Editorial Process

Paper Selection and Publication Process

1) Submission Acknowledgement

Upon online submission, authors receive an automatic confirmation email with a manuscript tracking number. If you do not receive this confirmation, please check your bulk/spam email box or contact the editorial assistant at ejmss@tiu.edu.iq.

2) Initial Editorial Screening

The Managing Editor or delegated editor conducts a preliminary assessment to verify the manuscript:

  • fit with the journal’s aims and scope.

  • meets the quality and has the potential to be published in the journal.

  • compliance with author guidelines and formatting requirements.

  • originality through similarity checking (Turnitin Similarity Check).
    Manuscripts failing these checks, including those with ethical or plagiarism concerns, may be desk-rejected without external review.

3) Double-Blind Peer Review

Eligible submissions undergo double-blind peer review by a minimum of two independent reviewers. Additional reviewers may be invited when required.

4) Editorial Decision

The decision to accept an article is based on the average score and recommendations given by reviewers. The assigned sectional editor will review the reviewers' reports. If differences of opinion arise between reviewers, the section editor will weigh all comments and make a balanced decision based on them. Alternatively, a second round of peer review may be initiated if necessary. Based on reviewers’ reports and recommendations, the section editor issues one of the following decisions:

  • Accept

  • Minor revisions

  • Major revisions

  • Reject

5) Revision and Resubmission

The result of the review will be sent to the corresponding author, and if a revision is required, the authors will be requested to:

  • Revise the paper in accordance with the reviewers’ and Editor’s comments.

  • Submit the revised manuscript together with a detailed rebuttal letter that can be at the beginning of the manuscript or in a separate file; the rebuttal must address each reviewer's comment individually.

  • The author needs to demonstrate the specific changes made to the manuscript. 

  • The revised paper must be resubmitted within the specified deadline.

Note: Revised manuscripts may be re-examined by reviewers to ensure concerns have been addressed and rectified.

6) Acceptance and Production

Once accepted, manuscripts proceed to:

  • editorial copyediting

  • typesetting and formatting

  • A galley proof will be sent to the corresponding author for final approval before publication.

7) Publication

The journal publishes two issues annually (July and December), comprising a minimum of five peer-reviewed articles per issue. The accepted papers will be published with:

  • DOI registration

  • CC BY-NC 2.0 licensing

  • indexing and archiving metadata

8) Licensing

Accepted manuscript, published by the journal, will be published under the Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) license. Anyone may copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/