Review Policy

Double-Blind Peer Review

The Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology (JWMAP), owned, managed, and published by KODISA Foundation, operates a double-blind peer-review process. The identities of both authors and reviewers are kept confidential throughout the review process.

To ensure anonymity, authors must remove all identifying information from the main manuscript file, including author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding information, and any other information that may reveal the authors’ identities.

A separate title page should include the manuscript title, author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding information, conflict-of-interest statement, AI use disclosure statement where applicable, and complete contact information for the corresponding author.

Authors may cite their own previous works when necessary, but such citations should be written in a way that does not directly reveal the authors’ identities during the review process.

Initial Editorial Assessment

All submitted manuscripts are first checked by the editorial office for completeness and compliance with JWMAP’s submission requirements.

This includes verification of manuscript format, required documents, author information, ethical declarations, conflict-of-interest disclosure, copyright and open access agreement, AI use disclosure where applicable, and similarity screening.

After the initial administrative screening, the Editor-in-Chief or a designated handling editor evaluates whether the manuscript fits the aims and scope of JWMAP and meets the minimum scholarly standards required for external peer review.

Manuscripts that are outside the scope of the journal, fail to meet basic academic standards, or do not comply with ethical requirements may be returned to the authors for correction or rejected without external review.

External Peer Review

Manuscripts that pass the desk review are sent to two independent expert reviewers with relevant academic expertise.

Reviewers evaluate the manuscript’s originality, academic contribution, research design, methodology, analysis, interpretation, ethical compliance, clarity of presentation, adequacy of references, and relevance to the field.

Reviewers provide recommendations to the editorial office, but the final decision regarding acceptance, revision, or rejection is made by the Editor-in-Chief or the Editorial Board.

Editorial Decision

Based on the reviewers’ comments and recommendations, the editorial decision may be one of the following:

Accept
Minor Revision
Major Revision
Re-review after Revision
Reject

When revision is required, authors must submit a revised manuscript together with a response letter explaining how each reviewer comment has been addressed.

Revised manuscripts may be evaluated by the handling editor or returned to reviewers when necessary.

If the two reviewers’ opinions differ substantially, the Editor-in-Chief may invite an additional reviewer or consult the Editorial Board before making the final decision.

Peer Review Process

The peer-review process of JWMAP generally follows these steps:

Manuscript submission
Administrative and ethical screening by the editorial office
Desk review by the Editor-in-Chief or handling editor
Assignment to two independent expert reviewers
Review by external reviewers
Editorial evaluation of reviewers’ comments
Decision notification to the author
Revision, re-review, acceptance, or rejection
Copyediting, production, and publication after final acceptance

Reviewer Ethics and Responsibilities

Reviewers must treat all manuscripts and review-related materials as confidential. They must not disclose, discuss, share, or use the manuscript outside the peer-review process without permission from the editor.

Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts objectively and provide clear, constructive, and evidence-based comments. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate.

Reviewers must inform the editor of any potential conflict of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, personal, financial, institutional, or other relationships with the authors or the manuscript. Reviewers should decline the review invitation when a conflict of interest exists.

Reviewers must not use unpublished information obtained through the peer-review process for their own research, personal advantage, or the benefit of others.

Reviewers must not upload submitted manuscripts, manuscript excerpts, figures, tables, data, supplementary materials, author information, or review-related confidential information to external generative AI tools.

Reviewers should complete their reviews within the agreed time frame. If they are unable to complete the review on time, they should notify the editor promptly.

Similarity Check and Ethical Review

JWMAP may use iThenticate, Crossref Similarity Check, KCI Similarity Check, or an equivalent plagiarism-detection system to identify overlapping or similar text in submitted manuscripts.

Manuscripts with serious similarity, plagiarism, duplicate publication, inappropriate citation, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, misuse of AI tools, or other ethical concerns may be returned, rejected, or subject to further ethical review.

The similarity report is used as a screening tool, and the final judgment is made by the editorial office based on the nature and extent of the overlap.

Final Checklist Before Submission

Before submission, authors should ensure that:

The manuscript has been checked for grammar, spelling, and readability
The manuscript has been prepared for double-blind peer review
The title page and blinded manuscript file are submitted separately
All references cited in the text are included in the reference list, and all references in the reference list are cited in the text
Permission has been obtained for the use of copyrighted materials from other sources where necessary
All authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission
All conflicts of interest have been disclosed
Research ethics requirements, including IRB or IACUC approval where applicable, have been satisfied
AI use has been disclosed where applicable
The manuscript is not under consideration by another journal
The journal’s submission, review, research ethics, copyright, open access, APC, and AI use policies have been reviewed

Submission Declaration

Submission of a manuscript to JWMAP implies that the work has not been previously published, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and has been approved by all authors.

Authors must disclose if the manuscript is related to other published, submitted, or planned manuscripts using the same or overlapping data. In such cases, authors should clearly explain the novelty and independence of the submitted manuscript.

Redundant publication, duplicate submission, plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, misuse of AI tools, and undisclosed conflicts of interest are not permitted.

Editorial Office

KODISA Foundation
Hanshin Officetel Suite 1030, 2463-4 Sinheung-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
Tel: +82-10-2263-7292
Fax: +82-31-740-7361
Email: kodisa@kodisajournals.org