Reviewer Conduct

Peer-Reviewed · Open Access · Pharmaceutical Research

Reviewer Conduct

The International Journal of Pharma Studies expects reviewers to handle every manuscript with professionalism, discretion, and respect. Reviewers are trusted with unpublished pharmaceutical and scientific research and should take appropriate care when reading, commenting on, and handling material received during the review process.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts under review and information associated with them should be treated as confidential. Reviewers should not share a manuscript, reviewer report, editorial correspondence, or other review-related material with colleagues, students, or other individuals unless the editorial team has given permission.

Information obtained through peer review should not be discussed outside the review process. Reviewers should also take reasonable care when storing or accessing manuscript files and other confidential material, including unpublished experimental data, clinical trial information, drug formulations, laboratory findings, and pharmaceutical research results.

Use of Unpublished Information

Reviewers must not use unpublished ideas, findings, data, methods, drug-development approaches, experimental results, or other information obtained from a manuscript for their own research, publication, teaching, commercial activities, or other purposes.

A reviewer should not take advantage of information obtained through the review process before it becomes publicly available. Particular care should be taken with confidential information concerning drug discovery, pharmaceutical formulations, clinical investigations, patents, and proprietary research methods.

Reviewer Comments

Review comments should be written in a professional and respectful manner. Criticism should address the manuscript and its scientific content rather than the author.

Comments should be clear enough for the editor to understand the reviewer's concerns and, where appropriate, for authors to understand what may need clarification or improvement.

Reviewers should assess relevant aspects of pharmaceutical research, including study design, experimental methods, data analysis, scientific validity, interpretation of results, and applicable research ethics. They should avoid comments that are offensive, dismissive, discriminatory, or unrelated to the scientific assessment of the manuscript.

Independent Review

A reviewer should prepare their own assessment of the manuscript and should not allow another person to review the manuscript on their behalf without prior permission from the editorial team.

Reviewers should not attempt to influence the editorial process or communicate directly with authors about a manuscript under review unless the editorial team specifically authorizes such communication.

Reviewers must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality, including relevant financial, professional, institutional, or pharmaceutical industry relationships.

Handling Review Materials

Review materials should be handled carefully and should not be copied, circulated, or retained for purposes unrelated to the review.

Reviewers must not upload confidential manuscripts, unpublished pharmaceutical research, patient-related information, or other restricted material to external platforms or AI tools where doing so could compromise confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property, or research ethics.

When a review assignment has ended, reviewers should follow any instructions provided by the journal regarding access to or handling of review materials.