After a manuscript is submitted to Scientia Iranica, it is screened by a journal editor to decide whether or not it should be sent for peer review. Only after passing the initial screening process is the manuscript sent to one or more peer reviewers. Because the reviewers specialize in the same scholarly area as the author, they are considered the author’s peers.

The benefits of the initial screening include:

1. Quickly decide whether the manuscript falls outside the scope of the journal so as the rapid rejection (desk rejection) allows the authors to submit their manuscript to a proper journal.
2. Peer reviewers’ time is not wasted when they do not have to spend time evaluating and giving feedback for a manuscript of clearly inferior quality.

The goal of peer review is to assess the quality of articles submitted for publication. It is a process by which peer reviewers evaluate scholarly works to assure high quality of published science. Nonetheless, peer reviewers do not make the decision to accept or reject manuscripts; they recommend a decision at most. It is the journal editor or journals’ editorial board who considers the peer reviewers’ reports and make the final decision to accept or reject the manuscript for publication.

Scientia Iranica adopts the single blind type, i.e. names of reviewers are not revealed to authors, but the reviewers are given the authors’ names.

In short, before an article is deemed appropriate to be published in Scientia Iranica, it must undergo the following process:

• The corresponding author of the article must submit it online to the Editor of Scientia Iranica who forwards the article to experts in the field after initial screening.
• The peer reviewers will carefully evaluate the quality of the submitted manuscript. They check the manuscript for accuracy and assess the validity of the research methodology and procedures.
• If appropriate, the paper will be suggested to be accepted, revised, or rejected.