Appeals and Complaints

1. Appeal against a rejection

   If you wish to ask the Editor or Editorial Board to reconsider a rejection of a manuscript, you should, in the first instance, contact the Editor through the instructions on the journal website. These are considered appeals, which, by policy, must take second place to the normal workload. In practice, this means that decisions on appeals often take several weeks. Only one appeal is permitted for each manuscript. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the paper or the Editor. In general, an appeal against a rejection decision on a manuscript will only be considered if:

- the authors can demonstrate that an error that determined the final decision has been made -by a referee or the Editors- during the review

or

- if important additional data can be provided

or

- if a convincing case of bias in the process can be demonstrated.

   Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should submit a formal letter of appeal to the journal by contacting the journal editorial office. Include the manuscript tracking number in the email subject line and the appeal letter. If appeals are successful, then authors will be given instructions on how to proceed. If an appeal merits further consideration, the Editor may send the authors' response and the revised paper out for further peer review.

2. Complaints

   Authors who wish to appeal the decision on their manuscript may do so by sending an e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief within 15 days of notification of the decision. In such cases, a letter detailing the reasons for the appeal as well as a full response to any reviewers' comments, if relevant, should be provided to the Editor-in-Chief. If appropriate, the manuscript will be sent to another reviewer who has not previously evaluated the manuscript. The reviewers' comments, along with any subsequent editorial communications, will be assessed by the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision will be final. Complaints about the peer review processes or about publication ethics will in the first instance be handled by the Editor-in-Chief. If the Editor is the subject of the complaint, please approach the editorial and publishing management team by email to cjes@guilan.ac.ir. 

For complaints about processes, such as time taken for review, the Editor will review and respond to the complainant's concerns. This feedback will be provided to relevant stakeholders to guide improvements to processes and procedures.

For complaints about publication ethics or scientific content, the Editor will follow guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics. The Editor may request advice from the editorial board on difficult or complicated cases. The Editor then decides on a course of action and provides feedback to the complainant.

If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, it will be escalated to the journal's editorial and publishing management team for investigation. If no publishing contact is identified send the query to cjes@guilan.ac.ir.