Peer-Review Policy
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) follows the double-blind peer-review policy for all articles/ scholarly work submitted to its journals. This kind of peer-review does not reveal the identities of authors and the reviewers to each other. The policy is adopted to maximize the unbiased peer review.
All submitted articles are subject to an extensive peer-review in consultation with the Journal's Editorial Board members and independent external referees. All manuscripts are evaluated on the basis of their intellectual quality, with in a structured time frame (usually 6 weeks from the date of submission), and the final decision taken by the Journal's Editor-in-Chief, based on the peer-reviewers' reports, is then communicated to the author(s). Reviewers are selected by the handling editors on the basis of their field expertise and practical relevance to the content of the articles to be reviewed by them.
Submissions from the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members are no exceptions from our peer review policy. However, external reviewers and decision making bodies are consulted to evaluate their articles and any conflict of interest is thereby excluded.
Peer Review Process:
All submissions to IJCS are subject to a double-blinded (authors and reviewers are kept unknown to each other) peer review process.
All articles right after their submission go through an initial evaluation by an editorial board member (in case the submission is from a member of the editorial board an external expert of the field is contacted to perform this task). This handling editor decides about whether the article qualifies for a peer review or is to be returned to the author/declined based on the unsuitability/incompleteness of the article. Editorials or letters, however, may be accepted by the handling editor at this stage. This initial review is planned to be completed within 1 week of submission.
The submissions eligible for a double-blinded peer review process will be forwarded to at least 2 peer reviewers based on their relevance and expertise in the field which the manuscript talks about. These reviewers may be a member of the internal board of the journal or an external referee. The double-blinded peer review policy helps International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) keep its review process unbiased to the maximum. However, articles which are self-revealing (e.g., authors giving references to their prior publication) may turn to have a single-blinded review (here reviewer will remain unknown to the author) and it is the ethical responsibility of reviewers to inform the handling editor if he/she finds some conflict of interest reviewing such article.
Usually peer review takes 4 weeks however, sometime a period of 6 weeks is acceptable owing to some justifiable reason. Based on the reviewers’ reports the handling editor/ EIC/ external editor, appropriately, will decide about acceptance/ revision by the authors/rejection of the article.
Thus, the reviewer's comments may be categorized as:
- Requires minor changes;
- Requires major changes;
- Rejected, but may be resubmitted;
- Rejected with no resubmission.
The authors are usually requested to resubmit the revised paper within 5-7 days. The revised articles will be reviewed by the handling editor who may accept these or consult the relevant reviewer for making a decision of acceptance/ rejection/ further revision(maximum 2 rounds of revision may be allowed). The average time to publish an article is 8-10 weeks from its submission date, provided that revisions are made by authors within the specified time period.
Editors of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) are allowed to submit their own articles in their journals however, no board member will be involved in the evaluation of their articles and no comments will be shared. These submission are dealt and evaluated by external field experts and reviewers at all stages of publication. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for final acceptance/ rejection of these articles on the basis of external reviewers’ reports but, a third party expert opinion is also sought in this regard, as appropriate.
The Guest Editors of special issue focusing on a particular topic, may perform the duties of peer reviewing of some related submissions to his/her special issue which have qualified the initial round of review. However, special consideration is given to avoid any conflict of interest in these circumstances.
The use of electronic submission and peer-review system of International Journal of Criminology and Sociology (IJCS) facilitates editors and reviewers during peer review process.
