Peer Review Policy
Submission
At the present moment, submission is managed via email:
For submission, the following documents are required:
- Manuscript
- Illustrations including figures and tables
- Cover letter
- If a study requires ethical approval or patient consent, this should be explicitly mentioned in the manuscript with details
Editorial Review
Before sending a paper for peer review, it will be screened at an editorial level.
This allows:
- Assessment of suitability of the subject matter of the article for our journal
- Review of quality of the study, applicability, novelty
- Review of the evidence of ethical approval or compliance
- Review of article format
At this juncture, some adjustments to the manuscript may be requested to facilitate a smooth peer review process.
Potentially, an editor may determine that the article is unsuitable for publication in our journal.
Peer Review
1st Round
Our Journal uses double-blind peer review. In other words, reviewers are anonymous and do not have access to author names and affiliations. Studies will be shared with 2 reviewers who have expertise in the relevant subject area. If there is no consensus among the initially selected reviewers, a third reviewer will be used to secure a majority decision.
Irrespective of the decision on the manuscript, full reviewer comments will be shared with authors to assist with improving the article for future publication in our journal or elsewhere.
Authors will receive comments with a decision: Rejected, Accepted with major corrections, Accepted with minor corrections, or Accepted.
2nd Round
Authors will submit an updated manuscript which will include requested revisions, marked with track changes. This should be accompanied by a full letter responding to each comment in turn, either identifying where changes have been made or generally responding to the comments.
This updated manuscript will again be examined by the same reviewers. This results in a final decision about the manuscript.
Accepted Article
Before publication, authors will have a final opportunity to make any existing changes, specifically language or formatting improvements. It is also possible that these will be requested by the editorial staff in some cases.