Peer-review Process

What is peer review?

Peer review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity, and significance to help editors determine whether a manuscript should be published in their journal.

How does it work?

When a manuscript is submitted to a journal, it is assessed to check whether it meets the submission criteria. If it does, the editorial team will select potential peer reviewers within the field of research to peer-review the manuscript and make recommendations.

In MSJ, the peer review process is performed by a single-blind approach, where the name of the authors is disclosed to reviewers, but reviewers’ identity remains unknown to the authors, unless the reviewer signs the report by its own will.

Why performing peer reviewing?

Peer review is an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms the validity of the manuscript. Peer reviewers are experts who volunteer their time to help improve the manuscripts they review. By undergoing peer review, manuscripts should become:

  • More robust - peer reviewers may point out gaps in a paper that require more explanation or additional experiments.
  • Easier to read - if parts of your paper are difficult to understand, reviewers can suggest changes.
  • More useful - peer reviewers also consider the importance of your paper to others in your field.

 

How peer reviewing works

The peer review process can be single-blind, double-blind, open or transparent. You can find out which peer review system is used by a particular journal in the For Reviewers page.

Review Process

In MSJ, manuscript submission and peer-review process are broken down into the following 6 steps:

  1. The Author submits a manuscript;
  2. The Section Editor receives the manuscript and evaluate if continuing the peer-reviewing process;
  3. The Section Editor assigns Reviewers to the manuscript;
  4. The Reviewers review the manuscript (max. double round);
  5. The Section Editor makes final decision;
  6. The Author receives the Section Editor decision.

 

The Section Editor decision may be:

  • Accepted at present form
  • Accept with minor revision
  • Returned with revisions requested – when substantial editing and/or re-analysis is required (may go out for re-review)
  • Rejected with encouragement to resubmit – usually when additional experimental work is needed (will go out for review if resubmitted)
  • Rejected with comments

Manuscripts are assessed according to the journal standard, scientific merit and content by the appropriate Section Editor before a decision is taken to review a submission. Submissions may be returned at this point without review.

Once a manuscript is accepted, the editorial office will let the Author for Contact know if additional files/documents are needed. If a manuscript has been returned with revision requested, the revised manuscript must be uploaded by authors on the MSJ platform within 30 days after the decision letter is sent or it will be treated as a new submission.  If needed, the authors may require a deadline extension contacting editorial office in advance.

Revised and resubmitted manuscripts are normally assigned to the same Section Editor unless authors specifically request otherwise, or the Section Editor is unavailable.

Questions regarding the status a manuscript or the peer review process should be directed to [email protected]