Editor Review process: Coordinated by the editorial office, it starts with the receipt of the submission of the manuscript. The editor examines each of the submissions and decides whether they fit the quality to be incorporated in the journal. Some of the manuscripts get rejected, right in the beginning if the editor decides that they are not suitable for the journal or don’t meet its quality standards. Other reasons for which the editor would reject the manuscript are, if it falls outside the scope of the journal, does not conform to the requirements of the journal. Once approved, the process may move to the next step.
Peer Review Process: If the submission is of interest and fits the scope, the editor moves a step ahead and solicits expert opinion to begin the review process. To get an objective view of the manuscript, potential reviewers are contacted and given the access to the manuscript and given a time window to review the manuscript and give their opinion. The reviewer who looks at it thoroughly scans the manuscript from the perspective of relevance, the fitness of methods, the validity of results and balance logic of the discussion presented.
The reviewer drafts out a report and makes suggestions for modifications. If he is given a predefined format to evaluate the document, he may give numerical scores to different parameters of assessment. The editor evaluates the peer review and decides to either reject the manuscript, look for additional reviews, call for recommended changes or accept the work as it is.
Most of the times peer review is chosen over an only editorial review. The situation and reasons for that are:
A) The scrutiny by the experts helps to validate the scholarly work and offer to the non-expert reader some assurance that he is reading and believing work that has got validation from experts and the author is talking meaningfully.
B) Peer review also helps to establish the confidence that the work is original and carries importance in the field of study.
C) It brings in credibility and confidence towards the methods adopted for research and the soundness and confidence towards the findings and conclusion given by the author.
There surely are few limitations associated with the peer review process, but overall it adds more credibility to the journal and adds quality to the work standards. As a researcher looking for publication options, one must always look for peer review journals, preferably.