Peer Review and Editing
1. Peer Review Policy: The journal implements three rounds of reviews and editing, and strictly complies with guidelines issued by COPE and ICMJE. After submission, the editorial office will conduct a preliminary review of the manuscript. The editorial office will reject the manuscripts which are insufficient in originality, having serious scientific or technical mistakes, lacking valuable information, or not in the scope of the journal. The manuscripts which have passed the preliminary review will be anonymously sent to two or more peer reviewers. The reviewer's comments and decision (accept/reject/revise) will be sent to the corresponding author. The authors must respond to the reviewers' every comment and submit the revised version in time. The editorial office shall regularly hold meetings for the final round of review.
2. Designated Reviewers: Authors can designate 2~3 peer reviewers in the field when submitting manuscript. The designated reviewers must be professors or associate professors. Their personal information such as institute, mobile phone number and E-mail address shall be provided. The manuscript may or may not be sent to these designated reviewers.
3. Editing Policy: All authors shall be responsible for their own writing. For the accepted manuscripts, the journal may make some technical or wording amendments. However, if the amendment involves a change of meaning, the editorial office will contact the authors for confirmation. The amendments will be regarded as agreed if authors do not put forward any dissent.
4. Timing: Authors can check the status online after submission and can contact the editorial office directly for any questions. The editorial office will notify authors of the review result within 1~3 months after submission. Some manuscripts may take longer to review. If authors do not receive any feedback for more than 3 months, they can re-submit the manuscript to another journal after confirming with the editorial office. Manuscript that needs revision and supplementary experiment shall be returned within 4 months. If there is any difficulty, it shall be explained to the editorial office in time. If it is not returned for half a year, it shall be treated as a withdrawal.
5. Submission by Editors: The editorial staff / editors / editorial board members should not be involved in publishing decisions on papers which they have written themselves or have been written by their family members or colleagues. Any such submission should be strictly subject to the journal’s usual editorial process. Peer review should be handled independently from the relevant author/editor and their research groups.
6. Peer Review and Editing Process: Please refer to the Chinese webpage of peer review and editing policies for the detailed flow chart.