The journal has a masked review policy, which means that the identities of both authors and reviewers are masked. Authors should make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to their identities.
Authors should never use first person (I, my, we, our) when referring to a study conducted by the author(s) or when doing so reveals the authors’ identities, e.g., “in our previous work, Johnson et al., 1998 reported that…” Instead, references to the authors’ work should be in third person, e.g., “Johnson et al. (1998) reported that….”
The authors’ institutional affiliations should also be masked in the manuscript.
Include the title of the manuscript along with all authors’ names and institutional affiliations in the cover letter. The first page of the manuscript should omit the authors’ names and affiliations, but should include the title of the manuscript and the date it is submitted.
Responsibility for masking the manuscript rests with the authors; manuscripts will be returned to the author if not appropriately masked. If the manuscript is accepted, authors will be asked to make changes in wording so that the paper is no longer masked.
After the pre-assessment of manuscript by editors and associate editors that usually takes 7 to 10 days, the manuscript is forwarded for review. Reviewers then provide their findings and suggestions by choosing one of the following actions:
- Accept Unconditionally
- Accept Conditionally, subject to minor revisions
- Encourage Revision, as per comments
- Reject Unconditionally, the likelihood of a successful revision is improbable