Peer Review

JGAT PEER REVIEW PROCESS
INITIAL STEPS
1. Authors lodge their manuscripts by logging into the JGT online system
2. Once the manuscript has been received, an automatic notification message is sent to the editorial team and is attended by the Managing Editor.
3. The Managing Editor assigns the manuscript to one of the three editors (i.e. the Chief Editor, The Co-Chief Editor and the Assistant Chief Editor) based on specialization, discipline or field.
4. The assigned editor decides whether or not the manuscript should be sent to reviewers. Used criteria include, adherence to the author’ instructions, merit of the substance, clear argumentation, contribution to knowledge, and relevance to the journal (JGAT) and originality.
5. In a situation where the manuscript fails to meet key criteria that are prescribed under no.4, the assigned editor generates a formal notification via the JGAT online system; informing the author(s) of the rejection status reached and reasons for the same.
6. When the manuscript is pre-accepted to go to the review stage, the author(s) is also notified through the JGAT online system.
THE BLIND REVIEW PROCESS
1. The manuscript is sent to a minimum of two reviewers who are specialized in the author’s field, area, discipline or who are practicing in a similar context. Reviewers come from local and international settings depending on availability, willingness, and schedule.
2. The reviewer is first contacted via email or phone and is asked to participate in the review of a particular manuscript. After securing his/her consent, an official letter is sent to the target reviewer via the JGAT official email, stipulating the task and recommended time.
3. Apart from the official letter of appointment, the reviewer receives the review form containing the guidelines, the manuscript with anonymous authorship, and a copy of instructions to authors.
4. The reviewer is supposed to give his/her report containing the decision reached and write extra comments based on the given guidelines. He is also free to use tracked changes in specifying what the author is advised to do. The reviewer’s task is culminated by sending feedback to the Managing Editor either through the online system or the official JGAT email.
5. The Managing Editor sends the review report to the editor who was responsible for approving the specified manuscript to go to the review stage. The Editor examines a minimum of two review reports to establish key gaps that had been identified by the reviewers and decisions that have been reached.
6. The manuscript will be tolerated for further improvement, if it is ruled out as containing a minimum of major corrections from at least two reviewers. In summary the review decisions will be as follows:

SL Review status - 1 Review status - 2 Prescribed decision
A. Minor corrections Minor Corrections Accepted subject to incorporation of the reviewers’ input(s).
B. Major corrections Major corrections Allowed to advance to the next level subject to significant improvement of the manuscript.
C. Major corrections Minor corrections Accepted subject to incorporation of the reviewers’ inputs.
D. Minor corrections Rejection Rejected
E. Major corrections Rejection Rejected

7. The Editor will write a summary of the gaps that need to be addressed in tolerated manuscripts and send it to the Managing Editor for communicating the same to the authors either through the system or the official email. The authors will be required to work on the comments in a specified period of time.
8. When the authors have adequately worked on the reviewers comments, they send back their work either through the JGAT online system or the official email address. The author is supposed to attach a matrix which highlights the gaps that were supposed to be improved and indicate the new status.
9. The Managing Editor forwards the attachments to the editor who was responsible in extracting key input that the author was supposed to work on. The editor decides whether or not the manuscript is ready to be moved to the Publishing Editor or be returned to the author for further improvement.
10. The Publishing Editor, proofreads, and typesets the article. He/she afterwards send it back to the editorial team. The team sends the attachments and guiding instructions to authors. The authors return their improved manuscripts to the editorial team, the editorial team reviews the input, decides the arrangement of articles, and send them to the System Manager to be assigned DOIs.
11. The Publishing Editor returns the manuscripts to the editorial team for plagiarism check.
12. Completed manuscripts are sent back to the publishing editor for publication after securing the author’s consent that they are satisfied with the way their manuscripts appear in the journal volume.
13. The time spent from logging of the manuscript to publication of the same takes an average of six months.