Peer Review

Articles are selected for publication in the Journal according to the below procedure.

1. An incoming manuscript is registered and subjected to primary evaluation against the following formal and qualitative criteria: consistency with the general subjects of the Journal; compliance with content and layout requirements; logical and literate writing in English. Articles failing to meet these requirements will not be accepted for review, and the editors will notify the author accordingly, usually within 10 days of receiving the manuscript by the Editorial Office.

2. An article accepted for review will be assigned to a specialist from the journal, who will communicate with the author regarding all further matters and forward the manuscript to be reviewed by experts recognized in the subject field of the article under review and having published on the topic of the article within the last three years. In disputable cases, an article may be sent to more than two experts, including external experts as well as Editorial Board members.

3. All reviews are double blind, i.e. the authors’ and reviewers’ names and not disclosed between them. Reviews usually take four to six weeks on average to complete.

4. Each review should:

· evaluate the essence of the paper and its chances of being published;

· list specific errors (if any) in methodology and in the selection of research tools;

· suggest revisions.

5. A reviewed article may be accepted for publication (5.1), returned to the author for revision (5.2), or rejected (5.3). The copies of the reviews are sent to the authors.

5.1. In case of a positive review, the editors will include the article in the portfolio for the final editorial preparation for publication (see point 6).

5.2. Revised articles should be re-submitted to the reviewers, who will evaluate whether the revisions are consistent with their comments and/or whether the author’s refusal to revise on certain comments is reasonable.

5.3. In case of a negative review, the article will be considered by the Editorial Board’s working group, who will either decide on rejecting the article or on obtaining an additional review from an independent expert. The author will be notified if his/her article is rejected.

5.4. Reviews are being kept in the editorial office for 5 years. Editors are obliged to send the copies of the reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in case a relevant query comes in.

6. Pre-publishing involves checking the author’s treatment of the reviewers’ comments and literary editing and revision of the text to meet the Journal’s standards. Edits will be negotiated with the author.

7.The chief editor or deputy chief editor will make and approve the final decision on the article publication date according to the usual work procedure, when compiling and structuring issues for publication.