Publish — Manuscript Review and Publication

Peer reviewers have a critical role in the publishing system, ensuring papers are suitable for publication.

Key questions and decisions

Peer reviewers should determine if the work is suitable for publication in the journal. If the paper is in scope, the reviewer should consider whether the data presented support the conclusions reached and ensure that the data have not been previously published.. In particular, peer reviewers should consider the aims of the research, the methodology used and the results obtained, so that a judgement can be made about the veracity of the conclusions and whether additional research is required. The peer reviewer can recommend publication, rejection or revision and should provide a detailed summary of the findings, including suggestions for improving the work, additional work that might be required for publication and references that should be added.

Ethics

Peer reviewers should check that all work contained within a manuscript adheres to relevant ethical requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, animal experimentation and human cell experimentation. Authors must clearly state that they have received the relevant licences and include these details within their manuscript.

Confidentiality

Peer reviewers should be aware that, until a paper is published, the data within it is confidential (unless posted on a preprint server). Peer reviewers should also remain anonymous and should not directly contact authors. Any peer reviewer who is found to breach this confidentiality may be removed from the IntechOpen journals peer reviewer database.

Conflicts of Interest

If a peer reviewer has a conflict of interest in reviewing work from any author on the manuscript (e.g. previous co-authors) they should immediately notify the editorial office and remove themselves from the peer review process.