Each submitted manuscript goes through several stages of examination and evaluation before publication.
All manuscripts with scientific content - research and review articles - are checked for originality of the text and the presence of incorrect borrowings. The check is carried out through the software tools of the company “Antiplagiarism VUZ”. The scientific editor analyzes the results obtained in detail and, led by the Editor-in-Chief, makes a final decision on the level of originality of the text and the presence or absence of incorrect borrowings in the manuscript. Manuscripts that do not pass through the “Antiplagiarism VUZ” system do not enter the next stages of examination.
Further, if the manuscript has successfully passed the originality test, the Scientific Editor determines its compliance with the general formal requirements, in particular, the following “input” points:
The Scientific Editor sends manuscripts that do not meet the journal's requirements for revision. If the author has finalized the article in accordance with the Guidelines for the presentation of articles adopted in the journal, has corrected errors and provided all the necessary metadata in Russian and English, the article is accepted and sent for further examination.
The Scientific Editor submits the manuscript, which has passed the 1st and 2nd stages of the preliminary examination, for peer review to two reviewers who are recognized in the professional community as active experts in the thematic area relevant to the work being reviewed. Before being sent for review, the manuscript is anonymized (affiliations, information about the authors, and links to the author’s own works in the text and in the bibliography are removed). In case of de-anonymization of the author by the reviewer, the latter must immediately notify the scientific editor and editorial board on this fact in order to prevent a possible conflict of interest. A conflict of interest may be due to personal relationships, beliefs, and scientific rivalry, the factors that prevent the reviewer from an impartial analysis of the contents of the manuscript as well as from making an objective decision about the publication of research results.
The text containing results of the examination of the manuscript content is presented by the reviewer on a review form, which, in addition to the list of questions posed, also involves a description of the shortcomings and advantages of the manuscript in a free form. The free form allows the reviewer to determine the scientific value and significance of the manuscript being reviewed in any order and degree of detail.
The review may begin with a brief summary of the manuscript. The summary will help the Scientific Editor and the author understand whether the reviewer has understood the article correctly. Otherwise, the text of the review may be based on an ambiguous or even false interpretation of the text of the work being reviewed.
After the summary, the reviewer evaluates the content of the manuscript according to the following criteria:
The review, in a reasoned form, contains the following provisions:
The review ends with final recommendations, which are formulated on the review form for the reviewer to choose from one of the following sentences:
The reviewer does not spend time on literary editing of the manuscript, but focuses on the scientific quality of the manuscript and the overall style of writing, which should be consistent with the best examples of clear and concise academic writing. If the reviewer finds that the manuscript requires linguistic correction, this is reported to the Scientific or Literary Editor. In case of disagreement between reviewers in assessing the manuscript, the final decision is made by the Editorial Board headed by the Editor-in-Chief.
If the opinions of reviewers on the same manuscript differ, a third reviewer is involved in the examination process to make an objective decision on publication or rejection of the article.
Upon completion of the review and the final decision on publication or rejection of the manuscript, the Scientific Editor should offer reviewers the following opportunities related to the procedures of open science and revealing review texts as (a) a special form of scientific publication; (b) a review as a specific element of scientific communication and (c) a review as a significant part of the overall text of science:
Reviewing is an essential component of the scientific communication system. It is the main tool that formalizes the procedure for recognizing a new scientific result in the academic community. For the author, reviewing is the only means of confirming the achievement of a new scientific result and assigning priority to the author. All scientists are readers and at the same time authors. And scientists have the opportunity to publish their own works thanks to their participation in reviewing the manuscripts of colleagues.
A reviewer who realizes being not competent enough, or not having enough qualifications or professional experience to examine the manuscript, or not having enough time to review, in any of these cases is obliged to promptly contact the Scientific Editor and the Editorial Board represented by the Editor-in-Chief with a request to be excused from reviewing a specific manuscript.
The manuscript of a scientific work that is reviewed by an expert should be treated exclusively as a confidential document. The text of the manuscript must not be discussed with outsiders who are not involved in the work of the journal.
The reviewer is obliged to give only an objective assessment of the text of the manuscript. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. The reviewer must clearly and reasonably express his opinion.
If reviewers, while studying a manuscript, discovers significant similarities, textual proximity, or even complete textual matches between the manuscript under reviewing and any other previously published work, they are obliged to draw the attention of the Scientific Editor to these facts of borrowing.
Any conclusion, argument, statement that appeared in a previously reviewed work, that is, was already published in a previous source work, must be confirmed through mandatory citation with a bibliographic reference link to the primary source.
Experts are strictly prohibited from reviewing manuscripts in the event of a conflict of interest in the form of scientific competition or, conversely, in the case of participation in joint scientific projects with the reviewed author or with an organization which the reviewed author is affiliated with.
You can read the full-text version of the journal’s Code of Ethics on the journal’s website in the “About” section «Editorial Ethics and Policy»