Procedures for Handling Manuscripts

The Editor and Associate Editors follow the procedures outlined below in handling submissions to the Annals of Applied Probability:

1. There is an initial review carried out by the Editor in association with an appropriate Associate Editor, should it be necessary, to identify those papers that are clearly not suitable for the Annals of Applied Probability . These papers can then be returned quickly to the author. For those papers that may be acceptable, an appropriate Associate Editor is identified.

2. The Associate Editor is contacted by email to determine if he or she is willing to handle the paper. If so, the paper is transmitted to the Associate Editor.

3. The Associate Editor identifies an appropriate referee. In some cases, two referees may be used, in particular, if the Associate Editor is not well equipped to evaluate the paper. Please see Guidelines for Referees. The Associate Editor sends one copy of the manuscript and a copy of the guidelines to the referee.

4. The referee should prepare a report within two months if at all possible, and definitely within three.

5. The Associate Editor sends the report to the Editor via EJMS along with one of the following recommendations:

1. Accept subject to minor revisions.  If the Editor concurs with this recommendation, in most cases checks on the revisions will be handled by the Editor, unless otherwise specifically requested by the Associate Editor. The Editor will inform the Associate Editor in cases the recommendation is not followed.

2. Accept but after substantial revision. If the Editor concurs with this recommendation, then the revision will be returned to the Associate Editor for further review.

3. Reject with the suggestion that the paper may contain ideas that can be developed into a paper suitable for the Annals. A new manuscript will be treated as a new submission. The Associate Editor is requested to provide specific reasons for rejection, together with an identification of ideas in the paper that may eventually lead to an acceptable paper.

4. Reject.  The Associate Editor will attempt to be as explicit as possible about reasons for unsuitability of the paper for the Annals of Applied Probability.