CBIJ Reviewers’ Guidelines

Peer Review Policy

All research articles submitted to CBIJ will undergone rigorous peer review which involves initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by at least two anonymous referees. Furthermore, authors are requested to avoid self-identification in the manuscript in order to preserve the advantages of anonymous peer reviewing. CBIJ will not consider accepting and publishing manuscripts that have been published previously or are under consideration for publication elsewhere.

The review process is an important aspect of the publication process of an article. It helps an editor in making decision on an article and also enables the author to improve the manuscript.

Academic journal operates a blind peer review system.

Conflict of Interest

Reviewers are requested by CBIJ to declare their conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from the peer-review process if a conflict exists. Conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s competing private interests potentially enables the individual to deviate from his or her professional execution of responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities. 

Confidentiality

CBIJ believes that research papers are confidential materials given to a reviewer in trust for the purpose of close assessment and as such reviewers ought to ensure that the review processes is kept confidential during and after the review process.

Plagiarism

CBIJ treats plagiarism as an unethical and unacceptable practice and therefore all submission made to the journal will be checked for trace of plagiarism.  ‘

Transparency and Fairness

CBIJ encourages all its reviewers to be honest and objective. In this regard, when reviewing manuscripts, reviewers should not be influenced by the origin of the manuscript; religious, political or cultural viewpoint of the author; gender, race, ethnicity or citizenry of the author, e.t.c.

Manuscript Feedback

CBIJ encourages the reviewers to focus on the following when reviewing manuscripts:

• Originality
• Contribution to the field
• Technical quality
• Clarity of presentation
• Depth of research

In addition to the aforementioned, the reviewers should check if the authors have observed the authors’ instructions and the CBIJ editorial policies.

Timeliness

Time is of essence to CBIJ and therefore the journal intends to complete a manuscript review process in about two to three weeks’ time. Reviewers are therefore, requested only to accept manuscript that they can confidently complete reviewing in two to three weeks’ time.

Recommendations

CBIJ expect the reviewers’ recommendation to indicate whether the manuscript is to be:

• Accepted as it is
• Accepted with minor corrections
• Accepted with major revisions
• Rejected and consider submitting to other Journals.

CBIJ encourages reviewers to provide constructive suggestions to others on how they can improve the quality of their manuscripts.