This section provides a brief general overview of the peer review process at AME journals. Due to the setup of the Editorial Team, the peer review process and submission turnaround time may vary slightly in different journals.

1. Review criteria

Manuscripts are usually evaluated according to the following criteria:

• the material is original and timely;
• the manuscript is written clearly and in accordance with the guidelines for authors;
• appropriate study methods have been used;
• the data are valid;
• the conclusions are reasonable and well supported by the data;
• the information contained in the manuscript is important, topical, and medically relevant.

2. Peer review mode

All AME journals use double-blind peer review, which means that the identities of both the reviewer and the author are kept unknown to each other throughout the review process.

Usually, each manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers. However, sometimes the opinions of more reviewers are sought. Peer reviewers are selected based on their expertise and ability to provide high-quality, constructive, and fair reviews. For research manuscripts, editors may, in addition, seek the opinion of a statistical reviewer.

The existence of a manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than the peer reviewers and editorial staff. Peer reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review and must not divulge any information about a specific manuscript or its content to any third party without prior permission from the journal editors.

Information from submitted manuscripts may be systematically collected and analyzed to help improve the quality of the editorial or peer-review processes. Identifying information remains confidential. Final decisions regarding the publication of manuscripts are made within the Editorial Office.

3. Provenance and peer review

AME is committed to transparency. Commissioned articles or articles accepted via the Rapid Communication Pathway will be published with a description of their provenance (i.e., commission or reasons for rapid communication), along with how the review was organized (i.e., with or without external peer review). For articles published without external peer review (usually non-research articles, e.g., interviews and news), the reviews are completed directly by the editors.

Example of an article accepted via the Rapid Communication Pathway: http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/39891/html.
Example of a commissioned article (with external peer review): http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/36668/html.
Example of a non-research article (without external peer review): http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/38471/html.

4. Transparent peer review

With a commitment to openness and accountability, and to increase the level of transparency throughout our peer review process, a majority of AME journals have decided to fully implement the transparent peer review (TPR) process. Please refer to the website of the specific AME journal for more information.

5. Online review system

To ensure the most convenient and efficient peer review process possible, our peer reviews are conducted electronically via the OJS system (journal website).

6. Recognition for reviewers

AME entered an official partnership with Publons, Web of Science in April 2020. The partnership enables the contributions of our expert peer reviewers to be easily recognized. Most of AME journals’ peer review systems are integrated seamlessly into the Publons platform. For more details, please check the website of a specific journal.

7. Peer review flowchart

1. 1) Handling Editors pass the submitted manuscript to the Editor(s)-in-Chief.
2. 2) Depending on the topic of the submitted manuscript, the Editor(s)-in-Chief passes the article to the Associate Editor(s) or an Editorial Board member with related expertise.
3. 3) The assigned Associate Editors/Editorial Board members with related expertise review the manuscript or recommend external reviewers to the Editorial Office. A literature search may be conducted to identify appropriate external experts.
4. 4) External experts review the manuscript.
5. 5) The external experts make recommendations.
6. 6) The recommendations are sent to the Editor(s)-in-Chief, along with a review from the assigned Associate Editors and the Editorial Board Members.
7. 7) The Editor(s)-in-Chief makes a decision on the manuscript, for which there are four options: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject.

8. Peer review for papers submitted by the journal’s editorial team member (Editor-in-Chief/Guest Editor/Editorial Board Member/ etc.) or for a special series

Editorials, news items and interviews written by the journal's own editors do not undergo external peer review. Articles reporting original research, analysis or other features done by the editors are independently peer reviewed.

To assure impartial decision-making and to avoid any potential conflicts of interest, authors with a position in the journal’s editorial team will be excluded from any editorial handling of their manuscript (including reviewing, editing, and the final decision). Besides, editors are not involved in decisions about papers which have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. For example, articles from the Editor-in-Chief will be assigned to an Associate Editor or, in cases where the Associate Editor is not available, to an Editorial Board Member with related expertise. After the review comments have been received from external reviewers, the manuscript will be returned to the Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member to make a final decision.

9. Submission turnaround time

• In-house review: 1-3 weeks
• External peer review: 1-3 months
• Publication ahead of print: within 1 month after being accepted
• Formal publication: within 1-3 months after being accepted.

Note: Original Articles are listed as priority.

Updated on April 9, 2024