Journal of Geomorphological Researches is a peer-reviewed journal that is indebted to the hundreds of experts who donate their time to critically appraise articles submitted for publication consideration. Peer-reviewed articles are considered highly credible because they have undergone scrutiny by experts with particular knowledge in the topic. Peer review is critical in the editorial process because editors do not have the time or expertise to evaluate all aspects of each submission. The primary aims of peer review are 2-fold: to decide whether or not an article should be published (based on quality and relevance to the journal), and to improve the article before publication.

All submissions first go through an internal peer review process, and most go through an external peer review process. Each submission is reviewed by the assigned editor who makes an initial decision to send the manuscript out for peer review or to reject without external review. Articles can be rejected at this stage for a variety of reasons such as similarity with a recently published article, the topic is outside of the scope of the Journal, little new information is provided, important flaws in the scientific validity, or an unprofessional presentation. If the editor believes the article may be of interest to our readers, it is then sent out for external peer review.

Submissions to JADER should be original articles evaluating previous studies in the field and should produce new and worthwhile ideas and perspectives. 

An article to be published in JADER should not have been previously published or accepted for publication elsewhere. Papers presented at a conference or symposium may be accepted for publication if this is clearly indicated.

This journal uses double-blind review fulfilled by at least three reviewers (Double-blind peer review: Reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers.) Referee names are kept strictly confidential. Referee identities may only be disclosed to journal Editorial Board members, who are also instructed to maintain confidentiality.

Type of peer review: JADER uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are hidden from each other, throughout the review process. The authors and reviewers are responsible to show their efforts to conceal the identities from being known to each other. This involves the authors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file.

Pre-refereeing stage: Upon receiving a new manuscript, the Editorial office conducts initial pre-refereeing checks to ensure the article is legible, complete, correctly formatted, original, within the scope of the journal in question, in the style of a scientific article and written in clear English. Any article that has problems with any of the journal criteria may be rejected at this stage.  

Submission is typically sent to three reviewers for evaluation. Then, Section Editor works with three reports, and submit a unified report to the author(s). The article, in order to be accepted to the journal, must take a positive evaluation from two referees. When necessary, the third referee or the advisory committee may be asked to contribute to the evaluation process.

Reviewers play a central role in scholarly publishing. External peer review helps validate research, establish a method by which it can be evaluated, and increase networking possibilities within research communities. Despite criticisms, peer review is still the only widely accepted method for research validation.