As part of a concerted effort to reduce the publication times of submitted manuscripts,it is the goal of all American Meteorological Society (AMS) journal editorial officesto adhere to the following practices for the peer review of submissions.
1) The editor's office handling the submitted manuscript will make every effort tocontact via phone or e-mail all potential reviewers in advance to ensure that theyhave the interest and the available time to review the manuscript in a timely manner.
2) Reviewers will be asked to return the completed review within four weeks unlessspecial circumstances warrant a different schedule. (In the case of multiple-part paperssent to reviewers, this time may, at the discretion of the editor, be increased to nomore than eight weeks. For short contributions, this time may, at the discretion ofthe editor, be decreased to less than four weeks if the reviewer agrees when contactedby the editor.)
3) To save further mail transit time in the review process, editors will encourage thereviewers to utilize e-mail or fax to send in their reviews. If appropriate, for time-critical reviews, editors will employ express mail service to send manuscripts toreviewers.
4) If the review has not been received by the editor's office within 30 days from the time it was mailed to the reviewer, a reminder will be sent (by phone or e-mail) tothe reviewer stating that the review is now due at the editorial office. The reviewerwill be informed that the review must be received within two weeks to be used inthe editorial decision.
5) If the review is not received within two weeks after the reminder, the editor willeither make a decision based on the other reviews received or secure an additionalreview from a reviewer who agrees in advance to provide the review within twoweeks.
6) Late reviews received after the editorial decision has been made may, at thediscretion of the editor, be forwarded to the author as additional input for revisions,but will not be used to change the editorial decision.
These policies have been designed by the AMS Publications Commission to ensurethat the editor's initial review decision on a submitted manuscript will be completedwithin 10 weeks of the receipt of the manuscript. Authors should feel free to contactthe editorial office to inquire about the reason for delay if they have not received theinitial decision by that time.
