Our journal high quality is maintained with the efficient and rigorous peer review and production control system.

Peer review process

  ·  The submitted manuscripts are submitted to the Editor(s)-in-Chief by Science Editors.

  ·  Based on the theme or area of the submitted manuscript, the Editor(s)-in-Chief distributes the manuscripts to the Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief/Associate Editor(s) or an Editorial Board Member with related expertise.

  ·  The assigned related experts in Editorial Board Member review the manuscripts or recommend external reviewers to the Editorial Office. The external reviewers may be recommended via a literature search to identify appropriate external experts.

  ·  For each manuscript in peer review, at least two external reviewers will be secured.

  ·  External experts make recommendations.

  ·  External experts’ recommendations are sent to the Editor(s)-in-Chief, along with a review from the assigned Associate Editor and Member of the Editorial Board.

  ·  The Editor(s)-in-Chief makes a decision on the manuscript, for which there are four options: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject.

Note: the specific peer review process may vary slightly depending on the journal due to the constitution of an editorial team.

Selection of reviewer

The potential reviewers for a manuscript are usually identified by Editorial Board Members, the journal authors, or our internal reviewer database. According to the need, an external reviewer may be identified via a scholarly database (e.g., PubMed and Web of Science).

For the convenience and efficiency of the peer review process, peer reviews are conducted and trackable electronically via both our journal system (journal website).

Editing and publishing process

The final accepted manuscripts are passed to the language editors (native English speakers) for language editing after one, two, or three rounds of reviewing and revision for free.

  ·  The edited manuscript is passed to the copy editors.

  ·  The copy editors cross-edit the manuscripts and contact the authors with copyediting questions.

  ·  The copyedited manuscript is passed to the typesetting editor.

  ·  The typesetting editor typesets the manuscript with InDesign to produce a PDF.

  ·  The eProof editors contact the authors for proofreading.

  ·  The HTML/XML editors produce HTML and XML electronic versions of the manuscript.

  ·  The manuscript is published on “Online First”.

The manuscript is officially published in a specific issue of a journal and distributed.