The Editorial Review Process

Peer review is a critical part of the publishing process at JM3, as it is for most science journals. Yet for many authors, the editorial review process might seem intimidating, and maybe even a bit mysterious. Since there are many variations on the basic peer-review paradigm, in this editorial I’ll explain in some detail how the process works at JM3. Peer review is defined as “the critical assessment of manu-scripts submitted to journals by experts who are usually not part of the editorial staff.”1 It supports the scientific process by providing authors with constructive criticism of their work, and by filtering out less valuable work and thus provid-ing a “stamp of approval ” from editors and peers for published scientific work. The mere prospect of peer review prompts authors to improve both the science and its presentation in a submitted manuscript. 1 The Peer-Review Process at JM3 JM3 practices an editor-driven external peer review of author-submitted manuscripts. Reviewers (also called referees or assessors) are anonymous, meaning that authors never know the identity of the reviewers. This single-blind approach is not the only style in use at science journals. Some journals practice double-blind reviewing, where the reviewers are not told the names or institutions of the authors (in an attempt to avoid bias). Other journals practice open review, where the names of the reviewers are published along with their reviews when the paper is published. Other journals take a middle road, where reviewers are given the option of signing their reviews before they are sent to the authors. The single-blind process used by JM3 (and described in some detail below) is by far the most common style of peer review in sci-entific publishing.2 Journals should have a well-documented process for peer review. In the spirit of transparency, here is a step-by-step description of the manuscript review process used by JM3. 1. Authors submit their manuscript online, along with a cover letter and various other information. During this submission the author selects either a currently open special section, or a regular paper or lette