Manuscripts that pass the primary and secondary screening steps, outlined in the Manuscript Processing Flowchart, will be sent to 3 peer reviewers.

The journal operates a double-blind peer review process.

Should your manuscript be sent for peer review, you can expect to receive the comments from each peer reviewer, regardless of the outcome of the review (reject, minor revision, major revision, accept). The editors are responsible for making the final decision based on the reviewers’ comments.

If your manuscript is sent for peer review, we aim to obtain and send peer reviewers’ comments back to authors within six weeks. If you are recommended to revise your manuscript, you are expected to address each of the comments received, and return your revisions in a timely manner within the due date stipulated by the editorial office. Not doing so may result in further delays, or you may have to re-submit your manuscript as a new submission and begin the whole peer review process again.

Revisions to your manuscript must be underlined or shown in tracked changes. Authors must provide an explanation of the revisions in the form of a cover letter. The cover letter should show the reviewers’ comments and an explanation of your revision or rebuttal alongside, which may be in the form of a two-column table. A template Cover Letter is available for authors’ use.

Please also note that it is most common for manuscripts to be sent to reviewers more than one time. Moreover, if a reviewer declines to see a revised manuscript, we will find a new reviewer.

^aA major revision needs to be returned to the reviewers; examples of points that warrant major revision: Inclusion of extra literature or theory, clarification of the methods, and time-consuming improvement of arguments and conclusions. A minor revision means that the manuscript is close to being publishable and should not need to be re-reviewed by peer reviewers; examples of points that warrant minor revision include deleting redundant material and tweaking arguments.More detailed information on our Manuscript Decision Making Criteria is available here.

^bAfter acceptance for publication, proofs are prepared (formatted, checked for grammar and points that lack clarity). Any queries raised are noted on proofs which are then sent to the corresponding author, to allow a final check for any errors and improvement of any points that lack clarity.

Last Updated: June 13, 2022