Peer review is fundamental in ensuring the integrity of the scientific publication process and can flag potential misconduct at an early stage. The process of accept/reject manuscripts in the International journal of recycling organic waste in agriculture (IJROWA) including:
Initial evaluation
Upon receiving a new manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief briefly reviews the manuscript to verify, the Editor In Chief will decide if it warrants peer review or if it should be rejected without review.
Manuscripts rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious conceptual and/or methodological flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal or have high overlapping.
Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will normally be informed within 7-10 days of assignment to the Editor-in-Chief.
Those manuscripts deemed suitable for peer review will screen for completeness and adherence to the Guide for Authors. If the authors follow the journal format, the manuscript are passed to at least 2 expert referees for review. Otherwise it will be returned to author(s) for revision to meet journal’s requirement and the manuscript should be submitted again.
The due time for resubmit is 2 weeks.
Type of peer review
IJROWA employs double-blind review. This means that the reviewers of the paper won’t get to know the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) won’t get to know the identity of the reviewer.
Authors should submit the Title Page containing the Authors details and Blinded Manuscript with no author details as 2 separate files.
The review process
IJROWA benefits from a community of volunteer reviewers enjoying distinguished academic records who are most versed in the subject matters falling within the scope of the journal. We welcome suggestions for reviewers from authors, though these recommendations may or may not be used.
Reviewers are asked to provide anonymous comments to the author and are also given the option of providing confidential comments to the editor. The comments to the author are also made available to other reviewers of the manuscript.
It is the goal of the IJROWA to review manuscripts within 3-4 months. Should the reviewers’ reports contradict one another or a report is unduly delayed, a further expert opinion will be sought. If necessary, revised manuscripts may be returned to the initial reviewers, usually within 1 month. Reviewers and Editor In Chief may request more than one revision of a manuscript, and alternative reviewers may also be invited to review the manuscript at any time.
The author(s) would be asked to revise the manuscript according to the referees’ suggestions. A cover letter that addresses the issues, point by point, raised in the suggestions should be included (Response to reviewers).
The final decision and time to publication
The Editor In Chief is responsible for the decision to reject or recommend the manuscript for publication. This decision will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the referees. Please note we may forward accepted papers for legal review if appropriate.
If the final decision is to accept the manuscript for publication, the manuscript will be edited by language editor and technical editor. The authors will be informed and asked to fill the copyright transfer agreement and conflict of interest forms to transfer all rights under copyright to International journal of recycling organic waste in agriculture.
After acceptance, the title page will be published in the “Article in press” immediately. Preparation of galley proof currently takes 7-14 days by journal office, galley proof checking by corresponding author and upload of paper as online journal website.