Peer Review and Editorial Processes

Peer Review

The confidentiality of all submitted manuscripts is of importance to the editorial team and is guaranteed to the authors, reviewers, and publisher. The Nigerian Journal of Neuroscience operates a double-blind peer review process: The authors being anonymous to the reviewers and vice versa. All manuscripts are initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper.

Once a manuscript submitted, it goes through the following editorial process:
- The manuscript and associated materials are checked for quality and completeness by the journal’s editorial office.
- The manuscript is assigned to an editor.
- The editor and the editorial team decide whether or not to send the manuscript out to review; the corresponding author is contacted with the decision.
- The editor contacts potential reviewers to ask them to review the manuscript.
- Reviewers read the manuscript and submit their reports.
- The editor and the editorial team discuss the reviewer reports, and decide whether the manuscript or a revised version of it could be published in the journal.
- The editor contacts the author with the decision.

If the decision is negative, the author can choose to resubmit the manuscript after effecting the necessary revision. Alternatively, the authors can now submit to another journal. If the decision is positive, the author is usually asked to revise the manuscript and resubmit for the publication processes. A reviewed manucript can be further send back to the reviewer depending on if the revision was minor or major.

Editorial Process

The editor-in-chief has the final authority to accept or reject an article. However, the editorial team’s input is vital for this. This responsibility is exercised taking only into consideration the relevance of the work to the Nigerian Journal of Neuroscience and the quality of the content. The latter consideration takes into account the quality of the methods, the validity of the experiments, and the quality of the conclusions. In instances where errors are found even after publication, articles must either be corrected or retracted. Where there is a conflict of interest with respect to an article, the editor or editors recuse themselves and are not parties to accept or reject such an article.

Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor.

Appeal and Complaint

Authors can raise a complaint or appeal a decision about their manuscript. This is usually channelled to the editor-in-chief through the editor.njn@gmail.com. The editor will review the merit of the appeal or complaint and, in consultation with other editorial members, can take a decision if to reconsider the manuscript.