Information for Editors
Highlights of Science publishes scholarly open access, peer-reviewed journals to promote scientific communication. We work closely with external editors and provide as much support as we can to ensure editorial efficiency as well as high quality publishing.
Editorial Process Overview
All the manuscripts (except for non peer-reviewed types) submitted to Highlights of Science journals will undergo a rigorous single-blind peer-review process by at least two independent reviewers in the relevant field, followed by a final acceptance/rejection decision by the academic editors (members of the editorial board or invited guest editors).
The online editorial management system of Highlights of Science, which is designed to ensure the publishing process more rapid, efficient and convenient, integrates easy-to-use tools for manuscript submission, peer-reviewing, and editorial decision-making.
The authors will be guided on how to prepare and submit their manuscripts by the Instructions for Authors, specified on the journal homepage of each Highlights of Science journal.
Once a new submission is received, the in-house editorial staff (professionally trained managing editors) will do the initial check and then coordinate the whole editorial process while an editorial assistant will be assigned as a main point of contact for the manuscript and to organize the peer review.
Reviewers must hold a PhD degree and/or be a recognized expert in the field, not have co-authored publications with the authors in the last five years, and have recent publications in the field of the submitted manuscript.
After peer-review and author revision, the academic editors (members of the editorial board or invited guest editors) will make a final acceptance decision based on Reviewers' comments and their own evaluation. Apart from exceptional circumstances, a maximum of one round of major revision is
allowed per manuscript.
When making an editorial decision, the academic editors should consider the suitability of selected reviewers, the appropriateness of the chosen reviewers' comments and the authors' responses, as well as the overall scientific quality of the paper.
The academic editors are free to disagree with the reviewers' recommendations. If they do so, they ought to include an explanation of why for the benefit of the authors and reviewers.
Sometimes an editorial decision to accept a manuscript is supported by an academic editor despite a reviewer's reject recommendation. Before communicating a final decision to the authors, the in-house editorial staff will request a second, independent opinion from an editorial board member or the Editor-in-Chief.
One of the following decisions may be made:
Accept — The manuscript is considered of high quality and can be published in its current form and requires no further corrections.
Minor Revision — The manuscript has a very good chance of being accepted for publication after revision. Authors are asked to resubmit the revised paper within a given deadline, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewers for further comments.
Major Revision — The manuscript has a chance of being accepted but would depend on the revisions. Authors are asked to resubmit the revised paper within a given deadline, and the revised version will be returned to the reviewers for further comments.
Reject and Encourage Resubmission — If very substantial changes are requested that are too significant to warrant a revision of the article in its current form, the manuscript will be rejected and the authors are encouraged to re-submit the paper once it has been substantially rewritten.
Reject — The manuscript has major flaws that could not be resolved by revision and resubmission.
Responsibilities of Academic Editors
All academic editors are closely assisted by the editorial staff in Highlights of Science. Academic editors do not need to do editorial administration work, but supervise the editorial process, ensure the scientific quality of the published contents and represent the journal in academic communities. The editorial office will support the journal management and take care of the editorial process, including correspondence with authors and reviewers, preparing accepted manuscripts for publication.
Editor-in-Chief
The Editor-in-Chief is the head of the journal and is mainly responsible for the scientific quality in order to ensure the success of the journal. With the assistance from the editorial office in the management of the journal, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for:
determining the Aims and Scope of the journal;
selecting Editorial Board members for the journal;
supervising the editorial process;
ensuring the quality of the published contents;
advising on the strategic development of the journal.
Editorial Board Member
The Editorial Board is constituted of a group of experts in the field who support the Editor-in-Chief in the running and development of the journal. Editorial Board members are responsible for:
reviewing a couple of manuscripts per year;
making decisions on manuscripts;
suggesting topics for Special Issues, which they may also guest edit;
representing and promoting the journal to peers and colleagues;
advising on the journal development.
Guest Editor
Guest Editors are leading scholars in the field of a topic issue. Special issues are edited by Guest Editors which provide a platform to gather the latest research from distinguished scientists as well as active young scholars.
Special Issues are not independent issues of a journal. All submissions to the Special Issues follow the same peer review process as regular papers and are published in the regular issues of a journal when they are accepted. The Special Issue articles will also be additionally labelled as part of a Special Issue, and are put together on a dedicated webpage as a collection.
Guest Editors serve the same function as academic editors for submissions in their Special Issue. When editing special issues, Guest Editors are responsible for:
defining the Aims and Scope of the Special Issue;
assisting in inviting contributions and promoting the Special Issue;
pre-screening new submissions in their Special Issue and supervising the peer-review process;
making decisions on submissions in their Special Issue after peer-review.
Comments and Questions
Please send your comments and questions to or directly to the journal editorial office.
