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Peer review policies

By accepting an invitation to review with a Science Press journal, reviewers agree to act in accordance with generally accepted publication ethics and best practices (including the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics COPE). Science Press supports and follows these guidelines as well. The reviewer also understands that good quality manuscripts that a journal is unable to accept may be referred to journals in a similar subject area within Science Press’s network. Such manuscripts and their peer review reports will be transferred to the receiving journal to expedite any further evaluation and the editor's decision. The reviewer grants Science Press the right to re-use the peer review reports in providing publishing services, including transfer of manuscripts and fulfillment of journal and COPE guidelines. The reviewer also consents to the possible transfer of their name, email, and review to a relevant alternate journal. In cases where a manuscript has been transferred from a journal that does not participate in Transparent Peer Review to a journal that does, any reviews submitted to the original journal will not be transferred.

COPE's Core Practices are at the center of our publication workflows and inform our work in protecting confidentiality throughout peer review. Accordingly, we expect all peer reviewers to respect the confidentiality of peer review and not reveal any details of a manuscript or communications related to it, during or after the peer review process, beyond those that are released by the journal. For journals with single-, double- or triple-anonymized review models, this confidentiality obligation extends to the review and all communications regarding the review.

We also require that authors respect the confidentiality of the peer review process, unless the journal has adopted an open review policy. Journals with open review policies will have this noted within their Author Guidelines.