Peer review process

When submitting a paper, a confirmation email is automatically sent back to the author. It contains a unique registration number used as a referral in further correspondence.
Initially, the editorial team verifies whether the manuscript complies with the editing instructions. If the paper does not meet the necessary requirements, it is rejected and the corresponding author is notified to correct the errors. If all instructions for editing have been followed accordingly, the editor selects two reviewers that will independently evaluate the paper. They have high expertise in the “peer-review” system and are well-known specialists in the field. The reviewers have all academic affiliations and may be already accredited by the Journal or specifically contacted for certain papers. Their affiliation is usually different from the one of submitting authors.
The editor sends the paper in both electronic and printed format to each reviewer with the invitation to evaluate it within 45 days. The reviewers will analyze the paper from several perspectives such as clarity, objectivity of data, scientific quality and relevance. A scale from 1 to 5 is used, where 5 is excellent and 1 is poor. The reviewers score the paper accordingly and issue a recommendation. The three possible recommendations are:
A. acceptance without or with minor changes
B. acceptance with major revisions and a new submission process
C. rejection
The editor forwards the reviewer’s decision to the corresponding author with a statement that synthesizes the reviewers’ point of view. In case of recommendation B, the authors have to send back the revised version of the manuscript within 30 days after they were notified by the editor. They must use the same registration number followed by the text “_REVISION 1”. If applicable or needed, a separate page with comments of the authors is welcome. The editor follows the same procedure as the first submission and will receive from the reviewers a second recommendation, either A (approval of the revised version) or B (a new revision is needed). If B, the submission process will start again within the same time frames and the author will refer to the paper with the same registration number followed by the text “_REVISION 2”. The reviewers have only two options for their recommendation: A (approval of the second version) or C (rejection). Either decision is communicated to the authors immediately.

Each 90 days, the Editorial Board holds a meeting and decides the publication order for the approved articles.