Peer Review Guidelines

1. All materials received for publication in the journal “Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. International Relations” (hereinafter referred to as the Journal) are subject to registration by a member of the editorial board and the executive editor of the Journal and indicating the date of receipt of the manuscript in the editorial office of the Journal. The decision on publication (indicating the date of publication) or refusal to publish must be made by the executive editor and notified to the author no later than 62 days from the date the manuscript was received by the editors of the Journal.

2. All materials (research articles, reviews, etc.), received for publication in the Journal, are subject to mandatory preliminary verification by the deputy editor-in-chief and the executive editor of the Journal for compliance with established formal requirements for published materials (compliance with the content of the article stated in the title, permissible volume, structure, design, presence of keywords, UDC and annotations in Russian and English in the required volume, bibliography, correct use of digital data, formulas, calculations, the availability of necessary contact information), as well as for illegal borrowing of text, illustrations, tables, etc. A preliminary check by the executive editor of the Journal of the received manuscript is carried out within a period of not more than 10 days from the date of receipt of the manuscript by the editors of the Journal.

3. All materials not rejected as a result of preliminary verification are subject to mandatory independent academic peer review by at least two specialists in the field as close as possible to the topic of the material received for publication, having the degree of candidate or doctor of sciences, awarded by leading Russian universities, or similar academic degrees awarded by leading foreign universities.
By decision of the executive editor of the Journal, additional peer-reviewing may be carried out (by previous or new reviewers), including in case of resubmission by the author of the manuscript after its revision.

4. Reviewing can be carried out by qualified specialists, including members of the Editorial Board of the Journal, provided there is no conflict of interest (official subordination of the author and reviewer, academic supervision, co-authorship, etc.) The reviewer is obliged to notify the editors of the conflict of interest by refusing to review. All reviewers must be recognized experts on the subject of the peer-reviewed material and have publications on peer-reviewed articles for the past 3 years.

5. The author is not informed about the reviewer. The reviewer is not informed about the author. Information about the reviewer and the text of the review when publishing an article are sent to the Scientific Electronic Library (SEL, elibrary) in a closed mode for users. Reviews are taken into account in the profile of a scientist registered with the SEL. At the request of the reviewer, reviews can be published in the SEL in open access mode.

6. Based on the results of the review, the author will be sent the part of the review intended for him with the decision on publication. If comments are available, the author is sent a consolidated list of them with the recommendation of reviewers on the revision of the manuscript.

7. The reviewing of manuscripts should lead to reasoned responses by reviewers to the following questions:
1) Is there, and if so, what is the scientific and information novelty (originality) of the manuscript?
2) What is the correlation of the peer-reviewed material with the available literature, published data and modern research on relevant issues?
3) Whether there are signs of illegal borrowing or other forms of violation of academic ethics when writing material?
4) Is there, and if so, what is the practical significance of the manuscript?
5) How clear is the language of the manuscript? Whether the conclusions made are consistent with the data obtained? Whether the material complies with the general and special requirements for the publication structure, language and style of presentation, the terminology used, the descriptiveness of tables, diagrams, figures and formulas, the correct design of footnotes, and the correct bibliography etc.?
6) Whether the peer-reviewed manuscript is of interest to the reader (if so, which part)?
The Editorial Board of the Journal draws up a standard questionnaire for reviewers, including in addition to questions with answers “yes” / “ no” questions requiring the detailed reasoned comments and statement, the necessary information about the terms and conditions of reviewing, privacy mode, etc.

8. Based on the results of reviewing, the reviewer should give one of the following recommendations:
1) Accept without revisions;
2) Accept with revisions;
3) Reject without the right of resubmission. No more than a single revision of the material submitted for publication is allowed.

9. The Editorial Board of the Journal is obliged to ensure that reviewers keep confidential any information about the manuscript submitted for reviewing. Discussion of the peer-reviewed manuscript by the reviewer with any third parties is not allowed. Prior to publication of materials, reviewers are not entitled to use or refer to peer-reviewed materials.

10. The presence of positive reviews is not a sufficient basis for the publication of an article, and the decision on the advisability of publication is made by the editorial board of the journal, which is recorded in the protocol of the meeting of the editorial board. If there are any discrepancies in the editorial board regarding the publication of the article, the final decision is made by the executive editor of the journal.

11. Reviews are stored in the Editorial Board of the Journal (original) and the Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University (copy) for 5 years from the date of publication of the material or the date of the decision to reject the manuscript. Reviews of articles published and rejected as a result of peer reviewing are submitted to the Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University along with materials from the corresponding issue of the Journal.