Streamlining SWJ Decision Categories

Submitted by Pascal Hitzler on 02/26/2013 - 10:02

The editorial board just decided to implement a new policy regarding decision categories for submitted papers: Decisions on submitted manuscripts are one of the following.

  1. Accept
  2. Minor revisions required
  3. Major revisions required
  4. Reject

They mean the following:

  1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
  2. The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be send back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
  3. The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision which addresses all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission. The two-strike-rule described below applies to all manuscripts that received a major revision decision, i.e., the next round of reviews needs to be a minor revision or an accept.
  4. In its current form, the manuscript is not suitable for publication. A resubmission would require substantial revisions and is only encouraged in special cases. The editors should be contacted before resubmitting a previously rejected paper.

This policy goes in effect on 1st of March 2013. Decisions made prior to this date have been following a different policy, and have to be read accordingly. In particular, the previous "reject and resubmit" decision is now deprecated.

The journal furthermore implements a two-strike-rule, as follows: If a submitted paper receives a "major revisions required", then a submitted revised paper needs to receive a "minor revisions required" or an "accept", otherwise it will be rejected.