Peer Review Process

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to An Idea Health Journal (IHJ) undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure the quality, validity, and scientific relevance of each publication. IHJ employs a double-blind peer review system, where both the identities of the authors and reviewers are kept confidential to maintain objective evaluation. The review is conducted by experts in the relevant field based on originality, scientific merit, and alignment with the journal’s scope.

An Idea Health Journal (IHJ) implement the review process policy as follows:

  1. Pre Review : After a manuscript is submitted through the IHJ system, the initial step is a pre-review by the Editor-in-Chief. This process lasts for 1 week and aims to assess the manuscript’s alignment with the journal's focus and scope, evaluate its originality, perform a plagiarism and similarity check using iThenticate by Turnitin. and ensure that the formatting and writing style adhere to the journal’s guidelines. Manuscripts with more than 25% similarity are either rejected or returned to the authors for revisions before resubmission. The 25% threshold is clarified as tolerable only for specific sections such as methodology, direct quotations, or content from preprints/dissertations, while any indication of plagiarism beyond these exceptions will not be accepted. If deemed suitable, the manuscript is forwarded to the Section Editor for the next stage. Detailed policies can be found in Plagiarism policy.
  2. Assignment of Reviewers:Within 1 to 3 days after passing the pre-review, the Section Editor is assigned to handle the manuscript. Within about 1 week, 2-3 reviewers with relevant expertise are appointed. IHJ follows a double-blind peer review system, ensuring confidentiality of both the authors' and reviewers’ identities. To maintain confidentiality, authors are required to remove any personal information from the manuscript, including the author's name, acknowledgments, and institutional affiliation. Reviewers are selected from institutions different from that of the authors to avoid conflicts of interest.
  3. Review process: After assignment, reviewers are given 3 to 8 weeks to conduct a thorough evaluation of the manuscript. The review includes assessing the scientific quality, novelty of the topic, methodological validity, structure of arguments, and relevance to the target field of study. Reviewers provide constructive comments and a final recommendation: accepted with no revisions, rejected, minor revision, or major revision. If revisions are required, the manuscript is returned to the authors for improvements and may go through multiple rounds of revision (up to 2 or 3 rounds), with each review cycle lasting 4 to 10 weeks.
  4. Editorial Decision: After the manuscript has been reviewed, the Editor-in-Chief evaluates all comments and recommendations to make a final decision. This process takes about 1 week. If significant differences arise between reviewers, the editor may appoint additional reviewers for an objective evaluation. The possible decisions are: rejected, accepted, minor revision, or major revision. The decision is communicated to the authors through the online system, along with anonymous feedback from the reviewers, which serves as guidance for refining the manuscript.
  5. Revision Process: If the manuscript requires revisions, the authors are given a specific time frame to make changes: 1-2 weeks for minor revisions and 3-4 weeks for major revisions. Authors are required to submit one documents: the revised manuscript with tracked changes . The revised manuscript will be re-reviewed by the initial reviewers, especially for major revisions. For minor revisions, further review by the reviewers may not be required, and the editor may make the decision directly. Revisions may continue for several rounds until the manuscript is deemed acceptable.
  6. Publication: After the manuscript is accepted by the Editor-in-Chief, the post-academic process begins. First, the manuscript undergoes copyediting by the editorial team for about 1 week. Afterward, the authors are asked to perform a final proofread and sign the copyright statement within 1 to 2 weeks. The final step is the proofreading and official publication on the journal’s website, which takes approximately 1 week. This ensures that the published article has undergone thorough and professional validation.