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General Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
All manuscripts submitted to Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
are first reviewed by a member of the editorial staff. If we determine that the
manuscript has sufficient priority and warrants further review, we then
assign it to at least two peer reviewers who possess expertise in the
subject covered by the manuscript. Some papers may require additional assessment by
expert statistical reviewers.
- We will request each reviewer's permission before forwarding a
manuscript,
limit review requests to two or three per year per reviewer, and allow
at least two weeks to complete reviews.
- We ask that all reviewers complete their evaluations at
PCD
Manuscript Central. Peer reviewers will be supplied with log-in
information once acceptance of the review is confirmed.
- Manuscripts will be sent by journal editorial staff in confidence to
reviewers. Reviewers should not discuss articles under review with
anyone.
- We have a single-blind review process; while authors are identified to
reviewers, reviewers remain anonymous to authors.
- We ask reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest or personal or
professional biases that may render them unable to provide a fair and
objective assessment of the manuscript under review. Reviewers are
encouraged to consult the editor in chief if they have any
questions about such matters, and they are asked to disqualify
themselves if they consider themselves unable to give an impartial
assessment. This information is kept confidential and is not revealed
to authors or other reviewers.
- We ask reviewers to assess manuscripts for importance, originality,
clarity, validity, adequacy of method, and other qualities.
- We ask reviewers to give detailed comments (with references,
whenever possible) that will help authors to improve their papers and PCD
editors to decide whether to publish.
- Reviewers make recommendations to accept, accept after minor revision,
reconsider after major revision, or
reject.
- Reviewers serve as advisors to PCD editors, who make final
decisions.
- We inform reviewers of our decisions to accept or reject papers.
- Even if we do not accept a manuscript for publication, we send the
reviewers' comments to the author.
- We ask reviewers to decline a review if they are unable to complete it
within the required time.
- We ask authors to direct all queries about peer reviewers to
the editorial staff.
- We ask reviewers not to contact authors but to direct all queries to
the editorial staff.
- After the review process is completed, we ask reviewers to destroy
manuscript copies.
- We may ask reviewers to reevaluate manuscripts that were revised and
resubmitted according to their revisions, or we may submit the revised
manuscripts to new reviewers.
- We welcome suggestions from authors for appropriate peer reviewers.
For each article reviewed, reviewers are requested to complete a score
sheet on PCD Manuscript Central, which contains the same information as the
Reviewer’s
Confidential Manuscript Assessment for the Editor.
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