Peer review process

The practice of peer review is to ensure that good science is published. It is an objective process at the heart of good scholarly publishing and is carried out on all reputable scientific journals. Our referees, therefore, play a vital role in maintaining the high standards of Vietnam Journal of Catalysis and Adsorption and all manuscripts are peer reviewed following the procedure outlined below.

Initial manuscript evaluation
The Editor first evaluates all manuscripts. It is rare, but it is entirely feasible for an exceptional manuscript to be accepted at this stage. Those rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are passed on to at least two experts for review.

All submissions to the journal are screened using the plagiarism detection software, iThenticate. Any article that has problems with any of the above criteria may be rejected at this stage.

Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will be informed within 2 weeks of receipt.

Reviewing stage
Articles passing successfully through the pre-review stage then begin formal peer-review.
Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper.

Reviewers are selected to be experts in the field of papers.

Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest.

Type of Peer Review
This journal employs the single-blind review, which means that the names of the reviewers are not shared with the author but the reviewers are aware of the author’s identity, throughout the review process.

How the reviewer is selected
Reviewers are matched to the paper according to their expertise. Our database is constantly being updated. We welcome suggestions for reviewers from the author though these recommendations may or may not be used.

To uphold the impartiality of the journal, reviewers should consider any potential conflict of interest before agreeing to review a submission and should contact the editorial office to declare any potential conflict of interest if you are in the following instances:

- direct competition with the authors.
- a co-worker or collaborator with one of the authors.
- a position to exploit the authors' work (commercially or otherwise).
- a position which prevents you from giving an objective opinion of the work.
- unable to act as a reviewer due to a conflict of interest, we will then select an alternative reviewer.

Reviewer reports and anonymity
Reviewer reports are sent to the authors with the decision letter. Reviewer reports are generally sent intact but may undergo minor editing for clarity, to correct spelling or typographical errors, or to remove any text that inadvertently reveals the reviewer's identity.

Reviewer names are kept strictly confidential. Reviewers' identities may only be disclosed to JCA Editorial Board members, who are also instructed to maintain confidentiality. JCA operates a 'single-blind' review process, in which reviewers know the identity of the authors but authors do not know the identity of the reviewers.

Reviewers are asked not to transmit reports directly to the authors. We also ask that reviewers do not otherwise disclose their identity to the authors or discuss the papers they have reviewed with colleagues unless they have been published.

Reviewing schedules
Time for reviewing. It is expected that you will spend no more than four weeks completing the review of an item. We understand that this may not be sufficient time, depending on the length and complexity of the item and your other commitments. It is understood that reviewers holding multiple items will require additional time to complete the reviews. If you are receiving too many items or too many at one time, please let us know.

Reminder Notices. If you have held an item for about a month, a first reminder will be sent to you. If you receive a reminder notice and you decide that you cannot finish the reviews of some of the items that you have, please let us know immediately. We will transfer the items to another reviewer.

Revised manuscript
When authors make revisions to their manuscript in response to the reviewers' comments, the editors will make decition or return to the original reviewers for reevaluation

Proofing
Once the article is accepted, a proof will  be electronically sent to corresponding author. The proofread copy should be returned to the JCA within 48 hours.