Reviewing Procedure

1. All scientific articles submitted to the journal and complying with the journal’s profile   are subject to mandatory (internal and external)   reviewing   to receive expert   evaluation. Articles submitted under the headings "Analytical review", "Original research", "Research methods" are considered scientific. Texts submitted under the headings "Reviews", "Opinions", "Synopsis", "Informational messages", "Letters to the editor" are considered as auxiliary informational materials, they are not reviewed, but undergo preliminary censorship.

2. To publish an article in the journal "Principles of Ecology",   an  author has to register on the journal's website (this is done automatically), whereby he/she receives a unique login and password to access your personal account.  All actions of the author from the   registration   on   the website till the publication of an article are described on the page "Becoming an author."

3. The author places an article in the journal on his/her own,   using the hints and requirements   to   an article preparation presented in the Author’s Personal Account. After filling in all the necessary forms,   the author sends the article on his/her own   to the Editor – for reviewing.

4. The Editor in Chief together with the members of the Editorial Board   decides if the article complies with the profile of the journal, if it meets the requirements to registration and then forwards   the article   to two reviewers   -   specialists on the subject, holding a doctorate degree or PhD.   All reviewers   are proved experts in the corresponding   branch, and have   publications on the subject of peer-reviewed article for the last 3 years. In the case when the article does not comply with the journal’s   profile, the author is informed by e-mail about the inability the article to be published within a week.

5. If the article complies with   the profile of the journal, Editor in Chief forwards the article to the Reviewer’s Personal   Account (page of the website) on which there is a review form to fill online.

6. To work with   the article, the reviewer should register on the website of the journal   (this is done either   by his/her own or with the help of the Editor). After registration the reviewer receives a unique login and password for access to the Personal Account (page of the website). On the page there are   links to the file containing the received article, review form, the requirements   for the article preparation, the order of   the   reviewing procedure. All the work of the review preparation and   transfer   it   to the editor is carried out in the Personal Account of the reviewer on the journal’s website.

7. Authenticity of a reviewer   is within the responsibility of the Editor in Chief. All reviews are submitted to the editorial board by electronic communication (from the website or by e-mail) without the signature of the reviewer. The hard copy of the review shall be signed by the Editor in Chief of the journal "Principles of Ecology". The originals are kept   in the editorial office   for   5 years. Copies of reviews are available   to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon   its request within the term indicated in the request.

8. Review compiling is that in the review form the appropriate   answers are chosen to 33 questions; there is a possibility to comment each issue. The completed review is a list of chosen answers   with comments, as well as the general conclusion concerning   the possibility of article publication supplied with comments.

9. The reviewer gives a conclusion about the possibility of article publication in the journal based on the assessment that the content of the article conforms to such criteria as actuality, novelty, data validity, the adequacy of the data processing technique, originality of the text, good presentation of the text and illustrations, the scientific value of the conclusions. Reviewer is responsible for the content and quality of reviews and can give one of the following recommendations: a) the article can be recommended for publication without any corrections or minor revision; b) the article requires a re-reviewing, because it contains significant shortcomings that must be corrected by the author; c) the article is not recommended for publication because it does not meet the criteria for scientific articles.

10. If the article is rejected or it needs re-reviewing, the reviewer gives a detailed motivation of the decision. This comment can be included in the review form or attached to the article as a separate file. After the assessment, the reviewer sends the review to the editorial office by pressing the special button, and   the review is automatically published on the journal's website (personal account of the author and editor).

11. The text of the review (both the review form and additional file) can be read by the author in his/her Personal Account. If the review contains recommendations for the correction and   revision of the article, the author is sent   an e-mail with a proposal to take these recommendations   into consideration,   when preparing a new version of the article or dispose them reasonably (partially or completely); time given is one  month. The revised article is to be reviewed again.

12. The Editor in Chief makes the decision on the publication of the article   with positive reviews and to refuse to publish an article with two negative reviews. If a conflict appears between the author and one of the reviewers, the situation is discussed on the editorial board. The Editorial Board has the right to send an article to a third reviewer, to change the reviewer or reject the article.

13. In order to obtain the most complete and objective review, the manuscript of the article is passed to two reviewers. One reviewer is usually a member of the editorial board. The second reviewer is a researcher who necessarily belongs to a nonresident scientific organization. The reviewer decides,   what status to give to reviewing (double blind or "open"), while completing a review form  on the site. The editors guarantee reviewer anonymity, but if he does not mind, the name of the reviewer is published both in the review and the subtitle of the article.

14. The term of reviewing   is 3 weeks (usually less)

15. After Editor-in-Chief decided to publish an article, he changes its status and includes it into the next issue. The article recommended for publication is placed in the nearest issue within the period of 3 months.

16 Published scientific articles are stored in electronic form on the website of the journal (on the server of PetrSU). Articles are available only in electronic form - in the form of on-line edition of the journal and on the site as a pdf-file. It is possible to download both a separate article, and the whole issue of the journal.