Peer Review Process

Manuscripts submitted will undergo a rigorous double blind peer review process. Reviewers should make an evaluation and provide recommendations to ensure the scientific quality of manuscripts is on par with our standards. Reviewers are requested to provide authentic, constructive comments for the assigned manuscript on time.

Primarily Check

After submission, a manuscript will be initially screened by the editorial staff for the originality. Only manuscripts that pass the originality screen are sent to the Editor-in-Chief for initial review.

The Editor-in-Chief will check the manuscript, including its innovativeness, and whether the research matches the scope of this journal. Then, a senior editor will assign it to at least two expert peer reviewers. Authors could recommend reviewers or provide an avoidance list, but the publisher reserves the right to adopt them.

Peer Review

Once agreeing to review the assigned manuscript, reviewers will get full access to the entire manuscript (at least 3 weeks are allowed). Both authors and reviewers are kept confidential to each other until the peer review process is completed. Assigned manuscripts do not contain any identifying information, including names, affiliations, fundings, and acknowledgements. All recommended decisions are collected by the senior editor, and the Editor-in-Chief will make a final decision.

Review Decision

• Accept: manuscripts will undergo the copyediting and proofreading stages without revision.
• Minor revision: manuscripts only need minor revision before accepted. There is no need for another peer review process, and after revision (usually 2 weeks), the Editorial Office will accept it.
• Major revision: manuscripts need more revision during 4 weeks. They will be assigned to the same or new reviewers for further review until a new review decision.
• Reject: typically on grounds of specialists.

Production

Once a manuscript is accepted, the editorial staff will organize the production of the paper, which includes copyediting, layout editing, proofreading and final production.

The whole submission, peer-review, and editorial processes are maintained through the OJS system. The average number of weeks between article submission & publication is about 8 weeks.

Reviewers could be experts in the field of this journal. Candidates for reviewers should declare any possible conflicts to ensure objective evaluation and comments are made.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts under peer review should be strictly confidential. Reviewers must not share any details or discuss the research with others. The Editorial Office must not disclose any information about manuscripts to anyone except reviewers and co-authors.