Vilnius University Press uses Open Journal System as peer-review system for electronic submission and double-blind peer review of manuscripts by at least two experts in the field for peer-reviewed journals. Books are reviewed following Vilnius University procedure for accepting monographs as suitable for publication.
Based on the following criteria, the reviewers assess if the book or article may be accepted without revisions, with minor or major revisions, or if it should be rejected. The core of any review is an objective assessment of both the technical rigour and the novelty of the presented work.
The criteria are:
- Clarity of thesis statement and declaration of purpose;
- The relevance of the theoretical discussion;
- Relevance and description of the empirical investigation;
- Reproducible methods of the research and results;
- Unambiguous and properly analysed data;
- Well-founded discussion/analysis;
- Data supported by conclusions;
- Originality of the work;
- Awareness of relevant research;
- Well-structured and logically coherent composition.
Peer-reviewer responsibilities to editors include the following:
- Alert the editor to any potential personal or financial conflict of interest you may have and decline to review when a possibility of a conflict exists.
- Determine scientific merit, originality, and scope of the work and suggest ways to improve it.
- Note any ethical concerns, such as the substantial similarity between the reviewed manuscript and any published book or any manuscript concurrently submitted elsewhere.
Peer-reviewer responsibilities to readers include the following:
- Protect readers from incorrect or flawed research or studies that cannot be validated by others.
- Be alert to any failure to cite relevant work by other scientists.
Reviews can and should be critical, but we ask reviewers to keep in mind that dismissive language and personalised criticisms may be viewed as reflecting bias or ulterior motives on the part of the referee.