Instructions for reviewers

Nepal Orthopaedic Association Journal (NOAJ) recognizes its reviewers as the benchmark for assessing the quality and the importance of the manuscript submitted. The expert reviewer evaluation is of great value and characterizes the manuscript we publish.

Blind peer review

NOAJ uses double blinded peer review system, which indicates that both the reviewer and the author are blinded to each other during the process. All manuscripts will be sent to 2-4 peer reviewers. However, it remains the discretion of the editorial board, that it may be send to more reviewers upon conditions that manuscript requires more evaluations.

Reviewer invitation process

NOAJ will email peer reviewers to invite them to review a manuscript. The email will generally include an abstract of the manuscript and ask you to accept or reject the review invitation. The reviewer can also have a detail view of the entire manuscript after acceptance of the review process.

Role of peer reviewers

We ask peer reviewers to recommend following options along with their detailed suggestion:

Accept Submission

Revision required

Decline submission

Confidentiality

All manuscripts are confidential documents. If you want to discuss a manuscript that you are reviewing with a colleague, please email the Editorial Office first at chiefeditornoaj@gmail.com

Submitting your review

Before writing your review, it may be helpful for you to review our Instruction for authors to understand what NOAJ is looking for:

The main criteria on which we ask reviewers to assess manuscripts include:

• Importance and relevance of the topic
• Originality of the work that adds value to the existing body of knowledge
• Sound methodology
• Sound use of evidence during the whole process.
• Compelling conclusions that are based on the evidence presented
• Presentation and clarity of writing

 There are two sections once you have completed reviewing the manuscript:

First section is “for author and editor” which is space provided for comments to the author to help him improve the manuscript. In case you have a broader comment, which is line by line, please upload the commented file. Please use track changes (preferred) or review comments while commenting individually.

Second section is “for editor” where you will have the opportunity to provide confidential comments to the Editors that the author will not see. We encourage you to use this space to provide your important comments to the Editors to help them decide on the manuscript.

Review Template:For ease of review we request you to write your review comments on a tabulated format according to the line number.A sample can be downloded from here.

Timeliness of reviews

We generally ask that reviewers submit their comments within 2 weeks of accepting the reviewer invitation.

Feedback from reviewers to editorial office

We welcome feedback from our reviewers, either on a particular manuscript, a decision made on a manuscript, or the peer review process. Please send emails to chiefeditor@noa.org.np

Becoming a peer reviewer

To volunteer to be a peer reviewer, please send your resume/CV to our Editorial Office at chiefeditor@noa.org.np

Reviewer recognition

NOAJ has the policy to publish the list of reviewers at the end of the calendar year in the last issue or display at annual conference. NOAJ is also continuously looking for innovative ideas to engage and upgrade reviewers during the process of academic publication for enhancement of medical research in Nepal.