Editorial process

Revista de Investigación e Innovación en Ciencias de la Salud (RIICS) has defined ten steps in its publication process which summarize the workflow, the decision making, the actors involved and the average time taken for each of them. These are presented below.

On this page:

1. Policy Review
2. Manuscript Submission
3. Manuscript Review
4. Peer Evaluation
5. Publishing Decision
6. Manuscript Adjustments
7. Adjustments Review
8. Proofreading
9. Design and Layout
10. Article Publishing

1. Policy Review

RIICS considers important that the authors to be first actors in the publication process. For this reason, a series of policies have been defined to guide and help them decide whether or not their proposal is in line with the journal's interests. Therefore, the first recommendation for the authors is to know the journal, its policies and the work team. Please, review the sections "About the journal", "Editorial Committee", "International Scientific Committee", "National Scientific Committee", "Submissions", "Guidelines for authors", and other sections. After this review the authors may prepare for submission if they consider that their proposal is in line with the journal’s interest.  

2. Manuscript Submission

Before submitting the manuscript, make sure you have read and complied with the Guidelines for authors. All submissions must be made through the Open Journal Systems (OJS), for this you must be registered in the platform. If you have not done it, register here. Then log in with your username and start "Submission": the system will guide you during the process.

3. Manuscript Review

Once the manuscript has been submitted, the Editor will proceed to review it in accordance with the RIICS policies as follows: review of the manuscript and documents related to the process, analysis of similarity with other articles already published to avoid copyright infringement (the editor uses specialized software for a match or similarity detection). In this step, three options for decision making may be presented: 1. Submission to peers. The proposal is in the right conditions to advance to the peer review process. 2. Adjustments. After reviewing the manuscript, the Editor recommends the authors to make adjustments before proceeding with peer review. 3. Rejection. The proposal does not comply or meet the journal’s interests. The review time is based on RIICS workflow, on average, it may take from one to two weeks.

4. Peer Evaluation

When the proposal is ready to be submitted to the peers, the Editor proceeds with the search for two to three external evaluators under the double-blind modality: the peers and the authors do not know each other's names or affiliations. This type of evaluation reduces bias in the arbitration The peers must be doctors and active researchers in the thematic of the article, or masters with thematic expertise, active research and extensive scientific production. The authors have previously indicated in the formats the ideal academic profile of the peer that could review the proposal. RIICS has evaluation policies, a large bank of peers and formats for the evaluation of articles. The evaluation process is carried out through the Open Journal Systems, which is why the peers must be registered before proceeding with the review. In case the Editor, upon receiving the evaluations, considers that a third opinion is necessary to settle disagreements among the peers, it will be proceeded in this way for an adequate decision making in the Editorial Committee. The evaluation times are diverse, on average, they can take between four and six weeks.

5. Publishing Decision

Once the proposal has been evaluated by the peers, the Editor prepares a report of the article for the Editorial Committee, which is previously sent along with the evaluations. The Editorial Committee makes the publishing decision having three options in the decision making process: 1. Accept without modifications. The manuscript was positively evaluated by the peers and the Editorial Committee. 2. Accept with modifications. The manuscript is accepted with modifications: only if it complies with the recommendations of the peer reviewers and the Editorial Committee. 3. Rejection. The manuscript does not meet the cut-off point to be published, it is rejected by the Editorial Committee and the publishing process ends. The decision times of the Editorial Committee are based on the dates of the meetings, on average, it could take from one to two weeks.

6. Manuscript Adjustments

Most of the proposals that have been evaluated reach this point and require adjustments according to the recommendations of the peers and the Editorial Committee. The authors must make a judicious and detailed reading to proceed with the adjustments. In addition, they must prepare a report on each of the changes made. If there are aspects in which the authors do not agree with the peers or the Editorial Committee, they must point this out in the report and provide well-argued justifications of why they should not proceed with the modifications or recommendations. The authors have two weeks to make the adjustments and upload the new version of the manuscript to OJS.

7. Adjustments Review

After submitting the new adjusted version of the manuscript along with the report, the Editor makes the revision. Three options can be presented for the decision making process: 1. Adjustments made. The manuscript complied with all recommendations and can continue to proofreading. Depending on the complexity of the adjustments, the Editor may rely on the peer reviewers for the review. 2. Incomplete adjustments. The manuscript did not include all the adjustments, but it provides justifications of why it did not proceed with them. In case the Editor considers the arguments to be valid after the review, the manuscript may be submitted for proofreading; if there is a degree of complexity in the adjustments and arguments of the authors, the Editor may rely on the Editorial Committee or the peer reviewers, as it is considered appropriate. 3. No adjustments. The authors return a report justifying why they do not agree with the evaluations and recommendations. This report is reviewed by the Editorial Committee. There, one of the following decisions will be made: submit it to a third peer reviewer or reject the publication. In the event that the authors return a work without adjustments or with partial adjustments and without a report that justifies and argues the non-incorporation of the recommendations, the manuscript will be rejected and the process will be finished. The time for reviewing the adjustments varies according to the workflow and complexity of the changes, on average, it takes from one to two weeks. Articles that have been accepted and have incorporated the adjustments indicated by the peers and the publisher are published as "Article in press".

The articles in press are versions reviewed by the peer reviewers, accepted by the editor for publication and that the authors have applied changes in accordance with the recommendations of the peers and the editor. An article in press is not the final version, it may have minor changes and be in any of the following editing stages: style correction, design, layout, metadata adjustment, etc. The Revista de Investigación e Innovación en Ciencias de la Salud publishes articles in press in order to provide rapid communication to research and that the results can be used by the community in general. An article in press is published in PDF and bears the “In Press” mark on each of their pages. They can be cited as "In Press" using the respective DOI. Once all the articles are finished for an issue, the publisher numbers all the pages and proceeds with their publication, maintaining the initial publication date.

8. Proofreading

The works that have been accepted for publishing reach this point. With the participation of a proofreader, the manuscript is reviewed and corrected for grammatical, semantic, orthographic, linguistic and citation aspects. The Editor, the proofreader and the authors participate in this stage of the process. The average time for proofreading is from three to four weeks.

9. Design and Layout

Once the proofreading has been approved by the Editor, the XML markup, design and layout of the article is carried out according to the RIICS policies. This stage is accompanied by the Editor, designer and layout designer, proofreader and authors. Finally, the authors must approve the final version for publishing. The average time to complete this process is from three to four weeks.

10. Article Publishing

Once the layout of the article has been completed, it is ready to be added to the next issue of RIICS publishing in the Open Journal Systems. The publishing will be dependent on the periodicity or publication date of the journal. After publication, the Editor proceeds with the deposit of metadata and activation of the DOI before Crossref. It is also proceeded with the submission or registration of metadata to the different information and summary systems in which the journal is indexed.