All manuscripts, submitted to the Editorial Board, are subjected to a Blind Review Process (the name of the author(s) being removed), independent of any other factors.
A member of the Editorial Board, designated by the Editor-in-Chief (or, as the case may be, by the Leading Editor for a special Thematic Issue) in accordance with the thematic scope of the manuscript, selects (two) Blind Reviewers no later than one week after the submission of the manuscript, and sends the manuscript to them. No later than one week after receiving the manuscript the reviewer is required to declare his consent to write a review – and in case the reviewer declines, the manuscript is sent to another reviewer. Each reviewer has one month to submit a review. If this deadline is not met, but the Blind Reviewer has started to work on the manuscript and will write a review, the Blind Reviewer notifies the Editorial Board, indicating the timeframe in which a review will be submitted.
The Blind Reviewers submit their reviews completed in the special Blind Review Form downloadable from here or available from the Editorial Board upon request. A completed Blind Review Form should include the following necessary elements: Title, Date of Submission, whether the Content falls within the scope of the journal (yes/no), whether the formal technical requirements stated in the Authors' Guide are met: length, graphics, references, file properties (like font, tabulation, formulas, language encoding, footnotes, endnotes) (yes/no). Each Blind Review should also contain an expert assessment of the value of the submitted manuscript in comparison with other contemporary publications; significance of the submitted material; originality of the presented research. In case some experimental data are included, the Blind Reviewer should assess also the experimental design and the quality of data. The length of these assessments is indicated within the Form and should not be exceeded unless in some very special cases. The Blind Reviewer is also required to provide a general overview of the manuscript: describing its main point and evaluating the level of the discussion and the quality of the conclusions. If the Blind Reviewer's final assessment is neither “Accept as submitted” nor “Reject”, the review should also contain recommendations to the author for improvements in the text.
The Review should end in clear statement with one of the following recommendations to the Editorial Board:
- Accept as submitted
- Accept with the following minor corrections (as noted in the text)
- Accept after a substantial revision by the author (under the following guidelines)
- Reject (argumentation follows)
- A Special Case (requires further comment and discussion).
No later than a week after that the Review is sent to the Author (with the name of the Blind Reviewer removed). In two weeks the Author should submit a Reply to the Review, with a substantiated statement to the Editorial Board to what extent the Author will follow the recommendations in the Review. A revised version of the manuscript may be submitted for further Review.