Manuscript submitted

The journal has received the submission and is conducting an initial editorial assessment and screening for technical requirements.

Editor invited

The journal office is identifying potential editors to handle the submission.

With editor

The manuscript has been placed with a member of the editorial board for handling.

Under review

The handling editor has invited peer reviewers to evaluate the submission.

Required reviews complete

Some or all assigned reviewers have submitted comments.

Decision in process

The handling editor has drafted a decision, but it has not yet been finalized or sent to the authors.

The journal staff and in-house editorial team perform an initial quality check to identify potential issues such as:

• Competing interests
• Compliance with editorial policies and ethical standards
• Financial disclosures
• Data availability

Submissions may be returned to authors for changes or clarifications at this stage.

After completing internal checks, each new submission is assigned to an Academic Editor with relevant expertise. The editor reviews the manuscript against our publication criteria and determines whether reviews from additional experts are needed to evaluate the manuscript. The handling Academic Editor is usually a member of the AAM Editorial Board, but occasionally a Guest Editor is invited to serve instead.

During the submission process you’ll be asked to indicate any specific editors or reviewers who should not review your manuscript. We will respect your request so long as it does not interfere with the objective and thorough assessment of the submission.

The handling editor selects reviewers based on expertise, publication history, and past reviews, and invites them to provide feedback on the manuscript. After agreeing to review, external peer reviewers typically have 15 days to submit their review. The journal office will follow up with late reviewers and keep you informed if there are any delays.

AAM uses double blind peer review. Reviewers and authors remain anonymous .

The handling Academic Editor or staff editor makes the final decision on each manuscript. The time to render a first decision vary depending on how long it takes for the editor to receive and assess reviews.

The editor considers reviewer feedback and their own evaluation of the manuscript in order to reach a decision. The following decision types are available:

• Reject
• Major revision
• Minor revision
• Accept

Decisions are communicated to the corresponding author in a formal letter, along with reviewer feedback and any other requirements from the journal office.

If the editor feels that your manuscript has the potential to be published, but requires changes, you’ll be invited to revise it. You’ll have 4 weeks to resubmit the revised manuscript for both a major or a minor revision.

In most cases, the revised manuscript is re-assigned to the original Academic Editor. The editor may make a new decision based on their own assessment of the revised manuscript and your response to reviewers, or request additional input from external peer reviewers.

When the handling editor is satisfied with the scientific aspects of the manuscript they’ll issue an editorial accept decision. The journal office will send a formal accept decision, and your manuscript will move on to production.

Authors may submit a formal appeal to contest an editorial decision. Appeals will only be considered under the following circumstances:

1. A reviewer or editor is thought to have made a significant factual error, or
2. A reviewer or editor’s objectivity may be compromised due to a documented competing interest, and
3. A reversal based on either of these grounds would change the original decision.

All appeal requests will be considered by at least one Staff Editor or Editorial Board member.

AAM may decline an appeal without review if:

• integrity concerns contribute to a rejection decision, or
• the decision is connected to an issue involving multiple submissions or articles, or
• AAM determines in its sole discretion that an appeal will be unable to satisfactorily resolve all issues underlying the editorial decision.

While under appeal, a manuscript remains under formal consideration at AAM and should not be submitted for consideration elsewhere.

Decisions on appeals are final without exception.