EDITORIAL AND PEER-REVIEW WORKFLOW

Article Submission

The author submits the manuscript and all required supporting documents through the journal’s online submission system.

Initial Editorial Screening

The editorial team conducts a preliminary assessment of:

• Alignment with the journal’s aims and scope.
• Manuscript format, structure, and completeness.
• Ethical approval, informed consent, conflicts of interest, and funding declarations.
• Compliance with author guidelines and reporting standards.

Similarity and Integrity Screening

The manuscript may be screened using similarity-detection and research-integrity tools. Submissions with substantial overlap, plagiarism, duplicate publication, or other integrity concerns may be returned for clarification, rejected, or investigated further in accordance with journal policy.

Editorial Assessment

An editor evaluates the manuscript’s scientific merit, originality, relevance, methodological quality, and overall suitability. Manuscripts that do not meet minimum requirements may receive a desk rejection or be returned for technical correction before peer review.

Assignment to Reviewers

Suitable manuscripts are assigned to at least two appropriately qualified and independent reviewers under the journal’s double-blind peer-review process.

Peer Review

Reviewers assess the manuscript for:

• Novelty, originality, and scientific contribution.
• Methodological soundness and statistical validity.
• Clarity, coherence, and relevance.
• Ethical compliance and research integrity.
• Appropriateness of conclusions and references.

Reviewers submit comments and recommend acceptance, minor revision, major revision, or rejection.

First Editorial Decision

The editor evaluates the reviewer reports and issues an editorial decision: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject. Reviewer recommendations inform but do not determine the final editorial decision.

Author Revision

When revision is requested, authors should submit a revised manuscript together with a detailed, point-by-point response explaining how each reviewer and editor comment was addressed.

Re-review or Editorial Reassessment

The revised manuscript may be returned to the original reviewers or assessed directly by the editor, depending on the extent of revision and the nature of the outstanding issues.

Final Decision

After considering the final manuscript, reviewer reports, author responses, and editorial assessment, the Editor-in-Chief or delegated editor makes the final decision. Acceptance is based on scientific merit and compliance with journal standards.

Copyediting, Typesetting, and Proofing

Accepted manuscripts undergo copyediting, reference checking, formatting, and typesetting. Corresponding authors receive proofs for final review and are responsible for identifying production errors within the specified timeframe.

Publication and Dissemination

The final article is published online in the relevant issue. A DOI is assigned and registered, metadata are deposited with appropriate services, and indexing and dissemination processes are initiated where applicable.