Journal of Northwest University (Natural Science Edition) operates a double-anonymous peer review process for all scholarly submissions. Throughout the entire review process, the identities of authors and reviewers are mutually concealed: authors do not know the names, affiliations, or any other identifying information of the reviewers, and reviewers do not have access to the authors' names, affiliations, contact information, or any other identifying information during the review.

Review Workflow

(1) Submission and Editorial Screening. Authors submit manuscripts through the journal's online submission system. The Editorial Office performs format checking, plagiarism detection, and an assessment of fit with the journal's scope. Possible outcomes at this stage are: forwarded for external review, returned to the author for revision, or desk rejected. Editorial screening is completed within 5 working days.

(2) Assignment to a Subject Editor. Manuscripts that pass the screening are assigned to a Subject Editor based on the discipline of the manuscript. The Subject Editor selects at least two independent external reviewers in accordance with the manuscript's research field.

(3) Double-Anonymous External Review. The Subject Editor sends the blinded manuscript independently to the external reviewers. Reviewers evaluate the manuscript on the basis of originality, scientific rigor, methodological soundness, data integrity, and research significance, and must confirm the absence of any conflict of interest with the authors; reviewers with any such conflicts must voluntarily recuse themselves. Reviewers submit their evaluation reports within 30 working days, with explicit recommendations.

(4) Author Revision. The Subject Editor forwards the review comments to the authors. Authors revise the manuscript in accordance with the review comments and submit a point-by-point response letter. Manuscripts involving substantive revisions are returned to the original reviewers for re-evaluation.

(5) Final Decision. The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the manuscript, considering the reviewers' recommendations, the originality and scholarly value of the manuscript, its alignment with the journal's aims and scope, and ethical compliance. For manuscripts involving major academic disputes or sensitive matters such as retractions, the Editor-in-Chief refers the case to the Editorial Board for collective deliberation and decision.

(6) Pre-publication Editorial Processing. Accepted manuscripts undergo copyediting, typesetting, and three rounds of editing and proofreading before being scheduled for publication in the appropriate issue.