The editorial team sends submissions, except letters to the editor, to reviewers before making a decision to publish. Approximately 5 percent of manuscripts submitted to IO are ultimately published by the journal, while approximately 40 percent are judged by the editors as not ready or appropriate for external review. The standards of IO’s reviewers are high. Before submitting their work, authors are strongly encouraged to seek advice and detailed comments from colleagues.

Appeals

To appeal an editorial decision, contact the editorial office at io@iojournal.org and specify the reason for your appeal. Appeals must be submitted within ninety days of the relevant decision. Whenever possible, your appeal will be reviewed by at least two members of the editorial team, including one editor or associate editor who was not involved in the initial decision. The editorial team aims to respond to appeals within sixty days.

If, due to conflicts of interest or other unusual circumstances, there are not two editorial team members available to evaluate an appeal, the IO Ethics Committee will appoint a member of IO’s editorial board to participate in the appeal process. Except in cases of conflict of interest, the final decision regarding your appeal will rest with the Editors-in-Chief. Generally, the Editors-in-Chief will consider only one appeal per manuscript per decision stage.

Review Transfer Policies

To speed the review process, encourage reviewers to provide detailed and forward-looking advice (for example, if a paper belongs somewhere other than IO), and reduce redundant reviewer workload, we allow the transfer from IO of manuscripts that have been reviewed and rejected to another participating journal (“transfer out” policy). We will also allow the transfer of reviewed manuscripts to IO (“transfer in” policy). For more information, see here.