Peer Review Process
Neurological Surgery and Anatomy defines in its Editorial Policy that the editorial office initially receives manuscripts for a checklist, which aims at verifying that all documents are in accordance with the format requested in the Guidelines for Authors and similarity check.
In case the documentation does not comply with the journal's formatting, the manuscripts are returned to the corresponding author, with a limit-date set for returning the formatted version. Meanwhile, the quality of images, tables, and graphs are certified, and ORCID of the authors submitted in the electronic system.
Once formatting is completed, the editor-in-chief reviews manuscripts. After certifying that the article contents are within the defined fields for NS&A, manuscripts are forwarded to the associate editors in their respective areas, who analyze their importance, originality, clarity, and relevance of the study for the specific field of knowledge or subarea. Associate editors may reject articles at this point or recommend the continuation of the process, by indicating at least two reviewers. After reading the manuscript Reviewers may recommend to:
- Accept submission
- Required revisions
- Decline submission
- Resubmit for review or
If, after peer review, recommendation falls on class b, the editor returns the reviewers' opinions to the corresponding author so that the requested corrections and suggestions for improvements can be analysed and incorporated to the original manuscript. Authors also are informed of the date-limit to upload this new version of the manuscript into the NS&A system. Once this improved manuscript is inserted in the system it undergoes reevaluation, so that reviewers can reach their final recommendation (as above a-d). The reviewers recommendations are directed to the editor, who makes the editorial decision based on those recommendations and communicates it to the corresponding author.
Occasionally, if manuscripts are deemed of interest to NS&A readership but need to undergo a more thorough process of revision or improvements based on reviewers feedback, the Editor may inform this to the corresponding author and return the manuscript to the authors, closing up the loop at this time and recommend that -if the authors are willing to undergo the changes suggested they can restart as a new process (class d) in the future. In this case, no date-limit will be informed to the corresponding author.
Once manuscripts are accepted to be published at NS&A, they will undergo editing. After this phase, the corresponding author receives the draft of the article for proofreading. Proofreading consists of the final reading of the manuscript before publication and aims at correcting fine details that could have been missed during the in-house editing process. To avoid publication delays, the corresponding author must request adjustments (when needed) or signal his/her authorization for publication within the following 48h period of being notified.
