Boards and Staff: Governance, Editorial Oversight, and Research Integrity at Brieflands
Brieflands is governed by an independent Board of Trustees of scientists working in eight countries, advised by an Editors’ Advisory Group drawn from our journals, and run day to day by a professional Editorial Management team. This page names every person in those bodies and gives, for each of them, their affiliation, country, persistent identifiers, and competing-interest position.
We publish this in full because editorial governance can only be assessed if it is visible. The structure and the disclosures below follow the COPE Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, together with the editorial-board requirements applied by DOAJ, Scopus, and MEDLINE.
Independent governance · Unconditional open access, protected by charter · Declared competing interests for every named officer
How Brieflands Is Governed
Three bodies carry different responsibilities, and the separation is deliberate: the people who guarantee our open-access commitment are not the people who run editorial operations.
Board of Trustees
Guards the open-access charter, oversees rules and regulations, and holds the authority to bind any future owner of Brieflands to the same terms.
Editors’ Advisory Group
Serving Brieflands editors who advise on scientific questions and publishing developments, representing the full range of subject areas and stages of journal development.
Editorial Management
Professional staff who maintain peer-review practice, quality control, and reviewer oversight, and who define editorial policy with academic editors and COPE.
Leadership
Brieflands was founded in 2007 and is led by its founder.
Dr. Siavash Miri
MD, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
AffiliationBrieflands
Location’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Professional membershipsEthical Publishing and Dissemination Working Group, European Network for Academic Integrity; Governing Board of National Medical Editors
Publication recordMore than 70 peer-reviewed articles and 6 books
Share of own articles across Brieflands journals9%
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0002-1485-6729 · Scopus Author ID 23095122000
Competing interestsFounder and owner of Brieflands. Holds a financial interest in the publisher and is excluded from editorial decisions on his own submissions.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is composed of scientists working in eight countries who have committed to a policy of unconditional open access for research articles. Any future owner of Brieflands is required to maintain that policy, and the Board holds the authority to enforce it. The Board also oversees all rules and regulations and assists the policymakers of the journals.
Financial independence. No trustee holds shares in the publisher or receives payment for serving on the Board.
Where a trustee also holds an editorial role at a Brieflands journal, that role is stated on their entry so readers can see the overlap.
Professor Seyed-Moayed Alavian
MD, Subspecialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Trustee
AffiliationMiddle East Liver Diseases (MELD) Center
LocationTehran, Iran
Editorial roleEditor-in-Chief, Hepatitis Monthly
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0002-4443-6602 · Scopus Author ID 55103199900
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher. Serves as Editor-in-Chief of Hepatitis Monthly, a Brieflands journal.
Professor F. Blaine Hollinger
MD
Trustee
AffiliationProfessor of Medicine, Molecular Virology and Microbiology, and Director of the Eugene B. Casey Hepatitis Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine
LocationHouston, Texas, United States
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0001-9725-1815
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Professor Frank Tacke
MD, PhD, MHBA
Trustee
AffiliationDepartment Head, Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
LocationBerlin, Germany
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0001-6206-0226
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Professor Ernest H.J. Weil
MD, PhD, FEBU
Trustee
AffiliationUrologist, Acibadem International Medical Center
LocationAmsterdam, The Netherlands
Persistent identifiersNo public ORCID record
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Professor Marek J. Łoś
PhD
Trustee
AffiliationProfessor and Director of the Biotechnology Centre, Silesian University of Technology
LocationGliwice, Poland
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0001-9518-1411 · Scopus Author ID 7005891751
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Professor Saeid Ghavami
PhD
Trustee
AffiliationAssociate Professor, Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Science, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba
LocationWinnipeg, Canada
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0001-5948-508X
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Professor Takuya Watanabe
MD, PhD
Trustee
AffiliationDepartment of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, The Nippon Dental University School of Life Dentistry at Niigata
LocationNiigata, Japan
Persistent identifiersNo public ORCID record
Competing interestsNo shareholding or financial interest in the publisher.
Editors’ Advisory Group
The Editors’ Advisory Group is a representative group of Brieflands editors who advise on scientific questions, developments, and other matters concerning the publishing of our journals. Members represent journals across the full range of subject areas and different stages of journal development.
Professor Ali Zarei Mahmoudabadi
BSc, MSc, PhD
Editors’ Advisory Group
AffiliationDepartment of Medical Mycology, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
LocationAhvaz, Iran
Editorial roleEditor-in-Chief, Jundishapur Journal of Microbiology
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0002-5347-2082 · Scopus Author ID 57743213700
Competing interestsDeclaration pending.
Professor Fereidoun Azizi
MD
Editors’ Advisory Group
AffiliationEndocrine Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
LocationTehran, Iran
Editorial roleFounder and Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0002-6470-2517
Competing interestsDeclaration pending.
Professor Hossein Ghanaati
MD
Editors’ Advisory Group
AffiliationAdvanced Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Research Center (ADIR), Tehran University of Medical Sciences
LocationTehran, Iran
Editorial roleChairman, Iranian Journal of Radiology
Persistent identifiersNo public ORCID record
Competing interestsDeclaration pending.
Dr. Vahid Ziaee
MD
Editors’ Advisory Group
AffiliationSports Medicine Research Center, Neuroscience Institute, and Division of Paediatric Rheumatology, Children’s Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
LocationTehran, Iran
Editorial roleEditor-in-Chief, Asian Journal of Sports Medicine
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0003-4648-3573
Competing interestsDeclaration pending.
Editorial Management
Editorial Management promotes scientific quality and the ethical conduct, reporting, and evaluation of research, on the principles of trust and transparency. The team is made up of professional journal editors with backgrounds in research, clinical medicine, and the biological sciences. They maintain best practice in peer review and define Brieflands’ editorial policies, working with academic editors, key opinion leaders, and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Dr. Pegah Karimi Elizee
MD
Scientific Supervisor and Head of Quality Control
AffiliationBrieflands
Location’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0003-4023-9633
Competing interestsEmployed by Brieflands. Takes no part in editorial decisions on manuscripts in which she is an author.
Dr. Heidar Sharafi
PhD
Reviewers Supervisor
AffiliationBrieflands; and Scientific Writer, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)
LocationMontréal, Canada
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0001-9177-9117 · Scopus Author ID 54894153700
Competing interestsContracted by Brieflands. Takes no part in editorial decisions on manuscripts in which he is an author.
Dr. Saeid Safari
MD
Head of Consultation Group
AffiliationBrieflands; and Anaesthetics Provisional Fellow, Werribee Mercy Hospital, Mercy Health
LocationMelbourne, Australia
Persistent identifiersORCID 0000-0002-5917-633X · Scopus Author ID 57191428646
Competing interestsContracted by Brieflands. Takes no part in editorial decisions on manuscripts in which he is an author.
Editorial Independence
Editorial decisions at Brieflands journals are made by the journal’s editors on the basis of scholarly merit, relevance, methodological quality, and ethical compliance. They are not made by the publisher, by the Board of Trustees, or by any commercial or political interest.
What this means in practice.
The publisher does not overturn, veto, or require an editorial decision on any individual manuscript. Trustees have no role in the assessment of individual submissions. Advertising and sponsorship arrangements are kept separate from editorial assessment, and no advertiser or sponsor is given sight of a manuscript under review.
Our full position is set out in the Brieflands publishing policies and the Peer Review Policy and Process.
Competing Interests and Disclosure
Every person named on this page has a competing-interest line on their entry. We use four descriptions, and they mean different things.
| No shareholding or financial interest | The person holds no equity in Brieflands and receives no payment from the publisher for this role. Applies to all trustees. |
|---|---|
| Holds a financial interest | The person owns part of, or is financially connected to, the publisher. Applies to the founder, who is excluded from editorial decisions on his own submissions. |
| Employed or contracted by Brieflands | Editorial Management staff. They take no part in editorial decisions on manuscripts in which they are an author. |
| Declaration pending | We have not yet recorded a signed declaration from this member. The field is shown rather than hidden so that the gap is visible, and declarations are being collected. |
Editorial roles at Brieflands journals are disclosed on the entry of anyone who holds one, because a trustee who is also an editor-in-chief has an interest a reader should be able to see. Authors, editors, and reviewers are separately required to disclose competing interests under our publication ethics policies.
Appointment, Terms, and Review
Trustees are invited on the basis of standing in their field and their willingness to be bound by the open-access charter. Members of the Editors’ Advisory Group are serving editors of Brieflands journals, drawn to represent different subject areas and different stages of journal development. Editorial Management staff are appointed by the publisher on professional editorial experience.
Under review. Fixed term lengths and a published renewal cycle for Board and Advisory Group members are being formalised, and will be stated here once adopted. We would rather record that this work is in progress than imply a policy we have not yet written.
This page is reviewed when a member joins or leaves, and at least annually. The date of the most recent revision is shown at the top of the page.
Standards We Are Assessed Against
Editorial-board transparency is assessed by the services that index our journals. The requirements overlap, and this page is built to satisfy them together.
COPE
Principles of Transparency: a named editorial board with affiliations, declared ownership, editorial independence, and a stated competing-interest policy.
DOAJ
Editors named with institutional affiliation and country, publicly reachable, and an ownership statement distinguishing publisher from editorial function.
Scopus · CSAB
A verifiable editorial board with academic standing and international diversity, supported by persistent author identifiers.
MEDLINE · PubMed
Identifiable editorial responsibility and a policy framework for corrections, retractions, and integrity of the published record.
Related material: COPE Toolkit and transparency standards, memberships and publishing partners, and the Open Peer Review framework.
Contact a Board Member
To reach any board member or member of staff named on this page, submit a ticket through the support portal with the details of your enquiry. Our Support colleagues will assess the request and respond. You can also reach the portal from any Brieflands journal under Support, then Submit a Ticket.
Please route ethics concerns through the portal too. Allegations of misconduct, authorship disputes, and requests for correction or retraction are handled under a documented process rather than by individual correspondence. See our publication ethics guidelines and publication ethics consulting services.