1- The Initial Assessment by the Executive Editor

All manuscripts uploaded by the author(s) are briefly assessed by the executive editor for the structural requirements of the journal. In the initial assessment some papers may be rejected for being out of the scope of and not meeting the necessary criteria of the journal. Only those manuscripts are sent for peer-reviews that meet the following criteria:  

• The manuscripts should be within the scope of the journal;
• The manuscripts should be scientifically appropriate for being assessed by the reviewers;
• The manuscripts should be formatted based on the journal’s guideline for authors;
• The manuscripts should be innovative and use up-to-date resources.  

2- Peer-review Process

Being initially assessed by the executive editor and judged as qualified for more assessment, the manuscripts are sent to two expert reviewers. The whole process is a double-blind peer review, meaning that the reviewers and authors remain anonymous to each other. In some cases, the manuscripts are sent to three reviewers. In this case, the process may be longer.

Next, the editor-in-chief and other members of editorial board examine the reviewers’ comments on the manuscripts and decide on its acceptance.

3- Final Decision

• Acceptance: Considering the reviewers’ comments, the submitted manuscript is published without any changes.
• Acceptance with minor revision: The manuscript is published after doing minor revision required by the reviewers or editorial board. In this case, the reviewed manuscript is sent to the author/s for required corrections and then it is accepted and published.
• Acceptance with major revision and re-review: A manuscript may be accepted after major revisions. In this case, the author/s should do the changes suggested by the reviewers and resubmit the revised manuscript. The revised manuscript is again sent to the reviewers.
• Rejection: Some manuscripts many be rejected after reviewing their content and quality. 

It is noted that going through the review process and revisions does not necessarily result in acceptance. The manuscript should be finally examined by the editor-in-chief and editorial board, and then, if it gains the required score, it will go through publication process. Moreover, in case of initial (scientific) acceptance, the author has to send an English version of the abstract. It is noted that if the author/s do/es not revise and submit the manuscript in the due time determined by the journal, in case of initial acceptance, it will be rejected. 

Publishing Charges for Author/s:

The Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Journal of Social Science does not charge author/s for the submission. However, after the review process, the author/s of accepted articles are required to pay 3.500.000 Rials for the costs of editing and publishing.