Peer Review & Editing

1　Process: The journal follows a double-blind peer review process. Generally, the cycle from the author's submission to publication is about 6-9 months. Manuscript mainly goes through the following processes:

　　1)Filter: Editors shall reject the manuscripts which are not in the scope of the journal (such as nursing studies, education, hospital management, etc.), and conduct a plagiarism detection, rejecting manuscripts with high repetition (>8%). The status of online system will be "Sorting", and the processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　2)Preliminary Review: The responsible editors mainly review on whether the research design of the article is reasonable, whether the theme is novel, and whether the content have implication on clinical practice, and rejects the manuscripts that do not meet the requirements. The status of online system will be "Preliminary Review", and the processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　3)Statistical Review: The statistical editor mainly reviews on the research design, statistical methods and statistical data of the articles, rejects manuscripts with major defects and major errors in statistical processing, and puts forward modification suggestions for manuscripts. The status of online system will be "Statistical Review", and the processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　4)External review：Manuscripts shall be sent by the editors to peer experts in relevant domain (with senior professional title) for external review. The experimental design, observation methods, result analysis and conclusions shall be reviewed for their scientificity. The external review is decisive for a manuscript. The manuscripts will be rejected if external reviewers believe they are of poor quality and not suitable for publication. The status of online system will be "External Review". If manuscripts are sent out by mail, the status will be "Preliminary Review" and a note shall be given. The processing time is generally 2-4 weeks.
　　5)Second Statistical Review: After manuscripts passing the external review, the statistical editor will examine the statistical design and specific data of the study in detail, and put forward suggestions for revision. The status of online system will be "Second Statistical Review", and the processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　6)Revision: After manuscripts passing the three rounds of review above, editors will compile the revision opinions, send the comments in form of E-mail, and notify the authors by SMS. Authors should complete the revision, upload the revised draft through the online system or send it by e-mail. At the same time, the Recommendation Letter and the Copyright Transfer Agreement (if it is a funded project, relevant certificates should be attached) must be sent to the editorial office. The status of online system will be "Revising", and the processing time is generally 1-4 weeks. If the expert opinion is "second review after revision", the revised manuscript shall be subject to external review again. If the authors fail to provide revised manuscript or are not able to return it within 2 months, the submission will be rejected.
　　7)Editing：After receiving the revised manuscripts and supporting materials from authors, editors will start editing works for the manuscripts, including structural adjustment and wording modification according to publishing requirement. If new problems are found in the article during the process, it will be returned to authors for further modification or external review. The status of online system will be "Editing", and the processing time is generally 1-2 months.
　　8)Second Statistical Review: The statistical editor reviews for the second time on whether the author's revised or supplementary data meet the requirements. The status of online system will be " Second Statistical Review ", and the processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　9)English Editing: Editors will send the English abstract to a professional English translation company for polishing and review. The processing time is generally 7-14 days.
　　10)Review by Director: After all processing, manuscripts shall be submitted to the director of the editorial office for review. The status of online system will be " Review by Director ".
　　11)Editorial Meeting: Manuscript will be reviewed and approved by the editorial board for publication.
　　12)Final Review by Editor-in-Chief
　　13)Layout & Typesetting: The paper edition is printed and distributed, and the electronic edition is uploaded to the website.
2　Editing Policy: The author is responsible for the authenticity and scientificity of the article. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Copyright Law of The People's Republic of China, the journal can make textual amendments and deletions to the article. Any amendments involving a change of meaning will be submitted to the author for confirmation.
3　Fast Track: The journal provides "fast track" service to the manuscripts funded by projects at provincial or above level. If authors apply for fast publishing, the manuscript must have passed the external review and approved by the Director of the editorial office and the Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief before the fast track is started. Manuscripts that have not been externally reviewed cannot be processed using fast track. 
4　Submission by Editors: The editorial staff / editors / editorial board members should not be involved in publishing decisions on papers which they have written themselves or have been written by their family members or colleagues. Any such submission should be strictly subject to the journal’s usual editorial process. Peer review should be handled independently from the relevant author/editor and their research groups.
5　Correction and Retraction: Articles published online or in print are considered the final and complete version. In principle, the journal does not make corrections or retractions on published articles. However, in case of the situations described below, corrections or retractions may be carried out if truly necessary.
　　5.1　Correction: If there appears to be an unintended scientific mistake in the article which would not lead to significant impacts on the results and conclusion, the editorial office will publish corrections in the journal as soon as possible, detailing the changes made to the original article and indicating the source of the article. The journal will release the corrected new version of the article, and specify the changes to the original article and the date of update. In addition, the superseded version will also be archived. Readers can obtain it directly, but only the latest version of the article should be used for citation.
　　5.2　Retraction: In the following cases, the editorial office would retract published articles and issue retraction statements:
　　　　1) If an article is found to have severe scientific errors making the results and conclusion of the article unreliable;
　　　　2) For article suspected of academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and data falsification, the editorial office will initiate an investigation and issue a statement to inform readers of the risks associated with the article. Once the investigation is completed, the result will be made public. If the academic misconduct is confirmed, the article will be immediately retracted and a retraction statement will be issued by the editorial office.