When a paper is submitted by author(s) to an academic journal for publication, the journal's editor first sends it to several peer reviewers for review. These reviewers are typically experts and respected researchers in the same field of research as the author.
The peer reviewers carefully read the paper and check the following:
Each peer reviewer comments on the paper and provides recommendations to accept or reject it.
The journal editor coordinates the peer review process and assesses all reviews. They then make the ultimate decision whether to accept the paper for publication, request rewrites or reject it.
This infographic provides a visual summary of the peer review process. Click the plus (+) symbols in the image to reveal more detail about each step.
This interactive image hotspot provides information on a summary of the peer review process. Each hotspot explores a different stage of the review process. Hotspots are displayed as plus (+) icons that can be clicked, to present the information.
The author(s) submit their paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
The editor assembles a panel of experts from the relevant field and invites them to evaluate and comment on the paper.
The reviewers carefully read the paper and provide comments and suggestions.
The reviews are returned to the editor, each with a recommendation to accept, reject, or make changes to the paper and resubmit.
On the basis of all the reviews, the editor decides whether to:
The author(s) are advised of the outcome.
If accepted, the paper is published in the journal.