SAE International appreciates the essential role of reviewers in the publishing process, and our reviewers are crucial to the integrity and validity of the research we publish. We rely on reviewers to help to improve quality and to adhere to SAE’s standards through a double-blind peer-review process. SAE journals and non-event technical papers require a minimum of three qualified reviews before a decision is reached about publication. SAE events requires a minimum of two qualified reviews.
What is peer review?
Scholarly peer review is the process of subjecting an author’s scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the field. Peer review is critical to enforcing the standards and integrity of high-quality scholarly publishing and can add value and further clarity to submitted manuscripts. The peer-review process acts as a filter for poor content and as a mechanism for improving content.
Why is peer review important?
Peer review is important because it acts as a quality control measure. The review process helps an editor and/or publisher decide if a manuscript should be rejected, accepted for publication, or returned for modification. Exposing an author’s manuscript to experts in his/her field of research checks for validity, integrity, quality, and value.
Why is timeliness important?
SAE understands that reviewers are busy and that they will not be able to accept all invitations to review. The SAE staff asks that you respond at your earliest convenience if you are unable to accept an invitation to review a manuscript. Journal and non-event technical paper reviewers are also able to mark times within Editorial Manager® during which they will not be available to review manuscripts. Timeliness of response—whether agreeing to complete a review or not—is important in order to give authors timely feedback on their manuscripts. Reviewers that do not respond to invitations or do not provide reviews in a timely manner can cause serious delays in our time to first decision and to publication in general, and SAE strives to improve these timelines on an ongoing basis. Many reviewers also serve as authors and understand the importance of completing reviews in a timely manner.
Why are good reviews important?
Good peer reviews are critical because they provide a detailed analysis of the work, and they also make efforts to distinguish the difference between appropriate and valuable research and flawed research. A good review will offer proof that the research is worth publishing, suggestions on how the research can be improved, or sound reasoning for rejecting a manuscript.
Good reviews ensure the integrity of SAE’s publications and events. It is the responsibility of all reviewers to act in ways that coincide with SAE’s policies and guidelines. SAE also supports and follows the policies and guidelines of COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Institutional Review Boards
SAE International is committed to ethical and compliant research and publications. Each author has the sole responsibility to confirm approval from the applicable Institutional Review Board (IRB) where necessary and required. All submissions to SAE publications should receive IRB approval in the following cases, including, but not limited to:
- Research involving human subjects: in order to assure the protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects and to ensure the institution and researchers/investigators have complied with applicable regulations
- Any information or product that is subject to FDA approval, testing, or regulation
- Any information or product that is required to follow Department of Health and Human Services (specifically Office for Human Research Protections) guidelines and regulations
- Any information that is part of an application for a product, research, or marketing permit subject to FDA inspection or regulation
IRBs may grant exceptions to these requirements, which the author is required to provide upon request by the Publisher.