1) Manuscripts to be reviewed
All submitted manuscripts are peer reviewed.

2) Who conducts peer review
Peer review is conducted by at least two external experts for both unsolicited and commissioned articles, including reviews, original articles, case reports, continuing medical educations, images, and communications.

3) Type of peer review
ACFS uses double-blind peer review. The author and reviewer cannot identify each other. The names of reviewers are not posted in the published article. Reviewers are anonymous.

4) Screening before peer review
If the manuscript does not align with the journal's aims and scope or style and format, the editorial office returns it immediately to the authors. In the case of human population studies, the manuscript without an appropriate ethics statement is also returned to the authors without peer review.

5) Plagiarism check
All submitted or invited articles are screened by a plagiarism check program, such as Similarity Check (Crosscheck). If a certain amount of duplicate content is detected, it is returned to the authors.

6) Author-recommended reviewers
Some can be invited as peer reviewers, but only sometimes. The editorial office may recommend other external experts.

7) Review of research data or supplementary material
Those materials are subjected to peer review.

8) Duration for the first decision
The result of the first peer review is usually finished within a month. If there is no correspondence from the editorial office on the fate of the submitted manuscript two months after the submission, please contact the editorial office.

9) Revision process
The Editorial Board may ask authors to revise their manuscripts according to the reviewers' opinions. Authors should upload revised manuscripts with replies to each reviewer's comments. Revisions should be completed within 60 days after they are requested. If a revised manuscript is not received by the due date, the Editorial Board will not consider it for publication. Depending on the circumstances, authors may request an extension of the revision period to the Editorial Board. The manuscript review process should be finished with the second review. The Editorial Board may consider further review upon request from the authors.

10) Review by statistician
It can be implemented when data needs professional statistical review by a statistician.

11) Final decision maker
An editorial board finally decides the manuscript's fate, such as accept, reject, and re-submission, after hearing from peer reviewers.

12) Review by the editorial board
The editorial board may review some publication types, including editorials, book reviews, errata, corrigenda, retractions, withdrawals, and letters to the editor, without external peer review.

13) No guarantee acceptance
The journal does not guarantee acceptance of initial manuscript submissions except for the invited articles.

14) The publication date
It is published with all published research, including submission dates, revision, and acceptance.

15) Review of in-house manuscripts
All manuscripts from editors, staff, or editorial board members are subject to the same review process as other submissions. During the review process, they will not be involved in the selection of reviewers or the decision-making process. Editors will not handle their manuscripts even if they have been commissioned.

The copyright of all published materials is owned by the Korean Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. All authors give their agreement to copyright transfer during the submission process.

ACFS is an open-access journal. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To use the tables or figures of ACFS in other journals, books, or media for scholarly or educational purposes, requesting permission from the publisher of ACFS is not necessary. For permission to use articles for other purposes, please fill in the Permission Request Form (https://www.e-acfs.org/authors/permission.php) and send it to ACFS Editorial Office.

All contents of the journal are available immediately upon publication without an embargo period.

When the journal faces suspected cases of research and publication misconduct such as a redundant (duplicate) publication, plagiarism, fabricated data, changes in authorship, undisclosed conflicts of interest, an ethical problem discovered with the submitted manuscript, a reviewer who has appropriated an author’s idea or data, complaints against editors, and other issues, the resolution process will follow the flowchart provided by the COPE (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). The editorial board of ACFS will discuss suspected cases and reach a decision. ACFS will not hesitate to publish errata, corrigenda, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Publication ethics are displayed on the Author Information (Research and Publication Ethics) tab of journal homepage.