1. Submission of Paper

The corresponding or submitting author submits the paper to the journal. This is usually via an online system. Occasionally, the journal may accept submissions by email.

2. Editorial Office Assessment

The editorial office checks the manuscript against the journal’s author guidelines, including the required sections and formatting. The quality of the manuscript is not assessed at this stage. A similarity check is also performed to identify possible plagiarism or redundant submission.

3. Appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief

The editor assesses whether the manuscript is appropriate for the journal and sufficiently original and interesting. If it is not, the manuscript may be rejected without further review.

4. EIC Assigns an Associate Editor (AE) or Section Editor (where available)

The journal has Associate Editors and section editors who handle the peer review. They are assigned at this stage.

5. Invitation to Reviewers

The handling editor invites suitably qualified, independent external reviewers. Further invitations are sent as needed to obtain at least two independent external reviews.

6. Response to Invitations

Potential reviewers consider the invitation against their own expertise, conflicts of interest and availability. They then accept or decline. If possible, when declining, they might also suggest alternative reviewers.

7. Review is Conducted

The reviewer sets time aside to read the paper several times. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. If major problems are found at this stage, the reviewer may feel comfortable rejecting the paper without further work. Otherwise they will read the paper several more times, taking notes so as to build a detailed point-by-point review. The review is then submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject it – or else with a request for revision (usually flagged as either major or minor) before it is reconsidered.

8. Journal Evaluates the Reviews

The handling editor considers all the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ widely, the editor may invite an additional reviewer so as to get an extra opinion before making a decision.

9. The Decision is Communicated

The editor (or Editorial Office) sends a decision email to the author including any relevant reviewer comments. These comments are anonymous as the journal follows a double-blind peer review policy.

10. Next Steps

If accepted, the paper is sent to production. If the article is rejected or sent back for either major or minor revision, the handling editor includes constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the article. At this point, reviewers may also be sent an email or letter letting them know the outcome of their review. If the paper was sent back for revision, the reviewers should expect to receive a new version, unless they have opted out of further participation. However, where only minor changes were requested this follow-up review might be done by the handling editor.