Refereeing System

REFEREEING SYSTEM

The refereeing system shall adopt a three-stage evaluation process: Initial Appraisal, Double-Blind Peer review, and Editor-in-Chief final review and editing. Upon receipt, the submitted manuscript should be subjected to an appraisal by the technical team. This initial appraisal should include a plagiarism check using the plagiarism detection software Turnitin. The initial process shall ensure that each manuscript fits the objectives, scope, and standards of the PGJSRT. It should likewise establish the significance, technical soundness, and originality of the manuscript (the similarity index should not be more than 20%). The result of the initial appraisal shall determine whether the manuscript should be endorsed for an external review or returned to the author/s for revision. An author accepts the full responsibility of preparing the research paper for evaluation by independent reviewers and revising it before submission.

The review process should not be used as a means of obtaining feedback in the early stages of developing the research paper. Reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief are responsible for providing a constructive and prompt evaluation of the submitted research paper based on the significance of its contribution and the rigors of analysis and presentation using a standard Peer review Evaluation Form provided by the PGJSRT. The manuscript should be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it was not being submitted to another journal, has not been published, simultaneously submitted, or has already been considered/accepted for publication elsewhere.

All submitted manuscripts should be duly acknowledged by the technical team in charge. PGJSRT should not return the unaccepted manuscripts. Accepted manuscripts should be subjected to a peer review following the double-blind review process. Each manuscript should be assigned to a member of the editorial team according to their expertise and endorsed to the Editor-in-Chief for final review, editing, and approval for publication. Within a period of 2 to 3 weeks, the author/s should be informed of the peer reviewers’ comments as to the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. After the author/s revise the manuscript based on the reviewers’ comments, suggestions, and recommendations the Editor-in-Chief should do the final review. Accepted articles would be copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. A proof copy should be sent to the author/s for proofreading and should be returned within two (2) days. Corrections, alterations, and changes received after that period may not be included.