Stages, Evaluation Criteria and Editorial Decisions

Stages of Peer Review

The manuscript review process includes the following stages:
registration of the manuscript by the editorial office after materials are received through the journal website or by editorial email;
initial check of the completeness of the submitted materials and the manuscript’s compliance with technical requirements;
assessment of the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s subject area and scope;
academic integrity check, including screening for textual overlap and possible signs of plagiarism;
sending the manuscript for independent peer review;
receipt of reviewers’ reports;
forwarding reviewers’ comments and recommendations to the authors if the manuscript requires revision;
consideration of the revised version of the manuscript;
final decision by the Editorial Board;
preparation of the accepted material for publication, assignment of DOI and publication of article metadata.

Manuscript Evaluation Criteria

During peer review, the following are assessed:
the article’s relevance to the journal’s subject area and scope;
the relevance of the study;
scholarly novelty;
theoretical and/or practical significance of the results;
methodological soundness of the study;
reliability and validity of the conclusions;
logical structure and coherence of presentation;
completeness of the analysis of scholarly sources;
accuracy of citation and bibliographic description;
compliance with academic integrity requirements;
compliance with formatting requirements.

Possible Decisions after Peer Review

Following peer review and editorial assessment, one of the following decisions may be made:
recommend the article for publication;
recommend the article for publication after minor revision;
return the article to the author for substantial revision and further consideration;
reject the article.

The final decision on publication is made by the Editorial Board.