This section provides a brief general overview of the peer review process at AME journals. Due to the setup of the Editorial Team, the peer review process and submission turnaround time may vary slightly depending on the journal.

1. Review criteria

Manuscripts are evaluated according to the following criteria:

• the material is original and timely;
• the manuscript is written clearly and in accordance with the guidelines for authors;
• appropriate study methods have been used;
• the data are valid;
• the conclusions are reasonable and well supported by the data;
• the information contained in the manuscript is important, topical, and medically relevant.

2. Peer review mode

Unless otherwise indicated*, all AME journals use single-blind peer review, which means the identity of the peer reviewer is kept confidential, but the author’s identity is made known to the reviewer.

*Please note that two AME journals, Hepatobiliary Surgery and Nutrition and Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery, use double-blind peer review, which means that the identities of both the reviewer and the author are kept unknown to each other throughout the review process.

Every manuscript is reviewed by at least two reviewers, and sometimes more opinions are sought. Peer reviewers are selected based on their expertise and ability to provide high quality, constructive, and fair reviews. For research manuscripts, editors may, in addition, seek the opinion of a statistical reviewer.

The existence of a manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than the peer reviewers and editorial staff. Peer reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review and must not divulge any information about a specific manuscript or its content to any third party without prior permission from the journal editors.

Information from submitted manuscripts may be systematically collected and analyzed to help improve the quality of the editorial or peer-review processes. Identifying information remains confidential. Final decisions regarding the publication of manuscripts are made within the Editorial Team.

3. Provenance and peer review

AME is committed to transparency. Commissioned articles or articles accepted via the Rapid Communication Pathway will be published with a description of their provenance (i.e., commission or reasons for rapid communication), along with how the review was organized (i.e., with or without external peer review). For articles published without external peer review (usually non-research articles, e.g., editorials, interviews, or other editorial materials), the reviews are completed directly by the editors.

Example of an article accepted via the Rapid Communication Pathway: http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/39891/html.
Example of a commissioned article (with external peer review): http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/36668/html.
Example of a non-research article (without external peer review): http://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/38471/html.

4. Transparent peer review

With a commitment to openness and accountability, and to increase the level of transparency throughout our peer review process, a majority of AME journals have introduced a transparent peer review process as an option for authors upon submission. Please refer to the website of the specific AME journal for more information.

5. Online review system

To ensure the most convenient and efficient peer review process possible, our peer reviews are conducted electronically via both the OJS system (journal website) and AME’s online review system, “AME Bond between Editors and Reviewers” (“ABER” for short). Here is a link to the ABER system: http://www.theaber.com/home.

AME Bond between Editors and Reviewers (ABER) was designed and launched by AME Publishing Company with the goal of connecting our editorial teams and reviewers. Editorial staff can upload manuscripts that are ready for review, release the task description on the ABER system, and monitor the review process. Researchers can register to become ABER members (with valid identity verification). They can then use keywords to search for the subject area in which they are interested, and register their interest in a manuscript they wish to peer review. Researchers are also able to share their thoughts or comments via the ABER system. What’s more, for every manuscript they peer review, they will be rewarded with “AME points” which allow them to purchase various items in the AME online store, including, but not limited to, medical books and journals.

6. Recognition for reviewers

AME has entered an official partnership with Publons on April 2020. Around 60 AME journals’ peer review system is now integrated seamlessly into the Publons platform (https://publons.com/publisher/6041/ame-publishing-company). The partnership was done to recognize our expert peer reviewers spontaneously for their review contribution. Reviewers can now opt-in to Publons as part of the review submission process, and the review data can be transferred to Publons upon submission.

7. Peer review flowchart

1. Handling Editors pass the submitted manuscript to the Editor(s)-in-Chief.
2. Depending on the topic of the submitted manuscript, the Editor(s)-in-Chief passes the article to the Associate Editor(s) or an Editorial Board member with related expertise.
3. The assigned Associate Editors/Editorial Board members with related expertise review the manuscript or recommend external reviewers to the Editorial Office. A literature search may be conducted to identify appropriate external experts.
4. External experts review the manuscript.
5. The external experts make recommendations.
6. The recommendations are sent to the Editor(s)-in-Chief, along with a review from the assigned Associate Editors and the Editorial Board Members.
7. The Editor(s)-in-Chief makes a decision on the manuscript, for which there are four options: accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject.

Note：

Generally, all research articles, reviews, study protocols, and case reports should undergo the standard peer review process, as outlined above. However, if an article is approved for the Rapid Communication Pathway, it will undergo a rapid review process, facilitated by previous peer review comments and revisions obtained after rejection from another esteemed journal. In such cases, there will be a “Provenance and Peer Review” statement in the footnote of the article.

To assure impartial decision-making and to avoid any potential conflicts of interest, authors with a position in the journal’s editorial team will be excluded from any editorial handling of their manuscript (including reviewing, editing, and the final decision). Articles from the Editor-in-Chief will be assigned to an Associate Editor or, in cases where the Associate Editor is not available, to an Editorial Board Member with related expertise. After the review comments have been received from external reviewers, the manuscript will be returned to the Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member to make a final decision.

8. Submission turnaround time

• In-house review: 1-3 weeks
• External peer review: 1-3 months
• Publication ahead of print: within 1 month after being accepted
• Formal publication: within 1-3 months after being accepted.

Note: Original Articles are listed as priority.

Updated on July 24, 2020