Peer Review Process of Books

Book Chapter: Peer Review Process

All submitted manuscripts will undergo a four-step review process: preliminary check, plagiarism check, independent peer review, and editorial peer review.

Preliminary check: All manuscripts will be reviewed by the editorial office first for compliance with the Manuscript Preparation Guidelines. Articles that do not comply with the guidelines will be sent back to the authors to ensure compliance.

Plagiarism check: Manuscripts that are in compliance with the guidelines will be checked for plagiarism. We work with CrossRef to use iThenticate to detect plagiarism. iThenticate gives a ‘similarity index’, which is the word-by-word copying of materials from previously published literature. We use similarity index to make a decision. Manuscripts with more than 10% similarity index will be returned to the authors without peer review for corrective action. For articles with similarity index between 1-10%, we follow the guidelines of Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) on text recycling to make a decision. Manuscripts that pass the plagiarism check will be subjected to expert peer review.

Independent peer review: Chapters that pass the preliminary and plagiarism checks will undergo single-blind independent peer review by at least one expert on the topic. Based on the assessments, the reviewer(s) will make one of the following decisions: (i) no further comments; (ii) minor revision required; (iii) major revision required; or (iv) reject. Chapters that require major revision will be returned to the authors for corrective action.

Editorial peer review: Chapters that are categorized under “no further comments” or “minor revision required” by the independent reviewers will be sent to the editor of the book, along with the comments of the reviewers, for editorial peer review. Based on the assessments, the editor will decide whether to accept the comments of the independent reviewers as such or add further comments for the authors to address. After the editorial peer review, the articles will be sent to the authors for revision and resubmission. The editor will verify the resubmitted manuscripts for compliance. Once the editor is satisfied with the final version, the editor will notify the publisher. The editor’s decision is final. The publisher neither influences nor interferes with editorial decisions.

Chapters written by the editors: Chapters written by the editors will be independently reviewed by at least two experts in the field. The editors are required to address all comments of the reviewers. The resubmitted chapters will be verified by the reviewers for compliance before making a final decision.

Publication

After acceptance, the chapters will be copy-edited and sent for production. The chapters will be published online in pdf format. They will be open access, freely available under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). The authors will retain the copyright of their work. The book will be assigned an ISBN. Each chapter will be assigned a doi and deposited with CrossRef.

Monographs: Peer Review Process

All submitted manuscripts go through a three-step review process:

1. Preliminary check

2. Plagiarism check

3. Independent peer review.

Preliminary Check

The editorial office initially reviews all manuscripts for adherence to the Monograph preparation guidelines. Articles not in compliance will be returned to the authors for corrections.

Plagiarism Check

Manuscripts meeting the guidelines undergo a plagiarism check. We partner with CrossRef and utilize iThenticate for this purpose. iThenticate produces a ‘similarity index’, indicating word-by-word replication from previously published sources. Any manuscript with a similarity index exceeding 10% will be sent back to the authors for adjustments, without undergoing peer review. For manuscripts with a similarity index ranging between 1-10%, we rely on the guidelines of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) concerning text recycling. Manuscripts cleared of plagiarism concerns will proceed to independent peer review.

Independent Peer Review

Manuscripts clearing the initial stages undergo a single-blind peer review, conducted by at least two topic experts. Reviewers may recommend:

i. Accept as is

ii. Require revisions

iii. Reject

If “accept,” the article progresses to production.

If “revise,” the article returns to the authors for modifications. Revisions are then re-assessed by the same reviewers. Articles may undergo several revision cycles.

If “reject,” the article will not proceed. Reviewer decisions are final, and the publisher remains neutral, without influencing editorial decisions.

Publication

Upon acceptance, articles undergo copy-editing before production. They’re then published online in pdf format. All content is open access, available under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. While authors retain their copyright, each monograph receives an ISBN, a DOI, and gets registered with CrossRef.

Rapid Publication

Rapid Publication is a service to our authors to avoid unnecessary delays in publication of accepted chapters. Accepted chapters are published within 24 hours.

Chapters under Rapid Publication are published immediately after editorial acceptance. These are PDF versions of chapters that have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication, but not yet copyedited or typeset. Chapters published under Rapid Publications are fully searchable and citable using the chapter’s unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The citation details will not change even after the publication of the book in its final format.

All accepted chapters, irrespective of the title of a book, will appear under Rapid Publication as they get accepted. Once all chapters of a book have been accepted by the editors, the chapters will be copyedited and typeset, and the book will be published in its entirety under its respective title as displayed under books.

There are two reasons for the implementation of Rapid Publication service. First, some authors submit the chapters well before the deadline. These chapters, if accepted by the editors after peer review, will reside in our computers until all other chapters arrive by the deadline and the completion of subsequent peer review. Second, even after the acceptance of all chapters of a book, copyediting, typesetting, and the creation of PDF documents takes many weeks. Because of this delay, the chapters lose valuable readership and possible citations. Rapid Publication will reduce the delay. Another advantage of Rapid Publication is that the authors can submit chapters any time before the deadline.

Book Publishing Fee

The publishing fee for each open access, online-only, article varies depends on the length as described here: