FAQ for Authors

What file formats are acceptable for submission?

We accept either Word formats (doc, docx, rtf) or an Adobe PDF version of the manuscript.

Do I have to submit a cover letter?

The cover letter is optional with the first version of the manuscript. However, if you are submitting a revised version of the manuscript, you have to include a cover letter which should contain a summary of the changes you made to the manuscript and your reply to the points raised by the reviewers.

Are there any particular criteria that my manuscript should meet before it can undergo the peer review process?

All manuscripts will undergo an initial screening process upon submission to ensure that they are appropriate for review in the journal. Submitted manuscripts should present the results of an original research study, and they should provide a useful contribution to the scientific record. Non-research material, such as Book Reviews, Literature Review Articles, and Editorials will not be considered for publication. If you have any questions about your manuscript, you should contact the journal's Editorial Office at editorial@syrexe.com.

How many reviewers can I suggest for my manuscript?

You can have a maximum of ten reviewers assigned to your manuscript.

Can I contact potential reviewers before submitting my article?

Yes, you may contact potential reviewers before your article is submitted. However, keep in mind that the journal has a process for approving reviewers before they can be assigned to review your article. It can happen that you choose reviewers who are willing to participate in the review process based on your request, but when you suggest them as potential reviewers, some or all of them do not get approved by the journal's Editorial Office.

What is the basis on which the journal approves suggested reviewers?

The main factor in determining whether or not a potential reviewer will be approved is the seniority of the reviewer within the subject area of the manuscript. There are different ways the journal uses to make sure the reviewers are of adequate seniority including, among other factors, the h-index of the reviewers. There are also several requirements: the reviewers must not be from the same institute as the manuscript authors, must not have co-authored any article with the manuscript authors during the last 3 years, and must be geographically dispersed. In addition, in order to keep the system as distributed as possible, reviewers will not be allowed to review too many articles for Scholarly Research Exchange, and they should not review more than one manuscript for the same author in any 12-month period.

Should I suggest all the reviewers at the point of submission?

No, you can add more reviewers at any point during the review process.

If I suggest a number of reviewers but then the journal does not approve some of them, or if some of them decline to review my manuscript, can I add more?

Yes, provided that the number of active reviewers does not exceed ten. The number of active reviewers is the number of reviewers excluding those who were either disapproved by the Editorial Office, or who were approved by the Editorial Office and then declined to review the manuscript.

What needs to happen for my article to be accepted for publication?

You need to receive 2 review reports which give your manuscript one or more stars according to the following scale:

	Outstanding Quality
	Minimum Publishable Quality
	Erroneous or Useless

In addition to getting 2 or more review reports with a rating of one or more stars, the average number of stars in all the review reports that are submitted must be at least one. This means that if you receive one report with zero stars, you must receive at least one report with two or more stars in order to have an average of one star.

When the manuscript is published, do you publish the number of stars that it received in the review reports?

Yes, all the star ratings are published along with the identity of the reviewers. The reviewer commentaries in the review reports are also displayed on the journal web site. Readers can then continue to evaluate the manuscript after its publication, and their ratings are also recorded and displayed. There is a separate section for the pre-publication evaluations made by the reviewers and the post-publication evaluations made by members of the community-at-large.

Will you publish the full review reports of my article if it is accepted for publication?

Only two of the three sections of your review reports will be published along with your article. The journal's review report form (which can be seen here) contains three sections: a quantitative assessment of the manuscript's quality, a written critique addressed to the authors, and an optional written commentary addressed to the journal's readers. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, the identities of the reviewers and their assessments of the quality of your manuscript will be published on the journal web site. In addition, the reviewers can opt to have a written commentary on your manuscript published. However, the critiques that the reviewers address to the authors will not be published.

If I receive enough positive evaluations for my manuscript to be accepted for publication, do I need to wait for the remaining reviewers to submit their reports?

No, once you have enough positive review reports (2 reviewers who give your manuscript one or more stars, and an average of at least one star from all of the submitted reports), you can end the review process and have your manuscript published in the journal.

Can I still submit a revised version of my manuscript even if the first round of review resulted in scores that would allow my manuscript to be published?

Of course you can. One important benefit of peer review is to enable authors to improve their manuscript before publication. All reviewers of the revised version will have access to the previous versions of your article, along with their corresponding review reports.

What if I receive low ratings from the reviewers and I don't want my manuscript to be published with these low ratings?

The journal will not publish your manuscript until you enable it do so. If you are not happy with your manuscript's evaluations, and you do not wish to submit a revised version, you can always choose to "withdraw" rather than "publish" your manuscript.

How many rounds of revision can I go through?

Submissions may undergo a maximum of three rounds of review.

If my manuscript is accepted for publication, can I submit an updated version with language or typo corrections?

No, but you can correct any typos, grammar, or spelling mistakes during the galley proof corrections.

If my manuscript is accepted, will it receive any copyediting before publication?

Yes. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication it will undergo language copyediting, typesetting, reference validation, and XML markup. Once the production process is complete, the final version of each article will be published on the journal web site.

Do the evaluations that are made by readers have any impact on the publication of my article?

No. While the evaluations made by readers will be displayed on the journal web site, they will not have any impact on the acceptance of your article in the journal.