Peer Review Process

Editorial Process: the editorial process starts with the sending of the manuscript to the journal’s platform (OJS) and it ends once the article has been declined or accepted for publication on the established dates by SMPIJ. As soon as the sending has taken place, the review processes will occur as described below:

Review process: in order to facilitate the articles’ review process, Stress Management Professional an International Journal requests authors to suggest at least three possible peers to review their article (including name, institution, and email). These peers should be experts on the field and be unconnected to the research developed on the manuscript. They cannot belong to the editorial staff of SMPIJ. The journal reserves the right to use the proposed peers’ services. In this case, the editor will assign other reviewers.

Articles sent to SMPIJ will be initially reviewed by the editor and his or her assistant to verify the compliance with the journal’s criteria. Then, they will be submitted to the Turn it in program, which is a software that verifies coincidence percentages with previous written and published material to check for plagiarism. With an index of 30% or higher number of coincidences found, the paper will be discarded. Once this is done, authors will be notified whether the article adjusts to editorial policies, if corrections are needed and if it has been rejected.

SMPIJ relies on a vast scientific staff of researches with (PhD) studies both in and outside the country who have specializations in the fields of psychology, neurosciences, health sciences, biology and human behavior related sciences. Therefore, any article sent to the journal, will be subject to specialized peers’ evaluation according with the topic developed on the article.

Authors sending their article to SMPIJ, can rely on the fact that their academic contribution will be assessed with high confidentiality of their names and affiliation. (Double-blind peer evaluation). Likewise, the editorial will refrain from revealing the judges’ names or their affiliation.

Once the article has been reviewed and approved by the editor, and with the assistant, the following procedure will take place:

• Potential peers will be contacted depending on the topic developed on the manuscript (SMPIJ assigns minimum two judges do the article’s review).
• Once the roles have been accepted by the judges, the following is done:
• Sending of the manuscript in Word format to the corresponding peers.
• Names and filiations of authors inside the manuscript are excluded.
• Sending of format for articles’ evaluation depending on the kind (investigation, review, reflection)
• Indications for the peer to carry out the evaluation within the following six weeks.

After receiving the peers’ verdict, the editor analyses the evaluations and presents them to the editorial committee, which makes a decision that is informed to the main author.

In case the article has been approved, but it requires corrections suggested by the peers, the main author will be contacted to proceed with the necessary changes, or counter argue the peers’ suggestions. (The author has ten calendar days for this task from the moment he or she has been notified by the editorial committee). Once the author has carried out the corrections or counter argued them, the need for sending it to a different peer specialized in the feels will be analyzed in order for a final verdict to be given (this process should take between 10 and 30 days maximum). After evaluation is sent back, a final decision on approval or rejection will be reached.

If the evaluators approved the article, the author will make the necessary adjustments (10 calendar days will be given from the moment of the editorial committee’s communication).

Style correction: as soon as the changes applied by the authors and approved by the evaluators and editor, the style correction process from SMPIJ begins. This process will be carried out depending on the case’s needs, and the style corrector will contact the authors to make necessary adjustments.

Layout and Design Once: the style correction is approved; the article will be sent to the design area for layout. This process will be done within the following 15 days.

Draft: when the article has been designed and after editor’s approval, a preliminary sending to the author will take place. The author should review it in a detailed manner to check for mistakes that could have occurred during the layout and design process. If the author identifies any omission, mistake or lack of information, he or she should notify the editor referring directly to he manuscript (page, column, paragraph, line, word, etc.). Changes directly applied to the draft will not be accepted: Only those notified to SMPIJ.

Publication: once the adjustments have been made on the article, it will be queued for the next volume publication, which will be available to the public on the established dates (this is, at the beginning of each semester).