Strict adherence to the following principles is important in order to guarantee the integrity of the reviewing process.
Confidentiality of the Submitted Article
The content and the very existence of a submitted manuscript must be considered as confidential until the article is published. If the article is not accepted for the journal, then all aspects of its review in this journal are to be considered as confidential without time limit. Reviewers are requested to consider this important principle.
Anonymity of Reviewers
Authors will not know the identity of the reviewers, unless the reviewer hemself/ herself chooses to divulge her identity. Reviewers do not know the identity of the authors. Reviewers may normally see the other reviews of the same article after they have returned their own review, but will normally not know the identity of the other reviewers.
Reviews that are returned in PDF or Office Word document formats may be labeled with the identity of the author of that document in their data field. It is the responsibility of the reviewer to remove such information from the review document before it is returned to the editors.
Confidentiality of Reviews
Reviewers are requested to consider all reviews as confidential. This applies both to the reviews they write themselves and to those made by the other reviewers.
Definition of Confidentiality
The term 'confidential' as used above implies: (1) the reviewer shall keep confidential material in a safe place where it cannot be accessed by others; (2) he will not divulge confidential material to any other person except if approved by the Journal; (3) any other person that obtains access to the material, after approval, shall also be informed and accept the same rule.