Initial Screening (before Peer Review) consists of five-step binary checks outlined below:

1. Plagiarism Test: All papers submitted to the UUJFE are tested against plagiarism using automated tools (iThenticate ©). See our stance and steps we take to avoid plagiarism here.
2. Design: The design-guidelines of UUJFE should be met by the paper. See our manuscript writing rules here and download the template file from here.
3. Scope: The paper should be within the scope covered by the UUJFE.
4. Copyright and Consent Form: Signed by all authors listed in the paper and must be submitted along with the paper. The form can be acquired here. 
5. The Declaration of the Conflict of Interest: Signed by all authors listed in the paper and must be submitted along with the paper. The form can be acquired here.
6. The Declaration of Author Contribution: Signed by all authors listed in the paper and must be submitted along with the paper. The form can be acquired here.
7. Ethics Committee Approval: For research requiring ethics committee approval, the ethics committee approval must be submitted along with the paper. In addition, it must be stated in the Introduction and Conclusion sections of the article that the ethics committee approval has been obtained for the research. For research that does not require an ethics committee approval, a document in .pdf format signed by all authors of the manuscript and containing the sentence "There is no need for ethics committee approval for this research" must be submitted along with the paper.
   
8. Potential Referees: At least three potential referees must be suggested, all from outside the auhors' affiliated institutes / universities. The potential referees acts as a guide to the editor during the selection. However, it's at the discretion of the editor to send the manuscript to any of the potential referees. 

In any case, should the submitted paper fails to adhere the initial screening requirements, the corresponding author is notified via-email about the editor decision upon the paper. The possible decisions of the initial screening are "On hold" or "Reject".

Papers submitted to UUJFE are double blind peer reviewed. At least two reviewers (who are experts in their fields are assigned to each submitted paper. The reviewers and authors do not know their names and affiliations. The blindness is ensured using automated tools and manual editing. IE., the author names and affiliations (if present) are removed manually from the manuscript. The xml source of the paper is also checked automatically and removed from any traces of identifying information.

The reviewers may respond with Accept (A), with minor (MN) or major revisions (MJ) or reject (R). As an example, if a manuscript gets A and R, the paper is sent to a third reviewer for clarification. The editor then decides the decision regarding the publication.