Peer Review Process

Editorial Board Assessment
The FIJBAS Editorial Board consists of academics who are experts in various fields of studies. The Managing Editor, upon submission, will assign a paper to an Editor in the most relevant of the FIJBAS disciplines. The Editor reviews the manuscript for plagiarism via the Turn-It-In plagiarism tool. If the similarity index falls lower than 15% and the paper also satisfies other requirements of the journal, the Editor will process the manuscript further and assign it to reviewers. It is worth nothing that the Board may decide to reject manuscripts, and not require further review. The Board can as well decide to reject manuscripts that aren't in compliance with FIJBAS standards.

Independent Peer Review
All submissions are reviewed by two experts. Though an Editor usually needs two independent reviews, a single negative review is sufficient to decide if the Editor agrees with the report. The identity of reviewers remains anonymous and not disclosed unless the reviewers give permission. The Editor evaluates the reviews' opinions and makes a recommendation to the Editorial Board, who makes the final decision and recommendation. Such recommendations may be as follows:

  • The manuscript should be accepted.

  • The manuscript should be rejected.

  • The reviewers' reports may be sent to the author(s) for correction.

  • If the article is found to contain too many errors for the reviewers to comment fully on the content of the article, the author(s) will be required to make major revisions and then resubmit the paper for review.

The decision of the Board will be communicated by the Editor to the Author as soon as possible.

Submission of Revised Manuscripts
When author(s) have revised their manuscript(s) in response to the reviewers' comments, they are asked to add their replies to the comments on the first page of their revised manuscript for onward transmission to the reviewers. The revised version may be returned to the original reviewers who are then asked whether the revisions have been carried out satisfactorily. Depending on the reviewers' comments, the article may be accepted or re-review.

Decision on Manuscript
When a manuscript is out of scope for FIJBAS, does not fulfill FIJBAS's requirements for novelty and relevance, the turn-it-in similarities index exceeds 12%, or has technical flaws that raise doubts about the results' trustworthiness, editors may reject it. Sometimes, an already reviewed manuscript can still be rejected due to a lack of originality or relevance, or due to technical issues discovered during the peer-review.  Other reasons why an article may not be accepted for publication is when a substantial number of potential reviewers decline the invitation to review, for example, it indicates that the paper's aim and audience do not align with FIJBAS's. In these circumstances, the editors will return the paper to the author(s) so that they may submit it to a more appropriate publication journal.

Appeal 

Within 30 days of the manuscript's rejection, author(s) can appeal the decision by getting in touch with the editorial office editor@fijbas.org or fijbaseditor@gmail.com. The appeal must be supported with text modifications and a concise (one-page) explanation of why the manuscript should be reconsidered. Appeal must clarify the importance of the paper to show how it is relevant to FIJBAS. The appeal must address technical questions raised by the reviewers. Your appeal should address the acceptance criteria of FIJBAS. Take note that, in the event that your submission was rejected at the initial stage, you will require additional information or arguments that go above what the editor was read during the review process. This will enable the editor to determine whether your article deserves to be considered again or not.

Transfers
Manuscripts not accepted for publication in FIJBAS are offered an opportunity to be transferred to the Departmental or Faculty of Management Conferences for urgent input of several academician which will enrich the manuscript to FIJBAS standard. It is worth mentioning that manuscripts must fulfill the acceptance requirements of FIJBAS before it will be accepted for publication in FIJBAS.