Review process

Review process

Peer review is one of the most critical aspect of scientific publishing which helps in maintaining the scientific integrity of published research. There are many developments in the process of peer review. With development on tools, the process has been relatively simplified. At Scientific Forefront, through technological advancements, we constantly improve the process of peer review. The editorial workflow from author submission to publication is performed using an online workflow system.

Author Submission

The authors submit the manuscript to journal online using “Submit Manuscript”. The manuscript submitted by the corresponding author(s) are checked by the journal’s editorial managers for adherence to format, completeness, for relevant metadata, considerations to author guidelines and plagiarism and duplication. Following this preliminary step, the manuscript is assigned to expert editor(s).

Review

If the manuscript is deemed relevant to the scope of the journal and is of the quality suitable for publication in the journal, then the Editor invites potential reviewers with subject expertise for reviewing the manuscript. Scientific Forefront follows double blind review policy. The reviewers then submit their review report. Based on the peer review reports, the editor makes one of the following decisions: Reject the manuscript, accept after major changes, accept after minor changes or accept as-is.

The peer review reports are sent to the corresponding author(s) along with the editorial decision.

Rejected Manuscripts

The authors will be notified of the editorial decision that the manuscript is not accepted for publication process in the journal. There are number of reasons why a manuscript is rejected.

  • The manuscript does not fit into the scope of the journal.In some cases, the editor may also recommend that the manuscript may be submitted to another journal of relevance. If the author accepts to transfer the manuscript, it is possible to transfer the peer review report to the journal.
  • Due to incomplete data or poor design, poor analysis, inappropriate methodologies, old techniques, lack of statistical evidence, inaccurate conclusions and assumptions.
  • lack of or enough impact for the journal.
  • Non-adherence to manuscript guidelines – language, metadata, poor presentation.
  • Ethical Violation
  • Discrepancies that may arise in author contributions during the submission process.

It is highly uncommon that the manuscript is accepted as-is. Most of the manuscripts undergo changes. The peer review process is designed to have a positive influence on the manuscript.

Accept after Major Changes

The manuscript can also be accepted with major changes, then the manuscript needs to go through significant revisions. This might include further experiments to support the conclusion, correcting inaccuracies in the manuscript, providing further evidence, reanalysing the data. The editor notifies the corresponding author the decision to accept with major changes along with the peer review report. The author also receives certain time within which the resubmission should take place. Normally, it should be possible to seek further extension. The manuscript received after further changes will be sent back to the reviewers along with the authors’ response to review to ensure that the authors address the concerns outlined in the initial peer review report. The final decision to accept the revised manuscript lies with the editor subject satisfactory response to the reviewers’ concerns.

Accept after Minor Changes

If the manuscript is accepted with minor changes, then the authors are expected to address the reviewer concerns in the manuscript and submit a response letter to the editors, along with the changed manuscript. In most cases these changes are assessed by the expert editors. It is up to the editor to seek further support from the reviewer for minor changes.

Accepted without Changes

Though rare, a manuscript can be accepted without any change. The author(s) will be notified about the acceptance along with the peer review report.

In case of changes, the editor might also allow for a certain duration within which the author(s) are expected to resubmit the manuscript with changes, along with response to reviewers.

Production

Once the manuscript is accepted the manuscript will be sent to the production team and appropriate copyright license will be assigned to the manuscript. The authors at this step are expected to pay the publication fee. Once the license and fee are paid, the manuscript will be worked upon by our copyeditor for clarity, consistency and styling. The copyedited manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author. Substantive changes to the manuscript text or authorship, etc are not possible at this stage. This step shall be seen as an opportunity to view the final view before publication.

Publication

The author(s) will be notified via email about the publication of article. The manuscript will be published online and in case of print journals the manuscript will also be assigned to a print issue.