The peer review process for 알파벳 토토 publication is essentially a quality control mechanism. It is a process by which experts evaluate scholarly works, and its objective is to ensure a high quality of published science. However, peer reviewers do not make the decision to accept or reject papers. At most, they recommend a decision. At peer-reviewed 알파벳 토토s, decision-making authority rests solely with 알파벳 토토 editors or the 알파벳 토토’s editorial board. Indeed, it is the 알파벳 토토 editor who is considered to be central to the decision making process.1
알파벳 토토 decision-making process
Typically, after a paper is submitted to a 알파벳 토토, a 알파벳 토토 editor screens the manuscript and decides whether or not to send it for full peer review. Only after clearing the initial screening is the manuscript sent to one or more peer reviewers. Finally, 알파벳 토토 editors or the 알파벳 토토’s editorial board consider the peer reviewers’ reports and make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript for publication.
Initial screening
Approximately 3 million manuscripts are submitted to 알파벳 토토s every year.1 Given the large volume of manuscript submissions, more and more 알파벳 토토s follow a policy of screening papers before sending them for full peer review. During the initial screening, 알파벳 토토 editors mainly check the following:
알파벳 토토 editors typically look at hundreds of manuscripts a year. One of the first items that editors will look at is the cover letter, and they may not get further than the cover letter if the study does not seem interesting enough. Therefore, it is imperative that authors craft a well-written cover letter that highlights the significance and strength of their research as well as provides a good reason why the manuscript is a good fit for the 알파벳 토토. Editors will then go through the abstract and may even skim through the introduction, figures and tables, or other sections of the paper to determine whether the manuscript passes their quality threshold.
Benefits of initial screening:
- If the manuscript clearly lies outside the scope of the 알파벳 토토, then a rapid rejection allows the author to quickly find and submit their manuscript to another 알파벳 토토.
- Peer reviewers’ time is wasted when they have to spend time evaluating and giving feedback for a manuscript of clearly inferior quality.
Peer review
Once a manuscript clears the initial screening, it is sent for peer review.
There are three common types of peer review for 알파벳 토토 publication:
- Single blind: names of reviewers are not revealed to authors
- Double blind: names of reviewers and authors are not revealed to each other
- Open peer review: Names of authors and reviewers are revealed to each other
Generally, a minimum of 2 peer reviewers (up to 6) are chosen for the peer review. Peer reviewers are ideally experts in their field. 알파벳 토토s usually build a pool of peer reviewers that have a good track record of producing high quality reviews. Or they may scan the bibliography to identify potential reviewers or contact researchers they met at conferences and seminars.1 Many 알파벳 토토s will first ask potential reviewers whether they are willing to review the manuscript before assigning them as reviewers.
Editors have to be careful to select reviewers who have sufficient subject matter expertise to do justice to the manuscript. Therefore, highly technical papers or papers from niche subject areas may take longer to review, because it may take editors some time to locate appropriate reviewers.
Some 알파벳 토토s give authors the option of recommending preferred and non-preferred reviewers. Authors would do well to take advantage of this option if available as it can expedite the review process, since it saves the 알파벳 토토 time in looking for reviewers. Furthermore, studies have found that author recommended peer reviewers tend to recommend acceptance more often than 알파벳 토토 recommended reviewers.4,5
The peer review is completed once all the reviewers send the 알파벳 토토 a detailed report with their comments on the manuscript and their recommendation. Typically, 알파벳 토토s ask reviewers to complete their reviews within 3-4 weeks.6 However, few 알파벳 토토s have a mechanism to enforce the deadline, which is why it can be hard to predict how long the peer review process will take.6
Final decision
The 알파벳 토토 editor or editorial board considers the feedback provided by the peer reviewers and arrives at a decision. The following are the most common decisions that are made:
- accept without any changes (acceptance): the 알파벳 토토 will publish the paper in its original form
- accept with minor revisions (acceptance): the 알파벳 토토 will publish the paper and asks the author to make small corrections
- accept after major revisions (conditional acceptance ): the 알파벳 토토 will publish the paper provided the authors make the changes suggested by the reviewers and/or editors
- revise and resubmit (conditional rejection): the 알파벳 토토 is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision making after the authors make major changes
- reject the paper (outright rejection): the 알파벳 토토 will not publish the paper or reconsider it even if the authors make major revisions
The first option (accept without any changes) is rare. The second decision (accept with minor revisions) is typically the best outcome authors should hope for. Once a 알파벳 토토 rejects a paper outright, authors are well advised not to resubmit to the same 알파벳 토토. If the 알파벳 토토 wanted to reconsider the paper, they would have issued a conditional rejection. An outright rejection means that the 알파벳 토토 thinks the paper will not meet its publication standards or interests even after heavy revisions.
Do peer reviewers and editors always agree on what's worthy of publication?
Editors’ decision-making policies vary: some reject when even one peer reviewer recommends rejection, some when the majority recommend rejection, and some only when all reviewers recommend rejection.2
It is common for peer reviewers to give conflicting feedback on the same manuscript.8,9 One 알파벳 토토 editorial went as far as to say “Unanimity between reviewers is rare.”10 In cases of conflicting feedback, the 알파벳 토토 editor may choose to send the paper to a third reviewer before arriving at a decision, and the author may have to wait longer for the peer review process to be completed.
In reality, reviewers tend to recommend acceptance more often than rejection.10 Thus, 알파벳 토토 editors end up rejecting many papers that peer reviewers actually recommended for publication, with their decisions based on their own opinions of the papers’ publication worthiness. The role of peer review is considered to be helping authors improve their manuscripts rather than deciding whether they should be published, which is the 알파벳 토토 editor’s job.
Conclusion
Because of a large number of submissions, top-tier 알파벳 토토s are often forced to reject even high quality manuscripts for various reasons, like a large number of submissions or lack of fit with the 알파벳 토토’s editorial focus.2 While reviewers and editors easily agree on what is clearly not acceptable for publication, deciding what is worthy of publication is a tougher challenge.12 Finally, 알파벳 토토 editors make decisions to accept or reject papers based on their opinion of the papers’ publication worthiness and reviewers’ comments.10
Click here to view a short presentation on this topic!
Also see what Dr. Eddy has to say to the following questions about the 알파벳 토토 editorial process:
- What are the first things 알파벳 토토 editors look at in a submission package?
- How long should I wait for a response from the 알파벳 토토?
- What is the meaning of "decision in process" status?
- House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (2011). Peer review in scientific publications Vol 1. House of Commons: London, UK.
- Schultz DM (2010). Rejection rates for 알파벳 토토s publishing in the atmospheric sciences. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91(2): 231-243. doi: 10.1175/2009BAMS2908.1.]
- Thomson Reuters (2011). Increasing the quality and timeliness of peer review: A report for scholarly publishers [white paper]. Available at: http://scholarone.com/media/pdf/peerreviewwhitepaper.pdf
- Hutchings A (2006). Differences in review quality and recommendations for publication between peer reviewers suggested by authors or by editors. JAMA, 295(3): 314-317.
- Wager E, Parkin EC, Tamber PS (2006). Are reviewers suggested by authors as good as those chosen by editors? Results of a rater-blinded, retrospective study. BMC Medicine, 4: 13. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-4-13.
- Association of Learned and Professional Society (2000). Current practice in peer review. Results of a survey conducted during Oct/Nov 2000. Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers: Worthing, UK.
- Samet JM (1999). Dear author-advice from a retiring editor. American 알파벳 토토 of Epidemiology, 150(5): 433-436.
- Rothwell PM & Martyn CN (2000). Reproducibility of peer review in clinical neuroscience: Is agreement between reviewers any greater than would be expected by chance alone? Brain, 123(9): 1964–9.
- Ray JG (2002). Judging the judges: The role of 알파벳 토토 editors (editorial). Quarterly 알파벳 토토 of Medicine, 95: 769-74.
- Coronel R (1999). The role of the reviewer in editorial decision-making. Cardiovascular Research, 43(2): 261-64. doi: 10.1016/S0008-6363(99)00177-7.
- Nature. Peer-review policy. Last accessed August 4, 2011. Available at: http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/peer_review.html
- Howard L & Wilkinson G (1999). Peer review and editorial decision-making. Neuroendocrinology Letters, 20(5): 256-260.
