OFP Peer Review and Publication Process

OFP employs a three-stage review process: editorial office, external review, and editors’ decision.

OFP usually notifies authors of manuscript acceptance, revision requests, or rejection within three months of acknowledging receipt of manuscripts.

1. On submission, a manuscript is reviewed to ensure that it meets the minimum requirements of the journal before it is sent to external reviewers. At this stage, the manuscript is reviewed for the following:

• Is the material within scope for OFP and of interest to osteopathic family physicians?
• Does the article fit under one of the accepted article types?
• Does the article include all required submission elements, such as CME quiz questions?
• Is the article sufficiently different from other material published in the journal?

A manuscript that fails in this first stage of the review process is returned to the author(s) for resubmission.

2. The second stage of the review process employs a double-blind review system. A minimum of two external reviewers are selected from our database, editorial board of the journal, or other sources. These reviewers have expert knowledge of the subject area of the manuscript. The reviewers are invited to review the manuscript by sending them the abstract of the manuscript. The full text of the manuscript is sent to the reviewers after the author(s) have been concealed.

Reviewers evaluate the manuscripts and provide useful comments to enable the author(s) to improve the quality of the manuscript. Reviewers also score the manuscript in terms of originality, contribution to the field, technical quality, clarity of presentation, and depth of research. They recommend one of the following actions:

• Accept
• Minor Revisions
• Major revisions
• Reject. In this case, the reviewer provides the specific reason(s) why the manuscript should be rejected.

Most articles require some revision before acceptance.

Reviewers’ comments are sent to the author(s). The reviewers’ identities are concealed from the author(s). The total time is taken to complete the second stage of the manuscript review is dependent on the availability of reviewers. However, it usually takes between 4 and 8 weeks.

3. Using the reviewers’ comments, authors make changes to the manuscript and submit a revised manuscript. Upon receipt of the revised submission, the manuscript undergoes the third and final stage of the review process. The original manuscript, the revised manuscript, and all the reviewers’ comments are sent to the journal editors, who make one of the following decisions:

Manuscripts accepted "as it is" are scheduled for publication. Manuscripts that require corrections (either minor or major) are sent to the author(s) to make the corrections suggested by the editor. After making the corrections, the editor reviews the manuscripts again before the manuscripts are accepted for publication. In some cases, the editor may require authors to make corrections a second time. In other cases, the editor may request that the revised manuscripts with (or without) the additional corrections to be sent to a specific reviewer who had earlier reviewed the manuscript before the manuscript can be accepted for publication.

Accepted manuscripts are scheduled for publication according to (1) article type (review articles are assigned the highest priority), (2) the timeliness of the topics the manuscripts address, and (3) the priority assigned by ACOFP's editor in chief and associate editor.

• Authors who would like their manuscripts considered for rapid review should justify that request in their cover letters.
• Although tentative publication dates may be provided to corresponding authors as a courtesy, those dates are subject to change at the discretion of OFP editorial staff.

All accepted manuscripts are subject to editing and abridgment. This editing takes place after manuscripts undergo peer review and author revision. During this editing process, the OFP's staff editors revise all accepted manuscripts for clarity, organization, grammar, conformity to house style and format, and adherence to ACOFP-preferred terminology, nomenclature, and spelling. Manuscripts are also checked for the structure, organization, correctness, and clarity of the language as it adheres to OFP’s Instructions for Authors.

The editorial office usually makes corrections to minor grammatical errors in such a manner that it does not alter the content of the manuscript. However, in situations where the language is substantially difficult to comprehend, the manuscript is returned to the author to improve the clarity of the language.

Corresponding authors will receive galley proofs of edited manuscripts for review and comment before publication.

• Corresponding authors are responsible for responding to peer reviewers' comments and concerns, as well as staff editors' queries.
• Corresponding authors are also responsible for verifying all statements in their articles, including confirming the accuracy of changes made by OFP's staff editors.
• Failure to respond fully to peer reviewers' comments and concerns before manuscript acceptance, to address staff editors' queries, or to verify statements may result in publication delay.

After the final proofs have been reviewed by the corresponding author, the issue is published, both online and in print. OFP publishes quarterly.