Instructions for Editors

Dated, November 2011

All manuscripts are submitted and reviewed electronically via our online system. The editorial office, the editors, and referees should deal with all manuscripts confidentially.

Receiving and assigning of editors

Submitted manuscripts are checked for style and format by a managing editor, and if necessary, the authors are asked to resubmit a format-corrected manuscript. The senior editors assign an associate editor with appropriate expertise, who is responsible for making the recommendation on acceptability. Before sending a manuscript to associate editor, the senior editor should pre-evaluate whether the manuscript is potentially suitable for M&E using certain basic criteria: nature and scope of the study, quality of data, and standard of presentation. If the manuscript does not fulfill these criteria, the senior editor rejects at this stage. Before assigning a senior editor, the editorial office will also pre-screen based on the manuscript with these criteria, and if it is not suitable for further reviewing, it may be rejected so that the authors can submit it to a more appropriate journal without further delay.

Reviewing

The associate editor normally sends the manuscript to at least two independent referees with expertise in the related research fields. The associate editor can also act as a referee him/herself. The selection of preferred or non-preferred referees suggested by the authors is at the discretion of the associate editor. The associate editor should ask the referees to complete their reviewing within two weeks. Upon receiving the evaluations and comments of the referees, the associate editor judges the acceptability of the manuscript. The associate editor should evaluate all the materials provided by the authors including supplementary data and should check the style of the manuscript format including tables, figures, and references. If some modifications are necessary, the revision by the authors should be returned within six weeks. If more time is required, the associate editor can set a new deadline. The revised version will be re-sent to referees if further reviewing is necessary. If the revision by the authors is delayed without agreement with the associate editor, the revised version will be treated as a new submission.

Recommendation, decision, and accepted manuscripts

After the evaluation, the associate editor sends his/her recommendation (accept or reject) to the senior editor, and according to the recommendation, the senior editor decides on the acceptability of the manuscript. The senior editor will notify the authors of the decision. The senior editor may ask another associate editor to further review the manuscript if the senior editor’s decision differs from the associate editor’s recommendation. A managing editor usually sends an accepted manuscript to an expert for English language proofreading, and the edited manuscript is returned to the authors to correct the language of the manuscript. The managing editor sometimes asks the authors to make modifications to the style and format of the manuscript. The final manuscript submitted by the authors will be handled by the publisher.