Editorial & Peer Review Process
Initial Screening before peer review
Before being sent for peer review, the Journal Administrator will first screen to ensure manuscripts fall within the journal's scope and that they follow the Author Guidelines. Contributors are expected to submit their work in the structure and style of urbane, academic-quality English. The contributors' style of expression must serve to articulate the complex ideas and concepts being brandished, conveying explicit, coherent, unambiguous meaning to scholarly readers. Moreover, manuscripts must have a formal tenor and quality, employing the third-person rather than first-person standpoint (when feasible) while placing emphasis on the research problem being analysed and not on unsubstantiated subjective impressions regarding the issue.
Contributors whose command of English is not at the level outlined above are responsible for having their manuscript corrected by a native-level, English-speaking academic prior to submitting their paper for publication. These standards are non-negotiable and strictly enforced by the editor of the IAFOR Journal of Arts and Humanities.
Peer review process
The IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities practices double-blind peer review. The review process is as follows:
- Submissions check, (the Publications Office makes sure that all information needed for processing the submission further was provided; that the submission complies with the Author Guidelines; and that the content is relevant to the journal);
- Plagiarism screening with iThenticate software;
- Articles are anonymised;
- Submission is forwarded to the Editor who checks the work meets basic journal criteria; and invitations sent to reviewers to review the manuscript;
- Primary checking of an anonymous submission, involving an assessment of its suitability for publication (based on the quality of language, compatibility with the IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities' Aims & Scope, evidence of research, and sufficiency of references to the international literature), performed by two reviewers independent of journal;
- Notification of the author(s) of the outcome of the review via a reviewing sheet(s) made available to the author(s). Reviewer comments must be objective and provided with the aim of helping authors improve their article. If the submission is found suitable, the author(s) are invited to make any necessary changes and return the article to the editor;
- Proofreading and checking whether the reworked article is written in compliance with the reviewer's comments and the Author Guidelines.
- Final plagiarism screening with iThenticate software.
Members of the IAFOR Journal of Arts & Humanities Editorial Board are experts in diverse fields within the arts and humanities. As of June 2018, there are 7 scholars from 5 countries on the journal’s editorial board. The Editor ensures at every stage that all manuscripts are completely anonymised.
We do not guarantee short peer review times, although reviewers are requested to return their review within 2 to 3 weeks. The editorial process may take more time (sometimes considerably) when there are extenuating circumstances, such as conflicts with the evaluators’ teaching duties at the beginning or end of an academic semester, or pandemics.