- PEER REVIEW PROCESS: STANDARDS AND DESCRIPTION
I.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 analysed to see if they match the disciplinary and thematic orientation of the publication’s editorial quality standards of LUMEN publications, text or abstracts and significant fragments 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 text.
I.2. SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION
After texts are analysed 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 are 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.
The scientific evaluation is completed in at least one of the following ways, depending upon the feature of the programme:
- 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
Authors are invited to propose their own specialty referrers when they submit their paper for publication. They can be coordinators of doctoral theses, 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 programmes that request it.
I.3. ETHICAL EVALUATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF, AND DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS OF RESEARCH MISCONDUCT
Ethical evaluation follows two directions, namely Editorial Ethics and Research Ethics.
Regarding Editorial Ethics, these are analysed 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. It is followed the avoidance of double funding requests when the volume of publicly-funded appearance.
The second direction aims of evaluation for respecting the ethical rules of scientific research where appropriate:
- the rules of data confidentiality,
- obtaining the agreement of person / persons interviewed or for which you have undertaken research included in the volume,
- 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.
I.4. EDITORIAL REVIEW of TRANSLATIONS
Editorial reviewers of translation exclusively target the quality of translations in Romanian. An evaluation is undertaken by a specialist, a connoisseur of the language in which the book appeared or a native speaker and the quality of translation is checked.
I.5. LUMEN Submission Platform
In order to improve the quality management system of works and peer reviews, LUMEN Publishing House has implemented, since July 2012, the LUMEN Submission Platform.
The LUMEN Submission Platform is a management system platform of works and peer reviews that facilitates the submission of works by authors and the peer review process conducted by reviewers. The software is flexible and can be used in both work and management across all referents within all programmes (book publishing, scientific journals and conferences).
- COPYRIGHT AND AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITY
Authors assure the publisher, at the moment of signing the contract and sending the final version of the volume, that he/she holds all the copyrights to tables, images etc., including the content in the volume and declares expressly that he/she assumes full responsibility for the existence of the copyright of the entire contents of the proposed publication and all co-authors.
For publication, where necessary, it seeks the advice of the Ethics Committees of LUMEN Publishing House, both in terms of editorial ethics and the ethics of research on human subjects.
III. SELECTION AND ACCEPTANCE OF REVIEWERS
LUMEN Publishing reviewers are scientific and cultural personalities, recognized nationally and internationally with a PhD; in special or exceptional circumstances, having the quality of a PhD student.
The reviewers must have a rich expertise and experience to be chosen as a referent, certified through publications, conferences, grants, etc. and have previously worked for LUMEN Publishing and the LUMEN Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences.