Guidelines for Editors

Editorial Board accountability

The members of Editorial and Scientific Board are recognized experts in their fields, their full names and affiliations are provided on the journal web site in the section Editorial Board. The contact information for the editorial office is on the journal web site, section Contact.

Editors of a peer-reviewed journal are responsible for decisions about the articles submitted to the journal – which of them should be published, and, moreover, are accountable for everything published in the journal. In making these decisions, editors are guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board as well as by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Editors should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations

Editors should guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct. Editors should pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct. An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Publication decisions

The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers always drive such decisions. The editors are guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editors may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

Fair play

Editors should evaluate each paper according to its intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. The editors’ decision to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based only on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study´s relevance to the aim of journal. The editors cannot disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some instances the editorial board members, as appropriate.

Confidentiality

The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. The editors make ensure that material submitted remains confidential while under review.

Disclosure and conflict of interests

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Editors are guided by COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Articles when considering retracting, issuing expressions of concern about, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published in our journal.  Editors are committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions. The editor should seek so ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e., should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Peer-review process

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

All submitted papers received by the editorial office are firstly checked by the editors to determine, if they are properly prepared and follow the ethical policies of the journal. The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editors are guided by the policies of the journal editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as copyright infringement and plagiarism. Papers that do not fit the journal ethics policy or do not meet the requirements of the journal will be rejected before the peer-review process.

Once a manuscript passes the editorial checks, it will be assigned to two independent experts for a double-blind peer-review. The reviewing guidelines are described in detail on the journal’s web site in the dedicated section. Judgement should be objective; reviewers should have no conflict of interest and should point out relevant published work which is not yet cited. Reviewed articles should be treated confidentially. Reviewers are asked to evaluate the paper and they may recommend to: (i) publish the paper in the current form, (ii) publish the paper after minor corrections, (iii) publish the paper after major corrections and an additional review, (iv) reject the paper. The final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will also be sent to the corresponding author along with any recommendations made by the reviewers. All reviewers’ comments should be responded to in a point-by-point fashion.

Similarity check and anti-plagiarism policy

The editors are responsible for scanning all submitted papers to detect plagiarism. If plagiarism is detected, the paper is rejected from publication.

Procedures for dealing with unethical behaviour

The editors should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher. Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies, and if the complaint is upheld, the publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant. Every reported act of unethical publishing behaviour must be investigated, even if it is discovered years after publication.

This journal permits to use copies of the manuscripts on the personal websites of authors, on non-commercial discipline-specific servers of preprints, and within non-commercial digital repositories of non-profit institutions with which the authors are affiliated.

Web site

The editors ensure that the journal web site, including the text that it contains, demonstrates that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.