The Editorial Policy Committee of CSE serves as a resource regarding editorial and publishing policies applying to publications in the sciences. The committee studies and analyzes procedural, ethical, legal, and economic policies and recommends policies and/or guidelines that relate to the editing, review, and publication of manuscripts in books and journals.
There are many areas of the peer review scientific publication process which are controversial and poorly defined. The CSE Editorial Policy Committee attempts to address this problem by drafting policies in such areas, with the goal of providing guidance and a framework for discussion among editors, publishers, peer reviewers, and authors.
The Committee identifies topics that could benefit from a policy. The Committee members draft a policy with input from as many sources as they can identify, and then forward the draft to the Board of Directors for preliminary review. The Board gives tentative approval and then this draft is published in Science Editor and on the website. (See “Policy for Review and Approval of Statements Drafted by the Editorial Policy Committee” describing the review and approval process.)
Several policy statements have been through the review and comment process, and have been approved as final by the CSE Board of Directors. For other policy statements, the policy content is preliminary. Member suggestions are incorporated into a final draft, which is again reviewed by the Board, approved, and published in final form to serve as a reference.