Journal Peer Review Guideline: Double-Blind
This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.
To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity. To help with this preparation please ensure the following when submitting: Please submit the Title Page containing the Authors details and -Blinded Manuscript- with no author details as 2 separate files. This should include the title, authors' names and affiliations, and a complete address for the corresponding author including telephone and e-mail address.
Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review. To assist with this process the key items that need to be observed are as follows:
- Use the third person to refer to work the Authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before” with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2007]” .
- Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier
- Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper.
- Cite papers published by the Author in the text as follows: ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’.
- For blinding in the reference list: ‘[Anonymous 2007] Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.’
- Remove references to funding sources
- Do not include acknowledgments
- Name your files with care and ensure document properties are also anonymized.
We are committed to prompt evaluation and publication of fully accepted papers in UMJ. The UMJ is a member of CrossCheck through SCOPEMED Publishing. All manuscripts submitted will be checked for plagiarism (copying text or results from other sources) and self-plagiarism (duplicating substantial parts of the authors' own published work without giving the appropriate references) using the CrossCheck database. Plagiarism is not tolerated. To maintain a high-quality publication, all submissions undergo a rigorous review process. Characteristics of the peer review process are as follows:
- Simultaneous submissions of the same manuscript to different journals will not be tolerated.
- Manuscripts with contents outside the scope will not be considered for review.
- Papers will be refereed by at least 2 experts as suggested by the editorial board.
- In addition, Editors will have the option of seeking additional reviews when needed. The authors will be informed when Editors decide further review is required.
- All publication decisions are made by the journal's Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the referees' reports. Authors of papers that are not accepted are notified promptly.
- All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. We expect our Board of Reviewing Editors and reviewers to treat manuscripts as confidential material as well.
- Editors and reviewers involved in the review process should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and remove oneself from cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation. Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must not be used for competitive gain.
- Our peer-review process is confidential and the identities of reviewers cannot be revealed.
For more information about CrossCheck/iThenticate, please visit http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck.html
