Peer Review

IJMEER commits to the following timelines as standard targets:

• Acknowledgement of receipt: Within 3 business days
• Initial screening decision: Within 7 days
• First peer review decision: 4–6 weeks from submission
• Standard review decision: 4–6 weeks
• Revision resubmission window: 2 weeks (minor), 4 weeks (major)
• Final decision after revision: 1–2 weeks

Where reviewer delays are unavoidable, authors will be notified with an updated expected timeline. IJMEER actively monitors reviewer responsiveness and maintains a pool of backup reviewers to minimise delays.

All peer reviewers for IJMEER are selected based on:

• Demonstrated expertise in the subject area of the manuscript
• Minimum qualification of a Master's degree; PhD holders preferred
• At least one peer-reviewed publication in a relevant field
• Prior successful review history with IJMEER or verifiable experience elsewhere
• No active conflicts of interest with submitted work

Each manuscript is assigned to 2–3 independent expert reviewers. The Subject Area Editor identifies candidates from IJMEER's registered reviewer panel, academic networks, and editorial board recommendations. Reviewers may accept or decline invitations and must complete a conflict-of-interest declaration before accessing any manuscript.

All manuscripts submitted to IJMEER are treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must:

• Not share, discuss, or cite the manuscript or its contents with any third party without explicit written permission from the Editor-in-Chief
• Not use information from an unpublished manuscript for their own research without the authors' written consent
• Return or destroy all manuscript materials upon completion of the review
• Immediately notify the editorial office if they identify themselves or the authors through internal evidence

Breach of confidentiality is grounds for permanent removal from IJMEER's reviewer panel and may be reported to the reviewer's institution.

IJMEER defines a conflict of interest as any relationship or competing interest that could impair — or be perceived as impairing — a reviewer's ability to provide an objective, unbiased assessment. This includes:

• Personal, professional, or financial relationships with any author
• Co-authorship with any author in the past 5 years
• Employment at the same institution as an author
• Ongoing or competing research on the same topic
• Any financial stake in the outcome of the manuscript

Reviewers must decline any assignment where a conflict exists and must disclose any potential conflict proactively to the Editor. IJMEER editors are similarly bound by this policy. Where editor conflicts arise, manuscripts are reassigned to an independent editorial board member.

IJMEER is committed to publishing only original, unpublished research. All submissions are subject to anti-plagiarism screening prior to external peer review. The following rules apply:

• Maximum acceptable similarity index: 15% (UGC compliant threshold)
• Self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, and text recycling without attribution are prohibited
• Manuscripts exceeding the similarity threshold are returned to authors without review
• Authors may be asked to provide a plagiarism report (Turnitin, iThenticate, or equivalent)
• Any post-publication discovery of plagiarism will result in retraction and institutional notification

Reviewers are invited to flag any suspected plagiarism from sources not detected by automated tools, including data fabrication and figure manipulation.

Appeals: Authors who believe a rejection decision was based on a misunderstanding of their work may submit a formal appeal to editor@ijmeer.com within 30 days of the decision letter. The appeal must specifically address the reviewers' concerns and should not simply re-state the original arguments. The Editor-in-Chief's decision on appeals is final.

Complaints: Any complaint regarding the conduct of the peer review process should be submitted in writing to the editorial office. IJMEER will acknowledge all formal complaints within 5 business days and investigate within 30 days.

Misconduct: Allegations of research misconduct — including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, authorship disputes, or undisclosed conflicts of interest — are treated with utmost seriousness. IJMEER follows COPE's guidelines for handling such cases, including potential retraction, correction, and institutional notification.

Reviewers acting on behalf of IJMEER are expected to:

• Accept only reviews within their genuine area of expertise
• Provide constructive, objective, and evidence-based evaluations
• Maintain a respectful, professional tone — even in rejection recommendations
• Submit reviews on time, or notify the editor promptly if an extension is needed
• Not attempt to identify the authors through the text, references, or internal evidence
• Not contact authors directly, either during or after review, without editorial approval
• Declare all potential conflicts of interest honestly
• Not use competitor's manuscript data for personal academic advantage

Failure to adhere to this code may result in exclusion from IJMEER's reviewer panel and a formal complaint to the reviewer's institution.

IJMEER covers 70+ academic disciplines and actively welcomes interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research. For submissions spanning multiple fields:

• Two or more reviewers will be assigned from each primary discipline represented
• At least one reviewer will have crossover expertise in the intersecting domains
• Authors are encouraged to state in the cover letter which disciplines intersect in their work
• Interdisciplinary manuscripts are evaluated on contribution to each field independently
• The methodology chosen is evaluated in context of its appropriateness for the specific combination of disciplines

In the interest of academic transparency, IJMEER publishes aggregated (non-identifying) peer review statistics annually, including acceptance rate, average review time, and reviewer completion rates.

Authors are encouraged — though not required — to make research data, analysis code, and supplementary materials available in a publicly accessible repository. Where data sharing is relevant, reviewers may request access to raw data to verify results, routed through the editorial office to preserve anonymity.

IJMEER does not publish individual reviewer reports without explicit consent from the reviewer. Reviewer identities are never disclosed post-publication without consent.