Peer Review Process

Manuscripts are sent for review only if they pass the initial evaluation (pre-review by the Editorial Board) regarding their style, methodological accuracy, thematic scope, and ethical scientific conduct. Special care is taken to complete the initial (pre-review) evaluation in 3-5 days. The Journal policy is to minimize time from submission to publication without reducing peer review quality. Currently the total period from the submission of a manuscript until its publication takes an average of six months. Peer reviewers are requested to respond within four weeks. During the review process, the Editor-in-Chief may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for any other purposes. The entire review process takes place under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief in an online environment, with the assistance of the Journal Secretariat. The online system also allows authors to track the manuscript review progress.

The detailed procedures for manuscript review include:

  • Within one week of receipt of a manuscript, the Editorial Board will review it in reference to (i) conformity with the Journal's "guidelines to authors" (available online on the journal website and published with all issues starting from February 2016), (ii) relevance of the article to the objectives of the EMJ, (iii) clarity of presentation, and (iv) plagiarism by using appropriate software.
  • The Editorial Board has three options: accept manuscripts for external review, return it to the author(s) for revision, or reject it.  A manuscript not accepted by a board member is blindly reviewed by another board member.  If not accepted by both, the manuscript is rejected by the Editorial Board. Decision will be made by the suggestion of a third Editorial Board member if the decisions of first two do not concur.
  • Once accepted for external review, the Editorial Board identifies one reviewer for brief communica­tion, case reports, and teaching articles or two or more reviewers with appropriate expertise for original articles. The reviewers will be asked to review and return manuscripts with their comments online within two weeks of their receipt. Reviewers have four options; accept, accept with major revision, accept with minor revision, or reject.
  • A Manuscript accepted subject to revision as suggested by reviewers will be returned to the corresponding author. Author(s) will be given four weeks to respond to reviewers' comments, make necessary changes, and return the manuscript to the Editorial Board. A manuscript not returned in time will be considered withdrawn by the author(s). 

Manuscripts with minor revisions will be cleared by the Editorial Board and accepted for publication. Those with major revisions will be returned to external reviewers and follow the procedures as outlined for the initial review.