Peer Review Process
All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by one of the Editors. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if their quality is assessed to be not high enough or if they are not within the scope of the journal. The final decision on rejecting the paper in this initial phase, i.e. sending the paper for review, is made by the Select Editorial Board. Manuscripts that are not initially rejected are sent for peer review (double-blind peer review).
Domestic and foreign scientists whose scientific work and research are closely related to the topic of the paper are selected as reviewers. Reviewers commit themselves to the ethical principles of the journal, as well as other ethical principles relating to scientific work and scientific publishing.
The paper is initially sent to two reviewers. In case the first two reviews are contradictory, and both are well-argued and substantiated, the paper is referred to the third reviewer. The editorial board reserves the right not to accept or return the review for revision, if the review is superficially written or not well argued.
Reviewers should primarily be guided by the review form (form available at the bottom of the page) that guides the reviewer through all important elements for a quality review of the paper. Reviewers are encouraged to submit other documents that could help the author and editors to improve the quality of the paper (e.g. text of the paper with inserted comments and track changes), as well as to pay attention to aspects of the paper not covered by the review form but would improve the quality of the work itself.
Positively assessed papers are categorized as follows:
1) Original scientific paper – a paper characterized by originality of conclusions, or presenting previously unpublished original results of scientific research in accordance with the highest criteria of scientific methodology,
2) Preliminary communication – a paper presenting primary findings of research in progress, which due to current interest require immediate publication, but without a deep and thorough study required for a scientific paper,
3) Review article – the article containing a detailed and comprehensive critical review of a certain problem area, but with no significant original results, and including a detailed reference list relevant for a particular topic; and
4) Professional paper – a paper not necessarily related to original research, rather comprising information and experience relevant for a certain profession, albeit without scientific features.
Upon completion of the review, the reviewers may recommend the paper for publication as follows:
- I recommend the paper for publication.
- I recommend the paper for publication but minor modifications are necessary.
- I will recommend the paper for publication, if the required changes are made.
- Publish the paper only if thorough revisions are made (Resubmit the paper for review).
- I do not recommend the paper for publication.
You can download the review form here (if you have trouble viewing the form, please update your PDF viewer):
https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/pravni-vjesnik/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/236
