1 - Peer Review

All manuscripts are prescreened by PIER editors before they are sent out for external review. Submissions are also screened for plagiarism check. The editors prescreen all manuscripts to decide whether a manuscript will be peer-reviewed or declined out right without going through the review process. Manuscripts declined up front can be due to poorly written English, contents being out of the scope of the journals, deficiencies in manuscript format, similarity to previous publications, previous decline or withdrawal, banned author due to asserted plagiarism, or that its subject matter is not of interest to PIER, which only publishes well-presented original contributions in electromagnetics.

After the prescreen, the editors will select reviewers who are experts in the field of manuscript or reviewer(s) from the suggested names. Reviewers are allowed time to complete their review and submit comments. If there is no sufficient review comment, editors will assign more reviewers in another round untill at least 2 review comments arrive.

Only review comments with constructive suggestions will be made public to the authors. To expedite the revision, some review suggestions will be made public to the authors before decision. If some review comments appear online, authors can prepare the revisions in advance. Kindly wait for the decision letter via email notice. The revision checklist will be available online when you are required to revise your manuscript.

Usually, the review process of PIER Journals takes 3-6 weeks. Some special cases may need more time.

2 - Revision

Usually, PIER editors make decision based on at least 2 reviews. Once there are enough reviews, the editors will make a quick decision (revision/acceptance/rejection for PIER), if the author only wants to publish with main PIER.

If the author agrees to publish with PIER B, C, M and Letters, the editors will make decision (revision/acceptance/rejection) based on the reviews. In this stage, specific journal option will not be offered untill typeset version is ready after revision process.

A final decision of acceptance or rejection will be made after receiving and evaluating the revised version together with additional new review inputs.

If authors receive revision decision letters, the following files are required in this revision stage:

• The point-by-point answers to the reviewer comments in a separate file.
• A revised version with clearly marked revisions.
  Please kindly mark revisions in different color or indicate the page and line numbers where the revisions should be made. Revision marks will expedite the checking process by the editors or reviewers.
• Please DO upload the source files (TEX files with EPS or PDF figures, or WORD files) of the whole revised article to expedite the typeset process.

Usually, authors are required to submit the revised version within 3-7 days. However, authors can request for revision extension of more days. Or, if we do not receive any response within 1 month, the submission may be withdrawn from our file.

Revisions are strongly advised to be submitted via Online Checklist in Author Center. An acknowledge email will be sent to the corresponding author immediately once the online revision checklist is successfully submitted. Email revision submission is NOT encouraged due to unpredictability of emails. It will also delay the revision process.

3 - Proofread the Typeset Version

After the revision process and paper is acceptable, the manuscript will be typeset in PIER TEX format. 

Once the typeset version is available online, author will be requested to proofread the typeset version in case any typos exist in the typeset process. Revisions of typos should be sent within 3 days. Please highlight revisions in different color or indicate the page and line numbers where the revisions should be made. Do not upload the files of your whole revised article without indication. If there is no revision needed, please online approve the current typeset version.

In this stage, authors are strongly advised to pay attention to page length of this typeset version. Different journals have different free page limit and minimum & maximum pages.

4 - Journal Selection and Final Proofread

Once typeset version is approved, Editors will recommend specific journal(s) to publish, based on considerations of topical relevance, page lengths, review inputs, time constraint for publication, etc.. If you do not like the suggested journal(s), you may choose to withdraw your manuscript. If the author only wants to publish with main PIER, only main PIER will be offered.

Any revision to reduce contents in this Final Proofread stage is not acceptable.

Authors have the final chance to proofread the paper again. Please fill in the checklist form in the "To Do" list within 30 hours. The manuscript will not be scheduled until it is approved by the author.

After the specific journal is chosen, author is required to pay the Article Process Charge (APC).

Once it is scheduled, no changes can be made to the paper. If we do not receive the timely response, paper may be withdrawn from our file.

5 - Schedule Notice

Approved paper will be queued in the publication schedule. Before publication, paper may have final grammar check again. Once you get message of english grammar request, please do give your prompt reply.

Once it is scheduled for publication, you will be informed as early as possible via email. Once a paper is approved and scheduled, it cannot be withdrawn. Usually, this schedule procedure takes no more than 1 week.