Peer review policy

EPSIR employs a rigorous double-blind peer review process to ensure the publication of original and high-quality scientific work. In this process, each stage must be approved to move to the next one.

Preliminary Editorial Review: Articles aspiring for publication undergo an initial assessment by the Editorial Committee, checking the manuscript for clarity, relevance, and thematic significance, as well as compliance with the journal's editorial guidelines. Articles not accepted at this stage will be notified to their authors within no more than fifteen business days.

If the manuscript has superficial structural and/or form issues, the editor will send relevant suggestions to the authors for correction before sending it to the reviewers. In this case, the author has a maximum of 10 days to submit the revised manuscript to the editor. The editor reserves the right to make basic formal adjustments that do not affect the content of the text to streamline the editorial process.

Peer Review System: Once approved by the Editorial Committee, two or more external expert reviewers are assigned, who will evaluate the article confidentially and anonymously (double-blind) using a specific form. Generally, the manuscript is sent to two reviewers. In case of disagreement in the assessment, the editors have the right to send the manuscript to a third referee, who will be unaware of the previous referees' judgments to ensure impartiality, ethics, and transparency in the process, safeguarding the quality of the final publication.

Duration of Manuscript Review Process: The average time taken by EPSIR reviewers is 30 to 60 days. The editor will send the author the review report and, if applicable, suggestions for modifications to the article, or alternatively, the decision to reject the manuscript along with the review reports. If necessary, the manuscript will be sent back to the reviewers to continue the evaluation process until a final decision of rejection or approval is reached. In each case, the author will have 5 days to submit the corrected manuscript to the editor along with a justification for the changes made and for any discrepancies that lead to not modifying one or several aspects noted by the reviewers, if any.

EPSIR maintains an internal database that processes and records the transfer of articles and the pool of reviewers. The list of reviewers over a one-year period is published thereafter.

Reviewer Selection Criteria: Typically, two reviewers are selected based on their area of specialization (ensuring a value judgment based on expert knowledge of the subject). Furthermore, reviewers are external to the author's institution, as well as to the journal's committees and editorial bodies.

Editorial Decision: The criteria for acceptance or rejection of the works are as follows:

• Originality of the manuscript.
• Methodology.
• Quality of the results, discussion, and conclusions, and their coherence with the objectives stated in the manuscript.
• Clarity of the language used.
• Compliance with the journal's standards.
• Ethical conduct in accordance with applicable research standards.
• Relevance and timeliness of the consulted bibliographic references.

Once the evaluation process is complete, the lead author will be notified of the ACCEPTANCE or REJECTION of the submitted article. The contact author will be informed about the rejection of the manuscript, including the reviewers' reports. At this point, the author can express agreement or disagreement with the decision, as well as raise other opinions or issues, which will be responded to within a maximum of 15 days.

Correction Stage: Once the reviewers have approved the manuscript and the suggestions for modification by the authors have been resolved, the correction stage in the editorial process begins. During this phase, the section editor is responsible for formatting the article, making orthotypographic corrections, and correcting the citations and bibliographic references presented.

Close communication between the authors and the section editor is essential during this final stage. The section editor will directly contact the corresponding author to request any incomplete information, resolve doubts about writing and style, and require details about the citations and references of the article. Any corrections detected by the editor will not involve changes to the content and will always be discussed with the corresponding author for implementation. The outcome of this exchange will be the author's approval of the final versions to be published.

The aim of this last phase is to ensure that the article meets the standards of quality and format of the Journal, ensuring accuracy and coherence in the presentation of the scientific article.