At Bio-protocol, we are committed to the highest quality of peer review possible. The primary purpose of peer review at Bio-protocol is to assess whether the protocol is described in sufficient detail and clarity to be executed and reproduced by novices with only limited supervision. Reviewers do not assess novelty or significance. We collaborate with over 700 active reviewers that have been carefully selected based on their academic achievements and technical and scientific expertise. An Associate Editor from Bio-protocol oversees the peer-review process, nominates at least two external peer reviewers from (and beyond) our Peer Review Board based on their expertise, and also reviews the protocol. The Associate Editor evaluates reviewers' responses and provides input for the editorial decision letter. The Managing Editor oversees this process and alerts the Editor-in-chief if issues arise. We disclose the names of the reviewers only with their permission. Our peer-review pipeline is described below:

1. The Associate Editor assigns reviewers and oversees peer review (~4 weeks).

2. The Managing Editor, in consultation with the Editor-in-chief, approves or modifies the decision (~2 days).

3. The Executive Editor communicates the decision to the authors and is available to address any questions (~2 days).

4. Authors address comments from the peer reviewers and editors (~2 weeks).

5. Reviewers and editors evaluate author revisions and determine whether the revised version is acceptable as is or requires further revision (~10 days).

6. The protocol goes through additional rounds of review as needed prior to the decision to accept or reject the protocol (~2 weeks per round).