Peer Review Process

All new submissions are screened for completeness and adherence to the journal's aims and scope, publication ethics, and instructions for authors. Authors are advised to complete and adhere to the submission checklist to ensure the completeness of their manuscript submission. Manuscripts with insufficiently original content, plagiarism concerns, methodological flaws, poor English language, irrelevant scope, or incomplete requested accompanying documents can be rejected without being sent out for peer review. Those manuscripts (except for letters to the editor) that pass the initial check undergo a double-blinded peer review process by at least 3 reviewers who express no conflict of interest. The editorial decisions for each manuscript (ie, accept, minor revision, major revision, and reject) depend on the reviewers' recommendations and the discretion of the editor-in-chief or an assigned editor. Manuscripts with revisions are sent back to the authors for modifications and subjected to another round of review by the editor or reviewers before the final editorial decision is made. For letters to the editor, suitability for publication relies on the editor's consideration. The authors are informed about the review's progress and the final decision. All accepted manuscripts go through production, including formatting according to the journal style and artwork, proofreading by the authors and journal staff, and publishing in the latest available journal issue.