Peer Review Process

The practice of peer review is to ensure that only good science is published. It is an objective process at the heart of our scholarly publishing and is carried out by all our scientific journals. Our referees play a vital role in maintaining high standards and all manuscripts are peer-reviewed following the procedure outlined below. 


DETAILED REGULAR MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION PROCESS

  • Section Editor: For Insights Publisher, section editor refers to those who triage new submissions and assigned them to discipline-related in-house editors for initial assessment.
  • Triage: All new submissions will be triaged by section editor(s) for the suitability, integrity, language, and plagiarism.
  • Early Rejection: The low-quality manuscript(s) and those out of journal’s publication aim and scope will encounter direct rejection by the section editor(s) after triage. This happens for approximately 5% of submissions.
  • Initial Assessment: All manuscripts passed triage and 1st round plagiarism checking will be assigned to 2-3 in-house editors for assessment before being sent out for peer review. We value all peer reviewers’ work and only send out potential manuscripts being reviewed.
  • Early Acceptance: The real high-quality manuscript(s) will be accepted early after initial assessment by 2-3 in-house-editors in line with editor-in-chief (EIC)’s agreement. The acceptance notification will be sent out by the EIC. This happens only in 0.1% submissions overall.
  • Rejected after Initial Assessment: About 10% of manuscripts will be rejected by EIC after initial assessment based on the scientific essence, design, humanity, professional ethics, and inappropriate remarks such as anti-humanism and war advocacy.
  • Peer Review: Those, about 85% manuscripts, that reached ≥ 8/10 point-scale with initial assessment are normally passed on to at least 2 external scholars for review; sometimes, the number of peer reviewers can reach 5-7 expertise scholars.
    • Type of Peer Review: Our Peer Review Policy employs double-blind reviewing, where both the referee(s) and author(s) remain anonymous throughout the process. 
    • How the Referee is Selected: Whenever possible, referees match the paper according to their expertise, and Our Reviewer Bankis constantly updated. 
    • Referee Reports:

                      Referees are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript:

                          - Is it original?

                          - Is it methodologically sound?

                          - Does it follow appropriate ethical guidelines?

                          - Has the study produced results that are clearly presented and support the conclusions?

                          - Does it correctly reference previous relevant work?

  • How Long Does the Review Process Take?Generally, the peer review process is two weeks. However, sometimes the review process needs longer than expected for many reasons. Therefore, the time required for the review process is dependent on the response of the referees.
  • Peer Review Comments Collection: Section editors are responsible for collecting the comments from referees and sending them to EIC for evaluation.
  • EIC Made a Decision: When the EIC received all review comments from the section editor, and a thorough evaluation will be given, and a decision will be made. In rare cases for which it is extremely difficult to find a second referee to review the manuscript, or when the one referee’s report has thoroughly convinced the EIC, decisions at this stage to accept, reject or ask the author for a revision are made on the basis of only one referee’s report.
  • Further Assessment Needed: If the referee’s reports contradict one another, or a report is unnecessarily delayed, further expert opinion will be sought.
  • Revision Needed: If the EIC determines that a revision is required, a revision request will be sent to the authors along with the referees' recommendations. If the authors decline to revise, the manuscript will be dismissed without further consideration. If the authors agree to revise, the revised manuscripts may be returned to the original referees, who may then demand another revision.
  • EIC’s Decision is Final: The EIC’s decision will be sent to the author with comments made by the referees, which usually includes verbatim comments by the referees. A final decision to accept, reject, or revise the manuscript will be made only by the EIC of the journal. 
  • EIC Responsibilities: The journal EIC makes decisions and oversees the quality of publications. Without exception, EIC is the only decision maker for all submitted contents that is to be published.

 

SPECIAL THEMATIC MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION PROCESS

In order to provide deeper insight into specific topics, our journals have the distinctive feature of publishing thematic issues focusing on the topics. Except for the elements listed below, the entire workflow is very similar to standard submissions.

  • Guest Editor Invitation: For special issues with theme topics, the journal will invite both external experts as well as our in-house editors to serve as guest editors.
  • Guest Editor Responsibilities: Rather than section editors, guest editors play a central role in the processing of special thematic issues. After accepting the invitation, the guest editors are responsible for the following activities associated with the special issue(s): invitation of manuscripts, initial evaluation of submissions, and communication with authors and EIC.
  • Post-submission Process: All new submissions for thematic issues will undergo the same review procedure as regular submissions.

Editor-in-Chief Decision Form