The journal follows a manuscript review process consisting of initial review by the Editorial Office, peer review by experts, and final review by the Editor-in-Chief. The detailed process of handling manuscripts is as follows:
1) Receipt of Manuscripts: Upon receipt of a manuscript, the editorial office registers and assigns a number to the manuscript, sends an acknowledgment of receipt to the authors with the manuscript number, and allocates the manuscript to the appropriate editor based on its subject or specialty.
2) Initial Review by the Editorial Office (Completed within 1 week): The initial review is conducted by the managing editor of the Editorial Office, focusing on novelty and originality, as well as evaluating whether the manuscript meets the basic requirements in terms of topic and writing quality. Manuscripts that meet the content requirements but do not yet meet the quality standards for peer review will receive initial feedback from the Editorial Office. Manuscripts rejected during the initial review will receive a clear explanation of the rejection reasons.
3) Peer Review by Experts (Completed within 2-4 weeks): The journal employs a double-blind peer review system to ensure objectivity and fairness. The editor will invite at least two experts to review the manuscript. These experts will provide a comprehensive evaluation of originality, academic quality, and rigor for the manuscript. If revisions are required, authors should carefully revise the manuscript according to the reviewer comments, and submit the revised manuscript with a response to the comments. Then, the manuscript will be under a second review. If there is disagreement between reviewers, the editor may either reject the manuscript based on specific comments and journal guidelines or request a third review from either a new expert or one of the original reviewers. If both reviewers recommend rejection, the manuscript will be directly rejected.
4) Final Review by the Editor-in-Chief (Completed within 1-2 weeks): The Editor-in-Chief or vice Editor-in-Chief regularly reviews manuscripts, primarily considering the comments from reviewers and the revisions by authors to make the final decision on acceptance. If the revisions are found to be insufficient, the manuscript will be returned for further revision; if additional expert review is needed, the manuscript will be sent for another round of review.
The entire review process (including initial review, preliminary review, peer review, and final review) generally takes about 2 months and will not exceed 3 months. If the author has not received any feedback from the Editorial Office within 6 months, they may proceed to handle the manuscript elsewhere after submitting a statement to the Editorial Office.
