Since October 2025, JEM has been published by Paradigm Publishing Services, a part of De Gruyter Brill.
The current and authoritative information about the journal is available on this website.

All journal policies and editorial documents are available on the journal’s website under the Documents tab.

In general, the JEM publishing procedure includes twelve main steps:

1. Submission of Manuscript

The corresponding or submitting author submits the manuscript to JEM via the online Editorial System, in accordance with the JEM Instructions for Authorsand using the JEM Template for SUBMISSION and REVISION. 

Manuscripts submitted for review must not contain any information that could identify the author(s).

2. Editorial Office Assessment

The Managing Editor (ME) conducts an initial assessment to verify:

• compliance with the journal’s scope;
• conformity with theJEM Template for SUBMISSION and REVISIONand declared manuscript type (as defined in JEM Types of manuscripts);
• completeness of required sections and declarations;
• compliance with ethical standards.

At this stage, manuscripts are screened using anti-plagiarism software (iThenticate).

The scientific quality of the manuscript is not evaluated at this point. Manuscripts that do not meet the journal’s formal or ethical requirements may be returned to authors or rejected at this stage.

3. Statistical Methods Assessment (where applicable)

Manuscripts involving statistical analyses are assessed by the Statistical Editor (SE), who evaluates:

• the appropriateness of statistical methods;
• underlying assumptions;
• correctness and transparency of calculations.

If critical statistical errors are identified and cannot be resolved, the manuscript may be rejected at this stage upon confirmation by the Editor-in-Chief.

4. Editorial Appraisal

The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) evaluates the manuscript’s suitability for JEM, including its relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, and overall academic quality.

Where appropriate, the EIC may, but is not required to, consult a subject-matter expert from the Editorial Board (EB).

Manuscripts that do not meet the journal’s academic standards or fall outside its scope may be rejected without external peer review.

5. Invitation of Reviewers

The Managing Editor invites independent reviewers with relevant expertise. Reviewers are selected based on:

• subject-matter competence;
• absence of conflicts of interest;
• research reputation and prior reviewing performance (where applicable).

All reviewers are required to declare the absence of conflicts of interest in accordance with COPE principles.

A minimum of two reviewers is required. Depending on the manuscript and field of study, additional reviewers may be invited.

6. Peer Review

JEM applies a double-blind peer review model. Reviewers assess manuscripts independently and confidentially in accordance with the JEM Instructions for Reviewers.

Reviewers are normally given:

• up to 35 days for the initial review;
• up to 20 days for the review of revised manuscripts.

Reviewers provide structured reports and recommendations, which may include:

• accept;
• accept with minor revisions;
• accept with major revisions;
• revise and resubmit;
• reject.

Peer review is conducted voluntarily, and reviewers do not receive financial remuneration.

7. Evaluation of the Reviews

The Editor-in-Chiefevaluates the reviewers’ reports and assesses their consistency, quality, and usefulness for authors.

If reviewer opinions differ substantially, the Editor-in-Chief may decide that an additional review is required, and the Managing Editor invites an additional reviewer or consults a member of the Editorial Board.

Additionally, the Editor-in-Chief evaluates each review and assesses its usefulness to the authors using a five-point scale.

8. Editorial Decision 

Based on the peer review reports and the editorial assessment following peer review, the Editor-in-Chief makes one of the following decisions:

• accept;
• minor revision;
• major revision;
• reject.

The Editor-in-Chief may take into account recommendations provided by members of the Editorial Board.

The decision, together with anonymized reviewer comments and editorial guidance, is communicated to the corresponding author via the Editorial System.

9. Revision and Resubmission 

When revisions are requested, authors are required to:

• revise the manuscript in accordance with reviewer and editorial comments;
• clearly indicate all changes made to the manuscript;
• submit a point-by-point response explaining how each comment has been addressed, or providing a reasoned justification where changes were not made, using the JEM Revisions Document.

Revised manuscripts that do not adequately address reviewer and editorial comments may be rejected.

10. Subsequent Review Rounds

Revised manuscripts may be:

• assessed by the Editor-in-Chief only, or
• returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation, particularly in cases of major revision or revise-and-resubmit decisions.

Multiple rounds of revision may be conducted where necessary to ensure scholarly quality.

11. Acceptance

When the Editor-in-Chief or an appointed independent member of the Editorial Board determines that the manuscript meets the journal’s academic, ethical, and editorial standards, the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Following acceptance, authors are requested to:

• provide full author details and affiliations;
• provide acknowledgements, funding information, and all other required declarations in accordance with the requirements specified in the JEM Template for ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS;
• prepare the final version of the manuscript in accordance with editorial instructions and the JEM Template for ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS;
• complete and submit the JEM Declaration of Copyright and License to Publish.

12. Production and Publication

 Accepted manuscripts undergo:

• language proofreading by the English Editor (EE);
• editorial checks by the Publishing Editor (PE);
• formatting by the Technical Editor (TE).

Before publication, the Editor-in-Chief conducts a final editorial review of the accepted manuscript to ensure consistency with the journal’s scope, editorial standards, and ethical requirements.

A DOI is assigned, and the manuscript is published in open access form on the journal’s website.

Editorial Independence and Conflict of Interest

In cases where the Editor-in-Chief or a member of the Editorial Board is an author or co-author of a submitted manuscript, the manuscript is handled by an independent member of the Editorial Board appointed for this purpose.

The Editor-in-Chief and/or the Editorial Board member concerned is excluded from the editorial assessment and decision-making process for that manuscript.

All editorial decisions in such cases are made in accordance with the journal’s standard peer review procedures to ensure editorial independence and integrity.

Summary

Information on acceptance rates and other editorial performance indicators is provided inthe Journal Detailstab under the Aims & Scope section.