Scroll down to see the different stages your article will pass through.
Our Author Guidelines explain how to prepare for submission.
Most journals use off-the-shelf software you'll recognize. It's clunky, frustrating and feels decades old! PeerJ is custom designed and developed in-house, using the same modern tools and approach as Google and Facebook.
And like these modern websites, we prioritize making submitting as easy and enjoyable as possible. Submitting your article doesn't have to be painful!
A recent author comment:
The online
interface for submitting the
paper was THE BEST submission interface I have ever used. I wish all journals would use this interface. Clean. Easy. No bugs. Loved
it!
Staff check your article to make sure you have submitted everything correctly.
Many articles fail these checks the first time round so don't worry if this happens to you!
Know within days (not weeks or months) if your manuscript can be published at PeerJ. For example if your article is out of scope, does not have the required ethical approvals, does not meet our publishing quality requirements etc.
The majority of authors resubmit their articles within a few hours.
We identify the most appropriate editor to handle your submission, selected from our 1,709-member editorial board.
If none of the relevant academic editors agree to handle your submission, we will unfortunately have no option but to return it to you. This is not a rejection, but rather we must decline to handle it - which is simply a function of being unable to find a editor on the board to handle it.
Day 2-7Your editor identifies potential reviewers and personally invites them to review your submission. Most editors recruit 2 reviewers, but sometimes more may be required.
Your reviewers are supplied with everything they need to complete a thorough review of your submission. Happy reviewers deliver great, constructive reviews. And our reviewing workflow has been built from the ground up to make your reviewers' work as easy, well-supported and enjoyable as possible.
If your article receives a major or minor revision decision, it is highly likely your article will eventually be published.
Day 30You receive your review feedback and requested changes from your editor and reviewers, and revise your submission.
With each resubmission you are required to submit a response letter and a version of your manuscript highlighting the changes you have made.
The number of times you'll need to resubmit before your accept decision depends on a number of factors. Most submissions are accepted after 1 or 2 revisions.
Your editor decides that your article is ready for publication.
Now that we know your article is to be published, staff need to complete final checks to make sure our typesetters have everything they need to produce your article PDF.
You may need to upload additional high-quality images, or make other tweaks highlighted by staff in production checks.
This is also when many authors submit their payment.
The first version of your final PDF is created.
Please take the time you need to ensure that you have thoroughly checked your proofing PDF to spot any minor corrections needed.
At this stage, we ask that you identify and correct typos.
No significant changes to the content should be introduced after acceptance.
Staff complete a final proof check sweep of your article.
The final version of your article PDF is created, and scheduled for publication.
We will let you know in advance of when your article will be published.
Publishing your article marks the start of its dissemination journey. The more you share it within the first 6-12 months, the more views and citations it will receive.
PeerJ helps you do this with your Impact Toolkit - a collection of tasks, tools and information resources to help you share your research.
We also actively share our articles with our press contacts, through our social media accounts, and on our blog. Read more about this on our Broad audience page.
We'll email you when you article reaches key view, download and citation milestones.