Manuscript Review Process:

The peer-review process and editorial scrutiny are the main mechanisms for ensuring the quality of published articles. All submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review and editorial approval. Articles will be sent to at least three reviewers. Sometimes, the reviewers are masked as to the identity of the authors and their affiliation. Authors are usually notified within 1-2 months about the acceptability of their manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise within the topic area of the submission, and their purpose is to assist the authors and the journal by providing a critical review of the manuscript. On receiving reviewers comments, authors are requested to send the revised article, and a copy of their reply to the reviewers, including the comment and explaining the replies to questions and changes made to the revised version. Communication regarding a specific manuscript will take place between the journal and the designated corresponding author only. Decisions on peer-reviewed papers are sent to the authors within an average of 3-6 weeks from the date of submission.    

1. Manuscript submitted via the journal online submission system.

2. Primary manuscript check by the editorial assistants against the Check list, to check if components of manuscript are complete and conforming to the submission requirements, and cross-check if there is duplicate submission, plagiarism. If manuscript does not meet the submission requirements, then the manuscript will be returned to the authors for corrections and resubmission.

3. If the manuscript meets the submission requirements, the editorial assistant will assign this manuscript to an editor from the editorial board after matching the subject of the article and the editor’s expertise.

4. If the editor finds the article lacks sufficient quality or the topic is not well within the journal scope, the editor will reject the submission without further consideration.

5. If the manuscript is found with sufficient quality worth further consideration, the editor will assign this manuscript to 2-3 external reviewers for peer-reviewing.

6. The peer-reviewers will send back the review comments with their recommendations as: accepted unchanged; minor revision; major revision; or rejected.

7. Based on the reviewers’ comments and recommendations, editors will make editorial decision.

8. The peer-review process is doble-blinded with the reviewers aware of whom the authors of the manuscript are, the authors do not know who the reviewers are.