Editorial Policies

Editorial Policies — Expert Journal of Business and Management

ISSN 2344-6781 | Published by Sprint Investify

This page sets out the policies of the Expert Journal of Business and Management on open access, licensing, copyright, peer review, author charges, publication ethics, corrections and retractions, and the use of artificial intelligence tools. These policies govern the content published in the journal.

Contents: Open Access Statement · Licensing · Copyright · Peer Review Process · Submissions by Editors and Board Members · Special Issues · Author Charges · Publication Ethics and Malpractice · Corrections and Retractions · Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools · Complaints and Appeals · Repository Policy (Self-Archiving) · Archiving and Digital Preservation · Persistent Article Identifiers · Editorial Board · Publisher and Contact Information

Open Access Statement

Expert Journal of Business and Management is a fully open access journal.

All articles are made available immediately and permanently upon publication, free of charge to all readers. There is no embargo period, no subscription requirement, and no registration or login required to read, download, or print the full text of any article.

Readers are free to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, and use them for any other lawful purpose, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or the authors.

This policy is consistent with the definition of open access used by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and with the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

Licensing

All articles published in Expert Journal of Business and Management are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Under this licence, anyone is free to:

  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material;

for any purpose, including commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author and source, a link to the licence is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

The full licence text is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The licence applies to the article as published, including the final published version (version of record). No additional restrictions are imposed on reuse beyond those contained in the CC BY 4.0 licence itself. Third-party material reproduced in an article with permission is identified as such and may be excluded from the licence.

Copyright

Authors retain full copyright of their articles without restriction.

By submitting to Expert Journal of Business and Management, authors grant the journal the right of first publication. Authors simultaneously license their work under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), as described above.

Authors are free to:

  • deposit the published version of their article in any institutional or subject repository, without embargo;
  • post the article on personal or institutional websites;
  • reuse the article in whole or in part in subsequent works, including books and teaching materials;

in each case with acknowledgement of first publication in this journal.

These copyright terms apply to articles published by the journal. They are separate from, and take precedence over, the terms governing use of the journal website in respect of published articles.

Peer Review Process

All research articles submitted to Expert Journal of Business and Management undergo double-anonymised (double-blind) external peer review. The identities of authors and reviewers are withheld from each other throughout the process.

  1. Plagiarism screening. Every submitted manuscript is checked with Quetext for plagiarism and for similarity to existing published work before it is considered further. Each report is assessed by an editor; manuscripts showing any form of plagiarism are rejected.
  2. Editorial screening. Manuscripts passing the plagiarism check are assessed by one or two Editors against the journal’s aims and scope, the novelty and contribution of the work, its organisation and structure, readability, and the relevance of the cited literature. Manuscripts that fall outside scope or fail to meet basic standards are rejected at this stage without external review.
  3. External peer review. Manuscripts passing editorial screening are sent to at least two independent external reviewers, who assess the importance of the study, its contribution to the existing literature, the design and analysis of the research, and the interpretation and discussion of results. Reviewers are selected for subject expertise and must have no conflict of interest with the authors, their institutions, or the funders of the research.
  4. Scoring and decision. Editors and Reviewers grade each manuscript against every evaluation criterion on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = Poor, 2 = Below Average, 3 = Average, 4 = Good, 5 = Excellent). A manuscript must achieve an overall average score of at least 3 to be accepted, and the substance of the written reports is decisive. The decision is one of: accept; accept with minor editorial changes; accept with major revisions; or reject. Where reviewers’ recommendations conflict, an additional reviewer may be invited.
  5. Final decision. The Editor-in-Chief holds final responsibility for all publication decisions. Decisions are based solely on the academic merit of the work and its relevance to the journal’s scope, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation, or political philosophy.

Timeline. Reviewers are asked to return their reports within 4 to 8 weeks of accepting an invitation. Reviewers who cannot meet this deadline are asked to notify the editors and withdraw from the review. Editorial screening precedes this stage and revision rounds may follow it; authors are told if a manuscript is taking longer than expected.

Submissions by Editors and Board Members

Editors, editorial board members and reviewers may submit to the journal. Their manuscripts go through the same double-anonymised review by at least two independent external reviewers. The manuscript is handled by an editor with no conflict of interest; the author-editor takes no part in its handling and has no access to its review records. If the Editor-in-Chief is an author, another senior editor takes the final decision. The author’s editorial role is stated in the article’s Conflicts of Interest declaration. Articles with at least one author who is an editor, board member or reviewer make up no more than 25% of the research articles in any issue.

Special Issues

Expert Journal of Business and Management does not currently publish special issues or guest-edited content. If special issues are introduced, this policy will be updated before any call for papers, and the following will apply: the Editor-in-Chief remains responsible for all content, which must fall within the journal’s scope; guest editors’ credentials are checked and approved, and their work is overseen by the Editor-in-Chief or designated board members; special issue articles receive the same external peer review by at least two independent reviewers and are clearly labelled; papers by the guest editors are handled through an independent review process and make up no more than 25% of the issue.

Author Charges

Expert Journal of Business and Management charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 320 EUR for each accepted article, payable at the final stage of publication following acceptance.

  • There is no submission fee. No charge is made at submission or during review.
  • There are no additional or hidden costs. No charge is made for longer articles, extra pages, colour figures, additional authors, or bank commissions. There is only one APC per accepted article.
  • There is no charge to readers. The journal is free to read.
  • No waivers or discounts. The journal does not offer fee waivers or discounts. The APC is the same for every accepted article, and ability to pay plays no part in editorial decisions.
  • Withdrawal. No fee is charged for withdrawing a manuscript.

The APC of 320 EUR applies to manuscripts submitted on or after 1 October 2026; manuscripts submitted earlier pay the fee stated at the time of submission. Full details of what the APC covers are set out under Article Processing Charge in the Guide for Authors.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice

Expert Journal of Business and Management is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics. The journal’s practice follows the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): https://publicationethics.org/core-practices. The full statement is available on the publisher’s Publication Ethics pages; the requirements below apply to this journal.

Authors’ responsibilities. Authors must ensure that:

  • the submitted work is original, is their own, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
  • the work of others is properly cited and quoted, and permission obtained where required;
  • the paper contains sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work; fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate data manipulation constitute serious misconduct;
  • all persons who made a significant contribution are listed as co-authors, all co-authors have approved the final version, and no person entitled to authorship has been omitted; contributors who do not qualify for authorship are listed in an Acknowledgements section;
  • all sources of financial support and all conflicts of interest — financial, personal, or professional — are disclosed at submission; authors must state explicitly whether or not potential conflicts exist;
  • if a significant error is discovered in their own published work, they promptly notify the editors and cooperate in issuing a correction or retraction.

Research ethics and consent. Where research involves human participants, authors must confirm that appropriate ethical approval was obtained from a named institutional review board or equivalent body, giving the approval number, and that informed consent was obtained from participants. If formal review was not required, authors must state this and explain why. A statement to this effect must be included in the manuscript. Authors who seek to publish private information or images of identifiable individuals must obtain that individual’s explicit consent.

Reviewers’ responsibilities. Reviewers must treat all manuscripts as confidential documents and must not show or discuss them with others or use them for personal advantage; must conduct reviews objectively, expressing views clearly and with supporting argument, with personal criticism of authors considered unacceptable; must declare any conflict of interest and decline to review where one exists; must promptly notify the editors of any substantial overlap with other published work of which they have personal knowledge; and must notify the editors if they cannot complete the review within the agreed period.

Editors’ responsibilities. Editors evaluate manuscripts solely on academic merit; do not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate; do not use unpublished material from a submitted manuscript in their own research without the authors’ express written consent; recuse themselves where they have a conflict of interest; and take responsive action when ethical complaints are raised concerning a submitted or published paper, in accordance with COPE guidance, regardless of when the complaint is made.

Plagiarism. All submissions are screened for plagiarism using Quetext, and every report is reviewed by an editor. Manuscripts containing plagiarised material, including self-plagiarism and redundant publication, are rejected. Where plagiarism is identified after publication, the article is retracted in accordance with the policy below.

Allegations of misconduct. Allegations of research or publication misconduct — whether concerning a submitted manuscript or a published article, and whether raised by a reviewer, reader, or third party — are investigated in accordance with COPE flowcharts. The corresponding author is given an opportunity to respond before any action is taken. Where misconduct is substantiated, the journal issues a correction, an expression of concern, or a retraction as appropriate, and may notify the authors’ institution.

Corrections and Retractions

Expert Journal of Business and Management follows the COPE Retraction Guidelines: https://publicationethics.org/retraction-guidelines

The published record must be correctable. Post-publication changes take one of three forms.

Correction (erratum / corrigendum). Issued where a small portion of an otherwise reliable article is misleading — for example, an error in a figure, a table, a calculation, or an author list. The article remains in the literature; a correction notice is published and linked bidirectionally to the original article.

Expression of concern. Issued where there is well-founded concern about the reliability or integrity of an article but the matter is not yet resolved — for example, while an institutional investigation is ongoing. The notice is linked to the original article and is superseded once the matter concludes.

Retraction. Issued where the findings of an article are unreliable or the article is otherwise unsound. Grounds for retraction include, but are not limited to:

  • clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, whether as a result of major error, fabrication, or falsification of data;
  • plagiarism, including self-plagiarism;
  • redundant or duplicate publication;
  • unethical research, including research conducted without appropriate ethical approval or participant consent;
  • undisclosed conflicts of interest that materially affect the interpretation of the work;
  • manipulation of the peer review process;
  • copyright infringement or other serious legal issue.

How retractions are handled. Retracted articles are not removed from the journal website. The original article is retained and clearly labelled as retracted on every page and in the PDF. A separate retraction notice is published, is freely available to all readers, is linked bidirectionally to the retracted article, and states who is retracting the article and why. Retraction notices are published promptly once a decision is made.

The decision to retract rests with the Editor-in-Chief and is not contingent on the authors’ agreement, although authors are always invited to respond before a decision is taken. A retraction corrects the scholarly record and is not, in itself, a judgement of intent.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Tools

For authors. Authors must disclose any use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies in preparing a submitted manuscript, beyond basic tools for spelling, grammar, and formatting. Disclosure is made in the “Use of Artificial Intelligence” declaration at the end of the manuscript, naming the tool and version and describing how it was used.

  • AI tools cannot be listed as authors and cannot be credited with authorship. Authorship requires accountability for the work, which an AI tool cannot hold.
  • Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the entire manuscript, including any content produced with AI assistance — this includes responsibility for fabricated content, fabricated or inaccurate citations, and plagiarised text.
  • AI tools must not be cited as a source of factual information.
  • Using AI to fabricate or manipulate data, results, or images constitutes research misconduct and is treated as such.

For editors and reviewers. Submitted manuscripts are shared in confidence. We therefore ask editors and reviewers not to upload a manuscript, or any part of it, to generative AI tools or other external services that cannot guarantee confidentiality, as this could compromise the authors’ rights.

We value each reviewer’s own expert judgement, so review reports should be written by the reviewer rather than generated by AI. Reviewers may use AI tools to polish the language of their own report, provided they let the editor know. Likewise, editorial decisions are always made by an editor, not by AI tools.

Use of automated tools by the journal. The journal uses Quetext for plagiarism and similarity checking. This is the only automated tool used routinely in the editorial process. No AI or automated tool is used to select reviewers or to make editorial decisions. Every automated result is reviewed by an editor, and final decisions are always taken by a named editor.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should write to the Editor-in-Chief, setting out the grounds for the appeal and responding to the specific points raised by the reviewers. Appeals are considered by an editor who was not involved in the original decision. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision on an appeal is final.

Complaints about editorial process, publication ethics, or the conduct of the journal should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief at the address below. Complaints are acknowledged within 10 working days and are handled in accordance with COPE guidance. Complaints concerning the Editor-in-Chief, or complaints not resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction, are referred to the publisher.

Repository Policy (Self-Archiving)

Because authors retain copyright and all articles are published under CC BY 4.0, authors are permitted to deposit every version of their paper in an institutional or subject repository of their choice, or on a personal or institutional website:

  • the preprint (the version before peer review);
  • the author’s accepted manuscript (the peer-reviewed version before typesetting);
  • the published article (the version of record).

No embargo period applies to any version. Authors are asked to acknowledge first publication in Expert Journal of Business and Management and to include a link to the published version.

Archiving and Digital Preservation

Expert Journal of Business and Management is preserved by ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, a long-term archiving agency registered in the Keepers Registry. The journal’s preservation status can be checked in its ISSN Portal record.

All published articles are also kept in the Expert Journals Repository.

In addition, the journal maintains a complete archive of all published volumes on this website, freely accessible without registration.

Persistent Article Identifiers

Every article published in Expert Journal of Business and Management, across the full back catalogue from Volume 1 (2013) to the present, is assigned an ARK (Archival Resource Key) persistent identifier.

ARKs are issued under NAAN 16759, registered to Sprint Investify in the global Name Assigning Authority Number registry maintained by the ARK Alliance. Each ARK resolves permanently to the full text of the article, so that citations and links remain valid even if the journal’s URL structure changes.

The ARK is displayed with each article record. ARKs take the form: https://expertjournals.com/ark:/16759/[article-identifier]

Editorial Board

The journal’s Editors and full editorial board — with the institutional affiliation of every member — are listed on the Editorial Board page. Editorial board members are appointed on the basis of subject expertise and standing in the field. Members advise on journal policy and scope, review manuscripts, and are required to declare conflicts of interest.

Publisher and Contact Information

  • Publisher: Sprint Investify
  • Registered address: 17 Mihai Viteazu Street, 557260 Șelimbăr, Sibiu County, Romania
  • Publisher website: https://expertjournals.com
  • Editors: Simona Vinerean, Alin Opreana
  • Contact person: Simona Vinerean, Editor-in-Chief
  • Journal email: business@expertjournals.com
  • General enquiries: editor@expertjournals.com

Last updated: 1 October 2026