The practice of peer review is to ensure that good and original science is published. It is an objective process at the heart of good scholarly publishing and is carried out on all reputable scientific journals. Our referees therefore play a vital role in maintaining the high standards of Experimental Cell Research, and all manuscripts are peer reviewed following the procedure outlined below.
Manuscripts solicited for publication are review articles and regular submissions.
Initial manuscript evaluation
After the initial electronic submission, the manuscript is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief or one of the two Associate Editors for a first editorial evaluation, to determine if the manuscript merits full external review or if it will be editorially rejected. The most common grounds for editorial rejection are: outside the aims and scope of the journal; a confirmation or duplication of published work in this or another species or system, or represents preliminary, incomplete, poorly designed, or purely descriptive studies lacking mechanistic insight into a problem.
Manuscripts deemed suitable for full external review are sent to external reviewers, who are matched to the manuscript according to their expertise. Reviewers are invited by email and asked to accept or decline if they are unable to provide a review within 14 days. Our database of reviewers is constantly being updated as we attempt to identify and maintain quality reviewers. We request suggestions for reviewers from the author to aid in identifying people with relevant expertise. The handling Editor is free to select from these choices or pick other reviewer candidates. We also request authors to make suggestions of reviewers to exclude from the review process to help in avoiding conflict of interest. The reviewers remain anonymous to the authors throughout the review process.
Reviewers' reports
Reviewers are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript: • Is original, high quality, novel, provides mechanistic insight, follows scientific guidelines of the journal • Is methodologically sound • Has substantive results which are clearly presented and support the conclusions • Correctly references previous relevant work • Follows appropriate ethical guidelines
Reviewers are not expected to correct or copy-edit manuscripts. Language correction is not part of the peer review process. If a paper is judged to be scientifically sound but inadequately presented, it may be accepted subject to the contributor agreeing to have the paper professionally copy-edited at his/her expense. Experimental Cell Research maintains a list of well qualified providers of this service.
How long does the review process take?
Typically the time for handling a manuscript from submission to first decision is less than 5 weeks. We strive to be as fast as possible, however it can take time to identify and receive acceptance of sufficient reviewers to evaluate a paper, especially during summer months and holiday periods. If reviewers agree to handle a manuscript in a timely manner but are delayed or fail to provide a review despite regular reminders from the journal a handling Editor may make a decision based on the completed reviews or a further opinion may be sought. Should the reviewers' reports contradict one another it may also be necessary to seek a further expert opinion. In such cases, the review process will take longer but the journal makes every effort to minimize delay.
At the discretion of the handling Editor, revised manuscripts are returned, usually within 1 week of receipt, to the initial reviewers for evaluation. If the original reviewers of the manuscript are not willing to provide an opinion on the revised submission, alternative reviewers may be sought. In general one round of re-review is permitted for manuscripts deemed to have major issues. Subsequent rounds of review are usually considered only to correct relatively minor issues that the handling Editor feels can be quickly resolved.
Final decision
Reviewers advise the handling Editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article. The handling Editor's decision is final.
