Complaints and Appeals

This page brings together the three routes for raising a problem with a Peninsula journal: an appeal against a decision on a manuscript, a complaint about a journal, its staff, its editors or the publisher, and a report of suspected misconduct, including from a whistleblower.

Write “Appeal”, “Complaint” or “Concern” at the start of the subject line, followed by the journal name and, where there is one, the manuscript number or DOI.

Appeals against an editorial decision

Authors may appeal a decision on their manuscript once.

1. The corresponding author writes to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, copied to support@peninsula-press.ae, within 30 days of the decision.
2. The appeal explains why the decision is believed to be wrong, and responds point by point to the reviewers’ and editor’s comments, with evidence. Disagreement with an editor’s judgement of how important or novel the work is, without evidence that the manuscript was misunderstood or the process was not followed, is not a ground for appeal.
3. The appeal is acknowledged within 5 working days.
4. It is assessed by an editor who did not take part in the original decision. That editor may ask the original reviewers or a new reviewer for advice.
5. The authors are told the outcome, with reasons, normally within 30 days of acknowledgement. The outcome may be to uphold the decision, or to reconsider the manuscript. Reconsideration does not guarantee acceptance.

The decision on the appeal is final. The manuscript is not considered by the journal while an appeal is pending, and should not be submitted elsewhere until the authors have withdrawn the appeal or received the outcome.

Complaints

A complaint may concern the conduct of the journal, its editors, reviewers or staff, the publisher, the handling of a manuscript (for example an unexplained delay), these policies, or published content.

1. Send the complaint to support@peninsula-press.ae. It is acknowledged within 5 working days.
2. The Publishing Ethics Office records it and passes it to the person best placed to answer who is not the subject of it. A complaint about an Editor-in-Chief is handled by the publishing office, which asks the editor for an account and then decides. A complaint about the publisher or its owner is referred to an Editor-in-Chief of another Peninsula journal, who reviews it independently.
3. The complainant receives a reasoned reply, normally within 30 days of acknowledgement. If more time is needed, the complainant is told why and given a new date.
4. If the complaint shows that a policy was not followed, the journal explains what it will do, for example a correction, a change of process, or a re-review.

A complaint about a decision on a manuscript is treated as an appeal, as described above. Complaints are handled in line with COPE guidance.

Concerns about research or publication misconduct

Concerns about plagiarism, fabricated or falsified data, image manipulation, authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, peer-review manipulation, paper mills, citation manipulation or research ethics are handled under Research Misconduct, following the COPE flowcharts. They are acknowledged within 5 working days.

Whistleblowers and anonymous reports

Anyone, including an author, reviewer, editor, staff member or reader, may raise a concern. Concerns raised in good faith are taken seriously, whoever raises them. The person’s identity is kept confidential and is not disclosed to the authors or anyone else without their consent, unless the law requires it. Anonymous reports, including those posted publicly, for example on PubPeer, are assessed on the evidence they contain and are acted on if that evidence is specific enough to check. No one is penalised by a Peninsula journal for raising a concern in good faith.

Records

The publishing office keeps a confidential record of every appeal, complaint and concern, the steps taken and the outcome. These records are used to improve the process and are available to COPE or an indexing service on request, with personal details removed.

Peninsula Publishing Press · Peninsula Publishing L.L.C., Dubai · support@peninsula-press.ae · Version 2.0, in force 1 November 2026, superseding version 1.0 of 30 October 2026. These publisher-level policies consolidate the policies each journal has published on its own site since 2023.
Peninsula Publishing Press follows guidance from COPE and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, version 5 (2026). Peninsula is not a member of COPE, and nothing on this site should be read as claiming membership.