New Submitted Manuscript

Upon submitting a manuscript, an auto-generated ID number of the submitted manuscript will be given to the corresponding author.
The manuscript, then, undergoes an initial screening to ensure that:

1. the guideline of preparation is adhered
2. the aim and scope of the journal are fulfilled
3. is not a pre-printed version
4. the similarity index does not exceed 25%

Papers judged by the editors to be inappropriate are rejected without further review.

Double Anonymised Peer-Review

The in-house statistical editor and a scientific sub-editor of MJMS are assigned to a manuscript.

Emails of invitation to review will be issued by the scientific sub-editor to at least two independent reviewers if the manuscript warrants further consideration. The selection of reviewers is on the basis of the reviewers' knowledge of the field. Reviewers will not be identified to the authors and so do the authors. Authors may suggest their own independent reviewers to evaluate their manuscript but the choice is at the Editor-in-Chief/scientific sub-editor's discretion. Authors may monitor the status of their paper throughout the peer-review process.

If the sub-editor decides not to send the manuscript for review, the Editor-in-Chief contacts the author with the decision.

Reviewers are given 14 working days from the email receipt date to submit their reports. However, they may request for an extension of submission date due to other commitment or time constrain.

The sub-editor will make a decision recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief based on the comments received from the peer reviewers.

The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision.

The decision the Editor-in-Chief will make after consideration of the reviewers’ evaluations is one of the following:

• Accept – This means the manuscript will be published by the journal and does not require any changes or modifications content-wise.
• Minor or major revision – In this case, the authors are given an opportunity to address the reviewers’ concerns by submitting a revised manuscript, which is usually sent back to the original reviewers for re-review. When submitting a revision, the following should be uploaded to the online submission system: (i) a point-by-point rebuttal letter indicating how the comments raised by the reviewers have been addressed. In the case that some comments cannot be addressed, your rebuttal letter provides you the opportunity to justify this; (ii) a marked-up version of the manuscript that highlights the changes made and (iii) a 'clean' (non-highlighted) version of the manuscript.
• Reject – This decision is made for manuscripts that fail to meet the high standards of our journal. If the Editor-in-Chief feels that the work has potential despite its current limitations, he may express interest in seeing a future resubmission. However, if the authors decide to resubmit, the updated version of the manuscript must be submitted online as a new manuscript, with a cover letter that includes a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments.

Post-Acceptance/Publication

All accepted manuscripts will go through copyediting, typesetting, figure sizing and placement, author proofing, corrections, revisions (from corrected proofs) and lastly, issue assignment. Changes or alterations to a submission are not permitted after acceptance but should be addressed in page proofs.

The article will then be made open access online immediately upon publication. Open access articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attributions 4.0 International License, which allow authors to retain copyright to their work while making it open to readers.

Post-Acceptance Withdrawal

Withdrawal after acceptance of a manuscript is not a good publication practice since the editor and reviewers have put in so much of their valuable time and effort on your manuscript.

Therefore, it is important for an author to be aware of any statement mentioned on the MJMS website or on the submission platform that would hinder the following process of publication.

To withdraw your manuscript, you need to write an email to the editor informing him of your decision to withdraw and requesting a confirmation of the withdrawal. Do not submit your manuscript to another journal before you receive a confirmation of withdrawal from the editor.