Peer Review Process

All papers are fully peer-reviewed. We only publish articles that have been reviewed and approved by highly qualified researchers with expertise in a field appropriate to the article (at least two reviewers per article). We used a double-blind peer-reviewing process. Detailed information about the flow for the manuscript submission (author) to acceptance by the editor is shown in the following figure.

Peer-review Process

In short, the steps are:

  1. Manuscript Submission (by author) (route 1)
  2. Manuscript Check and Selection (by manager and editors) (route 2). Editors have the right to directly accept, reject, or review. Prior to further processing steps, a plagiarism check using Turnitin is applied to each manuscript.
  3. Manuscript Reviewing Process (by reviewers) (route 3-4)
  4. Notification of Manuscript Acceptance, Revision, or Rejection (by editor to author based on reviewers' comments) (route 5)
  5. Paper Revision (by author)
  6. Revision Submission based on Reviewer Suggestion (by author) with a similar flow to point number 1. (route 1)
  7. If the reviewer seems to be satisfied with the revision, notification for acceptance (by the editor). (route 6)
  8. Galley proof and publishing process  (routes 7 and 8)

The steps numbered 1 to 5 are considered as 1 round of the peer-reviewing process (see the grey area in the figure). The editor or editorial board considers the feedback provided by the peer reviewers and arrives at a decision. The following are the most common decisions:

  • Accepted, as it is. The journal will publish the paper in its original form;
  • Accepted by Minor Revisions, the journal will publish the paper and asks the author to make small corrections (let the authors revise within a stipulated time);
  • Accepted by Major Revisions, the journal will publish the paper provided the authors make the changes suggested by the reviewers and/or editors (let authors revise within the stipulated time);
  • Resubmit (conditional rejection), the journal is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision-making after the authors make major changes;
  • Rejected (outright rejection), the journal will not publish the paper or reconsider it, even if the authors make major revisions.