Refer & Transfer - Help us to ensure valuable research does not go unpublished

Since we launched our Refer & Transfer service last month, over 150 manuscripts have been successfully transferred to alternative Hindawi Journals.

However, Refer & Transfer cannot work without your support, so we’ve put together these instructions to guide you through the quick and easy process of referring out-of-scope, but scientifically sound, manuscripts to a more relevant journal.

1. Choosing the ‘Out of Scope’ option

If you are handling a manuscript that is of sound scientific and technical quality, but out of scope for your journal, select the ‘Out of Scope’ option when rejecting it for publication on the manuscript submission system.

Following this decision, you will be asked to recommend a more relevant journal for the manuscript.

2. Finding the right journal

The easiest way to find a suitable journal for transfer is by browsing Hindawi’s portfolio. Once you have found a relevant journal, follow these steps to better understand if it is a good fit for the manuscript:

• Click on the journal’s title to access its page
• Navigate to the ‘Journal Overview’ tab
• Select ‘About this journal’ to read its full aims and scope
• Look at the journal’s ‘Table of Contents’ to see if recent articles have similar content to the manuscript.

When you find a suitable journal, enter the journal name into the ‘Transfer suggestions’ text box and press ‘Submit Decision’. 

For further guidance, including ‘what to do if you can’t find a suitable journal’, please read our short guide to selecting the right journal.

Please note: as a final step, ​​​our Refer & Transfer team will review your transfer suggestion(s) and present the authors with several potentially suitable journals for their manuscript. The authors can then choose to accept a transfer to one of these journals.

Thank you for your support in ensuring that valuable research does not go unshared.