Guide to referees

The journal uses single-blind peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to an Associate Editor who assigns two reviewers to assess each manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation and previous experience as peer reviewers.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Associate Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If a manuscript is deemed to have a good probability of acceptance after minor or major revision, the Associate Editor may ask the authors to revise it accordingly. Otherwise, it may be rejected.

If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors are requested to return revisions. The Associate Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the Associate Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.

The Associate Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.

It is the responsibility of the ISIJ International Editor-in-Chief to maintain and develop the journal’s profile and reputation. The Editor-in-Chief has the final responsibility for ensuring that journal content meets the Aims and Scope: articles must present research on iron, steel, or related engineering materials, and should be current with the latest developments in the field. The presented research must be original, logical, and of scientific and technological merit. The following acceptance criteria underpin the decision on each submission.

To be accepted for publication in the journal, a manuscript must meet several, if not all, of these acceptance criteria:

1. The manuscript provides an original insight into an important issue within the field of iron and steel research.
2. The new insight is a valuable scientific or technological contribution to the field and useful to researchers or to others who apply knowledge.
3. The new insight is used by the author(s) to contribute to the development of application technologies or fundamental theories.
4. The methods used to produce the new insight are appropriate and described in a way that is understandable across disciplines.
5. The ways in which the data and methods answer the research questions and support the conclusions are explained logically and clearly, and the methods are applied rigorously.
6. The author(s) make clear connections to prior works in the field or from other fields, highlighting novelty in the field of iron and steel research.

For more detail, please see the Instruction to Authors.