International journal of medical and allied health sciences (IJMAHS) follows standard procedure for review of manuscripts. Following process is being used …
IJMAHS Editorial Process
1. Article Submission
2. Preliminary check
3. Peer-Review Process
4. Author Revision
5. Editor Decision
6. Author Appeals
7. Production
8. Publishing Standards and reports Guidelines
9. Ethical Standards
10. Editorial Independence
International journal of Medical and Allied Health Sciences Editorial Process
1. Article Submission
Following submission of manuscript, the author will receive a tracking number (manuscript number) that will be used for future communication.
2. Preliminary check
Editorial office will review all submitted manuscripts for compliance with standard guidelines for preparation of article, the journal’s scope, quality, novelty, and adherence to ethical issues. If article do not comply with the guidelines will be sent back to the authors.
In case of regular submission, Editor-in-Chief (Academic Editor), or the Guest Editor in case of special issue submissions, or an Editorial Board member in case of a conflict of interest and of regular submission if permitted by Editorial-in Chief, will be notified of the submission, and invited to perform a check and recommend reviewers. Academic Editors can decide to continue with the peer-review process, request revision before peer-review, or reject a manuscript.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own academic work for publication in the journal. In these cases, editorial staff or editors not be involved in processing of their own academic work. Peer review process for such cases will be managed by alternative member of the Board. Two independent outside reviewers will be assigned for such submissions. The submitting Editor/Board member will not be involved in the in the decision-making process. Editorial Board Members who do not have a conflict of interest with the author will take decision for such manuscripts.
In case IJMAHS, Guest Editor and authors belong to same institution or collaborate closely, Guest Editor should not hold conflicts of interest with author. The Editor-in-Chief or a suitable Editorial Board member will make final acceptance decision for submitted papers.
3. Peer-Review Process
IJMAHS adopts double-blind peer review process. Once a manuscript, internal check completed and found suitable will be assigned to at least two independent experts for peer-review. IJMAHS editors will check regarding conflicts of interest before contacting reviewers, and manuscripts if having competing interests will not be considered. Reviewers are also asked to declare any conflicts of interest before reviewing any manuscript submitted to IJMAHS for publication.
4. Author Revision
The author is usually requested to revise the paper before referring to the academic editor in case minor revision/major revisions are recommended. Depending on the reviewer request, manuscript after minor revision may or may not be sent to reviewers. The revised manuscript will be sent back to reviewer again in case of major revision again. Normally not more then two rounds of major revisions ate allowed for each manuscript. Academic Editor decision will follow further revision of manuscript. All reviewer comments should be responded point-by-point. Author must provide a clear response or rebuttal if author disagree with reviewer.
5. Editor Decision
The manuscript acceptance will depend on the revisions made to the manuscript. Author should provide/responded point-by-point response or a rebuttal if some of reviewer’s comments can not be revised. After peer review, the decision will be made by academic editor for acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. Academic editor can select any option from the following: Accept in current form, accept with minor revision, or reject.
6. Author Appeals
Author wishes to appeal a rejection judgement by sending an e -mail to the journal’s Editorial Office. The appeal must provide justification details point-by-point response to the reviewer’s and/Editor’s comments. The Managing Editor will forward the manuscript and related information to the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or Editorial Board member. The editor being consulted will subsequently be asked to provide an advisory recommendation on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer-review, or uphold the original decision. At this stage the rejection decision will be final and cannot be reversed.
7. Production
IJMAHS carries out language editing by professional English editing editor after that copy editing, layout, and conversion to PDF. The submission, acceptance and published date will be shown in the PDF file of the published article, a digital identifier (DOI) number will also be assigned for each published article. The date on which original manuscript received by editors will be submission date. Accepted date is when the editor sends the acceptance letter. The published date is the earliest date the manuscript is made available on publisher’s website.
8. Publishing Standards and reports Guidelines
IJMAHS follow guidelines and standards for its journals:
ICMJR: Journal follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors that includes all aspects of editing, from how the journal is managed to details about peer review and handling complaints.
CONSORT: Statement covers reporting regarding randomized, controlled trials. IJMAHS encourage authors to verify work according to CONSORT guidelines before submission.
PRISMA: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses covers systemic reviews and meta-analysis of Interventional studies and MOOSE for systemic reviews and meta-analysis of observational studies. Authors are recommended to comply it for their submission.
ARRIVE: Animal Research Reporting of In Vivo Experiments contains guidelines for reporting in vivo experiments. IJMAHS encourage authors to verify work according to ARRIVE guidelines before submission.
STROBE: Guidelines covers reporting of observational studies for diagnostic studies also. IJMAHS encourage authors to verify work according to STROBE guidelines before submission.
CARE: guidelines for case reports was developed by international group of experts to support an increase in the accuracy, transparency, and usefulness of case reports. IJMAHS encourage authors to verify work according to CARE guidelines before submission.
For other related guidelines please visit https://www.equator-network.org/.
All authors must read and agreed to its contents before submission of manuscript to IJMAHS.
9. Ethical Standards
IJMAHS follows the guidelines of Committee on publication ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for the Conduct, reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
IJMAHS also follow COPE’s procedures for dealing with authors, reviewers, or editors having potentially unethical behavior. Out editorial staff are well trained to detect and respond to potential ethical problems.
Please find more information about our Publishing Ethics policy.
10. Editorial Independence
Editorial Independence says that the decision to accept or reject of a manuscript is totally based on the scientific merit of the article but not to any other relations e.g. pressure from publisher to the journal editor. This gives the freedom to Editor in his/her decision and will not be under pressure of any influential body or organization.
IJMAHS editorial policy is in consistent with the principles of editorial independence as presented by the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).