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Peer Review Process


PEER REVIEW POLICIES

Confidentiality

All unpublished manuscripts submitted to Ethn Dis are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers invited to review a document are asked to not discuss the manuscript, even with a colleague. Authorship is blinded for review copies of the manuscript.

We use a double-blinded review system so that authors do not know who has reviewed their work. We do not release reviewers’ identities to authors or to other reviewers. We do not support any attempts by authors to determine the identity of the reviewers of their manuscript.

Competing Interests

When reviewers accept the invitation to conduct a review through the online system, they are asked to declare any competing interests that might be relevant to the article.

Core Criteria for Publication

Ethn Dis publishes articles that meet the following major criteria:

1) the work utilizes well-accepted methodology and provides solid evidence for its conclusions

2) the work advances the body of knowledge relevant to the journal’s priority areas in ethnic differentials in disease rates; impact of migration on health status; social and ethnic factors related to health care access and health; and metabolic epidemiology. Within this framework, the journal accepts manuscripts with a focus on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, obesity, diabetes, health disparities, and mental health. The editorial board sets other focus areas and issues calls for papers according to emerging or timely topic or wellness/disease areas.

3) the work is original

Review Panel Membership

Ethn Dis maintains a panel of more than 400 reviewers who voluntarily lend their expertise in the review and assessment of each manuscript to be published in the journal. Reviewers are recruited from the journal’s pool of editorial board members, previous contributing authors, and others recommended to the editorial board. Recommendations of reviewers should be made to the editor-in-chief or managing editor and should include the potential reviewer’s specific areas of expertise.

 

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Pre-Screening Process

All submitted manuscripts are reviewed by the managing editorand/or associate editor assigned to guide the manuscript through peer review. Contributions from authors for the following types of articles are considered: original reports, commentaries, systematic reviews, perspectives, and letters to the editor. Only manuscripts that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for peer review. Editorial criteria can be found in Appendix A. Manuscripts that fail two or more of these criteria will be declined. Mansucripts pass pre-screening criteria advance into peer review and are assigned to one of the journal’s associate editors to guide through the peer review.

Plagiarism

During pre-screening, manuscripts are submitted to plagiarism checking software. If a manuscript receives a score >30% (after references have been excluded), the manuscript will be declined, with a notice to the authors regarding the overlapping sources cited too frequently in their manuscript.

Peer Review System

Once in peer review, the manuscript will be assigned to two or three reviewers. Reviewers score the manuscript on study design, methodology, data quality, originality and overall priority for publication. As needed, reviewers also provide detailed comments and suggestions for the authors and submits one of five recommendations:

  1. Accept submission. The submission will be accepted without revision.  
  2. Revisions required. The submission will be accepted after minor changes have been made.  
  3. Resubmit for review. The submission needs to be re-worked, but with significant changes, may be accepted. It will require a second round of review.  
  4. Resubmit elsewhere. Compared to other submissions, this submission's study area has a low priority for the journal.  
  5. Decline submission. The submission will not be published with the journal.

In their reports, reviewers will recommend a course of action based on their conclusions of the manuscript’s merit. For each manuscript, the editors will assess each peer reviewer’s comments to make the final determination. Editorial decisions are based on the strength of the article and the journal’s responsibilities to its readers and the scientific community to provide information best suited for their research needs.

The journal takes the reviewers’ comments and assessments seriously and reviewers are encouraged to provide fair and accurate criticisms. If one reviewer alone opposes publication of a report, journal associate editors may consult the other assigned reviewers to determine if the opposing reviewer may be applying an overly critical standard.


APPENDIX A: Editorial Criteria for Publication in Ethnicity & Disease

Core Criteria

Ethnicity & Disease publishes articles that meet the following core criteria:

1) the work utilizes well-accepted methodology and provides solid evidence for its conclusions

2) the work advances the body of knowledge relevant to the journal’s priority areas in minority health: cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, obesity, diabetes, health disparities, cancer, infectious disease, mental health, and other focus areas determined by the editorial board.

3) the work is original/novel

4) the work is of great importance to researchers, scientists, and health providers

In addition to these core criteria, manuscripts must meet these following editorial criteria.

Word Count

For original reports, no more than 3,500 words, inclusive of all sections of the narrative, references and no more than 4 images (figures, tables or a combination of both). For other types of article, please see author submittal guidelines.

Content

During pre-screening, content is briefly assessed on these criteria:

  • in general, the paper is sufficiently interesting for Ethn Dis readers
  • the study area is of high priority for Ethn Dis content
  • the topic is interesting and the paper covers it in enough depth
  • the paper adds enough new information to warrant space in Ethn Dis
  • the message is useful enough in clinical or research practice
  • the message is not too narrow for Ethn Dis readers
  • the result will interest and educate Ethn Dis readers
  • the sample size is sufficient and we are confident of the validity of the message
  • the topic has not been covered recently in Ethn Dis
  • there is an appropriate amount of data in the paper
  • there are no major design or analytic flaws in the paper
  • the author’s conclusions are within scope given the study design and analyses
  • the paper abides by Ethn Dis submittal guidelines for format, word count, etc.
  • the topic addresses focus areas of the editorial calendar for upcoming issues
  • the manuscript receives an iThenticate score of <30% of overlapping language with other sources

Submittal Guidelines

All authors must follow specific author guidelines in preparing their manuscripts for consideration by Ethn Dis.

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