PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Manuscript Review Process

The BJRD adopts a double-blind peer-review process where both the authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other. The peer-review process is intended to ensure an unbiased review of the manuscript submitted to the journal and avoid potential competing interest issues. The reviewers will be approached based on their expertise relative to the content of the manuscript by the Managing Editor, and following the receipt of the consent from the reviewer, the manuscript and other relevant documents will be shared.

The peer-review process entails the following detailed steps and processes before the publication of the finalized articles.

Step I:  Authors can submit their manuscript directly to the corresponding email of the journal given on the journal’s web page throughout the year and upon receipt, the Managing Editor will acknowledge the submission electronically.

Step II: The Managing Editor will review the article's relevance and check if the authors have followed the manuscript guidelines. If they have not followed the manuscript guidelines, the Managing Editor will reject and inform the author for re-submission. This normally takes around 4 weeks to review. If the author has followed the manuscript guidelines, the Managing Editor accepts the article and proceeds with the blind peer-reviewing process.

Step III:  The Managing Editor will identify the peer reviewers based on the subject knowledge and send the lists of manuscript titles to the potential blind reviewers and receives their consent with preferences of the manuscript to review by the reviewers within two weeks.

Step IV: The Managing Editor shortlists two blind reviewers for each manuscript and sends the manuscript with Manuscript Review Form to the reviewers. The blind peer review takes around 4 weeks, Meanwhile, the remainder of the time frame to complete the review process and submission of the feedback is sent during the 3rd week if comments are not received.

Step V: The Manuscript Review Form consists of TWO PARTS where Section I is exclusively confidential to authors containing the ratings for each criterion of assessment. The reviewers will give the marks for the criteria and rate the overall potential of the manuscript they reviewed by ticking any one of the following categories;

  1. Accept the manuscript as it is (or subject to minor changes)
  2. Accept the manuscript subject to suitable revision
  3. Return the manuscript for major revision and resubmission
  4. Reject the manuscript

Note: This section is meant to be used only by the Managing team of the journal and will not be sent to the authors. While on other hand, the author’s information is also kept strictly confidential to the reviewer in this part by providing the Author code while sending the manuscript for reviewing process.

  • The Section II of the form consists only of the comments by the reviewers on each of the components of the manuscript such as abstract, literature review, methodology, etc., and this part containing constructive feedback will be sent to the authors for necessary improvement.
  • Based on the ratings provided by the blind peer reviewers, the Managing team will subsequently take the decision to accept as it is. or accept the minor changes or accept the major changes.
  • If the reviewer’s feedback is for major revision, the author is advised to re-submit as fresh articles for the review process.
  • The Managing Editor will reject the manuscript based on the feedback of the peer review and rating provided and inform the author accordingly.
  • All the authors will be given two weeks to return of manuscript after any revision or making necessary improvements.

Step VI: Upon the receipt of the revised manuscript, the Managing Editor will again review the manuscript and check if the revised changes are being incorporated as suggested, then the Managing Editor will send the letter of acceptance of the article for publication to the author accordingly.

  • The compiled list of the articles is sent to the Production Editor for the publication process to begin. Each issue of the journal will consist of a minimum of five to a maximum of seven articles.
  • The Production Editor will start designing the layout and format of the journal as per journal guidelines.

Step VII: The Production Editor will process for printing in the press through regular procurement guidelines. A dummy copy will be printed for editorial activity before awarding mass printing supply order.

Step VIII: After completion of publication, the hard copy will be distributed to the authors, stakeholders, policymakers, and academicians for reference.

  • The journal will be also made available on the BJRD website in the current issue list as well as in the form of a PDF version

Peer Revision Process