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 1% 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 one peer reviewer. The journal follows a single-blind reviewing procedure. The period from submission to the first decision is usually three or four weeks. The approximate rejection rate is 2%. The final decision on the acceptance of a manuscript for publication is made by the responsible editor.

The members of the Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief, rarely publish in the journal. If they do so, 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.