Review procedure

§ 1. Preliminary assessment

1. Publications in the journal “Agricultural Law Review” are reviewed in accordance with the general guidelines for the reviewing procedure issued by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland.

2. The submitted manuscripts are initially evaluated by the Editorial Committee (for compliance with the profile of the journal, fulfilment of the requirements of a scientific text and other formal requirements). Manuscripts not meeting these requirements will be returned to their authors for possible improvement. The authors’ nationality, ethnic origin, race, gender, sexual orientation or religious and political beliefs do not influence the assessment of the manuscript submitted.

§ 2. Reviewing principles

1. Reviews are anonymous and subject to a double-blind review process. The identity of reviewers of individual manuscripts is not revealed to the authors.

2. The assessment based on a review sheet includes: the nature of the text, the correctness of the formulation of the title, the topicality of the problem and the originality of the approach to the topic, the correctness of the formulation of the research problem, the method of research, the methodological assumptions of the article, the formal correctness of the text, the extent of the literature and case law used, compliance with the profile of the journal, the extent of problem solving and the author’s contribution to science, the correctness of the argumentation.

3. Reviewers are required to observe the rules of publication ethics applicable to “Agricultural Law Review.”

4. Reviews should be performed objectively. Personal criticism of the author is considered inappropriate. Reviewers should express their assessments clearly, and support their comments with appropriate arguments.

5. All reviewed papers must be treated as confidential information. They may not be disclosed or discussed with anyone other than the authorised members of the Editorial Committee.

6. Confidential information must be kept confidential and may not be used for purposes other than the preparation of the review.

§ 3. Selection of reviewers

1. Reviewers are selected from among specialists in a given field. Due to the subject matter of the manuscripts submitted to the journal, in the absence of a suitable reviewer, a member of the Scientific Council may be appointed as a reviewer.

2. At least one reviewer from abroad shall be appointed to review a manuscript submitted by a foreign author. There must be no conflict of interest between such an reviewer and the author of the manuscript.

3. If a selected reviewer feels unable to review the article or knows that it will not be possible to produce a review promptly, such reviewer should inform the Editors of this fact within 7 days of receiving a request for a review.

4. Reviews of manuscripts are made free of charge according to the rules formulated herein.

§ 4. The reviewing process

1. After a positive initial assessment, the submitted manuscripts are reviewed by at least two reviewers who are not members of the Editorial Committee or the Scientific Council of the journal (with the exceptions specified in § 3.1), nor are employees of the entity publishing the journal. The reviewers must not have a conflict of interest with the author of the manuscript. A conflict of interest is understood to be a relationship resulting from competition, collaboration or other relationships of a personal, financial or professional nature between the reviewer and any of the authors or institutions associated with the submitted manuscript. Reviewers should not belong to the scientific unit affiliated by the author.

2. The reviewer should inform the Editor of any significant similarity or an overlap in the content of the manuscript under review with any other published work known to the reviewer, or of a suspicion of plagiarism.

3. The review must be in writing. The conclusion in the review may be of the following wording: a) admissible for publication, b) admissible for publication provided that appropriate changes are made, c) negative, in accordance with the review form below.

4. The reviewers’ comments shall be communicated to the author of the manuscript within 7 days of the receipt of the reviews. The author shall enclose responses to the reviews to the revised version of the manuscript.

5. The corrected manuscript together with the response to the reviewers’ comments must be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief for approval.

§ 5. Acceptance of the manuscript for publication

1. Only manuscripts that have not been previously published shall be accepted for publication.

2. The condition for accepting a manuscript for publication shall be two unequivocally positive reviews. In the event of two extremely different assessments of a manuscript, the decision whether to accept the manuscript for publication shall lie with the Editorial Committee which may appoint an additional reviewer or reviewers.

3. Only those manuscripts which have received two unequivocally positive reviews and which have been approved by the Editorial Committee shall be accepted for publication.

4. The condition for the publication of a corrected manuscript is an account taken in it for all comments made by the reviewers.

5. The final decision about the publication of a positively revised manuscript in a given issue of the journal shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

§ 6. Reviewers’ data

1. Reviews and the entire documentation of the reviewing process shall be kept in the archives of the Editorial Office.

2. The Editors will publish the names of reviewers in the second issue of the “Agricultural Law Review” and on the website.