Peer-Review Policy

Sukkur IBA Journal of Computing and Mathematical Sciences strictly follows double-blind peer review process, comprising the following steps:

• All papers submitted to the SJCMS are first gone through under Desk Review by an Editor. The editor may assign Associate Editors to review the quality and scope of the submitted manuscript. If the article fails to meet the journal criteria, the paper will be declined immediately and authors will be notified.
• Once the paper is submitted, the editor or Associate editors ensure that the paper follows the double-blind review policy. If the author names are found, then the author name(s) and affiliation(s) are removed from the paper and updated version is uploaded on the system either by the editor or corresponding author.
• Every submitted article is checked for the Similarity report by the Editor, before initiating the review process. Turnitin is used by the SJCMS as prescribed by Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, to check the similarity of paper. As per HEC policy, in case of the manuscript has been found to have a similarity index of more than 18%, it will be immediately either returned back to the author for correction and resubmission or will be rejected and archived. This decision is made by the editor, based on the similarity ratio. (Please Note that the parameters for similarity check involve, Add to No Repository, Exclude Bibliography, Exclude Quoted Text).
• If the paper satisfies the criteria, then the editor or associate editor will send the article to at least (03) reviewers for review. Each article will be reviewed by at least 01 National and 01 International (from HEC's list of technological advance countries) reviewers with a double-blind, peer review policy.
• Reviewers are recruited from the national and international universities having a Ph.D. with reputed research profile (checked through Google Scholar and Research Gate) for the given area/field of the submitted article.
• Each reviewer is initially invited to review the article showing them the article title and abstract only. Upon acceptance of the review request, the full paper is presented and a review form is used to record their feedback and suggestions through online journal management system.
• The reviewers' recommendations will determine whether to “Accept Submission”, “Revision Required”, “Resubmit for Review” or “Decline Submission”. The final decision is made by the Chief Editor based on the reviewers’ report.
• Once the decision has been made, the review response - including the review form and suggestion, is sent to all authors of the article with editorial decision. The same email is then forwarded (BCC) to all reviewers (with Blind policy) and Associate Editors corresponding the article for ensuring transparency and high standards.
• For the papers which require only revisions, the Associate or Technical editor will re-review the paper for ensuring that the reviewer’s suggestions have been incorporated or not.
• For papers that require resubmission for review, will undergo second Round of review by the same or different reviewers to ensure that the quality of the revised paper is acceptable.
• After final Acceptance, the Author/Corresponding author will be notified and paper will be forwarded to technical editors for copy-editing, layout editing and proof reading.