Duties of Reviewers

Duties and Responsibilities of  Reviewers
Peer Review Ethics
UNIMAS journals practise a double-blind peer review process. Chief Editors/Editors shall have the right to and follow the best practise in selecting and appointing potential reviewers (at least one, but usually two or more) who are expected to have related expertise or have the suitable expertise on the relevent field, willing to give full cooperation and commitment and time for reviewing an assigned manuscript to ensure high standards of peer reviewing. The comments given by the reviewers will be used to assist the Chief Editors/Editors in making decision on the publication and to guide the authors in improving the overall quality of their manuscripts.

Reviewers should review all submissions objectively, fairly and professionally.  When proposing acceptance of a manuscript, reviewer must ensure that the manuscript meet these criteria: original and significance, research work is of importance to research community in the related field, interesting to scientists in other related fields, and provide evidence for its conclusions. Reviewers should also ensure that the methods are adequately explained, all relevant works are cited properly.

Reviewers should avoid giving comments or statements that are offensive, libellous or discourteous. Reviewers are to abide with guidelines set by the journals for the scope, content and quality of review and comply with the journal publication policy by UNIMAS Publisher.

Reviewers should follow the deadline given to review an assigned manuscript. Typically a manuscript should be reviewed by the reviewer within three weeks. Any extension of reviewing duration must be approved by the Editors concerned. Reviewers may be requested by Editors to review or to give further advice on an revised manuscript.

Reviewers should maitain the confidentiality of the peer-review process. All the communication between the reviewers and the journal editors, as well as any manuscript received by the reviewer must be treated confidentially and must not be disclosed or discussed the content of the submission to others without permission.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest may exist when a reviewer has a financial or personal interest that could affect his/her professional judgement on the manuscript. Potential reviewers who conduct their own research works which are conflicting or competing with the authors will not be appointed.

A potential reviewer must disclose any potential financial or personal conflict (if any) to the Editors before agreeing to review a manuscript.  Editors will make a decision whether to cease the use of reviewers who have such potential conflict of interest.

A reviewer may opt to refuse to review any submission due to a conflict of interest or inadequate knowledge.

References:
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (2016). Code of Conduct. Available at: https://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct

Council of Science Editors (2018). White Paper on Publication Ethics. Available at: https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/

European Science Foundation (2011). The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. Available at: https://www.nsf.gov/od/oise/Code_Conduct_ResearchIntegrity.pdf

Kassirer, JP (1995). Authorship criteria. Science, 268: 785-786.

Mandal, J, Ponnambath, DK, & Parija, SC. (2016). Ethics of scientific publication. Tropical Parasitology, 6(2): 100-102.

Nature Cell Biology. (2014). Improving author experience. Exploring avenues to optimize the peer-reivew process and improve author experience. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncb3081

Natural Research Journals’ Policies on publishing ethics. Available at: https://www.nature.com/authors/policies/publication.html

Nature Nanotechnology (2012). A matter of duty. Corresponding authors should not neglect their responsibility to a journal or their co-authors. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2012.234

PLoS Medicine. Ethical Publishing Practice. Available at: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/s/ethical-publishing-practice

Science Journals: editorial policies. Available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/authors/science-journals-editorial-policies