Reviewers Guideline
The purpose of peer review
Peer review is a critical element of scholarly publication, and one of the major cornerstones
of the scientific process. It ensures that published research is sound and properly verified
and improves the quality of the study.
Reviewers for Journal of Maternal and Child Health (JMCH) are selected by the
handling editors on the basis of their knowledge of the field. Reviewer names are
anonymized so authors will not be informed of the identity of the reviewers. The materials
in the manuscript are confidential and will not be used for reviewer’s work.
Reviewers are registered by the editor and receive an e-mail containing their user
name and password to access the site. The review process begins when the editor receives
manuscripts and screens them to see if they have any potential as an article published in
the journal. Manuscripts that are obviously inappropriate for the audience or seriously
flawed are rejected at that point. Manuscripts that are too long or not prepared in APA
style are rated as “revise before review” and returned to the authors.
Editor of JMCH will ask reviewers to submit their assessment within two weeks of
agreeing to review a manuscript, although extensions can be granted. If you do not have
time to review the article, please let the Editor know. Suggestions for alternative reviewers
are welcome.
Conflict of interest
As a reviewer, your task is to critically and constructively judge the content of a
manuscript. A conflict of interest could be:
1. your PhD student or PhD advisor;
2. family relations;
3. people at your current institution;
4. people whose research you fund or who fund you;
5. collaborators in the past two years.
To make the best decisions on submitted manuscript in the JMCH, Editor of JMCH
should know about any competing interests that reviewers may have. If you have a concern
about a potential conflict of interest then please do contact us for further advice prior to
completing the review.
Reviewer Agreement Statement
If you agree to be a reviewer in JMCH, please fill Reviewer Agreement Statement form and
send the scanned file to Editorial Board (email: jurnals2ikm@gmail.com).
After the Editor of JMCH received filled Reviewer Agreement Statement form, each
reviewer will receive a user ID and password that can be used to sign in the JMCH online
submission system as a reviewer. The reviewer needs to secure and protect their user ID
and password. They should not share the user ID and password with anyone. Each
reviewer has primary responsibility for the information entered in the JMCH online
system.
Role and task of reviewer
1. The peer review process is based on trust
2. Journal of Maternal and Child Health depends largely on the quality and integrity of the
reviewers
3. Reviewers should write reports in a collegial and constructive manner
4. Reviewers should treat all manuscripts in the same manner as they would like their own
manuscript to be treated.
5. Reviewers should provide an objective, thorough, and comprehensive report
6. Reviewers should provide well-founded comments for authors
7. Reviewers should give constructive criticism
8. Reviewers should provide a clear recommendation to the Editor
9. Reviewers should submit the report on time
Reviewing a paper
As a reviewer, it is important that you remain objective in your critical appraisal. You
should not allow your personal prejudice about research topics or researchers to influence
your judgment. Your comments should be professional and courteous, and should help the
author to improve their paper and present their research as clearly and concisely as
possible.
Initial steps: Read the manuscript, supplementary data files and ancillary material
thoroughly, getting back to the journal if anything is not clear and requesting any missing
or incomplete items you need. Do not contact the authors directly without the permission
of the JMCH. It is important to understand the scope of the review before commencing.
If you have reasons to believe that the material is not original or has been plagiarized,
please alert the handling editor or the editorial office.
When reviewing a paper, you should take into consideration the following:
1. Originality and quality.
a. Is the paper of sufficient interest for publication in the JMCH?
b. Does it contribute significantly to the current state of the research field?
c. Is the topic handled substantively and accurately in appropriate detail and scope?
2. Structure: abstract, background, subjects and method, results, and discussion
3. Engagement with previous research and results (e.g. does the author engage
with current/ relevant research in the field).
4. Language. If a paper is difficult to understand due to grammatical errors, please
mention this in your report.
After you read the manuscript, please make some comments in the manuscript for
revision (if necessary) and fill the manuscript assessment form from reviewer. An
assessment form is only used for a manuscript.
Submitting your report
If you have completed your assessment, send us the manuscript and your filled manuscript
assessment form to the Editor of JMCH by online submission system. If you need any
assistance, please contact the editorial office (email: jurnals2ikm@gmail.com).
