Chapter 1. General Rules 

 Article 1 (Purpose of the Rules). These rules are intended to fairly and transparently conduct the editorial business of the Journal of Korea Trade (hereafter, JKT), the official English-language journal of the Korea Trade Research Association (hereafter, KTRA).

 Article 2 (Publication Schedule). The JKT shall be published eight times a year, in principle on February 28, April 30, May 31, June 30, August 31, October 31, November 30, and December 31. However, special issues may be published if deemed necessary by the Editorial Board.

 Chapter 2. Scope of Articles and Eligibility for Submission

 Article 3 (Scope of Articles). The JKT publishes academic articles written in English in the fields of international economics, international business, trade and commerce, and international trade law related to the Korean economy and trade.

 Article 4 (Eligibility for Submission). The JKT is open to all domestic and international scholars and experts. The Author must be a member of the KTRA, and in the case of a joint research paper with two or more Authors, all Authors must be members of the KTRA. However, if the approval of full membership is cancelled after joining the KTRA, the Author shall lose their right to submit. In the case of foreign Authors (non-Korean Authors), the membership requirement may be waived at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

 Chapter 3. Editorial Board and Editorial Meetings

 Article 5 (Establishment of the Editorial Board). The KTRA shall have an Editorial Board that oversees the review and editing of articles submitted to the JKT.

 Article 6 (Duties of the Editorial Board). The Editorial Board and its members shall be obligated to handle the editorial affairs of JKT in a fair and transparent manner.

 Article 7 (Composition of the Editorial Board). The Editorial Board shall have no more than 20 domestic editorial members, including one Editor-in-Chief, one Associate Editor, and one Managing Editor, and no more than 20 overseas editorial members, but shall have one Deputy Editor among the overseas editorial members. However, the actual operation of the Editorial Board shall be managed by a committee composed of domestic Editorial Board members.

​ Article 8 (Qualifications of Editorial Board Members). The Editorial Board members shall include one Editor-in-Chief, one Associate Editor, one Managing Editor, and Editorial Board members, and the members of the Editorial Board shall be appointed by the president of the KTRA from among domestic and foreign scholars who have published articles in international or nationally recognized journals, and who can comply with the publication spirit of the JKT, unless there are special reasons.

 Article 9 (Term of Office of the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members). The term of office of the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members shall be two years, and such office holders may be reappointed for consecutive terms.

 Article 10 (Role of the Editor-in-Chief). The Editor-in-Chief shall preside over the editorial work of JKT and the Editorial Board. However, in the event of the resignation of the Editor-in-Chief, if the remaining term of the Editor-in-Chief is less than 8 months, the Associate Editor shall assume the Authority of the Editor-in-Chief, while if more than 8 months remain, the president of the KTRA shall appoint a new Editor-in-Chief for the remaining term of the predecessor.

 Article 11 (Role of the Associate Editor). The Associate Editor shall assist the Editor-in-Chief in the editorial work, and oversee the review and editing of articles submitted to JKT by academics. However, in the event of the resignation of the Associate Editor, if the remaining term of the Associate Editor is less than three months, the Managing Editor shall assume the Authority of Associate Editor, while if more than three months remain, the president of the KTRA shall appoint a new Associate Editor for the remaining term of the predecessor.

 Article 12 (Role of Managing Editor and Editorial Board Members).

① The Managing Editor shall assist the Editor-in-Chief in administrative work, and support the work of the Editorial Board. However, in the event of the resignation of the Managing Editor, if the remaining term of office is less than three months, the youngest member of the Editorial Board shall assume the authority of the Managing Editor, while if more than three months remain, the president of the KTRA shall appoint a new Managing Editor for the remaining term of the predecessor.

② The Editorial Board members shall attend the meetings of the Editorial Board, and present their views on whether to publish an article. However, in the event of the resignation of an Editorial Board member other than the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, and Managing Editor, the president of the KTRA shall appoint a new Editorial Board member for the remaining term of the predecessor only if the remaining term of the Editorial Board member is more than six months.

 Article 13 (Functions of the Editorial Board). The Editor-in-Chief shall convene a regular Editorial Board meeting prior to the publication of the JKT to report the status of submitted articles and the results of the review. The meeting shall decide on the finalization of the publication of the article, and other matters related to editing. However, if there is a special agenda, an ad hoc editorial meeting may be convened.

 Article 14 (Resolutions of the Editorial Board). The resolutions of the Editorial Board for editorial matters and amendments to the Editorial Board Regulations shall be made by a majority of the members of the Editorial Board, and the affirmative vote of a majority of the members present. However, an Editorial Board member may delegate attendance and voting to the Editor-in-Chief in writing or by e-mail.

 Article 15 (Recommendation of candidates for Editor-in-Chief). The Editorial Board may recommend to the president of the KTRA candidate for the next Editor-in-Chief.

 Chapter 4. Submission and Review of Articles

 Article 16 (Articles to be reviewed). Articles written in compliance with the guidelines for submission to the JKT will be reviewed. Therefore, Author(s) should comply with the guidelines for journal manuscripts. If the submission format and layout differ significantly from the guidelines for submission to the journal, the review may not proceed.

 ​Article 17 (Request for Review and Payment of Review Fees).

① The Editor-in-Chief shall consult with the Editorial Board members in each field on the selection of Reviewers according to the content of the submitted article, and immediately request the selected Reviewers to review the submitted article.

② The number of Reviewers for each article shall be at least two.

③ The review of the article shall be based on the double-blind review method (a review method in which the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the Author(s) are secret from the Reviewer, and the name of the Reviewer is secret from the Author(s)).

④ The Editor-in-Chief shall remove the Author(s)’s name(s) so that the Reviewers cannot identify the Contributor, and take measures to prevent the Contributor from being inferred, and then request the Reviewers to review the article.

⑤ The Editor-in-Chief may pay a prescribed review fee to the Reviewers.

 Article 18 (Selection of Reviewers and Protection of Personal Information).

① The Editor-in-Chief represents the Reviewers, manages all matters related to the review, and reports the results of the review to the Editorial Board.

② The Editor-in-Chief shall designate the division of submitted papers by major field and the selection of Reviewers, and the Editor-in-Chief may delegate the selection of Reviewers to the Associate Editor, and in this case, the Associate Editor shall notify the Editor-in-Chief of the personal information of the selected Reviewers, and obtain their consent.

③ The Associate Editor is in charge of the practical procedures related to the review of the journal.

④ The personal information of the Reviewers shall not be disclosed to the Author(s) or the outside world.

⑤ Communication between the Author(s) and the Reviewers of their paper shall be conducted only through the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor.

 Article 19 (Qualifications of Reviewers). In principle, Reviewers shall in principle be members of the KTRA, but in some cases, persons who are not members of the KTRA may be appointed as Reviewers, and they shall meet the following qualifications:

1. An assistant professor of a university (or a college), or a person who is recognized as having equivalent expertise and has excellent research achievements in the research field of the submitted paper

2. One who has published more than 3 articles (1 article in overseas journals, such as SCI, SSCI, etc.) in the research field of the submitted article in journals that are candidates for listing by the Korea Research Foundation in the last 3 years.

3. One who has experience as a paper presenter (or moderator, discussant) in the research field of papers published in domestic and foreign academic conferences recognized as equivalent to KTRA within the last three years, or as a Reviewer of papers published in SCI, SSCI, or other domestic and foreign journals at the level of candidate journals of the Korea Research Foundation.

 Article 20 (Principles of Review).

① The review process, publication status, and judgment of submitted articles shall be conducted in the following order: preliminary review by the Editorial Board, main review by the Review Committee, and final judgment by the Editorial Board.

② The preliminary review of the submitted articles shall be conducted by Editor-in-Chief with the opinion of the Associate Editor to examine the eligibility of the articles regarding whether the Contributor and the research field of the submitted articles are in line with the editorial direction and purpose of this journal.

③ Articles for review must be submitted anonymously, and reviewed by two or more Reviewers.

④ The review items are divided into originality of research content, quality of communication, methodology, utilization of previous research and literature, results, and practicality and/or research implications, and are scored by the scores evaluated by two or more Reviewers.

⑤ The judges may request external experts to review the contents of the paper, and refer to the results if they deem it necessary when judging Paragraph 4 of this Article.

⑥ The Reviewers shall evaluate the results of the review in one of the following grades: acceptance (A), publication with minor revision (B), publication with major revision (C), or rejection (F), and submit the results to the Editorial Board (Editor-in-Chief), along with the review report.

⑦ The Reviewer shall notify the results of the review within the specified period, and if there is a revision instruction, the Reviewer must specify the reason and the revision instruction, and submit them to the Editorial Committee (Editor-in-Chief).

⑧ If a review is not conducted within the specified period from the date the Reviewer receives the review request, the Editor-in-Chief may appoint a new Reviewer, and the original Reviewer shall be deemed to have abandoned the review.

⑨ In principle, the Editorial Board shall judge the results of the review as follows in accordance with the KTRA’s article review policy:

1. Comparison of the review results and publication decision

A/A: Published without modification

A/B, B/B: Published with some modifications

A/C, B/C, C/C: Completely revised and re-submitted

A/F, B/F: Final judgment by commissioning a third Reviewer

C/F, F/F: Not accepted

2. The final publication of an article is subject to the outcome of the Editorial Board meeting.

⑩ If the publication decision of the Editorial Board is a complete revision and re-examination, the revised paper submitted by the Contributor shall be forwarded to the corresponding Reviewer of the first review for re-examination; and even if the publication decision of the Editorial Board is partial revision and publication, the same re-examination process may be carried out at the request of the first Reviewer. However if necessary, the Editor-in-Chief may replace the Reviewers of the revised article. In this case, the Editor-in-Chief shall report the reasons to the Editorial Board.

⑪ The Editor-in-Chief may, if necessary, require the Author(s) to revise the English language as a prerequisite for re-review, regardless of the academic content of the paper.

⑫ If there is a significant disparity in the evaluation of the same article among both (or multiple) Reviewers, a third (or further) Reviewer shall be selected by the Editorial Board in consultation, and the results of the review shall be comprehensively evaluated.

 Article 21 (Notification of Review Results).

① The Editor-in-Chief shall notify the Author of the results after the first or second review is completed, but may request that the Author revise or supplement the article according to the Reviewers’ opinions, and shall notify the Author of the final result of the Editorial Board regarding whether to publish the article.

② The results of the review shall be notified to the Author within two months from the date of receipt of the paper or revised paper. If it is not possible to send the review result within two months, the Reviewer must be informed of the reason and the expected date of the review result.

③ If the Author receives a request for revision from the Editor-in-Chief, the Author shall revise the article within the period specified by the Editor-in-Chief, unless there are special reasons, and submit the revised article to the Editor-in-Chief, along with the fulfillment of the revision instructions, and the Author’s opinion. If the applicant does not notify the reason after receiving the request for revision and does not submit the revised and supplemented article within the period provided by the Editorial Board, the applicant shall be deemed to have withdrawn his or her article from the review process. Therefore, any subsequent revisions will be treated as new submissions.

​ Article 22 (Special Contributions and Commissioned Papers).

① Articles recommended as special contributions shall be reviewed in accordance with the review process set forth in Article 20 of these Regulations, and published after making the necessary corrections.

② In the case of an article commissioned by the Editorial Board according to the decision of the Editorial Board, the article review may be omitted.

 Chapter 5. Editing and Publication of Articles

 Article 23 (Author’s consent to publication, publication procedure).

① The Editor-in-Chief shall obtain the Author’s consent for publication of the reviewed article before printing the article.

② The Editor-in-Chief shall immediately report to the President when the procedures are completed in accordance with the editorial policy, and conduct or arrange procedures such as proofreading and printing.

 Article 24 (Transfer of Publication Rights, Copying Rights, Public Transmission Rights, and Distribution Rights).

① The publication rights of the article shall be held by the KTRA, unless otherwise specified. However, the KTRA shall not be responsible for the contents of the articles published in the JKT.

② The Author(s) of the paper shall assign the copying, public transmission, and distribution rights to the paper to the KTRA; and if they do not agree, the paper shall not be published in the JKT.

③ The Author(s) of the paper must submit the paper publication and copyright delegation agreement to the KTRA when confirming the publication of the paper.

 Article 25 (Publication of Articles on the JKT Website). 

All articles published in the JKT shall be published on the JKT website of the KTRA. However, articles published between January 1, 2016 and April 23, 2019 shall be announced on the website of Emerald Publishing in accordance with the publishing contract signed between the KTRA and Emerald Publishing in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2015.

 Chapter 6. Miscellaneous

 Article 26 (Sanctions for plagiarized papers, duplicate publications, and other research misconduct). 

If an article submitted for publication in the journal or published is found to be plagiarized by the Ethics Committee of the KTRA, or if an article published in another journal is found to be republished, or if it falls under other research misconduct, the following measures shall be taken:

1. If it has not yet been distributed, remove the article from the undistributed journal, and distribute the journal.

2. If the article has already been published, the article will be removed from the website of the KTRA.

3. Announce the contents of plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other research misconduct of the article on the website of the KTRA.

4. The Author of the paper is prohibited from submitting to all journals published by the Society, and presenting at conferences arranged by the KTRA for three years from the time that the fact of plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other research misconduct is discovered.

5. If necessary, notify the relevant organizations of plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other research misconduct.

 Article 27 (Certificate of Pending Publication). The Editor-in-Chief may issue a certificate of pending publication for a paper that has been confirmed for publication.

 Article 28 (Others). Matters not specified in these rules shall be determined by the Editorial Board. However, if a quick decision is required, the Editor-in-Chief may handle it, and report to the Editorial Board afterward.

 By-laws

1. This rule shall take effect from June 21, 1996.

2. This revised rule is effective June 1, 1998.

3. This revised rule is effective October 1, 2001.

4. This revised rule is effective January 1, 2002.

5. This revised rule is effective April 16, 2006.

6. This revised rule is effective September 1, 2009.

7. This revised rule is effective August 1, 2018.

8. This revised rule is effective May 3, 2019.

9. This revised rule is effective January 1, 2023.