Quick Reads: Handling solicitations as an editor

As an editor, networking with and reaching out to the wider research community is a key aspect of your role. In turn, researchers will engage with you and your journal. However, not all forms of engagement will be positive.  

You may be contacted by an individual or someone representing a group, who offers you either a financial reward or a quid pro quo deal for a desired outcome e.g. expedited peer review or a guaranteed acceptance for their manuscript.  

This is called solicitation and it’s a form of bribery.  

Per the Editor Code of Conduct’s ‘anti-bribery and anti-corruption’ section, you must report any solicitation to our Integrity Assurance & Case Resolution (IACR) team. This allows IACR to keep track of these bad actors, ensuring they cannot serve as editors and reviewers nor submit as authors to any of our journals in future. 

To support you, we've put together a guide on how to handle solicitations, what actions you can take, and how to report a solicitation to our Integrity Assurance & Case Resolution team.