In order to maintain the high standards of the scientific journal and to uphold the quality of research papers published in it, a peer-review procedure is applied. At the initial stage of the editing process the editorial board makes a list of reviewers based on their qualification and level of expertise in the relevant research area.
Then an executive secretary sends a formal letter from an official e-mail address (which could be found on the journal’s website) to each of the potential reviewers, inviting him or her to take part in the reviewing procedure.
All scientific manuscripts received by the editorial office of the Ufa Archaeological Bulletin are initially checked by the executive secretary to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of the journal as well as the formal requirements for the research papers (number of characters, tables and figures, the format of the references etc.) Manuscripts that do not meet the standards of the journal are rejected without going through peer-review. Those judged to be of sufficient quality and of potential interest to the journal’s readership are sent for further review.
The Ufa Archaeological Bulletin uses double-blind peer review, meaning that both the authors’ and the reviewers’ personal data are not disclosed throughout the reviewing process. Each reviewer receives from the editorial office a blinded manuscript without any signs of the authorship (including self-identifying citations and references to the previous research papers) and each author receives a fully anonymized review. Communication between the author and the reviewer takes place through the official e-mail of the Ufa Archaeological Bulletin.
By accepting an invitation for review:
The reviewer has to abstain from reviewing the manuscripts in which he or she has (or suspects to have) a conflict of interests. This may include: any sort of competition between the author and the reviewer, any relationship with the author (either personal or professional). If the reviewer has discovered a conflicting interest, he or she has to notify the editorial office of the journal as soon as possible in a written form via official e-mail.
Upon completion of the manuscript assessment, the reviewer has to write a detailed review report and submit this document to the editorial office of the journal. The report must contain one of the following recommendations to the editors about the manuscript’s publication:
All reports received by the editorial office are then anonymized and sent to the authors for further work.
Overall, the Ufa Archaeological Bulletin publishes only those manuscripts, which have received at least two positive reviews. Although, the final decision about the publication of every manuscript is made by the chef editor and editorial board.
The retention period of reviewers’ reports is 3 (three) years since the date of submission.
The assigned time for review is no less than 2 months (60 days) since the moment of the manuscript’s submission to the reviewer.
