Review process

When a manuscript is submitted to JM, the Editorial Office checks if the manuscript was prepared according to the guidelines, gives it a manuscript number and assigns it to one of the members of the editorial board. The manuscript number should be referred to in any subsequent communications between the corresponding author and the editor or the Editorial Office.

All manuscripts are first evaluated confidentially by the editorial board members. To expedite the review process, only manuscripts that meet the editorial criteria are sent out for external review. Manuscripts judged to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate can be immediately rejected without external review. Manuscripts sent out for external review are evaluated by two or more independent reviewers.

Authors are welcome to suggest the potential reviewers who are not members of their institution(s), who have not recently been associated with their laboratory(ies), and who could not otherwise be considered to pose a competing interest regarding the submitted manuscript. All recommendations are considered, but reviewer selection is at the Editor’s discretion.

Decision

The corresponding author is generally notified of the editor’s decision to accept, reject, or require modification or revision by the editor or the Editorial Office within 4 to 5 weeks of submission. Manuscripts that have been rejected may be resubmitted once the major criticisms have been properly addressed.

When a manuscript is returned to the corresponding author for revision, it should be returned to the Editorial Office within 8 weeks (for major revision) or 4 weeks (for minor revision). Otherwise, it may be considered withdrawn.

The author(s) should supply the Response to the Reviewers and a letter or certificate for English editing (only if requested by the Editorial Office) along with the revised manuscript. As with the initial submission, resubmitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter stating that the manuscript is a resubmission and describing briefly the changes made. When an editor has decided that a manuscript is acceptable for publication, the corresponding author and the Editorial Office will be notified. If necessary, the corresponding author will be asked to re-edit the manuscript.