Peer Review Policy

All submitted manuscripts passed preliminary check then will be sent to academic editor to check whether it can be sent to peer review. Editors will consider the peer-reviewed reports when making a decision, but are not bound by the opinions or recommendations therein. The editors weigh the comments of all reviewers, such as their expertise in relevant fields and familiarity with the journal's standards, at their discretion, and have full responsibility and authority to make editorial decisions on all manuscripts submitted for peer review and publication. Authors receive peer review reports with the editorial decision on their manuscript.

Please note that IMR Press journals follow the standards of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.

Type of Peer Review: IMR Press operates double-blind peer review, in which the referees remain anonymous to the author(s) throughout and following the refereeing process, whilst the identity of the author(s) is likewise unknown to the reviewers.

Selection of Reviewers: Reviewer selection is based on expertise, reputation, specific recommendations, conflict of interest, etc.

Reviewer Responsibilities: Potential reviewers should inform the Editor of any possible Conflicts of Interest before accepting an invitation to review a manuscript. Communications between Editors and reviewers contain confidential information that should not be shared with third parties.

The reviewers will remain anonymous. Reviewers are required to keep the manuscript contents confidential, provide an unbiased scientific opinion of the manuscript and declare any conflict of interest. Also, reviewers are expected to submit their comments within the indicated time frame.

To provide an assessment of the various aspects of a manuscript we ask reviewers the following questions:

• Does the abstract convey the major theme of the paper?
• Does the introduction describes the rationale for the study in the context of the available literature?
• Does the article comprehensively and critically evaluate an existing problem in the context of the available literature?
• Are the methods adequately described?
• Are experiments including patient or animal data properly documented? 
• Is the number of samples, number of repeats, equipment and chemicals used clearly mentioned?
• Is the catalogue number of antibodies mentioned?
• Are statistical methods clearly stated?
• Is the discussion well-balanced in light of the available literature and the research findings?
• Are any conflicts of interest stated?
• Where relevant, have appropriate ethics approval and informed consent been obtained?
• Does the manuscript require language editing?

For more information about Editorial Policies, please visit Editorial Policies and Research Ethics.

In IMR Press journals, manuscripts must be reviewed with due respect for authors' confidentiality. In submitting their manuscripts for review, authors entrust editors with the results of their scientific work and creative effort, on which their reputation and career may depend. This means you cannot share the contents of the manuscript with anyone without prior authorization from the editor.

Also, because software or other artificial intelligence technologies cannot guarantee confidentiality, this also means that we may prohibit you from uploading the manuscript to them. Considering this situation, IMR Press follows ICMJE's recommendation that reviewers should disclose to the journal whether and how AI technologies are used to facilitate their review. Reviewers should also be aware that AI can produce authoritative-sounding output that may be incorrect, incomplete, or biased.

Since peer review is confidential, you also must not share information about the review with anyone without permission from the editors and authors.

Information concerning the manuscript (including the content of the manuscript, the status of the review process, peer review comments, and editorial decisions, etc.) must not be disclosed by the editor to anyone other than the author and reviewers.

Reviewers and editors must respect the rights of authors, and must not publicly discuss the authors' work or misappropriate their ideas before the manuscript is published. Without the permission of the editor, reviewers are not allowed to make copies of the manuscripts and are prohibited from sharing the manuscript with others.

Reviewers should declare their conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from the peer-review process if a conflict exists. For details, please refer to ICMJE.

IMR Press requires editorial staff or editors not be involved in processing their own academic work. Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing (e.g., from the same institution or collaborate closely). In this case, the Editor-in-Chief or a suitable Editorial Board member will make final acceptance decisions for submitted papers. To know more information about handling articles submitted by editors.

It is essential that all who participate in producing the journal, who conduct themselves as authors, reviewers and editors, strictly adhere to the highest level of professional ethical standards. By submitting a manuscript to this journal, each author explicitly confirms that the manuscript meets the highest ethical standards from the author and coauthors including proper statistical investigations and thorough ethical reviews by the data owning organisations.

IMR Press follow the best practices such as those outlined by these organizations:

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
Council of Scientific Editors (CSE)
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
World association of Medical editors (WAME)
World Medical Association (WMA)

Updated on 10 May 2021