Enacted: January 1, 2013
First Amendment: November 25, 2016
Second Amendment: January 1, 2018
Third Amendment: October 31, 2020

Article 1 (Purpose) The purpose of these guidelines is to present the peer review regulations of the Korean Medical Education Review (KMER) in accordance with Article 9 of the publication guidelines of KMER.

Article 2 (Manuscript Review Criteria) The review criteria for submitted manuscripts shall be as follows.

• 1. Topic: Suitability for KMER
• 2. Title: Implications and representativeness
• 3. Abstract: Comprehensiveness and proper summary of research content
• 4. Introduction: Clarity of research background, research purpose, and research goal
• 5. Main text: Validity of research methods and results
• 6. Conclusion: Summary and appropriateness of the discussion
• 7. References, tables, and figures: The correctness of references, the appropriate citation of references within the text, and proper expressions

Article 3 (Peer Review Procedures) The peer review procedures for submitted manuscripts shall be as follows.

• 1. The Editor-in-Chief shall review whether a submitted manuscript was written according to the submission guidelines, and decide whether to issue a submission number or reject the submission.
• 2. The Editor-in-Chief shall select an editor who takes charge of the review process of a manuscript for which a submission number has been issued. If an editor submits a manuscript, the Editor-in-Chief shall not involve that editor in the review process.
• 3. The editor shall review whether the submitted manuscript satisfies KMER’s publication purposes and whether the research methods are valid and reliable, and then decide whether to proceed with peer review or reject the submission.
• 4. When a manuscript proceeds to the peer review stage, the editor shall request 3 reviewers to review the manuscript and confirm their ability to review the paper. However, reviewers who have the same affiliation as the author(s) shall not be assigned to a submission.
• 5. Submitted manuscripts shall be reviewed in a double-blind manner (a review method in which the reviewers are unaware of the authors’ names and the authors are unaware of the reviewers’ names) by 3 reviewers.
• 6. Reviewers must submit the review results within 14 days after a review request. If a reviewer does not submit the review results within 20 days, the reviewer shall be changed or the editor shall review the manuscript. The peer review form shall be determined by the editorial board.
• 7. The reviewers and editors shall evaluate each manuscript and assign it one of the following 4 designations.
  • 1) Accept: “Accept” shall indicate that the manuscript under review is fit for publication in the journal without revision.
  • 2) Minor revisions: “Minor revisions” shall indicate that the manuscript under review requires minor revisions in expressions and word choice and can be published once the reviewers or editorial board confirm those revisions.
  • 3) Major revisions: “Major revisions” shall indicate that the manuscript under review requires substantial revisions to the research methods, results, and discussion, and the reviewers need to re-review the revised manuscript.
  • 4) Reject: “Reject” shall indicate that the manuscript under review has issues such as the necessity of the research, the reliability of research methods, the possibility of generalization, the validity of research results, and significance of the discussion, and would require a substantial period to resolve these issues.
• 8. The review results shall be determined by referring to the following table. However, the final decision shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief based on a consideration of the manuscript’s quality and the results of the reviews.

  Reviewer A	Reviewer B	Reviewer C	Final Decision
  Accept	Accept	Accept	Accept
  Accept	Accept	Minor revisions	Minor revisions
  Accept	Minor revisions	Minor revisions
  Accept	Minor revisions	Reject
  Minor revisions	Minor revisions	Minor revisions
  Minor revisions	Minor revisions	Reject
  Accept	Accept	Major revisions	Major revisions
  Accept	Accept	Reject
  Accept	Minor revisions	Major revisions
  Accept	Major revisions	Major revisions
  Accept	Major revisions	Reject
  Minor revisions	Minor revisions	Major revisions
  Minor revisions	Major revisions	Major revisions
  Minor revisions	Major revisions	Reject
  Major revisions	Major revisions	Major revisions
  Major revisions	Major revisions	Reject
  Reject	Reject	Accept	Reject
  Reject	Reject	Minor revisions
  Reject	Reject	Major revisions
  Reject	Reject	Reject

• 9. If a manuscript is determined to need minor revisions or major revisions according to the final decision of the Editor-in-Chief, the author(s) of the manuscript must faithfully fulfill the editorial board’s requests for revision and supplementation, and submit the revised manuscript and responses, indicating the original and revised sections. In principle, the resubmission deadline shall be 3 weeks (21 days), but this deadline can be extended per the contributor’s request. If the revised manuscript and responses are not submitted within the resubmission deadline, the manuscript shall be treated as having been rejected.
• 10. A manuscript that is re-submitted after a decision of “minor revisions” or “major revisions” shall be re-reviewed by the reviewers.

Article 4 (Objection)

• 1. If a contributor has an objection to the review results, he or she can raise an objection to the editorial board within 7 days from the date being notified of the review results.
• 2. The editorial board shall notify the contributor of the results within 30 days after comprehensively reviewing the original text, reviewers’ reviews, and the details of the objection for the manuscript in question.
• 3. If the objection to the manuscript review is determined to be appropriate, the editorial board shall select additional reviewers and review the manuscript if necessary.

Article 5 (Remuneration for Reviews) The details of remuneration for reviews shall be determined by the editorial board.

Article 6 (Amendment) These guidelines can be amended through deliberation by the editorial board and a majority vote.

Article 7 (Enforcement) These guidelines shall be in effect from January 1, 2013.

• These amended guidelines shall be in effect from November 25, 2016.
• These amended guidelines shall be in effect from January 1, 2018.
• These amended guidelines shall be in effect from October 31, 2020.