Peer Review Policy

The International Journal of Business & Computational Sciences (IJBCS) uses double-anonymized external peer review for research manuscripts.

Initial assessment

Editors check scope, originality, reporting completeness, ethics, data provenance, competing interests and suitability for review. A manuscript may be returned for missing information or rejected without external review when it does not meet the journal’s standards. Similarity reports support editorial judgment; a percentage alone does not determine plagiarism.

Reviewer selection and assessment

Research manuscripts passing screening are normally assessed by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant expertise. Editors verify unfamiliar or author-suggested reviewers independently using institutional profiles, publications and reliable contact information. Authors may suggest reviewers, but editors retain responsibility for selection. Author-controlled accounts, fabricated identities and manipulated reviews are prohibited.

Authors submit an anonymized manuscript and a separate title page. Reviewers must not try to identify authors. Editors know the identities needed to administer the process; anonymization cannot guarantee that identity will never be inferred from a specialist topic or preprint.

Review, revision and decision

Reviewers assess contribution, design, data quality, analysis, reproducibility, ethical compliance, interpretation and limitations. Specialist methods review may be sought for complex statistical, econometric or AI/ML work. Editors consider the reports and may reject, request revision or accept. Revisions require a point-by-point response and may undergo further review. Acceptance is not decided by a simple vote of reviewers.

Conflicts and independence

Reviewers and editors must disclose relationships that may compromise impartiality and recuse themselves where needed. An editor or board member submitting a manuscript has no role in its reviewer selection or decision. An independent, unconflicted editor handles it under the same standards. APC payments, waivers and commercial interests do not determine decisions.

Confidentiality and ethical reviewing

Manuscripts, supplementary files and review correspondence are confidential. Reviewers must not delegate a review without permission, exploit unpublished work, contact authors directly or upload confidential material to public AI systems. Reviews must be constructive and evidence-based. Citation requests require scholarly justification; coercive citations and citation exchanges are prohibited.

Article types and timing

Original research, systematic reviews and methodological papers proceeding beyond screening receive external review. Editorials are normally internally assessed and clearly identified; original research claims in editorial material require appropriate independent evaluation. Review time varies with complexity, reviewer availability and revision needs. IJBCS does not guarantee acceptance or a fixed publication date.

Appeals and records

Authors may appeal a substantive factual or procedural error by contacting editor@ijbcs.org with the submission identifier and supporting evidence. An uninvolved editor should assess the appeal where possible. Reviewer invitations, reports, revisions, conflicts and decisions must be retained in the editorial record.