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Review Process

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The Journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. The benefit of single-blind peer review is that it is the traditional model of peer review that many reviewers are comfortable with, and it facilitates a dispassionate critique of a manuscript. A regular review process for each submitted manuscript consists of three stages: initial check, preliminary assessment and peer review.

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Initial check

The submitted manuscript will be initially checked by the Executive Editor. At this stage, a decision of "Reject without review" would be made for the submissions which do not meet the guidelines set out in this document. In addition, manuscripts are automatically checked for text overlap. Those with high overlap scores may also be rejected directly without further review. We are sorry that we cannot provide the detailed report for the text overlap check.

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Preliminary assessment

Manuscripts which pass through the initial check will be preliminarily assessed by one or more assistant editors. At this stage, the Executive Editor has sole discretion, with the help of the invited assistant editors, on whether to send the manuscript for peer review or reject it without review.

Special emphases will be paid on the readability and the attractiveness of the submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts without an attractive abstract and/or a comprehensive and convincing introduction will be rejected at this stage without detailed comments.

(延伸阅读：如何理解和回应本刊初审退稿决定中的主编意见)

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Peer review

Around four reviewers will be invited for peer review. When a submission has at least two (or one in exceptional cases) useable reports, the Executive Editor will use the reviewers' comments to decide whether to accept the manuscript for publication, return it for revision (major or minor), or reject it.

Infrequently, after several rounds of invitations to peer reviewers, a submission may receive no reports. In this case, the submission may be rejected at the editor's discretion.

延伸阅读：经同行评审被退稿后如何申诉？

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