Peer Review Policy

Overview

Every manuscript is reviewed

The Journal of Clinical & Applied Pharmacology is a peer-reviewed journal. All submitted manuscripts undergo rigorous quality control before publication.

Type of review: The Journal uses double-blind peer review — the identities of authors and reviewers are mutually concealed throughout.

Process

How a manuscript is handled

1. Initial editorial screening — the editorial office checks each submission for scope, completeness, ethics documentation, and similarity. Manuscripts outside scope or below threshold may be returned without review.
2. Reviewer assignment — each research article is sent to at least two qualified external reviewers who have no conflict of interest with the work. A reading by an editor or a member of the editorial board is not an external review and does not count towards the two. The journal does not send a manuscript to a reviewer at the same institution as its authors. Editorials, letters to the editor, commentaries and book reviews are assessed by the editors and are labelled by type, so a reader can always tell which is which.
3. Review — reviewers assess originality, methodology, ethics, results, and clarity, and recommend: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject.
4. Decision — the Editor-in-Chief consolidates the reviews and makes the final decision. In case of conflicting reviews, an additional reviewer may be invited.

Identity masking

Double-blind in practice

Author and reviewer identities are concealed from each other. Authors submit a blinded manuscript with a separate title page, so that no identifying information reaches the reviewer. Editors handling a manuscript know author identities in order to manage conflicts of interest.

Plagiarism screening

What is checked

All manuscripts are screened for similarity before review.

A similarity index above 15% (after these exclusions) is returned to the author before review. Plagiarism, data fabrication and duplicate submission are handled per COPE flowcharts.

Ethics & integrity

Standards we follow

• The Journal follows ICMJE recommendations and COPE guidelines.
• Suspected misconduct is handled per COPE flowcharts.
• Reviewers must declare any conflict of interest and decline where one exists.
• Manuscripts under review are confidential and must not be shared or used by reviewers.
• All listed co-authors are notified of their authorship on submission — see Authorship & disclosures.

Appeals

If you disagree with a decision

Authors may appeal a decision in writing to the Editor-in-Chief at admin@jcapjournal.org, quoting the manuscript reference number and setting out the grounds for appeal. Appeals are considered on the scientific merits; where appropriate, an additional independent reviewer may be invited.