Peer-Review Policy

The European Journal of Therapeutics is committed to a rigorous and fair double-anonymus peer-review process to ensure the scientific quality, originality, and ethical soundness of all published content. Our process adheres to international standards and best practices, including guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Upon submission, all manuscripts first undergo an initial technical assessment by the editorial office. This technical assessment includes checking author information, required documents and forms, grammar/spelling, manuscript structure, similarity check (iThenticate/Turnitin), and artificial intelligence writing detection (Turnitin). Authors are expected to address any identified technical deficiencies within seven business days. For necessary corrections requiring more extensive work, authors are granted a maximum of 15 days. Manuscripts that fail to meet these technical requirements or are deemed incomplete may be rejected at this stage.

Following the technical assessment, an Editor is assigned to the manuscript. The Editor evaluates the manuscript's suitability for the journal's scope and its overall scientific merit. Manuscripts that do not align with the journal's scope or are deemed to be of insufficient scientific quality may be rejected by the Editor at this stage without further peer review.

Should the Editorial Board suspect a case of "gift authorship," the manuscript will be summarily rejected, without proceeding to an external peer review.

The Editor-in-Chief and Section Editor check all submissions, and at least two external reviewers, before a publication decision is made.

The Editorial Board will invite an external and independent Editor to manage the evaluation processes of manuscripts submitted by Editors or by the Editorial Board members of the journal.

If the Editor determines the manuscript is suitable, it is then sent for external peer review. At least two independent, expert reviewers are invited based on their qualifications and academic contributions. The European Journal of Therapeutics employs a double-anonymous peer review model, where both the authors' and reviewers' identities are concealed from each other to ensure impartiality.

To guide the editorial decision, reviewers are requested to offer constructive critiques and propose dispositions such as acceptance without alteration, calls for minor or substantial revisions, or outright rejection. In the peer review form, reviewers are requested to evaluate the submission's contribution to the literature under the headings of originality, literature review/use of sources, methodology, findings (presented, accurately, and with supporting data), discussion (logicality of inferences), formatting/structure, and suitability of the article for the journal's scope. Main text and supplementary materials are subject to reviewer evaluation (tables, figures, etc.). The stipulated period for reviewers to return their evaluations is 15 calendar days following the issuance of the invitation letter. Reviewers needing additional time must request an extension before this initial 15-day period expires. Reviewers are expected to adhere to the "Ethical guidelines for peer reviewers" (as recommended by COPE, available at https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9).

Based on the reviewer reports, the Editor may request revisions from the authors. Authors are required to submit a detailed "Response to the reviewers" document, addressing each point raised by the reviewers comprehensively. Additionally, changes in the edited main document (Word file) must be highlighted with a yellow fill. The deadline for submitting revised manuscripts is set at seven (7) calendar days following the dispatch of the decision letter. Authors needing additional time must request an extension before this initial 7-day period expires; otherwise, the revision option may be canceled.

Based on the reviewer's decision in the first round of evaluation, major revisions are resubmitted for reviewer evaluation in the second round. The process is completed under Editor control based on the reviewer's decision.

Authors may submit reviewer suggestions along with their manuscript. It is imperative that there are no conflicts of interest between the suggested reviewers and the authors, and that all suggestions comply with international ethical standards. Suggested reviewers are required to have expertise relevant to the subject matter of the manuscript. Additionally, to maintain objectivity and prevent conflicts of interest, suggested reviewers should refrain from collaboration with the authors on any publication within the last three years, and should not be affiliated with the same institution as the authors. Editors will carefully review all the information provided. During the evaluation process, at least one additional external expert is assigned to the review process, in addition to any suggested reviewers.

The final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of an article rests with the Editor-in-Chief. In rare cases, a Section Editor may be explicitly authorized by the Editor-in-Chief to make the final decision for a specific article.

The Editorial Board accepts submissions of the types of Editorial, Special Editorial, In Memory of, and Book Review by invitation only. The Editorial Board reviews these types of submissions, not external experts.

Reviewers' comments are their intellectual property and are not published in open access. The European Journal of Therapeutics may share peer review evaluations with indexes as part of its obligations to share process information with national and international indexes.

¹ COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers. Version 2 September 2017

https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.9

© 2020 Committee on Publication Ethics (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://publicationethics.org

 

Last Revised on November 2025