Peer review process
Double blind peer reviewing: Each submitted manuscript is assessed by Editor-in-Chief, at first for its quality, accuracy, novelty, relevance and significance. If the manuscript meets the minimum standards, it enters the double blind peer review process in maximum two weeks. If submitted manuscript is considered out of journal's scope or inappropriate to publish, it will be rejected or returned to corresponding author without entering the peer-review process. The manuscript will then be sent at least to one in-office and two out of office reviewers for review. All the selected reviewers should be experienced researchers in agricultural and biological sciences. Also, the reviewers should be a faculty member in an academic organization or university around the world. The other important criteria for the reviewers are their suitable experiences in peer-reviewing, perfect academic skills, and effective international collaboration. All the reviewers must be advanced and proficient in English language levels. Authors can suggest to the journal office if they do not wish their manuscript to be reviewed by a particular reviewer because of potential conflicts of interest but, it is up to the Editor-in-Chief to accept it. Final decision pertaining to each manuscript is determined by Editor-in-Chief and after that the decision will be immediately sent to the corresponding author up to about two months. Editor can reject manuscript at any time before publication even after acceptance if concerns arise about the integrity of the work. In the peer review process, research protocols and plans for statistical analysis will be reviewed. Editorials, letters, and book reviews will not be entered to peer-review process.
Revision: Manuscripts may be returned to the corresponding author for modification of the scientific content and/or for language corrections. Revised manuscript and a letter listing point-for-point response to the reviewers must be submitted to the editor and must be accompanied by a copy of the original version. Suggestion by the editor about resubmission does not imply that a revised version will necessary be accepted. If a manuscript that is returned to the authors for modification is not resubmitted within two months it will be regarded as having been withdrawn and any revised version received subsequently will be treated as a new manuscript and the date of receipt will be altered accordingly. Authors who resubmit a manuscript that has previously been rejected must provide the original manuscript and a letter explaining in detail how the manuscript has been modified.
Proofs: A computer printout will be sent to the corresponding author to be checked for only typographical errors and other essential small changes before publication in order to avoid any mistakes. Major alternations to the text cannot be accepted at this stage. Proofs must be returned to the editor within 7 days of receipt.
Corrections or erratum: Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control will be published corrections if important errors are found. The corrections should be distinguishable from retractions and statements of concern relating to misconduct. If errors would be enough fundamental to make invalid the work, the journal have right to retract the published paper. Also, this journal will be published correction if the author/contributor list would be incorrect including, a deserving author has been omitted or somebody who does not meet authorship criteria has been included.
Retraction and expression of concern: Retraction will be published by Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control if errors affect the interpretation of the results or it is proven serious ethical misconduct, including duplication, redundant publication (publishing the data elsewhere without cross-referencing, permission or justification), disagreement of all authors for publication, plagiarism, miscalculation, experimental error. Expression of concern will be published by Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control if editors receive inconclusive evidence of research or publication misconduct by the authors, unreliability of the findings, an investigation would be underway but a judgment will not be available for a considerable time.
Withdrawal of articles: If legal infringements, defamation, false on inaccurate data would be occurred especially those could pose a serious health risk, the Journal of Food Quality and Hazards Control have right to remove or withdraw the article. In this circumstance, a retraction statement will be published by this journal and an explanation will be given about the circumstances of removal or withdrawal.
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