Journal Policies

Editorial policy

JECS is committed to publishing high-quality, innovative research that advances understanding of market infrastructure. Our editorial policy reflects our mission to serve as a bridge between academia, industry, and public policy, ensuring that published research meets the highest standards of academic integrity and rigour while remaining accessible and relevant to practitioners and policymakers.

All un-solicited manuscripts are considered on the strict condition that they have not been submitted elsewhere, that they have not been published already, nor are they under consideration for publication, or in press elsewhere. Solicited manuscripts are subject to the same conditions unless otherwise agreed with the editors.

By submitting your work to JECS, you warrant that it is your original work, and that you have secured the necessary written permission from the appropriate copyright owner or authority for the reproduction of any text, illustration, or other material.

Code of ethics

JECS is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and ethical publishing. The journal adheres to the principles and best practice guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and expects editors, reviewers, and authors to comply with these standards throughout the publication process.

 

Limitation of liabilities

Submission of a manuscript to the Journal of Exchanges, Clearing & Settlement does not guarantee acceptance for publication. All editorial decisions are made in good faith by the editors on the basis of peer review and are final. The journal, its editors, guest editors, and reviewers accept no liability for any loss, damage, or inconvenience arising from editorial decisions, delays in the review process, or the content of reviewer reports. Reviewer identities are confidential; reviewers act in an advisory capacity on behalf of the journal and bear no personal liability for their assessments. Authors retain full responsibility for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of submitted work.

Peer review policy

All contributions will be first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief as to their suitability for inclusion in the journal. A submission can be declined before peer-review if it is considered out-of-scope or if it does not meet the standards of the journal.  Following this initial review, manuscripts will be sent for double-blind peer review (meaning that the author’s identity is known to the editor but not to the reviewers, and that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editor and are hidden from the authors). Authors will be informed of the results of the review once the process is completed. Authors may be asked to revise their contributions before final acceptance.

To preserve the integrity of the double-blind process, authors should ensure their manuscript does not contain information that would allow their identity to be inferred, including through self-citations, acknowledgements, or institutional references.

The journal aims to provide an initial editorial decision within four weeks of submission. Manuscripts sent for peer review will ordinarily receive a first decision within twelve weeks. The journal is committed to a streamlined review process, with acceptance decisions typically reached within one round of revisions where possible.

Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an article’s original version (preprint) available through preprint repositories (including SSRN), and this does not prevent submission to the journal. If accepted, and the repository allows, a link the published paper’s DOI should be added to the preprint. Working paper versions should not be updated after acceptance by JECS.

Declaration of competing interests

All authors must disclose any financial and non-financial relationships with other people or organizations that could be perceived as inappropriately influencing or biasing their work. 

It is the sole responsibility of authors to disclose any affiliation with any organization with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (such as consultancies, employment, paid expert testimony, honoraria, speakers' fees, stock options or ownership, patents or patent applications or travel grants) that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted. All sources of funding are to be explicitly stated.

Authors who hold an editorial or advisory role at JECS must inform the editorial team prior to submission. Such authors will have no involvement in the peer review of their own submission and no access to information regarding its review. Editorial responsibility for the article will be delegated to another member of the editorial team.

The existence of a competing interest does not preclude publication. Declared interests will be assessed by the editorial team and disclosed to reviewers and readers where relevant.

Reviewers are required to declare any competing interests prior to accepting a review assignment and must decline to review manuscripts where a conflict exists. Members of the editorial team are subject to the same disclosure obligations as authors.

Disclosure statements will be included in the declaration of competing interests section at the end of the article, before the references.

The completed declaration must be submitted alongside the manuscript.

Policy on the use of AI tools

AI tools such as Large Language Models, chatbots and image creators cannot be credited with authorship of any manuscript submitted to this journal.

Authors are required to disclose any instance where generative AI tools have been employed in the creation of written content, generation of images or graphical elements, or the collection and analysis of data within a submitted work. This acknowledgement should provide explicit information about the specific tasks performed by AI tools, including the identification of the tool(s) and their respective versions. AI tools used solely to improve or correct spelling and grammar need not be disclosed.

Authors bear full responsibility for the content of their manuscript, including any portions generated with the assistance of AI tools. Consequently, they are liable for any potential breaches of publication ethics. Authors must ensure that all quoted and referenced material is appropriately credited.

Retractions and corrections

JECS is committed to maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record. In the event that errors or misconduct are identified in published articles, the editorial team will consider corrections or retractions in accordance with the principles and guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Corrections. Errors that do not substantially affect the validity of findings, conclusions, or integrity of a published article will, following an editorial review, be corrected via a correction notice. Correction notices will be published as separate, citable items permanently linked to the original article and will specify the nature of the error and the corrected content. The original article will be updated with a prominent notice directing readers to the correction, while preserving the version of record.

Retractions. An article will be retracted when, following an investigation by the editorial team, its findings or conclusions are deemed unreliable, whether due to honest error or misconduct (e.g., data fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism). Retraction may also occur when the research was conducted without appropriate ethical approval; when findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper attribution or disclosure; or when there are unresolved authorship disputes that undermine the integrity of the publication. Retraction notices will be published as separate, citable items, clearly linked to the original article, and will state the reasons for retraction. Retracted articles will remain accessible in the journal archive to preserve the scholarly record but will be marked as retracted on every page of the article and in all metadata, so that they cannot be inadvertently cited as valid work.

Process. Concerns about published articles should be directed to the editorial team at jecs@world-exchanges.org. All concerns will be investigated promptly and confidentially. Where allegations of misconduct are involved, the journal will follow the relevant COPE guidelines. Authors of the article under investigation will be given the opportunity to respond before any decision is made, except where doing so would compromise the integrity of the investigation.

Corrections and retractions initiated by authors. Authors who identify errors in their own published work are encouraged to contact the editorial team as soon as possible. The journal views the prompt reporting of errors as consistent with the highest standards of research integrity and will handle such requests constructively.

Authorship policy

Authorship should be based on the criteria recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): all listed authors should have made a substantive intellectual contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the work, and to the drafting or critical revision of the manuscript. Equally, all individuals who made a significant contribution to the research should be listed as co-authors.

All authors are collectively responsible for the content and integrity of the articles they submit and publish.

Any changes to the author list after submission must be approved by all listed authors and communicated to the editorial team with a clear explanation. Such changes will not ordinarily be permitted after acceptance.

Authors should appoint a single corresponding author to submit the manuscript and all required documentation to the journal, and who will serve as the primary contact between the journal and the co-authors. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final version before submission and should remain contactable after publication to handle post-publication queries, corrections, or data requests.

Data and code availability policy

JECS is committed to supporting open and reproducible research and strongly encourages authors to make available all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely, where these are not subject to confidentiality, proprietary, or legal restrictions. Data and code should be deposited in a recognised public repository (such as Zenodo or Harvard Dataverse), with a persistent link or DOI included in the manuscript. All articles must include a data availability statement explaining where the data supporting the findings can be accessed, or providing an explanation of why data cannot be shared.

Supplementary materials

Authors may submit additional supporting material that, while not essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, would benefit the reader — for example, extended data tables, robustness checks, or technical appendices. Supplementary materials will be made available online alongside the published article. All supplementary files should be clearly labelled and referenced in the main text.