How do I request an appeal (re-review) of an editorial decision on my manuscript?

How to submit an appeal

If an author feels that an Editor handling their manuscript has issued an inappropriate decision (e.g., because of bias, conflict of interest, judgmental or unprofessional language/comments, or other serious errors or concerns), authors may submit an appeal by sending an email to ed-support@jmir.org that contains the following information:

• Include the journal, manuscript number, and "Appeal" in the subject line.
• In the body of the text, state the specific nature of the author complaint regarding the editorial decision issued; and
• If applicable, provide specific statements from the review process or other relevant documentation that authors view as evidence of editor bias, error, or other serious issues
• if a transfer to another journal was suggested during the review process, or if you would agree to a transfer to another JMIR portfolio journal (see list of journals published by JMIR Publications), please explicitly state whether you are willing to transfer the manuscript with the existing peer-reviews and list the journals in the order of preference. You can state constraints you have (e.g. in regards to impact factor or indexing - while we do not recommend this we know that some authors still have institutional constraints), though the fewer limitations you have, the higher the chance for acceptance in another journal 

Appeals related to editorial decisions indicating that an article is out of scope for the journal are unlikely to be considered unless authors suggest an alternative journal.

When an author submits an appeal, the article is considered in review even if formally, the manuscript may have been removed from the JMIR Publications submission queues. In other words, all appeals must be finalized before an article is submitted or transferred to another journal within JMIR Publications or elsewhere, as papers cannot be under consideration at multiple journals simultaneously. 

Appeal review and outcome

All appeals received will be reviewed by either a second editorial board member or a panel of Editors from the editorial board of the journal in which a manuscript was under review. After review of the appeal request, authors will be notified of the outcome and, if applicable, authors will be provided with next steps or options on how to proceed.

The outcome will be determined on a case-by-case basis on review of the manuscript, the peer review and editorial decision history, and the authors' submitted complaint. Once a decision based on the appeal is provided, this decision would be considered final for this manuscript.