Privacy Statement

Authors and reviewers

Manuscripts must be reviewed with respect for author confidentiality. By submitting their manuscripts for review, authors entrust editors with the results of their scientific work and creativity, on which their reputation and career may depend. Authors’ rights may be violated by disclosure of confidential information during review of their manuscript. Reviewers also have a right to confidentiality, which the editor must respect. Confidentiality may be breached if dishonesty or fraud is suspected, but must otherwise be maintained.

Editors must not disclose information about manuscripts (including receipt, content, review status, reviewer critiques, or final fate) to anyone other than authors and reviewers. This includes requests to use materials for legal proceedings.

Editors should explain to their reviewers that manuscripts submitted for review are a privileged communication and are the private property of the authors. Therefore, reviewers and members of the editorial team must respect the rights of authors by not publicly discussing the authors' work and not appropriating their ideas for the publication of the manuscript. Reviewers are prohibited from making copies of the manuscript for their own files and must not share it with others except with the editor’s permission. Reviewers must return or destroy copies of manuscripts after review submission. Editors should not retain copies of rejected manuscripts.

Reviewer comments may not be published or otherwise made public without the permission of the reviewer, the author, and the editor.

Opinions differ on whether reviewers should remain anonymous. Authors should consult the guidelines for authors of the journal to which they choose to submit a manuscript to determine whether reviews are anonymous. If the comments are not signed, the identity of the reviewers may not be disclosed to the author or anyone else without the permission of the reviewers.

Some journals publish reviewer comments with the manuscript. No such procedure should be used without the consent of the authors and reviewers. However, reviewers’ comments should be sent to other reviewers on the same manuscript, which helps reviewers learn about the review process. Reviewers may also be notified of the editor’s decision to accept or reject the manuscript.