Peer Review Process

Research articles or Manuscripts submitted to ELEMENT are initially reviewed by the editors for general fit with the ELEMENT focus and scope and for the writing quality. Only those research articles meeting the ELEMENT focus and scope will be sent to reviewers for a double-blind review. Review time is typically 4-6 months. Two reviewers will be assigned to evaluate the research articles or manuscripts on the basis of their expertise. Reviewers are expected to return their reviews within 4 weeks. A third reviewer will be appointed in case one of the reviewers disagrees upon the quality of the research article for publication. The assigned reviewers evaluate the research articles by using a standard manuscript evaluation form. They are required to treat all the information in the research articles as confidential. Views of the assigned reviewers serve as a guide to ELEMENT editors to make a final decision on the research articles. The final decision always belongs to ELEMENT editors. Those manuscripts that are judged by the editors and assigned editors to be inappropriate are rejected promptly without external reviews.

The editors then make a decision based on the reviewers' advice, from among several possibilities:

Accepted as written without any revisions

Accepted with minor revisions 

Accepted with major revisions

Rejected