Peer review and editorial policy

The journal follows the Springer Nature Peer Review Policy, Process and Guidance, Springer Nature Journal Editors' Code of Conduct, and COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer-reviewers.

Approximately 14% of the manuscripts are rejected without review based on formal criteria as they do not comply with the submission guidelines. Each manuscript is assigned to two peer reviewers, one of whom can either be an external expert or a member of the Editorial Board. When a reviewer is a member of the Editorial Board, they will write the review. In special cases (for example, when the topic of the article is interdisciplinary), two reviewers are assigned to the article. The journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. The period from submission to the first decision is up to two months. The approximate rejection rate is 33%. The final decision on the acceptance of a manuscript for publication is mostly made by a meeting of the members of the Editorial Board.

If Editors, including the Editor-in-Chief, publish in the journal, they do not participate in the decision-making process for manuscripts where they are listed as co-authors.

Special issues published in the journal follow the same procedures as all other issues. If not stated otherwise, special issues are prepared by the members of the Editorial Board without guest editors.