Peer review process, how to deal with?

Desk rejection

The editor is the one who looks after the paper at first. If the submitted paper is far away from the author guidelines, the paper is rejected by the editor with out sending it for peer review. Otherwise will go for peer review.

Keep in mind : your article needs to be potentially strong enough and novel enough to send it to peer review. 

Try to target the appropriate journals and give your best work in the submission.

Peer reviewers?

They are the experts in a particular field. They work voluntarily in the peer review process. They are active researchers who have published many articles in reputable journals.

Note: Journal's editor may send an article for peer review upto 2-4 peer reviewers.

What they do?

1. Read every articles they get closely and evaluate based on it's scientific quality and originaility

2. Help the journal editors whether to publish the paper

3. Point out mistakes and weakness in the paper

4. Provide feedbacks and suggestions to the authors to improve their MS

5. They never look reasons to reject the paper: they always are there to help you to publish your research. Always be positive towards their comments even if very hard! Be calm and reply to the reviewers' comments politely later. 

Note : You may agree or disagree to the reviewers comments. Never forget to explain why you disagree with the comments made by the reviewer. This is because sometimes the reviewers do not understand the particular aspect of your study. It is YOU who know more about the matter and you need to explain them politely!

Peer review, Why?

It consists of the evaluation of papers by subject experts

It controls in scientific communication

Reviewers are the corner stone of the peer review process

What happens after peer review?

In most cases authors are asked to make minor or major changes to the paper before it can be accepted or considered again. There is also a chance of rejection in the first round but the chances of acceptance as it is very very low! Be aware of fake journals ( https://beallslist.weebly.com/) as they accept articles with out peer review.

You will get comments from reviewers, you (corresponding author) need to respond to the comments one by one and attach this document in addition to your revised article. If changes has been made, you may use different color to figure out the changes that you have made in your revised version. 

Act with the comments before the deadline, if you need extension, you may write to the editor with reason why you need more time to address the comments. 

If your paper is rejected, do not be sad . Incorporate the reviewer's comments in your paper as these comments may be useful to improve your article and later you may submit your paper to another new journal. 

If your paper is accepted, it is a first success. But you need to work further for sometime until it is published. MS editor may contact you to get through the missing information and others..

You can check the galley proof of your paper later. Some points you need to focus in while this activity.

1. Are all the sections set well?

2. Are there any mistakes in text, table, figure and references?

3. It is the last chance you get to rectify the minor errors if any. Do it carefully, you may ask help from your co authors if you need.

After publish

Celebrate this success. You may update your CV and others to let public know 

1. Add your publication to ResearchGate, FB, Twitter, office webpage....

2. Update your ORCHID profile ( https://orcid.org/)

3. Add your publication in Google Scholar

4. ......