Journal of Fetal Medicine

The aim of the journal will be to communicate the results of original research in India and elsewhere, in a variety of clinical and scientific specialties concerned with diagnosis and therapy of fetal abnormalities. All activities that promote health of the fetus will be carried out. The primary focus will of course on reporting the tremendous work being done in this area in India and other developing countries.

Peer Review
Once a manuscript is submitted online to the journal site, the initial step is a technical check by the publisher who also assesses the article for completeness, adherence to instructions for authors, inclusion of ethics and competing interest’s statements. Articles that pass the completeness are transferred to the Editor in Chief  who, after an initial appraisal, assigns the manuscript to one of the Associate Editors. Based on the overall opinion, articles may be rejected at the initial stage by the Editor in Chief or by the Associate Editors, or may be sent out by the latter for peer review. Often the Associate Editors themselves contribute to a detailed peer-review of the manuscripts.

For external peer review, the journal adheres to a double-blind process that mandates review of all original research and review manuscripts by at least two/three experts in the journal's reviewer database.  Clear and concise guidance is provided to the reviewers and periodic feedback is sought to maintain uniformity and objectiveness of the peer review process.

All review comments received are consolidated by the handling Associate Editor and transmitted by them to the Editor in Chief with her/his own recommendation. The Editor in Chief then takes a final decision. If the decision is to revise, the comments are then sent to the corresponding author. The revised version is sent out again for review (s) till the article meets the requisite acceptance standards of the journal. Occasionally, for articles designated for special issues, or deemed to be of high interest, rapid peer review is undertaken by a minimum of three editorial board members (always including the Editor in Chief) to reduce the turnaround time without compromising the rigorousness of the process.