Unbiased, independent, critical assessment is an intrinsic part of all scholarly work, including scientific investigation. Peer reviewers are experts in their field who are not part of the editorial staff and thus are an important extension of the scientific process.

Before agreeing to review a manuscript, reviewers are asked to consider the journal's Competing Interest policies and declare any conflicts (financial, intellectual) that would preclude a fair and balanced judgment of the manuscript they have been asked to review.

By reviewing a paper, reviewers also agree to hold all information contained in the paper as confidential until publication. Peer reviewers are asked to submit their review within three (3) weeks.

Reviewers are asked to consider the following substantive issues when reviewing manuscripts:

• Does this study make an original contribution to the literature in this area?
• Does the abstract reflect the stated study design and methods, results, limitations and conclusions?
• Is there documented ethics approval for the study?
• Is the study method and design appropriate for the question that the authors have tried to address? Is it a well-conducted study of high quality?
• Are the conclusions of the paper supported by the results?
• Are the limitations of the study well described? (all original research papers require a limitation section)
• Is the text clear, organized and easy to read?
• Are the figures clear and relevant?
• Is the topic relevant to Journal readers?
• Should this paper be accepted, undergo minor revision, major revision, or be rejected?
• Should this paper have an accompanying editorial? By whom?
• Does the paper conform to report guidelines for the study design? (see 4. Reporting Guidelines in Author Guidelines.)

Reviewers are not required to comment on copyediting issues such as capitalization, spelling and punctuation.

Reviewers’ comments will be sent to other reviewers of the same manuscript. Manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two (2) reviewers. All reviewers will be notified of the editor’s decision.

Reviewers might also be interested in reviewing our Editorial Policies and Author guidelines.