Peer Review & Editing

1. Peer review system: This journal adopts a double-blind peer review system.

2. Manuscript acceptance rate: about 16%.

3. Manuscript review process: The journal adopts a “three-stage review” system, the description of each stage is as follows:

Stage 1: The Deputy Editor-in-Chief makes a preliminary review, and unqualified manuscripts will be rejected directly. For manuscripts passing the initial review, the system will generate the unique manuscript number automatically, which will be sent to authors by mail.

Stage 2: Manuscripts passing the preliminary examination will be submitted to the editors of relevant columns for internal review. This result bases on 3 aspects: (i) results of CNKI academic misconduct detection (generally, the repetition rate does not exceed 15%); (ii) the publishing plan. Manuscripts do not meet the requirements will be rejected directly. Those up to standard but with incomplete elements will be returned and revised.

Stage 3: Manuscripts will be sent to 2 external experts for review (double-blind peer review). Substandard manuscripts will be rejected directly.

Stage 4: Manuscripts that have passed the above three stages will be submitted by the column editor to the Deputy Editor-in-Chief for final review. The Deputy Editor-in-Chief will decide whether to accept it. Then, the accepted manuscripts will be officially published.

4. Editing, Processing and Proofreading: For manuscripts that have passed the final review, the system will automatically update their status (Accepted pending scheduling). For the manuscript accepted for publication, column editor will synthesize the review comments of each stage, and put forward specific revision comments and require modifications from authors. If the revised manuscript fails to meet the publishing requirements, it will be returned to the author for revision again. If the second revision is still not up to standard, the manuscript will be rejected. The editor will further edit and process the manuscript on the basis of the revised manuscript. At this stage, authors are required to cooperate with the editor to answer questions. The edited and processed manuscript will be delivered for typesetting after being confirmed by the authors. After typesetting is completed, the Editor-in-Chief will arrange the publication timing according to the submission order, processing order, and column scheme.

5. Note: Before the manuscript is officially published, the responsible editor will notify authors by system, email, messages, etc., and ask authors to read the sample manuscript carefully. If there is any modification needed, please call or send an email or text message to inform the relevant editors in time. If there is no modification, authors must reply as well.

6. Manuscripts from Editors or Editorial Board Members: For manuscripts submitted by the Editorial Board Members or editors of the journal, they must follow all the review and editing procedures of the journal. The review will be conducted independently of relevant Editorial Board Members, editors, and their research teams. All Editorial Board Members and editors are not allowed to participate in the review, editing, and publication decisions of the manuscripts written by themselves, their families, colleagues, or other authors with conflict of interests.

7. Review for Special Issue Submissions: The manuscript review process described above also applies to submissions for Special Issues. Manuscripts submitted for Special Issues undergo the same review and editing process as manuscripts submitted for Regular Issue, and are also subject to the final decision by the Editor-in-Chief, who is responsible for the entire journal content, including Special Issues. When organizing a Special Issue, the editorial office invites experts in the field to serve as Guest Editors. Their responsibilities include proposing the themes, soliciting manuscripts, organizing peer reviews, and resolving any issues during publication. The work of the Guest Editors is subject to the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief to ensure fairness in manuscript reviews.
8. Appeal: If authors disagree with the identification and treatment results of our journal, they can put forward the application of recheck to the editorial office in writing. The editorial office will invite experts to re-review those papers and then make the final decisions. Authors will be informed in 30 working days.

9. Correction and Retraction

1) General Situation: Articles published online or in print are considered the final and complete version. In principle, the journal does not make corrections or retractions on published articles. However, in the case of the situations described below, corrections or retractions may be carried out if truly necessary.

2) Correction: If there appears to be an unintended scientific mistake in the article which would not lead to significant impacts on the results and conclusions, the editorial office will publish corrections in the journal as soon as possible, detailing the changes made to the original article and indicating the source of the article. The journal will release the corrected new version of the article, and specify the changes to the original article and the date of the update. In addition, the previous version will also be archived. Readers can obtain it directly, but only the latest version of the article should be used for citation.

3) Reject & Retraction: Please refer to the “Academic Misconduct Policy” on the journal’s website.