Review rules - Instytut Pileckiego

Description of the review procedure for texts submitted for publication

in “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies”

 

The review procedure is conducted in accordance with the principle of confidentiality and is mutually anonymous. The elaboration of a review is entrusted to specialists in the field which the submitted text concerns. Each review is elaborated using a form prepared by the editorial board. By sending in a text to the editorial board of “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies”, the author consents to the text being processed in accordance with a set procedure.

 

  1. An initial assessment, which takes into consideration formal criteria, is made by the editorial board, and the author is informed of the passing on of the text for review or of its rejection.
  2. Thereafter, the text, anonymized and accompanied by an assessment form, is passed on to two external reviewers. The principle is observed whereby reviewers are not affiliated with the institution of the author, and are not members of the editorial board of “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies”. Furthermore, they undertake that they shall not use their knowledge of the reviewed text prior to its publication in “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies”.
  3. The review is conducted on the basis of the following criteria: conformity of the contents of the text with the title of the article; selection of literature and sources; correctness of research methods employed; substantive value of the article with reference to the existing state of knowledge in a given field; linguistic correctness. A review may end in any of the following:

– a negative conclusion,

– a positive conclusion, conditional on the introduction of alterations suggested by a reviewer

– a positive conclusion.

  1. In the event that two reviews shall end in mutually exclusive conclusions, a third reviewer will be appointed, whose opinion shall be decisive.
  2. The reviews are then submitted to the author, who may put forward his opinion with regard thereto, submitting his/her judgement regarding the argumentation presented therein to the editorial board.
  3. A final decision as to publication of the text is taken by the editor-in-chief – preceded by consultations with members of the editorial board – on the basis of the following:

– the reviews sent in to the editorial board,

– the author’s approach to alterations suggested by the reviewers.

  1. At the same time, the editorial board reserves itself the right to propose its own alterations, upon the introduction of which the final decision as to publication of the text may depend.
  2. Following final approval of the text for publication, it undergoes substantive and linguistic editing and editorial revision.
  3. A list of reviewers collaborating with the editorial board is published once yearly on the website of the journal and in the current issue of “Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies”.