Xia & He Publishing

Peer Review & Editorial Process

The objective of the peer review process is to ensure the integrity and transparency of the research objectives, data, and conclusions.

Editorial Process

All articles, solicited and unsolicited, that are submitted to Xia & He journals will be subject to the following peer review process.

Step 1: Upon submission, the editorial staff will perform an initial assessment of the manuscript to determine its topical relevance, adherence to the formatting guidelines, and absence of plagiarism related to both textual and scientific content.

Step 2: If the manuscript passes the initial assessment, it is forwarded to a triage editor with appropriate expertise in the subject area and/or study design. The triage editor conducts manuscript triage to recommend whether it should proceed to peer review or be rejected promptly. If immediate rejection is recommended, the recommendation is submitted to the Editor-in-Chief for final approval.

Step 3: If the manuscript passes the triage screening, the triage editor will identify at least 2 external peer reviewers with expertise in the topic/specialty.

Step 4: After a peer reviewer has accepted the manuscript, 14 days (with a short grace period allowed for extenuating circumstances) is allotted for completion of the peer review evaluation.

Step 5: Upon return of the two peer reviews, the triage editor will make a reasoned recommendation for acceptance (full, with minor revisions, or with major revisions) or rejection and provide it to the Editor-in-Chief who makes the final decision.

Step 6: Manuscripts that are accepted with revision are allotted a 2-month period in which to return the revised version, which is to be accompanied by a Response Letter that clearly outlines the specific issues addressed in the manuscript. Papers that are returned without addressing every comment made by the reviewers and/or the editor will be rejected.

Step 7: Papers that required minor revisions will be re-assessed by the Editor-in-Chief, who will make the final decision for acceptance or rejection. Papers that required major revisions will be sent back to the original peer reviewers for further assessment and recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief who will make the final decision.

Step 8: If a paper is accepted, it will progress into the preparation stage for publication, the first step of which is copy editing and figure editing (if necessary) followed by typesetting.

Step 9: Proofs will be delivered to authors for confirmation.

Step 10: The articles will be published in PDF and HTML formats online in the next issue of the journal.

All Xia & He journals comply fully with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editor's uniform requirements for manuscripts.

Author Appeals

Author may appeal an editorial decision by sending an email to the editorial office. The appeal must contain detailed reasons/responses or rebuttals to the review comments and the editorial comments. The appeal and related material and/or information will be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief for judgement and for decision on the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief may recommend acceptance, revision, rejection, or referring to additional peer reviewers. The editorial decision at this stage will be final and cannot be reversed.

After Acceptance

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly articles in press, because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows: doi: 10.14218/JCTH.2016.00006. (This example was taken from a document in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Hepatology). When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Proofs

The PDF proof will be sent to the corresponding author by email, or a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the proof themselves. Please review the proof of your paper carefully, checking for any final typographical errors or minor necessary updates. We will do best to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please let us have all your corrections within 48 hours, in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections may not be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely the authors’ responsibility. Note that Xia & He Publishing may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Reprints and Permissions

Article reprints are an exact replica of the article as it appears in the published journal, with cover included. High-quality copies of articles are available upon request to the publisher. Permission to publish or advertise articles or portions of articles are granted on a case-by-case basis upon user’s request. Visit: https://www.xiahepublishing.com/information/editorial/reprints

PDF Files

After publication, the corresponding author will be provided with a full-text link and/or a PDF file of the published article via e-mail. The PDF file can be downloaded at the provided link. Moreover, the full-content PDF (with cover) of the current issue is also downloadable from the Table of Contents page.

Submissions from Editors, Editorial Board Members, or Employees

Submissions from editors, members of the editorial board or employees will go through the same rigorous peer-review process as other submissions, and will be treated no differently to any other manuscripts submitted to Xia & He journals. To ensure unbiased review, the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Editorial Board Member, and the Editorial Staff will not make decision for, handle, or review his/her own manuscript. And all possible measures are undertaken to avoid any potential conflict of interest in handling of such manuscripts at all the stages including allocation of handling editor, selection of reviewers, decision making and, if required, processing for publication. Moreover, the status of editorial board membership/employment should be declared in the conflict of interest statement of the published article.

Complaints Procedure

Complaints procedure

We welcome complaints and will try our best to solve the matters in a timely manner to the entire satisfactory of our authors.

The complaint must relate to the content or process that is within the responsibility of Xia & He Publishing or our editorial staff, editors.

How to make a complaint

The best way to make a complaint is by email. Complaints should ideally be made to the person the complainant is already in contact with over the matter being complained about. If that is not appropriate, please email [email protected].

Whenever possible complaints will be dealt with by the relevant member of the editorial staff. If that person is not appropriate, he or she will refer it to the executive editor.

Complaints that are not under the control of The Xia & He Publishing's editorial staff will be sent to the relevant heads of department.

All complaints will be acknowledged within two working days.

If possible a full response will be made within two weeks. If this is not possible an interim response will be given within two weeks. Further interim responses will be provided until the complaint is resolved.

If the complainant is not happy with the resolution, he or she can ask for the complaint to be escalated to the executive editor.

If the complainant remains unhappy, complaints should be escalated to the editor, whose decision is final.

If a complainant remains unhappy after what the editor considers a definitive reply the complainant may complain to an external body (see below).

External body

If the complainant has exhausted the internal processes and is still unhappy he or she can complain to the following body:

The Committee on Publication Ethics

COPE (http://www.publicationethics.org) publishes a code of practice for editors of scientific, technical, and medical journals. It will consider complaints against editors but only once a journal's own complaints procedures have been exhausted.

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