Refereeing procedure
All incoming Submissions to SciPost Journals are peer-reviewed using SciPost's peer-witnessed refereeing process, implementing the highest standard of refereeing available. The procedure follows this pattern (this is a summary; the official rules are set out in the Editorial College by-laws under section Submissions processing):
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Pre-screening: plagiarism and conflicts of interest
The Submission is checked for plagiarism, and appropriate action (immediate rejection; request to authors for modified version) is taken if necessary. A thorough scan is performed to flag potential conflicts of interest of authors with Fellows.
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Screening: finding an Editor-in-charge
The Submission is internally forwarded to Fellows of the relevant Editorial College, for them to consider becoming Editor-in-charge. For our Commons journals, members of the community can also be approached (in which case they become guest Fellows). If a (guest) Fellow expresses interest in the submission, he/she becomes Editor-in-charge. This screening process should occur on a timescale of 5 working days. Authors are contacted by our editorial administration in case of problems, in particular if extensions to the screening period prove necessary.
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Activation of the Submission page
Following successful screening, a Submission Page is activated. The Submission is immediately opened to Contributor Reports, Comments and Author Replies, all of which are vetted by an Editorial Fellow before eventually appearing online.
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Refereeing round
The Editor-in-charge starts a refereeing round (whose duration depends on the Journal, see below), inviting specific Contributors to provide an Invited Report.
During a refereeing round, registered Contributors to SciPost can volunteer a Contributed Report, and authors can continuously provide Replies to Reports and Comments.
The contents of Reports are publicly viewable, but the author of the Report can choose public anonymity (which is then known to Editors only). Authors are informed by email if a Report or a Comment on their paper is vetted through and published online (authors are welcome to respond, but should not feel obliged to do so before the refereeing round is closed).
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Closing of the refereeing round
At the end of the refereeing round, submission of Contributed Reports on the Submission Page is deactivated (reports from invited referees can still be considered, at the discretion of the Editor-in-charge). The Editor-in-charge invites the authors to finalize their responses to any submitted Reports and Comments before the Editorial Recommendation is formulated.
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Editorial recommendation
Reports, Replies and Comments are then assessed by the Editor-in-charge, who formulates an editorial recommendation.
- If the editorial recommendation is for publication or rejection, it is forwarded to the Editorial College, which takes the binding editorial decision by consultation of the relevant specialty's Editorial Fellows (voting rights are given to at least 9 Fellows). If the recommendation is to publish the paper as Tier I (targeting approximately the top 10% of articles considered), a selection of Editorial Fellows from all specialties are given voting rights and can thus support or object to this promotion.
- If the Editorial Recommendation is for a minor or major revision, it is communicated directly to the authors, who must then resubmit. Upon resubmission, the Editor-in-charge can either start a new refereeing round or directly formulate a new editorial recommendation.
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Decision
After being taken by the Editorial College, the editorial decision (consisting in either a publication offer, or rejection) is communicated to the Authors.
- If the authors accept an eventual publication offer, the manuscript is sent to the production team. The final version is published online in the relevant SciPost Journal. The publication page links back to the original Submission Page and its contents.
- If the manuscript is rejected or authors withdraw their Submission, the Submission Page is deactivated and removed from public view, unless the authors request it to remain available.
The duration of refereeing rounds depends on the Journal, but is normally 4 weeks for article-class material and 8 weeks for Lecture Notes-class material.