OASIS Journals employs a rigorous peer review system to ensure the quality of every research article. All submitted manuscripts to OASIS Journals undergo our peer review process before getting published in our journals system. This is because the review process is very important in enabling authors to improve their manuscripts as well as aiding editors in deciding on manuscripts.

Double Blind Peer Review

OASIS Journals employs a double-blind peer review system. This is an anonymous review system in which the identity of the author(s) of a manuscript is concealed from the selected reviewers.

OASIS Journals considers the double-blind peer system as a more effective review system because it limits possible bias from either the selected reviewers or from authors. All details that may enable a reviewer to identify the author(s) of a manuscript are removed from the manuscript before the manuscript is sent to the reviewer. Similarly, the reviewers’ identities are also concealed from the author(s) when sending the reviewers’ comments to the author(s).

The Peer Review Process

OASIS Journals employs a three-stage review process – editorial office, external review, and editors’ decision.

Stage One – Editorial Office

The first stage of the review process takes place in the editorial office. On submission, a manuscript is reviewed to ensure that it meets the minimum requirements of the journal before it is sent to external reviewers. At this stage, the manuscript is reviewed for:

1. Possible plagiarism: Manuscripts that have a high level of similarity with other works (including the author(s) previous works) are rejected at this stage. The authors are provided with the similarity report together with the decision to reject the manuscript.
2. Scope: After a manuscript has undergone a similarity check and the level of similarity is judged to be appropriate, the content of the manuscript is checked to ensure that it fits within the scope of the journal selected by the author(s). In situations where the content of the manuscript does not fit the scope of the journal, the author’s consent is sought for the manuscript to be transferred to a more suitable journal. A transferred manuscript does not automatically translate to an accepted manuscript in the receiving journal. The manuscript still undergoes the usual peer review and may be accepted or reject if it is not suitable.
3. Recent references: OASIS Journals encourage authors to cite more recent articles. Preferably, a considerable number of cited articles should be works that were published within the last five years. This is especially important for articles submitted to journals in the life sciences.
4. English Language: OASIS Journals currently publishes the full text of articles only in the English language. Abstracts may be translated to other languages and published alongside the English language abstract when necessary.
5. Manuscripts are also checked for the structure, organization, correctness, and clarity of the language as it adheres to the journal's Instructions for Authors. The editorial office usually corrects minor grammatical errors in such a manner that it does not alter the manuscript. However, in situations where the language is substantially difficult to comprehend, the manuscript is returned to the author to improve the clarity of the language.

Manuscripts that fail in this first stage of the review process are returned to the author(s) for modification and resubmission. This first stage of the review is very important as it enables the author(s) to improve the manuscript at an early stage. This first stage of the manuscript review is usually completed within a week.

Stage Two – External Reviewers

Once a manuscript passes the editorial office review stage, it proceeds to the second stage. This stage of the review process employs the double-blind review system. Two or more external reviewers are selected from our database, editorial board of the journal, or other sources. These reviewers have expert knowledge of the subject area of the manuscript.

The reviewers are invited to review the manuscript by sending them the abstract of the manuscript. Upon acceptance to review the manuscript, the full text of the manuscript is sent to the reviewers after the author(s) details have been concealed.

Reviewers are required to evaluate the manuscripts and provide useful comments to enable the author(s) to improve the quality of the manuscript. Reviewers also score the manuscript in terms of originality, contribution to the field, technical quality, clarity of presentation, and depth of research.

Finally, reviewers make one of the following suggestion about the manuscript;

• Requires minor corrections
• Requires moderate revision
• Requires major revision
• Not suitable for further processing (in this case, the reviewer provides the specific reason(s) why the manuscript is not to be further processed).

It should be noted that though a reviewer may give a positive report on a particular manuscript if another reviewer raises concerns that may fundamentally undermine the study and results, the manuscript may be rejected.

Upon receipt of the reviewers’ comments, the editorial office reviews the comment. If the two reviewers’ comments have significantly different/or contradictory opinions about the same manuscripts, the manuscript is re-sent to a third reviewer. All reviewers’ comments (including the third reviewers’ comments where necessary) are thereafter sent to the author(s). The reviewers’ identities are concealed from the author(s). The total time taken to complete the second stage of the manuscript review is dependent on the availability of the reviewers. However, it is usually completed between one to four weeks.

Using the reviewers’ comments, the author(s) make corrections to the manuscript and submit a revised manuscript.

Stage Three – Editor’s Decision

Upon receipt of the revised submission, the manuscript undergoes the third and final stage of the review process. The original manuscript, the revised manuscript, and all the reviewers’ comments are sent to an editor of the journal. The editor reviews the documents and makes one the following decisions;

• Accept as it is
• Accept with minor corrections
• Requires major corrections
• Send revised manuscript for review again
• Reject

Manuscripts that are "accepted as it is" are scheduled for publication. Manuscripts that require corrections (either minor or major) are sent to the author(s) to affect the corrections suggested by the editor. After effecting the corrections, the editor reviews the manuscripts again before the manuscripts are accepted for publication. In some cases, the editor may require authors to make corrections a second time. In other cases, the editor may request for the revised manuscripts with (or without) the additional corrections to be sent to a specific reviewer who had earlier reviewed the manuscript before the manuscript can be approved for publication.