Editorial review

Editors are expected to show passion to drive the journal forward in an exciting period of change. It is a significant role, but one that is achievable alongside a full-time role and other commitments. They are responsible for editorial oversight and making recommendations and/or decisions on submissions, working in collaboration with the Editorial Council members. They ensure that reviewers and authors adhere to the Journal’s Code of Publishing Ethics. The role is offered for a two-year period and may be renewed.

Authors who apply for a contribution for possible publication in the journal Archivos de Neurociencias must comply with the Guidelines for Authors. Once the editorial team certifies that the submission meets all the application requirements, the text will be sent to Editorial Review, which includes the following stages: 

  1. It will be verified that the postulated text is related to the journal's Aims and scope.
  2. Each contribution may be reviewed in a software for plagiarism or content similarity detection. Only texts that adequately refer to the bibliography and are free of plagiarism, may continue with the following stages of the editorial opinion.
  3. The bibliography used will be reviewed to ensure that it is pertinent and up-to-date, and that it is provided duly standardized in Vancouver format.
  4. Priority will be given to contributions whose bibliography is delivered electronically and with active hyperlinks to the respective DOIs or URLs, when available.

Description of the Editor role

Using a professional online system (OJS), the Editors manage the review of submitted papers, making recommendations and/or decisions on which papers to send for double-blind review, selecting reviewers, and making and recording decisions on acceptance or rejection. Typically, editors handle 1-5 papers at any given time, depending on the field. They are expected to dedicate around two to four hours per week for editorial tasks. It is important that Editors be responsive. If an Editor goes through a busy or stressful period at any point, they can just let us know that they won’t be able to handle submissions for a period of time, and we will take it into account.

The workflow for an Editor is described below:

  • When asked to handle a paper, the editor should only accept if having the time to handle it. Otherwise, the Editor is expected to let us know at his/her earliest convenience.
  • The Editor should then read the paper within one week, consult with the Senior Editor, and make the recommendation and/or decision of whether to reject the paper (if it’s below the significance threshold or out of the Journal's scope), to ask the authors to revise and resubmit (if the editor thinks the paper can be published if some issues are fixed), or to send it out to external reviewers for extra revision (if the Editor thinks the paper can be published unless the referees find a critical technical flaw). For the first few papers, always consult with the Senior Editor, who has a better picture of the acceptance threshold in the field and the Journal's rejection rate.
  • If the Editor sends it out to review, should invite referees within 1 week of receiving the submission. At least, two reports are needed, which usually means inviting around 5 referees. The Journal Editor may assist you to check on late referees, and help you decide whether to wait a bit longer or to invite new ones.
  • Once the reviews are in, consider them carefully and make a recommendation and/or decision. In unclear cases, the Editor is encouraged to discuss the decision with the Journal Editor, who has a good overview of the selection criteria. You can also communicate with the referees to clarify inconsistencies. We expect editors to use their own judgement as experts in the field, rather than just taking reports at face value.
  • Communicate the decision to the authors (using journal templates), and handle the next round of revision similarly, until you reach a final recommendation and/or decision of accept or reject.
  • Accepted articles require additional steps: sending manuscript to Copyediting, choosing files for copyediting, and assigning a Copy Editor.