Peer reviewers play a mainstream and pivotal role in the peer-review process. International Journal of Pedodontic Rehabilitation requests that all reviewers strictly adhere to a set of basic principles and standards during the peer-review process in research publication; these are set out below. Kindly follow the mentioned  instructions carefully before you submit a review, as, by agreeing to be a reviewer for journals, you are acknowledging that you agree to and accept these conditions. These conditions are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers which also provides further information on how to be objective and constructive in your review.

  • Conflicts of interest

  • Intergrity

  • Confidentiality

  • Timeliness

  • Scientific misconduct

  • Feedback

  • Ownership of your review

  • Peer review process

  • Our use of your review

  • Restrictions on your use of your review

  • Your registration details

Conflicts of interest

During the review process we ask you to declare any potentially conflicting or competing interests (which could be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political or religious in nature) so that editors can assess these and factor them into their decisions. Please refer any major concerns over potentially competing interests to the editorial office before beginning your review. In addition, you should not agree to review a manuscript just to gain sight of it with no intention of submitting a review.

The following situations are considered conflicts and should be avoided:

  • Co-authoring publications with at least one of the authors in the past 3 years

  • Being colleagues within the same section/department or similar organizational unit in the past 3 years

  • Supervising/having supervised the doctoral work of the author (s) or being supervised/having been supervised by the author(s)

  • Receiving professional or personal benefit resulting from the review

  • Having a personal relationship (e.g. family, close friend) with the author(s)

  • Having a direct or indirect financial interest in the paper being reviewed

  • It is not considered a Conflict of Interest if the reviewers have worked together with the authors in a collaborative project or if they have co-organized an event.

Integrity

During the review process, wherein  an environment of uncertainty exist about which news and which experts to trust, integrity in peer review is vital to the quality and accuracy of our published research as expected to maintain good research conduct and support research integrity. We adhere to following the integrity guidelines from National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Children to maintain a culture that nurtures good practice and where honest and ethical conduct of science is an expected norm. That is, individual actions must comply with the principles of honesty, rigor, transparency and open communication, care and respect, and accountability for a research environment in which individuals and organizations are empowered and enabled to own the research process. A supportive and honest research culture is a central tenet of the International Journal of Pedodontic Rehabilitation vision of success and permeate the behaviors and practices of individuals at every level.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts submitted to journals are authors’ private, confidential property; reviewers should keep manuscripts and the information they contain strictly confidential. If you do choose to discuss the manuscript and/or your review with a professional colleague whose input you request as part of your review process, you are responsible for ensuring that they are made fully aware of the confidential nature of the discussion and that they must not disclose any information about the manuscript until the article is published. The identity of any co-reviewer and any potential conflicting or competing interests they may have must be disclosed when submitting your review. Reviewers should not retain the manuscript for personal use and should destroy copies after submitting their review.

Timeliness

If you feel qualified to judge a particular manuscript, you should agree to review only if you are able to return a review within the proposed or mutually agreed time-frame. If you cannot review, it is helpful to make suggestions for alternative reviewers if relevant, based on their expertise and without any influence of personal considerations or any intention of the manuscript receiving a specific outcome

Scientific misconduct

If you have concerns that misconduct occurred during either the research or the writing and submission of the manuscript, or you may notice substantial similarity between the manuscript and a concurrent submission to another journal or a published article; please do let the journal Editor know.

Feedback

As a reviewer you must provide a fair, honest, and unbiased assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript. For example, be specific in your critique, and provide supporting evidence with appropriate references to substantiate general statements. Be professional and refrain from being hostile or inflammatory and from making libelous or derogatory personal comments. If the work is not clear because of missing analyses, the reviewer should comment and explain what additional analyses would clarify the work submitted. It is not the job of the reviewer to extend the work beyond its current scope.

Ownership of your review

You will remain the owner of the review you submit to us. It is your responsibility to ensure that you obtain the consent of any co-reviewer or other third party who may have contributed to your review.

Peer review process

In International Journal of Pedodontic Rehabilitation we use peer review process, wherein:

  • Reviewers are required to sign reviews with their name, position and institution

  • any conflict of interests should be declared

All the authors and reviewers are requested to respect confidentiality during the peer review process. In the peer review process the reviewers can contact the authors directly and vice versa. All the queries should be directed through the editorial office of the relevant journal. Reviewers should contact the editorial office confidentially should the need arise in the case of, for example, a concern over a matter of publication ethics.

Our use of your review

Depending on a journal’s editorial policy, we offer the opportunity to make additional confidential comments to the editor.  Unless the reviewer has been offered confidentiality, reviews will usually be passed on in full to authors and other reviewers when an editorial decision is made.  Reviews should be civil and constructive and editors reserve the right to edit or remove any comments felt to be inappropriate

Authors are given the option of nominating other journals from MM Publishers in which they would like their manuscript transferred if it is rejected for publication by their first choice. This may result in the paper being resubmitted to other journals from MM Publishers in succession. If the author of the manuscript you reviewed has taken up this option, your review will be passed on to the editor(s) of the nominated journal(s) along with the manuscript and you might be invited to review a revised version.  If the article is selected for publication in another journal from MM Publishers, your review may also be published (depending on the editorial policy of the journal in question). You will be contacted for your permission before this happens.

Restrictions on your use of your review

We keep the author's manuscript confidential until its published and do not restrict the use you make of your review once the manuscript has been published and you must not disclose any information about an unpublished manuscript, including your review of it.

Please note that if the article is NOT published you may refer to the journal which requested your review and the fact that you have reviewed an article for it. However, you should not post any details of the article which was reviewed, or any part of the review that would breach the confidentiality under which the article was provided to you for review.

Your registration details

We record the details on the database for the journal you register to review for.   We also take your permission to hold your details on the reviewer databases for other journals from MM Publishers with similar content.   If you agree to this, you may opt out at any time by emailing the editorial office of the journal you registered to review for. Please ensure you read the MM Publishers Privacy policy for information on how we store and use your data.