may ask an editor to accept, reject, or speed up a manuscript. This includes the owners, managers, and sales or marketing staff.
• The following never influence decisions: whether fees are paid, waived, or discounted; the author's country, institution, gender, religion, ethnicity, or seniority; and whether the author has used other SSG services.
• Editors who are put under pressure can report it directly to the Publishing Director. If they prefer, they can report it to a senior editor of another SSG journal who is not involved in the matter. Editors will not suffer any consequences for doing so. If the concern involves the Publishing Director, the editor reports it to a senior editor of another SSG journal, who reviews it independently.
• Editors-in-Chief, editors, editorial board members, and reviewers work voluntarily. SSG does not pay them, and does not give them rewards, points, or discounts.

• Board members are recognised experts in the journal's subject area. They are chosen for their publication record and how active they are in research.
• No one is listed on the board without their written agreement. Each member confirms their name, title, affiliation, and country before it appears on the website.
• Every listing shows the member's full name, current affiliation, and country. Where available, it also links to the member's ORCID, Scopus, or Google Scholar profile.
• Editors and board members declare any competing interests when they join, and update the declaration when it changes.
• Editors-in-Chief serve renewable three-year terms. An Editor-in-Chief may be removed only for documented reasons of performance, integrity or governance, and never because of an individual editorial decision.

Every manuscript is assigned to a handling editor who has no conflict of interest with it. Final decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief, or by an editor the Editor-in-Chief delegates. Decisions are always based on the reviewer reports and the editor's own assessment. No decision is made by administrative staff or by the publisher.

SSG offers optional commercial services: Author Services (English editing, statistical analysis, similarity checking, and layout editing) and the StepSphere AI workspace. These services are kept strictly separate from the editorial work of SSG journals:

• No influence: buying or not buying any SSG service has no effect on how a submission is handled, on peer review, on editorial decisions, on publication timelines, or on APCs and waivers.
• Not required: no SSG journal requires the use of an SSG service, recommends one as a condition of acceptance, or rewards authors for using one.
• Information barrier: editors, board members, and reviewers cannot see whether an author has bought a service. Records of commercial services are stored separately from editorial records.
• No role in decisions: no one who provides commercial services takes part in editorial decisions. Editors receive no payment linked to the sale of services.
• Open to all: SSG services are available to any researcher, whether or not they plan to submit to an SSG journal.
• No guarantee: no SSG service guarantees, predicts, or improves the chance of acceptance at any journal.
• StepSphere: the separation rules that apply specifically to StepSphere are set out in the StepSphere Policy, section 3.
• Transparency: service prices are published on the relevant service pages. Journal fees are listed on the Article Processing Charges page.

Anyone who believes this policy has been breached can contact editorial-office@scientificstepsgroup-ssg.com. Concerns are handled under the Appeals and Complaints policy.