Peer Review Process

All articles submitted to International Journal of Social Research & Innovation are reviewed by two independent peer referees who are qualified experts in the subject field. Authors and reviewers remain anonymous. Reviewers' recommendations are taken into consideration by the editors in determining publication and revisions.

a. As the manuscript comes in, managing editor reads the manuscript, and reviews it, for scope of the article, and language accuracy. It takes 5 working days from the date of submission, for the managing editor, to read it and to take a decision whether or not to assign the manuscript to one of the associate editors. If the managing editor decides not to send the manuscript to the associate editor for processing, s/he will contact the author with the decision using the journal website.

b. The associate editor reads the manuscript and recommends whether to send it for external peer review or not. This takes about 3 weeks. Their decision to recommend sending for peer review depends upon the breadth of interest of journal readership and whether it fits journal aims and scope. They then communicate with the managing editor and recommend reviewers for the peer review process. Sometimes, the associate editor may decide to send the manuscript back to the author to make changes before sending for review. The associate editor will get in touch with the author via journal website or email.

Once the manuscript is sent to two peer reviewers, for each manuscript; peer reviewers have about a month to review the manuscript. It takes time to identify two peer reviewers and for them to accept it for review. The reviewers then make a recommendation based on our peer review guideline, whether to accept the paper for publication, with revisions; reject the paper; or to accept the paper as it is.

c. The managing editor then consults with the associate editors to decide whether to reject the manuscript, to accept the paper with major revisions, or with minor revisions (In very rare circumstances, the paper could be published without any revisions). The managing editor then sends the manuscript to the author for revision and resubmission. Very often the author is recommended to make major revisions and to resubmit.

d. All reviewed papers shall be corrected by the author and resubmitted to the Journal within ONE MONTH. Failure to do so indicates that the author is no longer interested in the publication. We recommend the authors to take time to think about the feedback, and to keep revising what you can, based on the recommendations. 

e. Only corrected/amended papers according to reviewer’s comments will be considered for publication. If you wish to reject a reviewer’s recommendation, then explain clearly, why the recommendation is rejected.

f. Once the manuscript is accepted, the manuscript will be assigned to copyeditor to edit the papers and proofread it. Then it goes into a workflow process for publication, the publishing team working closely with the managing editor. We aim to publish as soon as possible so that our turnover time is minimal.

g. Authors may  appeal against decisions to reject a submission, presenting a case to refute the recommendation of reviewers. This appeal will be considered by the Editorial Committee.

h. The Journal has the right to edit the article where necessary. Authors will be asked to approve the text and layout of the submission before it is published.

 

Updated 13 March 2023