After formal peer review many manuscripts may be provisionally accepted pending minor revisions, after which authors will submit revised manuscripts. The editor would have gauged the revisions needed as being feasible and capable of being completed within 3 months. Revisions will be requested by the editor through email, with instructions on how to proceed to create and upload a revised submission on the journal website. In the journals’ personalised section your submission will move in the active table from having the status In Review to In Review: Revisions Required.

When you prepare a revised version of your manuscript it is essential that you follow the instructions given in the editor’s letter and the reviewer’s comments (when provided) very carefully.

Time limits

Authors must stay within the following time limits:

Revisions received more than three months after being requested may be sent for another review cycle, at the editor’s discretion.
Revisions received more than six months after being requested may be closed and considered withdrawn from consideration.

Guidelines on how to address the iThenticate analysis report

You will have access to the Similarity Report results through your Author Portal after peer review. We kindly request that you follow the guidelines provided for reviewing an iThenticate® Report and addressing any missing citations as follows:

1. Understanding the iThenticate Report:

The report highlights text in your manuscript that matches other sources. These matches are color-coded based on similarity and provide links to the original sources.
Review each highlighted section carefully, ensuring the content has proper citations or is paraphrased accurately.

2. Check for Unintentional Plagiarism:

If a match shows up but you haven't cited the source, consider whether it was a direct quote or paraphrased content. If it is a direct quote, ensure that quotation marks are used and that the source is cited correctly.
For paraphrased content, verify that your paraphrase reflects your own understanding of the source and is sufficiently distinct from the original text, while still citing the source.

3. Addressing Missing Citations:

Add Citations: For any text flagged in the report that lacks citation, ensure that you cite the original source in the correct format (APA, Harvard, etc.).
Use Quotation Marks: If the text is identical to the source, enclose the matched text in quotation marks and add the corresponding reference.
Paraphrasing: If you are using ideas from the source but not the exact wording, rephrase the information significantly, and still include the proper citation to acknowledge the original source.

4. Avoid Over-Reliance on Similar Sources:

If too much of your manuscript closely mirrors other works, consider reworking those sections. Strive to present your original voice and analysis, only using direct citations for supporting evidence.

5. Citing Properly:

Make sure that all sources are cited in both in-text references and the bibliography/reference list. Double-check that every source referred to in the text appears in the reference list.

6. Final Check:

After making the necessary revisions and receiving your revised manuscript, we will run the manuscript through iThenticate again to ensure that all issues have been addressed.

How to submit a revision

Submit your revision by:

Preparing the required three documents for uploading.
Uploading the three documents.
Informing the editor via email of your submitted revision.

1. Preparing the required three documents for uploading:

DOCUMENT 1: The feedback summary to the Editor-in-Chief: A complete and concise, point by point response specifying how you have addressed each of the editor’s and reviewer’s comments. Where suggestions have not been followed, you must explain and justify your decision. This should include specific references to sections, pages and paragraph numbers where alterations were made in the text.
DOCUMENT 2: Annotated version of the revisions made on the original manuscript: The annotated copy should have highlights of the changes (either by using the track changes function in Microsoft Word or by highlighting or underlining text) with notes in the text referring to the editor’s or reviewer’s query. If references, tables or figures are moved, added or deleted during the revision process, renumber them to reflect such changes so that they continue to be cited in numerical order. Images need only be uploaded if changes have been made to them since the previous version. Revisions with Tracked Changes: Please be sure to blind your edits and comments completely. The following link from Microsoft provides step-by-step directions for blinding your Word document using the track changes feature: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Change-the-author-name-for-review-comments-cdd4b8ac-fbca-438d-a5b5-a99fb1c750e3
DOCUMENT 3: Clean version of the revised manuscript.

Removing Hidden Data and Personal Information by Inspecting Documents: Because hidden information can reveal author identifying information, please be sure to altogether remove all hidden data and personal information in your Word documents before you submit your revised manuscript online.

2. Uploading the three documents:

STEP 1: When you have addressed the comments and completed your revisions, log into your journal’s personalised section and click on In Review: Revisions Required.
STEP 2: Under the Editor Decision, click the bubble icon to view the editor's decision letter. If needed, you may view the original editor and reviewer comments by clicking files linked under the Review Round.
STEP 3: Once your revisions are correctly formatted and prepared, click on Browse to begin uploading your revised manuscript from your desktop. Ensure that you upload a clean version, an annotated version and a point by point version as part of your revised manuscript submission.

3. Informing the editor via email of your submitted revision:

Once all three documents are uploaded, you will need to inform the editor via email of your submitted revision. Click on the email icon and proceed to type and email the editor.

Support video

Click here to view a video on how to check the status of your article online.