Peer Review Process |

1. EDITORIAL EVALUATION

This is the first stage evaluation, in which the paper proposed for evaluation is assessed from the technical and administrative points of view. The evaluation is made by the editor in charge with the issue following to identify whether the paper is related to the specificity of the journal and if it addresses subjects that are in direct connection with the current issue's topic. The editor in charge will also assess if the author complies with the editorial requirements, such as the citation system, respecting the journal's technical parameters from the template available online, or the structure of the article.

Only after the technical requirements are fulfilled by the author will the paper be the subject of the peer review process and its scientific quality evaluated. After texts are analyzed to see if they match the disciplinary and thematic orientation of the publication's editorial quality standards of LUMEN publications, manuscripts are sent to two reviewers selected from the Board of Reviewers of LUMEN Publishing House, whose scientific activity and expertise corresponds most with the proposed manuscript.

2. SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION

After texts are analyzed from the scientific point of view, reviewers communicate their decision and the observations/requirements (if any) as a condition of publication. The editor in charge transmits the reviewers’ decision to the author and, if the reviewers agreed on the acceptance for publication but recommend changes of the text, it is sent back to the author to make changes. Once the requested changes are made, the text returns to the two reviewers of LUMEN Publishing House Committee to check the final version of the text and transmit their decision.

Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript they evaluate. The reviewers must have a rich expertise and experience to be chosen as a referent, certified through publications, conferences, grants, etc.

LUMEN policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:

  • the reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
  • the reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
  • the reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).

The scientific evaluation is completed in at least one of the following ways:

DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEW

The blind peer review process consists of assigning a blind manuscript (with no identification information of the author/s) to a reviewer whose identity is not known to the author whose paper is subject to evaluation, nor will be known by the author after the evaluation is completed. The correspondence between the reviewers/s and the author/s will be intermediated by the publisher LUMEN Publishing House.

The results of evaluation can be of the following types: acceptance, acceptance with modifications or rejected. If a reviewer rejects the manuscript but another one accepts it, the manuscript is assessed by a third reviewer, or the editor responsible for the issue, who will accomplish the advocate function and take the final decision. If it is accepted with modifications, corrections will be asked for from the author.

REVIEWERS PROPOSED BY AUTHORS

In specific situation, in very particular cases, where the article is of niche, the authors are invited to propose their own specialty referrers when they submit their paper for publication. They cannot be coordinators of doctoral theses, or members from the thesis’s evaluation committee etc.

The opinions of the authors proposed reviewers will be considered, in the event of a disagreement between the two peer reviewers proposed by LUMEN Publishing, or where peer reviewers accept papers with a reserve. Also, this method is used as an additional editorial peer review, in the case of editorial programmes that request it. It is not mandatory for the proposed referees to be considered by the editor of the journal or of the editor for a specific issue.

3. ETHICAL EVALUATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF, AND DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS OF RESEARCH MISCONDUCT

LUMEN is member of PILA and some journals are individual member of COPE. LUMEN Publishing fully adheres to the ethical standards of Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), even for the journals that are not yet members.

Ethical evaluation follows two directions, namely Editorial Ethics and Research Ethics.

Regarding Editorial Ethics, these are analyzed suspicions of plagiarism and the improper award of authorship (including authors who contributed to the text or research and the exclusion of authors who have contributed). They also track potential conflicts of interest that occurred after publication by LUMEN, the rights to reproduce images, text or republication rights fragments where appropriate. The aim is to avoid the request for double financing when the manuscript published through public financing. Each journal where ethical misconduct was identified and submitted for an analysis keeps a record for such issues, and a selection of cases which can be useful for better understanding the ethical and editorial decision to be made by reviewers, authors, editors, were listed on a dedicated page.

The second direction – Research ethics – aims of evaluation for respecting the ethical rules of scientific research where appropriate: the rules of data confidentiality; obtaining the agreement for participation in research from research population; in the protection of the interests of natural or legal persons, in order not to violate any image or other rights of nature provided by law.

In case of any suspicion of research misconduct a peer process is initiated by LUMEN for performing inquiries and investigations of possible research misconduct; This process goes deeply into the specific questioned research and the research record, in order to verify that the research respects the principle of integrity, confidentiality, fairness and respect for human dignity - especially where the research involves human subjects.

4. EDITORIAL REVIEW of TRANSLATIONS

Editorial reviewers target the quality of translations in language of publication of the journal. An evaluation is undertaken by a specialist, a connoisseur of the language in which the work appeared or a native speaker and the quality of translation is checked. LUMEN Publishing is providing in depth copy editing and language proofreading, but we strongly recommend to all authors that are not native speakers of the language of publication to consult specialists in such matter.