All submitted manuscripts within the scope of the journal shall go through two or more independent scientific reviews by anonymous experts knowledgeable in the subject area of the manuscript. Received manuscripts will initially be checked for their adherence to journal format and Author Guidelines. If a manuscript does not meet the submission requirements of the journal, it would be returned to the author(s) to re-format the manuscript following the Author Guidelines.
Once a received manuscript meets the submission requirements, it will be assigned to an Editor by the Editor-in-Chief for initial review and subsequently to, at least, two selected experts with knowledge in the subject area for their independent scientific reviews. Specific questions that the reviewers shall consider in evaluating the manuscript include the following:
- Does the manuscript present a specific, identifiable advance in knowledge useful to the profession and/or society?
- Has the information already been published elsewhere?
- Is the title appropriate? Does the abstract accurately describe the content?
- Does the introduction capture pertinent literature and appropriate justification for the study?
- Is the methodology sufficiently explained for someone else knowledgeable in the field to repeat the study?
- Are the results soundly interpreted and related to existing knowledge on the subject?
- Are the illustrations legible, captioned properly and necessary for the study?
- Are the conclusions sound and justified?
- Are all the sections of the manuscript logically presented for easy understanding of the study?
The reviewers will have up to one month to complete the reviews and recommend one of the following decisions for the manuscript:
- Accept as it is
- Accept with Minor Revisions
- Accept with Major Revisions
- Reject (with Specific Reasons)
Decision on the manuscript shall be made based on the received reviews by the Editorial Team and forwarded formally to the corresponding author with all the review comments. The author(s) would be given up to three weeks to make any corrections in the manuscript, respond to all the review comments (if required) and submit a revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts will go through reviews again, usually by the same reviewers, till it returns “Accept as it is” from the reviews. Decisions on manuscripts shall be made as soon as review comments have been addressed.
Final acceptance of the manuscript for publication in the journal will depend on the success of the author(s) in addressing the required changes in the manuscript. Once the accept decision is issued by the Editor-in-Chief to the corresponding author, the final version of the article in the journal typesetting format shall be forwarded within a week to the authors for proofreading to correct any minor errors for publication online ahead of full journal volume issue.
Authors can always track the progress of their manuscripts at the different stages of review to final production via the online editorial system of the journal. The goal of the journal is to publish manuscripts within three months after submission. However, longer times may occur depending on how quickly authors respond to required revisions from reviews and additional rounds of reviews that may arise.
