Peer Review Process

Peer-review process plan

This section explains the process that a new manuscript should go through before publication:

  1. The corresponding author, acting on behalf of all of the authors, submits the manuscript.
  2. The Editor in Chief verifies if the submitted manuscript is good enough for peer review and if it conforms to the journal’s policies such as aims and scope, accepted manuscript types, style guidelines and instructions for authors.
  3. If the manuscript passes the initial screening by the Editor in Chief, then it is sent to at least two independent reviewers with academic and research expertise in the field.
  4. The reviewers independently inform the Editor in Chief of their evaluations.
  5. The Editor in Chief may ask editorial board members to study the peer-reviewers’ comments to reach a common conclusion.
  6. The Editor in Chief informs the corresponding author of the journal’s decision:
    1. Manuscript accepted
    2. Conditional acceptance: Manuscript needs minor revision
    3. Conditional acceptance: Manuscript needs major revision
    4. Manuscript rejected
  7. If the manuscript is conditionally accepted, the authors will be asked to address the issues raised by the reviewers and resubmit their revised manuscript in a timely manner.
  8. The revised manuscript then goes through another round of peer-review to check if the revisions are satisfactory.
  9. The final decision about the manuscript is made
    1. Accepted: The manuscript can be published in the future issue
    2. Rejected:  The manuscript will be returned to the corresponding author

  Peer Review Process Diagram