Thank you for accepting this manuscript for Progression Assessment. You can see an overview of the whole Peer Review process here Please conduct the Assessment as quickly as possible, preferably within one week from receipt

The Progression Assessment decision has four options: 

• Progress to Full Peer Review
• Return to Author for Revision
• Recommend Rejection
• Fast Track review

Fast Track review is a new option, previously only used by the Editor under exceptional circumstances. Now, if the EBM and Editor agree that a paper is of excellent scientific and technical quality it can proceed to acceptance without external Peer Review. The EBM should use the Guidance for Authors box to ask for any revisions that need to be made.


Please enter the correct article reference, which will be in the format firstauthorsurname nnnn

You will use Six-GAP (Good, Average, Poor) Analysis to help you determine whether a newly submitted manuscript should Progress, Return or Reject. Papers that need only minor revision could exceptionally proceed directly to publication. 

Journal of Dairy Research is a high quality international journal, and only publishes good research. We receive three or four times as many papers as we can publish, so the selection must be rigorous.  Full Research Papers must comply with key criteria:

Key Scientific criteria
Full Research Papers must advance knowledge of relevant lactation science in a significant way and there should be clear benefit to human society or to dairy animals. The research must be of sufficient quality, novelty and relevance. In addition, the research should be:

• Likely to have international impact
• Hypothesis driven or possessing a very clear aim
• Presented clearly and succinctly with a minimum of essential figures and tables

Research Communications must advance knowledge of relevant lactation science in a significant way and there should be the likelihood of clear benefit to human society or to dairy animals. The research must be of sufficient quality, novelty and relevance. In addition, the research should be:

• Likely to have at least regional or specialist impact
• Possessing a very clear aim
• Presented clearly and succinctly with no more than one or two essential figures and tables

Research that is purely observational or which only extends existing established knowledge to a new species, breed or region and research that describes a new technique may be suitable for the appropriate categories of Regional Research Communication or Technical Research Communication

Key Technical criteria
All manuscripts must be:

• Clear and easy to understand
• Concise, with a minimum of text, figures and tables
• Well written

Scores of Good indicate that these criteria are achieved and the research is of International quality. Scores of Average indicate that the research is of at least high National quality. Scores of Poor indicate that the research is not considered appropriate for publication as a full paper in the Journal. 

Research that is purely observational or which only extends existing established knowledge to a new species, breed or region should typically receive lower scores, but may be suitable for a Research Communication. IMPORTANT: if you consider that a manuscript submitted as a Full Paper does not justify that status you should recommend REJECTION. You then have the option to recommend resubmisison as a Research Communication. 

Manuscripts that fail to achieve any good scores in the three scientific criteria should be recommended for rejection.  

Now please enter your overall recommendation. 

If you choose to progress the article to peer review, you must provide names of suitable referees

If you choose to return the article for revision, there is a comments box where you can briefly explain what type of revision is needed

If you recommend rejection, you have the option to suggest resubmission as a Research Communication 


If you chose the Progress to Peer Review option, you MUST provide the email addresses of at least three and preferably four independent referees. You also have the option to ask for specialist statistical advice, which will come from our statistics EBM expert, Navid Gavi Hossein-Zadeh  

You have the option of adding comments to the Editorial Office. These will not be seen by the Authors. 

Please remember to press the submit button when you have finished your Assessment. You will then see a "Thank you" screen. If you do not see this, the submission has failed, probably because you have not filled in all of the compulsory fields. Find the error and correct it, then press submit again. Your anonymous report will be available online to you, the Authors and the anonymous referees.

What happens now? When you submit your assessment, the Editorial Office will perform the action that you  have recommended and will update the manuscript's webpage. Your identity will not be communicated to the Authors but will be communicated to the Referees (if you have chosen Peer Review).  .