Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management adheres to a rigorous double-blind peer review policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Due to the huge volume of submissions received by the Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management and to maintain our quality standards, we invite submissions for our journal (using our Online Journal Management System) using a Submission Window, which opens once in a year for 2–3 months. The Announcement regarding the same is posted in our Announcement section two weeks before the Submission Window opens for New Submissions.

The manuscripts go through the following process after being submitted :

1. Submission of the manuscript by the author.
2. Next, all received manuscripts undergo Desk Review by the Editorial Team to ascertain their suitability for the journal.
3. Papers that do not clear the desk review are rejected, the author is sent an email using the Online Journal Management System, and the rejected papers are archived.
4. Papers that clear the initial triage are then checked for plagiarism with the help of available software.
5. Papers with a high plagiarism/similarity index are rejected at this stage.
6. Papers that clear the desk review and have original content are sent to the reviewers for review, as the unfit and irrelevant manuscripts are filtered out of the review process by the Editorial Team.

The manuscripts are reviewed based on the following criteria :

• The overall contribution of the paper to the field of Management ;
• Significance and relevance of the topic to the scope of Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management;
• Originality of the content ;
• Adequacy of the Literature Review ;
• Conceptual rigor ;
• Logical and technical soundness ;
• Studies using latest data ;
• Organization of the content ;
• Writing quality ;
• Managerial/Theoretical/Financial/Policy Implications of the research ;
• Limitations of the Study and Scope for Further Research;
• References ;
• Compliance of the manuscript with Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management’s Guidelines for Authors.
• Novelty of the research with respect to the area of the research and topics already covered in Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management.
• Ethical disclosures made by the Authors.

On receipt of feedback from the reviewers, the Editors examine the feedback and further decide to accept, reject, or revise the paper. The peer review process takes around 8 - 10 months as we receive a very high volume of submissions. However, we are working on reducing the turnaround time for our authors.

7. In the next stage, the manuscripts shortlisted after peer - review are sent the Review and Editorial Revisions. Each paper undergoes 2-3 rounds of revision before final acceptance.
8. The Managing Editor/Reviewers thoroughly check the updated submissions to assess whether the necessary suggestions have been incorporated.
9. After this stage, the updated manuscripts are again checked for plagiarism using the available software.
10. Next, the final revised manuscripts are assigned to Editors for pre-editing ad copy editing to make the necessary editorial amendments in the final manuscript to suit the journal’s quality standards.

Editorial Rejection

Your Submitted Manuscript can be rejected if it:

• Lacks a proper structure.
• Lacks the necessary detail for readers to fully understand the authors’ analysis.
• Has no novel content.
• Does not clearly explain which parts of the findings are new research versus what is already known.
• Lacks up-to-date references.
• Contains theories, concepts, or conclusions not fully supported by data, arguments, and information.
• Does not provide enough details about materials and methods to allow other researchers to repeat the study.
• Lacks clear descriptions or explanations of:
  - Hypotheses tested,
  - The experimental design,
  - Sample characteristics and descriptive statistics.
• Has a weak study design or faulty statistical analysis.
• Has poor language quality.

Revising the Manuscript

When revising your manuscript and responding to peer review comments:

• Address all points raised by the Editor and Reviewers.
• Describe the revisions to your manuscript in your disposition document.
• Differentiate between reviewer comments and your responses in your letter
• Clearly show the major revisions in the text with a different color text (please use: Red Font Colour only) by highlighting the changes.
• Return the revised manuscript and response letter within the time period mentioned in the email sent by the Editor.