Purpose

Archives of Depression and Anxiety (ADA) believes that peer-review process has an important role in authenticating research works in science, health and medicine before final publication. It also helps in analysing whether the submitted manuscript is relevant to the scope of the journal. Peer Review Process assists in maintaining Journal ethical standards and safeguards the truthful honest research works.

Policy

ADA adheres double-blind peer review policy for the submitted manuscripts. In double-blind peer review system, the identity of both the author and reviewer is kept hidden. As the reviewers are unaware who wrote the manuscript, they cannot be influenced by their standing within a research community. Moreover, reviewers feel free to comment on the works of experienced and experts of a discipline.

In order to expedite the review process; authors are suggested to send two documents- Title page and manuscript. The title page will contain the details of the corresponding authors and co-authors. However; it is not mandatory to send two documents.

Process

On submission, all papers undergo initial screening by the Editors to ensure suitability for publication. To facilitate this, editor-in-chiefs ensure that the manuscripts are not revealing the identities of the authors to reviewers and vice versa.

Suitable papers are sent to at least two independent referees/reviewers chosen by the Editor, and the reports from the referees are then considered by the Editor, who will make the final decision. The existence and content of an article are kept confidential with Peertechz and the referees involved in review process.

The average time between submission and final publication of the manuscript is 2 to 3 weeks. However, it also depends on workload with reviewers and editors as well as how promptly an author submits the revised manuscript.

Editor-in-Chief/Editor writes to the author(s) of the article explaining his/her decision on publication and enclosing the report from the expert; if applicable. This decision is based on four options:

1. Acceptance without modifications
2. Provisional acceptance with modifications (Minor Revision)
3. Possible acceptance if substantial changes are made (Major Revision)
4. Rejection

The author of the article has the opportunity to put forward a response to the decision made in the peer-review process. Once the revised manuscript is returned it is checked by the Editor. If further modifications are required, the manuscript is returned to the author(s) to implement the suggestions and re-submit the manuscript. A letter of acceptance is sent to the authors, requesting all authors to give their approval to publish the article and to submit any final material required.

Authors are also requested to pay an article processing charge for their accepted articles to be open access online immediately upon publication at this point. By paying this charge authors are also permitted to post the final, published PDF and full text of their article on website.