Review Policy and Process

Peer Review Policy and Process

  • The University of Sindh Journal of Animal Sciences (USJAS) follows a full double-blind peer review process, comprising the following steps:

  • All papers submitted to the USJAS are first examined by an editor for an initial review. The editor may assign experts to review the quality and scope of the submitted manuscript. If the article fails to meet the journal criteria, the paper is rejected immediately, and the authors are notified.

  • Once the paper is submitted, the editor ensures that the paper follows the double-blind review policy. If the author names are found, then the author’s name(s) and affiliation(s) are removed from the paper, and an updated version is uploaded to the system by the editor.

  • Every submitted article is checked for similarity by the editor before being forwarded to the reviewers. The Turnitin website is used by the journal, as prescribed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, to check the similarity of the papers. As per HEC policy, if a manuscript has been found to have a similarity index of more than 19%, it will be immediately either returned to the author for correction and resubmission or rejected and archived. This decision (Exclude Bibliography, Exclude Quoted Text)

  • If the paper satisfies the criteria, then the editor will send the article to at least two reviewers for review. Each article will be reviewed by at least one national and one international reviewer with a double-blind peer review policy.

  • Reviewers are recruited from national and international universities with a PhD and a reputed research profile (checked through Google Scholar, Research Gate, and Web of Science) for the given area or field of the submitted article.

  • Each reviewer is initially invited to review the article, showing them only the article title and abstract. Upon acceptance of the review request, the full paper is presented, and a review form is used to record their feedback and suggestions through an online management system.

  • The reviewers' recommendations will determine whether to “accept submission," "revision required”, “resubmit for review," or “decline submission.". The final decision is made by the editor based on the reviewers’ report.

  • Once the decision has been made, the review response, including the review form and suggestions, is sent to all authors of the article with an editorial decision.

  • For papers that require only revisions, the editor will re-review the paper to ensure that the reviewer’s suggestions have been incorporated or not.

  • Papers that require resubmission for review will undergo a second round of review by the same or different reviewers to ensure that the quality of the revised paper is acceptable.

  • After final acceptance, the author or corresponding author will be notified, and the paper will be forwarded to the publication manager or editorial assistant for copyediting, layout editing, and proofreading.