Peer Review Policy

Peer review is how IAJLB earns the trust of the people who read it, and we try to run it fairly, carefully and openly about our own process.

Type of Peer Review

IAJLB uses double-blind peer review. Authors do not know who reviewed their work, and reviewers do not know whose work they are reading, so that a manuscript is judged on its science alone.

Initial Editorial Screening

The Editor-in-Chief or a handling editor first checks each submission for fit with the journal's scope, originality and compliance with the submission guidelines. Manuscripts that fall short at this stage may be declined without external review, which spares authors a long wait for a predictable outcome.

Plagiarism Screening

Manuscripts that pass screening are checked with iThenticate, in line with our Plagiarism Policy.

Reviewer Assignment

Each manuscript goes to at least two independent reviewers with expertise in life sciences, biotechnology, molecular biology or a related field. Editors may add a reviewer when the topic calls for it, for example a statistician for a complex study design or a bioinformatician for genomic data.

Review Criteria

Originality and scientific significance
Soundness of the methods and analysis
Clarity of presentation
Relevance to the journal's scope
Ethical compliance, including ethics, biosafety and consent approvals where required

Editorial Decision

The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision to accept, reject or request revision, guided by the reviewers' reports. When revision is requested, authors send a point-by-point response to each comment.