Reviewers Guidelines

Referees should give an overall recommendation as to whether a manuscript should be published in Substantia as it is, after minor or major revisions, or be rejected.

The reviewers are invited to submit blind comments for the authors, while a private confidential communication solely to the editor is optional. Please formulate the comments for the authors in a polite form.

1) Minor alterations include:

• The addition of more references
• The improvement of the quality of graphics
• A better or more accurate explanation/discussion for some of the results
• A shortening of the manuscript or of some of its parts
• The correction of typos or of other minor mistakes.

2) Major alterations include:

• The addition of more details
• The rewriting of the manuscript.

Manuscripts that require major changes will usually be re-evaluated by the referee(s).

In your evaluation please take into consideration the following issues:

• Evaluate and rate the importance, novelty and correctness of the work.
• Rate the length of the revised manuscript. Are there sections that could be shortened without affecting the overall structure and nature of the work?
• Are further changes or additions required?
• Is the paper written in good English? (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these).

Please warn the editor if:

• The manuscript contains work that closely resembles other publications, or duplicates text and/or figures without proper credit
• You have concerns about its scientific rigour
• The manuscript lacks sufficient novelty or is incremental
• You have the impression of fragmentation of a substantial body of work into several short publications
• You consider that the manuscript contains personal criticism of others
• You have ethical concerns such as plagiarism or regarding approval for human or animal experimentation
• You wish to see any supporting data not submitted for publication, or any previous unpublished paper.

Final recommendation

Along with your comments, the report should contain a final recommendation to the editor. In our Editorial System you can find different options. These can be:

• Accept Submission
  • When the manuscript is suitable for publication in its present form (after copy-editing and proofreading).
• Minor revisions (please select Revisions Required in the Editorial System)
  • When the manuscript is suitable for publication after the author(s) have responded to the reviewer comments and modified the manuscript where appropriate.These (minor) changes could include referencing another work or a rewrite of a few sections (see point 1).
• Major revision (please select Resubmit for Review in the Editorial System)
  • When the manuscript is suitable for publication only after the author(s) have responded to the reviewer comments and made changes where necessary. These (major) changes could include redoing experiments but usually imply a substantial rewrite of several sections (see point 2).
• Reject – encourage resubmission
  • When the manuscript is not appropriate for Substantia or not suitable in the current form. The paper could be resubmitted after an extensive and massive overall revision. Please select Decline Submission in the Editorial System and suggest the possible resubmission in the field “For Editor only”.
• Reject
  • The manuscript is not suitable and it should not be considered further. Please select Decline Submission in the Editorial System.

You can download the Reviewers Guidelines as a pdf file here