During peer review

What happens during peer review? 

Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation to check that it conforms to the submission requirements. If it doesn’t, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.   

After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be sent for peer review. Details of how the peer review process works for the journal you are submitting to can be found on the journal submission guidelines. If your journal uses an online submission system you can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. The journal editor will notify you when a decision has been reached.  

For help on how to respond to peer review comments, see this helpful guide: Response to reviewers template

Sage’s peer review policy 

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. 

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if: 

• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors. 
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper. 
• The author has recommended the reviewer. 
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

Please note that the journal’s editors are not obliged to invite any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript. 

To find out more about peer review, visit Your Paper and Peer Review on our Gateway.