Peer Review Policy

– After initial screening, the paper selected are subjected to peer review by two external peer reviewers belonging to the subject specialty as identified by the Editor. The Journal follows double blind peer-review procedure. An average of two weeks’ time is given to reviewers for reviewing the manuscript.

– The peer reviewers will ensure that manuscript is evaluated critically but constructively and he/she gives detailed comments about the research and the manuscript to help authors improve their work. The reviewers will be provided the reviewers’ proforma, along with the manuscript. 

The evaluation should include:
Assessments of the originality and importance of the research; accuracy and relevance of the design of the study, methods of study, including analytic and statistical methods, results, discussion with new emerging findings, possible confounding, the strength of the conclusions and overall quality of the manuscript.
– The peer reviewer shall be also be responsible to make recommendations to the editor regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in JSZMC. Reviewers may be asked to give to the editor regarding acceptance or rejection, with or with out changes.
– Reviewers should declare to the editor any potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authors or the content of a manuscript they are asked to review, and in most instances when such conflicts exist should decline to review the manuscript.
– Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the manuscript and complete the review promptly. Reviewers should not make derogatory comments about the manuscript in their comments for the authors. If reviewers do make such comments, the editor may choose to edit the comments or even withhold all the reviewer’s comments from the authors. Reviewers must not make any use of the work described in the manuscript.
– Reviewers should not communicate directly with authors or even identify themselves to authors, except by signing their reviews. The editor will provide guidance to the reviewers, particularly new reviewers, regarding how the editor wishes the reviewers to evaluate the manuscript and how the reviewers should meet their dual responsibility of providing constructive comments for the author and advice to the editor.
– Reviewers should meet the agreed-upon deadline (usually 4 weeks) for manuscript review and should respond to the reminders if sent any.