The process of peer review must uphold principles of autonomy and therefore follow lines of democratic and unprejudiced evaluation in order to be objective. The submitted manuscripts are first evaluated by the editor-in-chief for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy or any other personal circumstances of the authors. The editor-in-chief’s decision may be constrained by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
Evaluation of submitted papers: After a preliminary assessment, based on the established objectives of
the journal, in the event of a positive evaluation, the editor-in-chief
will send the paper to peer review. Each paper is peer-reviewed by at
least 2 reviewers who are established experts in the subject area. The
peer review process is double-blind: the reviewer and the author are
unknown to each other. Within 1 week following receipt of the submitted
paper, they will determine whether to accept the work or not. On the
basis of the review, the decision on the acceptance of the submitted
manuscript is taken. The possible decisions include acceptance,
acceptance with revision or rejection. Articles that are rejected
include those that are outside the aims and scope of the journal and do
not measure up to scientific standards, are poorly structured or written
in poor language. Should the decision to accept the paper only after
revision be adopted, the author will subsequently revise the paper,
which is then returned to the editorial assistant, who checks if the
suggestions have been considered. If authors are encouraged to revise
and resubmit a contribution, there is no guarantee that the revised
submission will be accepted.
Additional evaluation factors: Additional evaluation factors include relevance (Is this paper relevant to the themes of this journal?), soundness (Is this paper technically sound and complete?), significance (Is the paper interesting for other researchers?), originality (Are the results or ideas novel and previously unknown?), readability (Is the paper well-organised and easy to understand?), language (Is the paper written in correct language and style?). The main additional factors considered are significance and originality.
Publication decisions: The final decision on publication is taken by the editor-in-chief, in collaboration with the other members of the editorial board, on the basis of the reviews received and any revisions made.