Peer review policy
The peer review process, which maintains the heart of advanced scholarly publishing in all reputable journals, is vital to ensure that good research articles are published. Our editorial advisers play a vital role in supporting the high standards of JAMK Journal of Health and Social Studies (JAMK-JHSS) and all manuscripts published in the journal were peer reviewed following the policy and procedure explained below. Each special Issue has different peer review policy involving and author(s) who contribute to these special projects may inform complete details of the peer review process on request from the journal editorial board.
Initial manuscript evaluation by editor
Every new submission is checked for completeness and following the journal instruction of submission available at the Guide for Authors as well as screening for similarity by plagiarism checking software hosted by JAMK University of Applied Sciences. Those articles which pass this step are assigned to an editor for primary evaluation. Senior editor will decide if the manuscript should be rejected without peer review or it is qualified to send for peer review.
Those manuscripts which are inadequately original, are written in poor English language, have serious conceptual and/or methodological flaws or are outside the aims and scope of the journal will be rejected at this stage. Feedback and the reason of rejection is provided by editor for all manuscripts rejected without review and the author(s) of manuscripts will normally be informed within 2 weeks of manuscript receipt.
Those submitted manuscripts deemed suitable for peer review are passed to at least 2 peer reviewers who are matched to the paper according to their expertise and discipline for peer review.
Type of peer review
JAMK Journal of Health and Social Studies applies double-blind peer review process, which means both the reviewers and the author(s) remain anonymous throughout the process.
Reviewer reports
Reviewers are asked to evaluate a manuscript for:
- originality and significance of intervention and contribution to the field of expertise
- interest to health care and/or social scientists
- international quality
- reportage of proper previous literatures
- satisfactory and acceptability of methodology and analysis
- intelligible, succinct and scientific writing style
The journal asks potential reviewers to prepare anonymous comments to the author(s) as well as a confidential comment or note to the JAMK-JHSS editorial office. Reviewers are expected to make a recommendation to editorial office about the final decision for the manuscript. The reviewers’ comments are made available to all authors of the manuscript. The reviewers are not expected to correct, copy edit and proof language in the peer review process.
Typically, the manuscript will be reviewed within 3 months. In unusual delay, editor will contact the reviewer and remind about the evaluation deadline. In some cases, editor has the power to invite alternative reviewers to participate in peer reviewing process at any time.
The final decision and publication
Based on reviewers’ comments and recommendations, editor is responsible for the decision to reject or accept the manuscript for publication, or even request author(s) for revision within 2 weeks. The author(s) will be informed about the editorial decision together with reviewers’ comments and recommendations made.
After acceptance, editor would ask corresponded author to send the final version of accepted manuscript with the possible corrections. The author(s) will receive the final draft of manuscript with the journal template made by editorial office within 2 weeks. While receiving the final draft, the author(s) will be asked to approve the final version for publication. The hard copy of manuscript will be published online within 2-3 weeks of final approve by author(s).