Peer Review Process

Peer Review Process

The Frontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE)  uses a double-blind system. Every article that goes to the editor will be selected in advance on the scope and feasibility by the editorial board. Then, the articles will be sent to peer reviewers. Reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers.  Every submitted paper will be reviewed by at least two peer-reviewers. After that, the articles will be returned to the authors to revise. The reviewing process will consider novelty, objectivity, method, scientific impact, conclusion, and references.

Peer Review / Responsibility for the Reviewers

As an editor or a reviewer you are requested to find out about the originality of the manuscript you are urged to review. Therefore, it is recommended that you also see the Author Guidelines and Polices page to see which points authors should take into consideration prior to submission of their papers for the publication.

Although reviewed articles are treated confidentially, reviewers' judgments should be objective. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders, and reviewers should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited

Editorial Responsibilities

Editors have complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article. Editors should have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept, only accept a paper when reasonably certain, when errors are found, promote the publication of correction or retraction, and preserve the anonymity of reviewers.

Review Guidelines

The  Frontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE)  highly appreciates their kind support by agreeing to review an article for our journal. Before they consent to evaluate any paper, the reviewers are requested to consider a number of points. First, if the paper is not in your area of research interest and expertise, please inform the editor and feel free to refuse to review it. Second, if you have no free time to evaluate the paper before the deadline, kindly inform the editor. Third, in case of any conflicts of interest, the reviewer's acknowledgement can be very useful in our final decision. Therefore, if by any chance you have read the paper before or happen to know the authors, please inform the editor about this.

Kindly make sure you review the paper confidentially. Please avoid contacting the authors. In addition, should you feel the need to ask a third party for their comments, please make sure to inform the managing editor in advance.

Before they are sent to reviewers, all The  IFrontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE)  papers are previewed by our editor(s)-in-chief. The papers are also checked for their originality using the turn-it-in software. However to our experience, there have been cases of plagiarism which the software has failed to detect. If you doubt the originality of any part(s) of the work you are reviewing, please inform the editor. In addition, if you suspect the accuracy or truth of any part(s) of the work under review, make sure to inform the editor about it.

The Frontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE) reviewers are requested to evaluate the articles based on a number of evaluative criteria available in the review from including the clarity, quality, thoroughness, relevance, significance, and soundness of the works. Reviewers are expexted to leave comments in the manuscript itself and in the review form. These comments are very valuable for the professional development of any authors and will definitely help them improve their work.

Reviewers may also add their comments in the second section of theƂ Review Form. Having reviewed the paper, the reviewer is requested to make any of the following decisions:

  • Accept as it is
  • Accept with minor or major revisions
  • Revise and resubmit
  • Reject

This decision should be based on the merits and demerits of the work under review.

The Frontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE)  papers are proofread before they are published, and the reviewers are by no means obliged to correct or mark language errors or typos. However, if the reviewers detect such cases, they are most welcome to highlight them.

The Frontiers in Community Service and Empowerment (FiCSE)  corresponds with its reviewers only through email; therefore, you are requested to email your report and in-text comments to the managing editor.