R&D Board · Policies
Editorial policies
The rules that govern how the GCSB Journal of Converged Security reviews, decides on and publishes research. They apply equally to every author, reviewer and editor.
Workflow
From submission to publication
Stage 1 · Author
Submitted
The manuscript is submitted through the portal (or the public form) with an anonymised file and declarations.
Stage 2 · Editor
Editorial screening
A handling editor checks scope, format, originality and ethics within 14 days, then sends it to review or declines it.
Stage 3 · Peer reviewers
In review
At least two independent reviewers with no conflict of interest assess the paper under double-blind review, normally within 21 days.
Stage 4 · Author
Revision requested
The author receives anonymised reviewer comments, uploads a revised manuscript and a response letter.
Stage 5 · Editor
Accepted / Rejected
The handling editor decides on the basis of the reviews. Reasons are given to the author in every case.
Stage 6 · Author
Galley proof
The editor sends the typeset proof in the GCSB Journal layout. The author confirms the proof checklist and approves it, or returns corrections, within 3 working days. Only spelling, grammar and typesetting errors may be corrected at this stage.
Stage 7 · Editor
Published
Papers with an approved proof receive a GCSB-J reference number, are published in the archive and deposited in the GCSB Zenodo community, and the author receives a free certificate of publication.
R&D Board · Policies
Editorial policies
1. Editorial independence
- Publication decisions are made by the handling editor on the basis of peer review, and are independent of the Governing Council and of GCSB commercial or certification interests.
- The Governing Council sets the Journal's scope only; it never instructs editors on individual papers.
2. Peer review
- Every research and review article is reviewed double-blind by at least two independent reviewers.
- Reviewer appointments may be publicly acknowledged or verified. The identity of the reviewer assigned to a particular manuscript is not disclosed to its authors or readers.
- Reviewers recommend; the handling editor decides.
3. Conflicts of interest
- Authors, reviewers and editors declare any financial, professional, family or personal connection relevant to a manuscript.
- Nobody reviews, handles or decides on a paper by themselves, a family member, a close colleague, or someone they have co-authored with in the last three years.
- Papers by GCSB office holders - including the founder and any interim Editor-in-Chief - are handled by another editor and reviewed by panel members with no connection to the author. The author takes no part in the decision.
4. Publication ethics and misconduct
- The Journal follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
- Plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, duplicate submission and citation manipulation lead to rejection, or retraction after publication.
- Concerns about a published paper can be raised with the editor; they are investigated confidentially and the outcome recorded.
5. Authorship
- Everyone listed as an author made a substantial contribution and approved the final version.
- AI tools cannot be authors. Any use of AI in writing or analysis must be disclosed in the manuscript.
6. Fees, access and copyright
- There are no submission, review or publication fees. A certificate of publication is free.
- Published papers are freely available to read immediately, without registration or payment.
- Authors retain copyright and grant GCSB a non-exclusive licence to publish. Published Journal articles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- You may share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit, link to the licence and indicate any changes. You must not imply endorsement or impose additional legal or technological restrictions. Third-party material identified as excluded in a credit line requires separate permission where applicable. This licence does not apply to confidential submissions or unrelated GCSB materials.
7. Confidentiality and data protection
- Submitted manuscripts are confidential and stored privately; only the handling editor and assigned reviewers can open them.
- Reviewers and editors may not copy, share or use unpublished work, or upload it to AI tools.
- Personal data is handled under the GCSB Privacy Policy and UK GDPR.
8. Appeals and corrections
- Authors may appeal a decision once, in writing, within 30 days. The appeal is decided by an editor not involved in the original decision.
- Errors in published papers are corrected by a published correction, issued as a new version of the Zenodo record under the same DOI concept.
- Serious problems lead to a retraction notice that stays linked to the paper. Zenodo records cannot be deleted, so a retracted article remains marked as retracted on its original record.
9. Preprints, data and preservation
- Preprints are accepted: a manuscript already posted on a preprint server may be submitted, provided this is disclosed at submission. Anonymise the file and do not cite the preprint in it during review.
- Authors are encouraged to share the data and code behind their findings, for example in the GCSB Zenodo community, or to explain in a data availability statement why they cannot.
- Published articles are permanently preserved in the GCSB Zenodo community, which keeps every version and its DOI.
10. Voluntary roles
- All reviewer and editor roles are voluntary, not monetized and remote, like every GCSB governance role.
Open access
Copyright and reuse
Authors retain copyright and grant GCSB a non-exclusive licence to publish. Published Journal articles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
You may share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit, link to the licence and indicate any changes. You must not imply endorsement or impose additional legal or technological restrictions. Third-party material identified as excluded in a credit line requires separate permission where applicable. This licence does not apply to confidential submissions or unrelated GCSB materials.
Zenodo repository and DOIs
Final approved publications are deposited in the GCSB Zenodo community, where all Converged Security Framework standards, procedures and playbooks are already published with registered DOIs. Eligible articles without an existing DOI receive a free Zenodo DOI when the deposit is published following community acceptance. Articles with an existing DOI retain it. No submission, review or publication fee is charged. A reserved DOI is not yet registered, and deposit does not guarantee external indexing. Confidential submissions and private drafts are excluded.
Read the CC BY 4.0 licence