Managing Editor: Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Anhui Medical Journal

I. Initial Manuscript Screening (Before Peer Review)

1.      Assess whether the manuscript falls within the journal’s accepted scope.

2.      All submissions undergo academic misconduct detection; manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 20% are typically desk-rejected.

3.      For manuscripts in fields such as nursing, medical education, public health and health management, verify the authenticity and relevance of any declared funding projects.

4.      Conduct preliminary evaluation of content and formatting quality.

5.      Issue detailed rejection reasons for manuscripts failing initial review.

II. Peer Review Coordination

1.      Anonymize the manuscript by removing all author and institutional information to prepare it for double-blind peer review.

2.      Assign peer reviewers with expertise matching the manuscript’s research field.

3.      Cross-disciplinary manuscripts shall be sent to reviewers from at least two different relevant fields.

4.      Strictly implement conflict-of-interest avoidance rules.

III. Post-Review Processing and Revision

1.      Integrate peer review comments and editorial evaluations of content and formatting, then forward this consolidated feedback to authors.

2.      Set a clear deadline for revised manuscript resubmission.

3.      Retain tracked changes for all revised electronic manuscripts.

4.      Re-run plagiarism detection for manuscripts pending acceptance; the similarity index for a provisionally accepted manuscript should be below 15%.

IV. Post-Acceptance Administration

1.      Archive all required documentation, including signed Copyright Transfer Agreements,

  letters of institutional attestation, and corrected author proofs.

2.      Confirm completion of the payment of any applicable Article Processing Charges (APCs) by authors.

3.      Register author mailing addresses and invoice information.