Peer Review Process

Submission of Paper The corresponding author can submit the article for possible publication in Research Journal for Societal Issues via the online journal management system (OJS).

Editorial Office Assessment The journal checks the article arrangement and composition as per the author's guidelines and scope of the Research Journal for Societal Issues. At this point, the quality of the article is not assessed.

Appraisal by Chief Editor The chief editor checks that the article is appropriate as per the journal’s scope and is original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected at this stage without being reviewed any further.

Chief Editor Assigns an Associate Editor After appraising the article by the chief editor, it is assigned to the associate editors to appraise the article through desk review/editing.

Desk Review The associate editor examines the article as per the scope of the journal and as per the contents required by the Research Journal for Societal Issues and suggests the possible improvements in the article.

Sharing suggestions with Authors The possible improvements as suggested by the associate editor through desk review is shared with the authors to incorporate the suggested changes to further improve the quality of the article. After these incorporations, the article is moved to the review phase.

Invitation to Reviewers The associate editor sends invitations to the reviewers within specialized fields. As responses are received from the reviewers, the paper is sent to reviewers for review (one international & one national).

Review is Conducted The reviewer sets time aside to read the article by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. If major problems are found at this stage, the reviewer may feel comfortable rejecting the paper without further work is then submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject (minor revision or major revisions).

Journal Evaluates the Reviews The associate editor considers all the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ widely, the editor may invite an additional reviewer to get an extra opinion before making a decision.

The Decision is Communicated The editor sends the decision email to the author including the relevant reviewer comments and suggests the author incorporate all these changes accordingly as per the suggestions of the reviewers.

Final Decision The author incorporations are ensured by the editorial team and if found satisfactory then the article accepted and sent to copyediting. After the copyediting, the article is sent to production phases and the schedule for publication has been provided/specified.