Peer Review Process
The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Agent Systems (IJAIAS) follows a rigorous, transparent, and double-blind peer-review process designed to ensure the quality, integrity, reproducibility, and scholarly value of all published articles. All submissions are evaluated by independent experts, and editorial decisions are made without influence from authors, institutions, commercial interests, or affiliations.
Given the rapid pace of innovation in artificial intelligence, generative AI, intelligent agents, and autonomous systems, IJAIAS places particular emphasis on methodological rigor, reproducibility, responsible AI practices, and the validity of experimental evaluation.
The peer-review process consists of the following six stages:
1. Manuscript Handling
Authors submit their manuscripts through the IJAIAS online submission system, in accordance with the journal’s Author Guidelines, ethical policies, and reporting standards.
Submissions may include theoretical contributions, algorithmic developments, model architectures, benchmark studies, system implementations, agent-based frameworks, empirical analyses, review articles, or real-world AI applications.
2. Initial Editorial Screening
The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) conducts an initial screening to verify:
- Alignment with the journal’s scope
- Compliance with submission guidelines
- Ethical and policy requirements
- Relevance to artificial intelligence, agent systems, or autonomous technologies
- Adequate methodological and scholarly quality
At this stage, submissions may be desk-rejected if they fall outside the journal’s scope or fail to meet baseline academic, technical, or ethical standards. No formal peer review is conducted at this point.
3. Assignment to Handling Editor
Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are assigned to a Handling Editor (Associate Editor or Section Editor), who assumes responsibility for managing the peer-review process and maintaining editorial oversight.
The Handling Editor ensures that reviewers possess appropriate expertise in the manuscript’s subject area, including fields such as:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Deep Learning
- Reinforcement Learning
- Generative AI
- Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Foundation Models
- AI Agents and Agentic Systems
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Autonomous Systems
- Natural Language Processing
- Computer Vision
- Vision-Language Models
- AI Safety and Governance
4. Reviewer Selection and Invitation
The Handling Editor identifies and invites qualified, independent, and conflict-free reviewers with relevant subject-matter expertise.
IJAIAS follows a double-blind review model, ensuring anonymity of both authors and reviewers throughout the review process.
Reviewers are selected based on:
- Demonstrated research expertise
- Publication record
- Methodological competence
- Absence of conflicts of interest
The journal seeks to ensure balanced, fair, and technically informed evaluations across diverse AI research domains.
5. Peer Review and Evaluation
Upon acceptance of the invitation, reviewers critically assess the manuscript, focusing on:
Scientific Contribution
- Originality and novelty
- Significance of the contribution
- Advancement of knowledge in the field
Technical Quality
- Methodological soundness
- Experimental design
- Appropriateness of datasets and benchmarks
- Statistical validity where applicable
Reproducibility and Transparency
- Clarity of methods
- Adequacy of evaluation procedures
- Availability of data, code, or supporting materials where appropriate
- Transparency of assumptions and limitations
Responsible AI Considerations
Where relevant, reviewers may also evaluate:
- Model robustness
- Explainability
- Fairness and bias considerations
- Safety implications
- Alignment and governance concerns
- Societal impact
Presentation Quality
- Clarity and organization
- Quality of writing
- Relevance to the journal’s audience
Reviewers submit detailed reports and recommend one of the following outcomes:
- Accept
- Minor Revision
- Major Revision
- Reject
6. Editorial Decision and Revision Management
The Handling Editor evaluates reviewer reports and makes a reasoned editorial recommendation.
Where revisions are requested:
- Authors are provided with consolidated, constructive feedback
- Revised manuscripts are reassessed by the Handling Editor
- Additional rounds of peer review may be conducted when necessary
- Authors may be required to provide detailed responses to reviewer comments
Final acceptance decisions rest with the editorial team. Accepted manuscripts proceed to copyediting, production, and publication.
Editorial Decisions and Outcomes
Accept
- Authors receive formal acceptance notification
- Manuscript proceeds to production and copyediting
Reject
- Authors receive a rejection decision with reviewer feedback where appropriate
Revision Required (Minor or Major)
- Authors are invited to revise and resubmit
- Revised manuscripts are evaluated for completeness and quality of response
- Additional review may be conducted when necessary
AI Research Transparency and Reproducibility
To promote high-quality and trustworthy AI research, IJAIAS encourages reviewers and editors to consider reproducibility and transparency throughout the evaluation process.
Authors may be asked to provide:
- Source code repositories
- Model documentation
- Dataset information
- Evaluation protocols
- Hyperparameter settings
- Computational resource details
- Safety and robustness assessments
The absence of publicly available resources will not automatically preclude publication; however, authors should clearly justify any restrictions arising from privacy, security, licensing, or proprietary considerations.
Editors and Editorial Board Members as Authors
IJAIAS permits Editors and Editorial Board Members to submit manuscripts, subject to strict safeguards to ensure fairness, independence, and transparency.
Editorial Safeguards
- No editorial or review privileges are granted
- Editors are fully excluded from decision-making regarding their own submissions
- Independent editors manage the peer-review process
- Reviewer selection remains independent
- Accepted articles include a disclosure statement outlining the editorial safeguards applied
Special Issues and Guest Editors
Guest Editor Appointments
Guest Editors are appointed based on:
- Demonstrated expertise in the special issue theme
- Research leadership and scholarly standing
- Editorial experience
- Institutional credibility
Guest Editors coordinate submissions and peer review in collaboration with the IJAIAS Editorial Board, operating under the same ethical and quality standards as regular issues.
Special issues may focus on emerging topics such as:
- Generative AI
- Large Language Models
- Foundation Models
- AI Agents
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Autonomous Intelligence
- AI Safety
- Human-AI Collaboration
- Vision-Language Models
- Responsible AI
- Emerging AI Applications
Peer Review for Special Issues
- All special issue submissions undergo full external peer review
- Initial screening ensures thematic alignment
- Independent reviewers evaluate originality, technical quality, significance, and methodological rigor
- Guest Editors make recommendations
- Final editorial oversight remains with IJAIAS
Special issue submissions are held to the same quality standards as regular submissions.
Reviewer Recognition
IJAIAS values the essential contributions of peer reviewers and recognizes their service through:
- Annual public acknowledgement on the journal website
- Review certificates upon request
- Professional visibility through editorial engagement
- Opportunities for future editorial and advisory roles
The journal recognizes that rigorous peer review plays a critical role in advancing trustworthy, reproducible, and impactful research in artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.
