Guidelines

Peer-review Process

Every manuscript that is submitted will undergo an initial review by the editors. The only manuscripts sent for formal evaluation are those that are most likely to fit the editorial requirements and has similarity index (plagiarism) of 25% or less. The editors will quickly reject papers without external review if they are deemed to be of insufficient general interest or to fall short of basic expectations. For additional assessment and feedback on each paper, two or three reviewers are usually invited. AJSSM reviewers are not just examiners; they function more like research mentors. Because of this, AJSSM reviewers typically use a summary report and MS-Word track modifications to evaluate papers. The track modifications allow authors to learn while reflecting suggested recommendations in the manuscript. As a result of this, AJSSM continues to be among the top journal publishers for early- and mid-career researchers to publish their research outputs. Once invited to review a manuscript, the reviewer is expected to quickly response by accepting or declining the invitation. The Editors-in-Chief are expected to reassign the manuscript to another reviewer in the event of a decline from the initial reviewer. If a reviewer accepts to review a manuscript, the reviewer is expected provide a review report that recommends whether to accept it as submitted, accept it with minor revisions, accept it with major revisions, or reject it. The editors will decide and provide authors with comments based on the reviewers' suggestions.