All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by the Editor and Associate Editors. At this stage, manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal. This fast rejection process means that authors are given a quick decision and do not need to wait for the review process. Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for double blind peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors’ judgment a decision is given on the manuscript. Manuscripts may also be sent out for statistical review. The editors and reviewers of IJSPT treat all submitted manuscripts as confidential documents, which means they will not divulge information about a manuscript to anyone without the authors’ permission nor use knowledge of its contents for their own benefit. During the process of manuscript review, the following people may have access to manuscripts: Editors and editorial staff and the external peer reviewers. The average time from submission to first decision is 38 days.
