Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Turkish Science Education (TUSED) undergo a strictly blinded peer review in which the authors’ names are removed for the manuscripts to prepare an anonymous version. Peer review process mainly comprises two steps, e.g., editorial review and blinded peer review.

Editorial Review

The editorial office, namely Co-Editors, initially reviews the submitted manuscripts in terms of the use of template, scope, structure, quality of writing, originality, instructions for authors and proficiency of English.

This review results in three possible decisions:

  • Editorial rejection;
  • Starting peer review process
  • Requesting the authors revise their manuscripts given the editorial suggestion(s) and resubmitting the revised version.

The editorial review process generally takes about three weeks, but sometimes lasts longer than the time schedule due to backlogs.

Peer Review

If the editorial review is passed, one of the Co-Editors or Associate editors manage the process.  Each manuscript is sent to at least two referees to make a scientific decision of its publication in the TUSED.  A double blind peer review process has begun after sending to the referees. The referees anonymously analyze the manuscript in accordance with the following criteria:

  • The clarity of the purpose
  • Originality of problem
  • Literature review and theoretical framework
  • Research design/methodology
  • Presentation, fluency and consistency of the findings
  • Quality of discussion
  • Implications for learning, teaching and future studies
  • Strength and weak points of the manuscript
  • Originality

Given the referees’ decisions and comments, assigned Associate Editor makes a decision about the manuscript (Accept, Minor revisions, Major Revisions, Reject and Resubmit, and Reject) and informs the corresponding author about the review results in a few months according to the review time and journal workload.

In responding to revisions, the editorial team request the inclusion of two things:

  1. A document (e.g. table, list) outlining how the reviewers’ feedback has been addressed (or not) with explanation/justification, namely
  2. Clearly shown changes or additions to the article (e.g., highlighted).

If the manuscript needs major revisions, the editor reviews the revisions and makes a decision without another peer-review. For the other decisions, except for rejection, all revised and re-submitted manuscripts are undergone to another round for blinded peer-review process. Hence, the associate editor makes a final decision after completing the second round of the peer review process.

Possible outcomes

1.Revision required

Revisions means that significant changes are required in some particular areas of the paper, which requires more than further editing but not a complete re-think or re-write. After the revision editorial Office can decide either a new double blind peer review or acceptance.

  1. Resubmission

Resubmit means that paper is not ready in its current form but there is potential in the study and the authors can be given another chance to do a significant re-conceptualization before re-submission. Author needs to make a considerable amount of revision before re-submit the paper.

  1. Reject

Reject means that the paper is not suitable for TUSED and/or does not make a significant contribution to the field.

The accepted articles are sent to the author/s for their correction and the publishing approval. In this process, the authors must have the papers proofread by a professional editing service that TUSED agreed, OREGDA. Please get more information from the editing company.

All the review process takes about 6 to12 months according to the journal workload.