Initial Evaluation 

Upon receiving a manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief (EiCh) and/or Deputy Editor-in-Chief (DEiCh) have the right to desk-reject it for various reasons including if the submission does not fit the journal themes; if it does not adhere to the Journal’s stylistic, referencing and length requirements; if it displays significant scientific flaws; and/or if it is not sufficiently original. If the manuscript appears to meet the basic standards of the Journal, the EiCh or DEiCh will pass the manuscript on to the relevant peer reviewers.  

Type of Peer Review 

All analysis articles submitted to the Journal and passing initial evaluation undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process.  This means that the referees do not know the identity of the author and the author does not know the identity of the referees. 

How Referees Are Selected 

The Journal has an internal peer reviewer database of professors, senior lecturers, postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates and professionals.  Our referees work across many different subfields of energy and energy policy and are geographically diverse (Russia, Finland, Germany, America and Australia among other countries).  In the rare case that none of our peer reviewers are a good match for a specific manuscript, we will seek an external peer reviewer.  Every manuscript is reviewed by at least two referees (in addition to the EiCh or DEiCh). 

Referee Reports 

Referees are asked to comment on various aspects of the manuscript including whether the research is original, whether the framework is methodologically sound and whether the findings support the article’s aims.  The referee then makes an overall recommendation of ‘publish’, ‘publish with minor revisions’, ‘revise and resubmit’ or ‘reject’. 

Length of Review Process 

The initial evaluation by the EiCh or DEiCh takes up to one week.  If the manuscript proceeds to the peer review stage, referees are asked to provide their reports within two weeks.  The EiCh or DEiCh may take another week to review the reports and manuscript together before anonymising the reports and contacting the author.  Therefore, we aim to provide the author an outcome for their manuscript within four weeks.  Please note that even after the initial peer review process has been completed further content-related and technical edits may be requested before publication.