Peer Review Process

The peer review process is a vital component of academic research and publishing. It serves as a quality control mechanism to ensure that scholarly articles meet rigorous standards of accuracy, validity, and significance. All manuscripts submitted to this journal are strictly and thoroughly peer-reviewed by the editors and experts using the following steps described below:

Step 1: Initial (Editor) Screening

• The manuscript will first go through an initial screening by an editor. At this first stage, the journal editor will decide if the submitted manuscript is suitable for the journal and the scope of work; if the scope of the manuscript is within the scope of the journal, then it is forwarded to the next stage. If the editor thinks there are serious problems in the manuscript or it is irrelevant to the scope and goal of the journal, the manuscript will be rejected without any review, and the authors will be notified.
• The editorial office checks the manuscript's content quality, layout, format (table, figure, reference style, properly cited), and other ethical compliances. If the manuscript's content quality, layout, format, and ethical compliance are all correct, then it is sent to the next step. Otherwise, it is rejected.
• The editorial office checks the manuscript's originality and similarity (plagiarism). If the manuscript is original and plagiarism is less than 10%, then it is sent to the next step. If it is not original and plagiarism is not less than 10%, then it is reverted to the author for correction along with a plagiarism report; otherwise, it is rejected.

Step 2: Peer Review

• If a manuscript is selected through the initial (editor) screening process described above, it is then sent out to reviewers for anonymous peer review via the online system. Each reviewer will review and comment on the manuscript on the basis of originality, novelty, clarity, completeness, relevance, significance, research design, results presentation, clarity of language, research contribution, etc. The reviewers will also make a recommendation to the journal editor concerning publication.
• Reviewers will return their review reports and recommendations to the editor through the online system within a given time frame. Each reviewer's decision will fall into one of the following categories: (1) accept; (2) accept with minor revisions; (3) accept with major revisions; or (4) reject.
• Once all reviewers have completed their reviews, the editorial office of the journal will collect the reviewers’ feedback and recommendations and evaluate them collectively. Then,  the editor will decide, on its own or in consultation with other editors, whether the manuscript will be accepted, rejected, or invited to revise and resubmit. Then, the editor will send out the decision letter to the authors via email. It is extremely rare for a manuscript to be accepted as it is. If the authors are asked to revise and resubmit the manuscript, they move on to the third step of the process.

Step 3: Revising and Resubmitting

• In cases where only minor or major revisions are recommended, an editor will contact the corresponding author and offer to revise the manuscript.
• The authors need to carefully read and consider the reviewers’ comments. The revision should be based on those comments. The authors need to make a point-by-point response to each comment indicating how the change has been made, or if certain revisions cannot be made, they need to provide sufficient explanations politely. The authors also need to highlight the changed and added paragraphs or text.
• After the revisions are done, authors return their revised manuscripts to the editorial office. The revisions will go through review by the editor only, or by both the editor and reviewers.
• The editor will decide whether to accept or reject the manuscript and inform the corresponding authors of the decision. The manuscript may undergo a second round of review if the editor or reviewers recommend additional revisions before being finally accepted. 
• The authors are allowed to perform two rounds of revisions. If reviewers are not convinced by the arguments of the authors after the second round of revisions, the manuscript is automatically rejected.
• Then the authors can usually get a final decision. Normally, if the editor and reviewers believe the revision has adequately addressed their previous concerns and the manuscript has improved after the revision, the manuscript will move on to the next step.

Step 4: Acceptance

• The editorial office will send the corresponding author an acceptance letter via email when the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor-in-Chief accepts the manuscript. Authors are then required to submit the final manuscript in the prescribed journal template (.docx/.doc) along with the required documentation (copyright form and cover letter) for publication. If the author does not send the final manuscript in the prescribed template (.docx/.doc) within the given time, the editorial team will send a reminder twice to the corresponding author. After that, the final manuscript will proceed to the final stage. After that, the final manuscript will move on to the last step.

Step 5: Editing, Proofreading, and Publishing

• After receiving the final manuscript in the prescribed journal template (.docx/.doc), it undergoes manuscript formatting, technical editing, language editing, proofreading, and finally is published.

Note- The review process may take 3–12 months, depending on the number of cycles of review required, before the paper is finally accepted.