Peer Review

This journal operates a double-anonymized (double-blind) review process. All submissions are initially evaluated by the Editor for suitability for the journal.

Articles deemed suitable are normally sent to a minimum of two independent specialist reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the article.

The Editor is responsible for the final decision on whether to accept or reject articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about articles that they themselves have written, that were written by family members or colleagues, or that relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest.

Any submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups.

In addition, RVBMA uses double-anonymized review, meaning that the identities of the authors are hidden from reviewers and vice versa. For this reason, author information may not be submitted together with the article.

During peer review, reviewers may securely access the manuscript through our online system while the anonymity of both reviewers and the manuscript's authors is preserved. This procedure is called Double-Blind Peer Review, since no author information is available during the document review.

At the submission stage, authors may name a limited number of scientists who should not review the article. Excluded scientists must be identified by name. Authors may also suggest potential reviewers; these suggestions are often useful but are not always followed.

If no potential reviewers are recommended, we will use the reviewers in our database and match their research area to the subject of the manuscript in question.

Reviewers' recommendations may be (Reject – Out of Scope – Recommend for Another Journal – Revisions Needed – Accept).

Peer Review Process

(1) Manuscript Submission

Submitted articles must comply with the Author Guidelines, also available in the Guide for Authors.

(2) Initial Evaluation Procedures

Once submitted, your manuscript will be assigned to the Editor. Manuscripts that fall within scope and comply with the journal's editorial policies (Author Guidelines) will be assigned to the Section Editors, who will invite external reviewers for a double-blind evaluation; otherwise, the submission will be Declined and Archived. The journal applies ethical criteria regarding the plagiarism-checking process.

At this stage, the following are examined:

• scope
• originality
• structure
• ethics
• documents
• similarity

(3) Section Editors

Once the initial procedure has been completed, manuscripts are assigned to the Section Editors. Section Editors are researchers in the specific subject area, with the expertise and knowledge to send the research to external reviewers who are within the article's scope, thereby contributing important considerations to the submitted document. The Section Editor will assign two or more external reviewers to analyze the submitted document. The review will follow the double-blind peer review policy.

(4) Double-Blind Peer Review (External Reviewers)

During peer review, reviewers may securely access the manuscript through our online system while the anonymity of both reviewers and the manuscript's authors is preserved. This procedure is called Double-Blind Peer Review, since no author information is available during the document review.

THE REFERENCE DOCUMENT FOR REVIEWERS TO DECIDE ON THE RESEARCH IS AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS LINK: EVALUATION FORM – DOCUMENT FOR JOURNAL REVIEWERS

At the submission stage, authors may name a limited number of scientists who should not review the article. Excluded scientists must be identified by name. Authors may also suggest potential reviewers; these suggestions are often useful but are not always followed. If no potential reviewers are recommended, we will use the reviewers in our database and match their research area to the subject of the manuscript in question.

Reviewers' recommendations may be (Reject – Out of Scope – Recommend for Another Journal – Revisions Needed – Accept).

(5) Decisions After Review

After evaluating the manuscript and the reviewers' reports, the assigned Section Editor will make one of the following decisions:

Accepted Where a minor revision is requested, in which the authors revise their manuscript to address specific concerns.

Revisions Needed Where a major revision is requested, in which the authors revise their manuscript to address significant concerns and possibly undertake additional work. The revised manuscript must be submitted through the original submission link, not as a new manuscript. The revision must also be accompanied by a point-by-point response to the reviewers, explaining how the manuscript was changed. Our goal is for accepted manuscripts to go through a new round of review before being accepted for publication, so please make sure that all issues raised in the first review recommendation have been addressed. Articles with the editorial decision "Revisions Needed" are not accepted, and may be rejected if they fail to comply with, or apply, any procedure that violates the ethical guidelines.

New Rounds of Evaluation If necessary, there may be new rounds of evaluation to re-examine changes made, or to request and recommend further changes. Although this makes the process slower, we understand that this procedure supports sound decision-making and scientific improvement. There may be as many rounds of article re-evaluation as necessary.

Rejected The article is declined and the reasons are explained. It is possible to resubmit the same manuscript to the journal at a later date.

(6) Final Submission and Acceptance

Once the article has an "Accepted" decision and all editorial issues have been resolved, your work will be formally accepted for publication. The receipt date shown on the article will be the date on which the original article passed our standard quality-control checks, based on the journal's submission criteria. The acceptance date shown on the article will be the date on which the Editorial Board Member sent the email indicating acceptance.

After acceptance, proofs of your manuscript are sent to the authors, but only changes to the title, the author list, or scientific errors are permitted. All corrections will be checked by the layout team. Other matters regarding the size of Figures, Tables, and Equations may also be adjusted in order to improve the manuscript's visualization.

(7) Appeals

Authors may ask the Editorial Board to reconsider a rejection decision. These are treated as appeals, which, as a matter of policy, must take second priority relative to the journal's workload. In practice, this means that decisions on appeals may take a long time to be answered. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the article.

About Article Rejection

ABOUT ARTICLE REJECTION (RESUBMISSION TIME):

A) As stated in the basic Author Guidelines, we emphasize that files that do not follow the journal's template (no journal header, numerous inadequate formatting standards, etc.) will not be evaluated. In this case, the article falls under point "B" and may only be resubmitted after an interval of 4 months.

B) ARTICLES REJECTED BY THE JOURNAL DUE TO MISSING DOCUMENTS MAY BE RESUBMITTED AFTER AN INTERVAL OF 3 MONTHS.

C) ARTICLES REJECTED BY THE JOURNAL AT THE REVIEWERS' REQUEST MAY BE RESUBMITTED AFTER AN INTERVAL OF 5 MONTHS.

D) ARTICLES REJECTED BY THE JOURNAL AT THE REVIEWERS' REQUEST THAT WERE RECOMMENDED FOR A PARTNER JOURNAL MAY BE RESUBMITTED AFTER AN INTERVAL OF 3 MONTHS (CORRECTED).

E) ARTICLES WITH AN EDITORIAL DECISION APPLIED THAT ARE NOT RESUBMITTED IN THE REQUESTED NEW VERSION, OR FOR WHICH THE CORRESPONDING AUTHOR'S ABSENCE HAS NOT BEEN JUSTIFIED, WILL BE REJECTED WITHIN AN INTERVAL OF 1 MONTH (AND MAY BE RESUBMITTED AFTER 6 MONTHS — WHEN RESUBMITTING, PLEASE STATE THE PREVIOUS SUBMISSION NUMBER IN THE AUTHOR COMMENTS).

F) ARTICLES FALLING UNDER EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND REJECTED WILL NO LONGER BE ELIGIBLE FOR SUBMISSION TO RVBMA.

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