Peer Review Policy

Peer review is practiced to ensure quality of scientific publications. This is a stepwise process with the motive of publishing good quality scholarly publications and is carried out by all scientific journals. The reviewers play a pivotal role in maintaining proper standard of the Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding (EJPB) and all the submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed by following the procedure outlined below.

Initial evaluation of manuscript

Initial evaluation is done by the journal Manger to assess the journal format of the manuscript. If the paper is not written as per the format of the journal, it is sent to the author for preliminary revision.  Then the papers that are passed in the plagiarism will be submitted to the Chief Editor for assigning the manuscript to the Editors. The Editor is screening the manuscript and allotting the suitable reviewers. The manuscripts rejected by the Editor at this stage are invariably not original or may have serious scientific flaws or poor grammatical narrations or poor English language or would be outside the objectives of the journal.  Those manuscripts that meet the criteria are passed on to two subject experts for critical review. The manuscripts rejected at this stage will be informed to the corresponding author within two weeks of receipt of the manuscript.

Process of peer review

EJPB deploys DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEWES, where two reviewers, are allotted to review the manuscripts and the details of the reviewers remain unspecified to the authors throughout the process of publication.

Selection of reviewers

Reviewers are harmonized for the manuscript according to their expertise in the relevant field/subject. The reviewer database of EJPB comprises of contact details of reviewers along with their areas of interest/specialization which is being regularly updated.

Reviewer comments

Reviewers are requested to evaluate whether the manuscript:

            - Is methodologically proper

            - Follows necessary ethical guidelines

            - Displays results clearly and supports it with conclusions

            - Incorporates references which are cited from relevant previous work in the EJPB
             format

Reviewers are requested to refrain from giving their personal opinion in the “Reviewer comments to Author” section of their review regarding acceptance / rejection of the publication. Personal opinions are to be confidentially expressed in the “Reviewer comments to Editor” section.

Length of peer review process

Generally, the manuscript will be reviewed within 4-8 weeks. In case if the reviewers’ reports contradict one another or a report is unnecessarily delayed, a further expert opinion will be sought. Revised manuscripts are usually returned to the Editor within 2-3 weeks and the Editor may request further advice from the reviewers. The Editor may request more than one revision of a manuscript.

Final report

A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with recommendations made by the reviewers which may also include verbatim comments by the reviewers.

 Final Decision of the Editor

The final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript is taken by the Chief Editor. The average time scale for a manuscript processing is 12 weeks from the date of submission.

Special Issues / Conference Proceedings

Special issues and/or conference proceedings may have different peer review procedures involving guest editors, conference organizers or scientific committees. Authors contributing to these issues may receive full details of the peer review process on request from the editor/ editorial committee members.