International Journal of Business and Economic Development

This procedure applies to complaints about the policies, procedures, or actions of editorial staff of the International Journal of Business and Economic Development (IJBED)-A Journal of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER).

CBER welcomes constructive feedback and complaints as they provide an opportunity to further reflect on how things can be improved for the betterment of various stakeholders. Once a complaint has been received the Centre will endeavour to respond in a timely manner. The procedure outlined below aims to be fair to all parties involved.

Definition

Our definition of a complaint is as follows:

• The complainant defines his or her expression of unhappiness as a complaint;
• CBER infers that the complainant is not merely disagreeing with a decision it has made or something that has been published, but thinks that there has been a failure of process e.g. an excessive delay or a rude response.
• The complaint must be about something that is within the responsibility of the editorial department of any of the four aforementioned journals in relation to content or process.

How to make a complaint

• By far the best way to reach the Academy is by email. Please email: info@cberuk.com
• All complaints will be acknowledged within five working days.
• The centre will make every effort to make a full response will be made within 28 days. If this is not possible an interim response will be given within the same time frame. From that time on further interim responses will be provided until the complaint is resolved.
• If the complainant remains unhappy, complaints should be escalated to the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision will be final.
• If a complainant remains unhappy after what the Editor-in-Chief considers a definitive reply the complainant may complain to an external body.

External bodies

If the complainant has exhausted the internal processes and is still unhappy he or she can complain to the following organisation:

The Committee on Publication Ethics

COPE publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific, technical, and medical journals http://www.publicationethics.org. It will consider complaints against editors but only once a journal's own complaints procedures have been exhausted.