The peer-review process consists of such steps:
- Submission of Paper: The author submits the article via the automatic submission button “Submit article” on the main page of the scientific publication.
- Editorial Office Assessment: The editor-in-chief or executive secretaries check the article for compliance with formal requirements (formatting, citation and reference list, article structure, etc., in accordance with the requirements for article formatting). The article is also checked for plagiarism. If more than 25% of the article is found to be plagiarized, the article is immediately rejected and not submitted for review..
- Appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief (EIC): The EIC checks that the paper is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected without being reviewed any further.
- Invitation to Reviewers: If the article meets the formatting requirements, is clearly structured, does not contain plagiarism, is original and methodologically developed, then the editor-in-chief sends the article to two anonymous reviewers who are experts in the subject matter of the article.
- Response to Invitations: Potential anonymous reviewers familiarize themselves with the content of the article and conduct their own expert analysis, with the mandatory condition that there is no conflict of interest. They may accept or decline the invitation to be reviewers. The editor-in-chief then looks for other potential reviewers. The review process may take 1-2 months.
- Reviewing is conducted as follows: Anonymous reviewers send their reviews to the editor-in-chief with a recommendation to accept or reject the article. Reviewers may also recommend that the article be revised, taking into account their comments and suggestions, after which the article may be recommended for publication.
- The editorial board evaluates the reviews: The editorial committee reviews all submitted reviews to make a final decision. If the reviews differ greatly from one another, the editor-in-chief sends the article to a third anonymous reviewer.
- The decision is communicated: after the author has taken into account the reviewers' recommendations, if any, and if there are two positive reviews, the author is notified of the article's acceptance for publication via the electronic article submission and review system and by email.
- If the article is accepted, it remains with the editor-in-chief for inclusion in the journal. If the article is rejected or needs revision, the editor-in-chief informs the author with the substantiated conclusions of the anonymous reviewers and their suggestions for improving the quality and level of the article. If the article is sent back to the author for revision, it is then sent back to the reviewer so that he or she can evaluate the revised article. If the comments are minor, the editor-in-chief may evaluate them.