For Editors
- Journal
- Journal of Cervical Cancer
- ISSN
- 2997-2108
- Review
- Single-blind by default
- Decisions
- Editor-led
The editor’s role
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal’s scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts. The reviews inform the decision; they do not cast a vote, and an editor may decide against the weight of them where the reasoning requires it, so long as that reasoning is recorded.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.
Handling a manuscript
Assessment
Read the manuscript against the question it sets itself, not against the study you would have designed. Scope, method and reporting are assessed on the evidence in front of you.
Reviewer selection
Invite reviewers with genuine subject expertise and no competing interest in the work, and give them the scope and the criteria the journal applies. Where a manuscript spans areas, invite across them.
Confidentiality
A submitted manuscript is confidential. Do not discuss it, share it or use it outside the review, and do not contact the authors about it outside the journal’s process.
Competing interests
Declare any interest in a submission and hand it on. An editor takes no part in handling their own manuscript, or one from a close collaborator, competitor or institution where judgment could reasonably be questioned.
Decisions
Give the authors the reasoning, not only the outcome. Where revision is invited, say what has to be addressed, and distinguish requirements from suggestions.
Integrity
Where a concern about ethics, data, images, authorship or prior publication arises, pause the decision and refer it to the editorial office rather than resolving it informally.
Independence and confidentiality
When double-blind review is requested, editors must ensure that author-identifying information is not shared with reviewers.
Reviewers must obtain journal permission before using AI to assist with a review. Any permitted use must be disclosed, and confidential manuscript content must not be uploaded where confidentiality cannot be assured.
Fees, membership, institutional relationships and the publisher’s commercial functions have no bearing on an editorial assessment, and an editor should refer any attempt to make them bear on one to the editorial office.
Editorial decisions are independent of fees, services, memberships and roles.
Where to go next
- Editorial PoliciesThe policies these responsibilities implement.
- For ReviewersWhat the journal asks of a reviewer.
- Editorial BoardThe editors who take responsibility for the record.
- Aims and ScopeThe remit against which fit is judged.