Editorial Workflow
Manuscripts should be submitted online (PDF format).
The submission of a paper implies the author’s assurance that:
The paper has not been published, or submitted for publication elsewhere;
The authors agree to automatically transfer the copyright to the publisher, upon acceptance of the paper;
The manuscript will not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration for publication in this journal.
Once a manuscript is submitted for publication, the manuscript is checked (by iThenticate software and manually) to ensure that it is suitable to go through the normal peer review process. The handling editor manages the peer-review process for the manuscripts. The peer-review process is single blinded: the reviewers know who the authors of the manuscript are, but the authors do not have access to the information of who the peer-reviewers are. The handling editor can decide, after inspecting the submitted manuscript, that it should be rejected without further processing. Otherwise, the handling editor assigns the manuscript to external reviewers for peer-review. The reviewers submit their reports on the manuscripts along with their recommendation of one of the following actions to the handling editor: accept submission, minor revisions, major revisions or decline submission. When all reviewers have submitted their reports, the handling editor can make one of the following editorial recommendations: accept submission, minor revisions, major revisions or decline submission.
If the handling editor recommends: accept submission, the editors-in-chief are notified so he can inspect the manuscript and the review reports. The editor-in-chief can either override the Handling Editor’s recommendation in which case the manuscript is rejected or approve the Handling Editor’s recommendation in which case the manuscript is accepted for publication.
If the handling editor recommends: minor revisions, the authors are notified to prepare and submit a final copy of their manuscript with the required minor revisions suggested by the reviewers. The handling editor reviews the revised manuscript after the minor revision have been made by the authors. Once the handling editor is satisfied with the final manuscript, the handling editor recommends: accept submission.
If the handling editor recommends: major revisions, the authors are expected to revise their manuscript in accordance with that recommendation and to submit their revised manuscript in a timely manner. Once the revised manuscript is submitted, the handling editor assigns the revised revision to the original reviewers. Along with their review reports on the revised manuscript, the reviewers make a recommendation which can be: accept submission, minor revisions, major revisions or decline submission. Then, the handling editor can make an editorial recommendation which can be accept submission, minor revisions, major revisions or decline submission. If the handling editor recommends rejecting the manuscript, the rejection is immediate.
The editorial workflow gives the handling editor the authority to reject any manuscript because of inappropriateness of its subject, lack of quality, or incorrectness of its results, however, only the editors-in-chief can approve a manuscript for publication, whereas handling editors recommend manuscripts for acceptance to the editors-in-chief. Recommendation of acceptance has to be approved by the editors-in-chief first before publication. The handling editor cannot assign himself/herself as a reviewer of the manuscript. This is to ensure a high-quality, fair, and unbiased peer-review process of every manuscript submitted to the journal.