1 - Peer Review
All manuscripts are prescreened by PIER editors before they are sent out for external review. Submissions are also screened for plagiarism. The editors prescreen all manuscripts to decide whether a manuscript will be peer-reviewed or declined outright 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, a 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 the manuscript or reviewers from the suggested names. Reviewers are allowed time to complete their review and submit comments. If there are no sufficient review comments, editors will assign more reviewers in another round until at least two 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 the 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 a decision based on at least two 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 the main PIER.
If the author agrees to publish with PIER B, C, M, and Letters, the editors will make a decision (revision/acceptance/rejection) based on the reviews. In this stage, a specific journal option will not be offered until the typeset version is ready after the revision process.
A final decision on acceptance or rejection will be made after receiving and evaluating the revised version, along with additional review inputs.
If authors receive revision decision letters, the following files are required in this revision stage:
Usually, authors are required to submit the revised version within 3-7 days. However, authors can request a 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 the Online Checklist in the Author Center. An acknowledgment email will be sent to the corresponding author immediately upon successful submission of the online revision checklist. Email revision submission is NOT encouraged due to email's unpredictability. It will also delay the revision process.
3 - Proofread the Typeset Version
After the revision process and the paper is acceptable, the manuscript will be typeset in PIER TEX format.
Once the typeset version is available online, the author will be asked to proofread it for any typos that may have occurred during the typesetting process. Revisions of typos should be sent within 3 days. Please highlight revisions in a different color or indicate the page and line numbers where the modifications should be made. Do not upload the files of your whole revised article without an indication. If no revision is needed, please approve the current typeset version online.
In this stage, authors are strongly advised to pay attention to the page length of this typeset version. Different journals have different free page limits and minimum & maximum pages.
4 - Journal Selection and Final Proofread
Once the typeset version is approved, Editors will recommend specific journal(s) for publication, based on considerations of topical relevance, page length, review input, time constraints 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 the main PIER, only the main PIER will be offered.
Any revision to reduce the 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 the author approves it.
After the specific journal is chosen, the 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 a timely response, the paper may be withdrawn from our file.
5 - Schedule Notice
An approved paper will be queued in the publication schedule. Before publication, the paper may undergo another final grammar check. Once you receive a message about an English grammar request, please 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 procedure takes no more than 1 week.