Criteria for Acceptance and Rejection.

A manuscript is accepted when it is (1) endorsed for publication by 2 or 3 referees, (2) the instructions of the reviewers are substantially complied; (3) the manuscript passed the plagiarism detection test with a score of at least 90 for originality; and, (4) the manuscript obtained a score of 90 percent for grammarly software; otherwise, the manuscript is rejected. The referees’ evaluations include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript, chosen from options provided by the journal.

Most recommendations are along the following lines:

• Unconditional acceptance
• Acceptance with revision based on the referee’s recommendations
• Rejection with an invitation to resubmit after major adjustments based on the advice of the referees and editorial board
• Complete rejection

In situations where referees disagree substantially about the quality of work, several strategies can be employed to reach a decision. When the editor receives both extremely favorable and extremely unfavorable feedback on the same manuscript, the board will request one or more extra reviews to break the tie. In the event of a tie, the board may invite writers to respond to a referee's criticisms and allow a strong response to break the tie. The board may request a response from the referee who made the original critique if the editor does not feel secure in judging the persuasiveness of a rebuttal. In rare instances, the board will convey communications back and forth between an author and a referee, allowing them to debate on a point. However, even in such a case, the board does not permit referees to confer with one another. The goal of the process is explicitly not to reach a consensus or to convince anyone to change their opinions.