The Review Process

The  Environment and Water Engineering (EWE) journal uses a double-blind peer review process. In this process,  the referee does not know the author's identity and vice versa. Authors must propose three reviewers with expertise relevant to the paper's topic when initially submitting their paper. When suggesting reviewers, please ensure that they are completely independent and not affiliated in any way with the research or the authors. It is strongly recommended that authors propose a combination of referees from different institutions. An academic email address for each proposed reviewer must be provided by the corresponding author. Please note that the EWE journal may not use all of the proposed reviewers, but the suggestion of these reviewers will help facilitate the review process.

Article review process (two to three months)

A) Paper submission and initial evaluation (one week)

The initial evaluation will be done when the article is submitted by the author. In the initial evaluation, criteria such as the relevance of the article to the scops and goals of the EWE, appropriate quality in terms of content, use of appropriate and up-to-date references, innovation, and compliance with the EWE format are considered. The initial review of articles is done in the following process:

1. Registration of the author(s) and initial submission of the article by the corresponding author on the journal website and completion of the authors' specifications and information (by the corresponding author).
2. Announcing the opinion of the EWE Editor regarding the initial criteria of the paper and, if necessary, referring to the Associate Editor (AE) (one week).
3. Sending the paper and comments to the author for structural/format changes (if any).

B) Double-blind refereeing (one to two months)

The articles that are not rejected in the initial review stage will be sent to professional referees through the following steps, maintaining confidentiality and without the names of the authors:

1. Sending the article to three referees with expertise in the field of the paper by the Editor in Chief/Associate Editor (three days). These reviewers are not necessarily those recommended by the author.
2. Reviewing the article and sending comments along with completing the evaluation form of the referees and editor's comments to the author to improve and edit the paper (20 days)

 C) Initial decision making

According to the referees' recommendation in the evaluation of the paper, the initial decision will be made based on one of the following situations:

1. If the article is rejected by two of the three appointed referees, the article will be removed from the journal's acceptance process and the author will be informed.
2. If the article is accepted by two referees, the article will be in the final acceptance stage.
3. If the referees request a major or minor revision of the paper, the article will be returned to the authors for revision.
4. - If the referees did not evaluate the article within the stipulated time or their evaluation was not in line with the improvement of the article, a new referee/s will be appointed and the review process will continue.
5. The comments will be evaluated by the E/AE and the initial decision will be made (one week).
6. If the article is not rejected, the comments of the referees will be sent to the authors.
7. Submission of the modified version of the article and response to the referee's comments by the authors (two weeks)
8. In cases where the referees requested a second round of refereeing, the articles will be sent to the referee for evaluation of the new version of the article (10 days). Otherwise, the E/AE will adapt the revised version of the manuscript to the reviewers' comments.
9. If the article is rejected, the author will be informed by email, and if it is accepted, it will go through the publishing process (3 days).
10. Request for the Article Processing Charges (APC) according to what is announced on the journal website.

D) After the initial acceptance

After the initial acceptance of the manuscript, the final acceptance and printing of the paper are followed up as follows:

1. The manuscript is sent to the Technical Editor for technical/scientific evaluation.
2. The comments of the Technical Editor are sent to the authors to modify the manuscript.
3. If the corrections are made by the authors and approved by the editor, the second part of APC will be asked from the author and the article will be accepted. At this stage, the "certificate of acceptance" of the article can be downloaded from the journal's website in the corresponding author's portal.
4. A DOI number will be assigned to each article and the article will be available in the "Articles In Press" section on the journal's website.
5. The article is sent to "Production" for page layout and publication.
6. Before the final printing, the authors will receive the final version of the article. During which, the name, title, and affiliation of the authors, and the final text of the article are confirmed by the authors.
7. Immediately after the approval of the authors, “Volume and issue” and “page number” will be assigned to the article.

The waiting period for article printing (stage 5 above) depends on the number of accepted articles. However, the articles will be available in the "Articles in Press" section of the journal website upon final acceptance. After completing the articles of each volume, all articles in PDF and XML formats can be downloaded for free on the journal's website.

Please note that if any of the above steps are not completed by the respected authors, the article will be rejected at each step.

Peer Review Process Flowchart