Review Process
Editors and reviewers must not accept an assignment if there is a conflict of interest such as the ones outlined on the policies page. If you are unsure about a potential competing interest that may prevent you from acting as the editor or reviewing, raise this to the editors (email: beceditor@bioenerg-commun.org) before accepting the assignment.
Once submitted to the journal, the manuscript will be directed to a an associate editor. This editor will decide if it will go to review from the following questions:
- Is the material of scientific content?
- Is the topic suitable for the journal's aims and scope?
With affirmative answers to both questions, the editor can start the review process with the reviewers suggested by the authors or other reviewers contacted specifically by the BEC editors.
Before accepting to review a manuscript, the reviewers will be asked the following questions:
- Do you declare any conflict of interest?
- Does the manuscript match your area of expertise?
- Will you be able to provide a review in a timely manner, preferably within 4 weeks of the request?
BEC reviewers should adhere to the COPE ethical guidelines for peer reviewers. The review should lead without 'unreasonable' delay to publication in Bioenergetics Communications. BEC reviewers do not have the option to insist on additional experiments, but strictly focus on the quality of the presently provided information. BEC reviewers may suggest additional experiments for future versions, without delay of publishing the actually available and evaluated information.
Open Peer Review
After acceptance of the manuscript for publication, at the reviewer's agreement, reviewers’ comments and author’s responses will be made publicly available on the BEC publication page (open peer-review, with open identities of the reviewers).
Each review and answers will receive a doi, linked to the original manuscript doi. The pdf documents will appear on the same page as the publication.
For open peer reviews of rejected or withdrawn manuscripts see the Journal policies
Criteria for acceptance:
A minimum of 2 reviewers’ acceptance (including with minor or major revisions) will be necessary to publish an article. In the case that the two have very different reviews, the editor can decide on asking for a third reviewer. There is no maximum of reviewers, and new reviews can be published any time, also after acceptance and publication of the manuscript.
