How your paper is handled

Process

From submission to decision

1. Editorial screeningWithin one week. Checked for scope, format and similarity. Papers outside our scope are declined quickly, so you lose no time before submitting elsewhere.
2. Reviewer assignmentThe handling editor selects at least two independent reviewers, neither from the author's institution and neither with a recent collaboration with any author.
3. Double-blind reviewReviewers do not see author identities, and authors do not see reviewer identities. Reviewers are asked for a written assessment, not a score alone.
4. DecisionSix to eight weeks from submission — accept, minor revision, major revision or reject, with the full reviewer comments passed to you unedited.
5. RevisionFour weeks for minor revision, eight for major. Revised manuscripts return to the original reviewers wherever possible.
6. PublicationWithin three weeks of final acceptance. Your DOI is reserved before typesetting and printed on the article itself.

Safeguards

Conflicts and appeals

Members of the Editorial Board are not exempt from review. Any manuscript submitted by an editor is handled entirely by a different editor, with no access to reviewer identities at any stage. The Editor-in-Chief does not handle their own submissions.

If you believe a decision rested on a factual error or a misunderstanding of your work, write to the editorial address within three weeks setting out the specific point. Appeals are read by an editor who was not involved in the original decision. We will not reconsider a decision on the grounds of disagreement alone.