Privacy Statement

Authors and reviewers

Manuscripts should be reviewed with due respect to the confidentiality of the authors. Submitting their manuscripts to review, the authors trust the editors the results of their scientific work and creative efforts, from which their reputation and career may depend on. The rights of authors may be violated in case of disclosure of confidential information during the review of manuscripts. Reviewers also have the right to privacy, which should be maintained by the editor. Confidentiality may be violated if there is dishonesty or fraud, but in other cases, it should be followed.

The editorial staff should not disclose information about the manuscripts (including their receipt, content, status in the process of review, criticism of reviewers or final fate) to anyone except authors and reviewers. This includes requests for the use of materials for legitimate actions.

The editorial staff must clearly explain to their reviewers that the manuscripts submitted for the review are privileged and privately owned by the authors. Therefore, reviewers and editors should respect the rights of the authors without discussing their work publicly and assigning their ideas to the publication of the manuscript. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of manuscripts for their files, as well as it’s also forbidden to pass them to other people, with the exception of the permission of the editor. Reviewers must return or delete copies of manuscripts after submitting reviews. The editorial staff should not keep copies of rejected manuscripts.

Reviewers’ comments cannot be published or made public without the permission of the reviewer, author and editor.

Thoughts differ on whether reviewers should remain anonymous. Authors should get acquainted with the Information for journal authors to which they have decided to submit the manuscript to find out whether the reviews are anonymous. If the comments are not signed, the reviewers should not be disclosed to the author or anyone else without the permission of the reviewers.

Some journals publish reviewers’ reviews together with the manuscript. Such a procedure is not allowed without the agreement of the authors and reviewers. However, comments from reviewers are sent to other people who review the same manuscript, which helps reviewers understand the review process. Reviewers may also be informed of the editor's decision to accept or reject the manuscript.