Peer review and editorial policy

Submission of the novel manuscript and its initial treatment. Manuscripts can be submitted either in English or Russian, or both languages. The procedure below assumes the submission is in English. The rules for submission in Russian may be found at https://www.sciencejournals.ru/journal/elkhim/.

The manuscript should be submitted via the Internet using either the Editorial and Publishing System (EPS) or e-mail of the secretariat rjelectrochemistry@yandex.ru if the authors fail to do so via EPS). All subsequent communication with the authors will be conducted electronically by the secretariat, preferably through EPS.

The secretariat receives and registers the newly submitted and revised manuscripts in the journal's archive. A manuscript ID is assigned to each newly submitted manuscript. This information is communicated to the authors by the secretariat.

The secretariat conducts a review of newly submitted manuscripts to ensure compliance with section 2 of the Authors Guide, which can be found at https://www.sciencejournals.ru/journal/elkhim/. This includes verifying the overall format of the manuscript and its list of references (subsection 2a in the Authors Guide), as well as checking for the presence of a cover letter from the authors to the Editor-in-Chief and assessing its content for accuracy (subsection 2e in the Authors Guide).

The secretariat checks newly submitted manuscripts for compliance with section 2 of the Authors Guide, which is available at https://www.sciencejournals.ru/journal/elkhim/, in particular, the correctness of the manuscript's format as a whole and of its list of references (item 2a in the Guide) as well as the availability of a cover letter from the authors to the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and correctness of its content (item 2e in the Guide). If the authors have submitted an incomplete set of materials or materials in an improper format, the secretariat will send a clarification letter to the authors. The letter will include the Authors Guide and other relevant official documents as attachments. The manuscript is considered submitted to the Journal and accepted for consideration only after all the submission requirements have been met. The date of its full completion will be registered as the date of submission of the primary version of the manuscript.

Once the manuscript is accepted for consideration, the secretariat sends it via email to the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief. The (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief, along with members of the Editorial Board, assesses whether the manuscript aligns with the thematic scope of the journal. If the topic of the manuscript does not correspond to the journal's scientific area, the secretariat informs the authors of the rejection and recommends submitting the manuscript to a journal that covers the relevant thematic area. If the manuscript is in line with the journal's scope, the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief identifies an expert from the Editorial Board who specializes in the topic of the manuscript and has no conflict of interest with the authors. This expert becomes the editor responsible for evaluating the manuscript. Once the manuscript is assigned to the responsible editor, the secretariat notifies the authors that the peer review process for their manuscript has commenced.

The peer review process and decision on the primary version of the manuscript. The responsible editor organizes the review (the review procedure is single-blind), including the following steps:

1. Selection and invitation of competent reviewers.
2. Upon receiving their consent, the manuscript is transferred to the reviewers along with a standard form for their referee reports.
3. Ensuring that the reviewers submit their reports within the specified timeframe (usually within 40 to 50 days from the date of manuscript acceptance).
4. Formulating a conclusion on the manuscript based on the referee reports, including a draft decision.
5. The secretariat then forwards these materials to the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief.

When selecting potential reviewers, the responsible editor considers their expertise in the relevant field and ensures that they have no conflicts of interest. The primary responsibility of the responsible editor and the reviewers is to conduct a thorough and critical analysis of the manuscript content. As a standard practice, at least two substantial referee reports from different reviewers are required. Superficial conclusions that lack a rigorous critical analysis of the manuscript content are not considered.

The identities of the editor assigned to the manuscript and reviewers are confidential and are known only to the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief the secretariat. Members of the Editorial Board do not have access to this information. If the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief or a member of the secretariat is one of the authors of the manuscript, the principle of anonymity for the Editor and reviewers equally applies to this author. They are not involved in the evaluation process of their own manuscript.

Based on the editor's conclusion and the reports provided by the reviewers, the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief makes a decision regarding the manuscript from the following four options:

1. Accept the manuscript for publication in its submitted form.
2. Determine that the manuscript deserves publication after considering the comments provided in the referee reports.
3. Reject the manuscript in its current form. However, the authors may submit a substantially revised version of the manuscript, addressing the comments provided in the referee reports.
4. Reject the manuscript as unsuitable for publication in the journal, even after substantial revisions by the authors. In this case, the manuscript will be removed from further consideration.

The decision made by the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief is then communicated to the authors by the secretariat.

Revision of the manuscript and final decision. In cases where decisions 1, 2, or 3 are made regarding the primary version of the manuscript, the secretariat will provide the authors with instructions for their next steps according to section 3 of the Authors Guide.

For decisions 2 or 3, the authors will be given a period of two months to revise the manuscript, starting from the date when the conclusion on the manuscript and the reports of the reviewers were sent to the authors. If the revised version of the manuscript is submitted after the deadline, it will be treated as a new submission. The secretariat will assign a new number and a new submission date to the revised manuscript. Typically, the manuscript will be sent to the same Editor who handled its previous version.

However, if the revised version of the manuscript is submitted to the secretariat within the given time frame (i.e., within two months), along with a letter addressing all comments in the referee reports, the secretariat will forward the received materials via email to the editor assigned to the manuscript. The editor will then initiate the refereeing process again, involving the same and/or new reviewers. The outcome of this process will be the referee reports and the editor's conclusion on the revised version of the manuscript, which will be transferred to the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief through the secretariat.

Based on the provided information, the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief makes a final decision on the manuscript from the following three options:

1. Accept the revised version of the manuscript for publication.
2. Reject the manuscript as unsuitable for publication, even after further substantial revisions by the authors. The manuscript will not be considered further.
3. Reject the manuscript in its present form as unacceptable for publication, even after revisions. However, the authors can submit a substantially revised version of the manuscript, considering the comments made in the referee reports. This submitted version will be treated as a new manuscript, and the secretariat will assign a new number and a new submission date to it. Typically, this new version will be sent to the same editor who handled the previous version.

The decision made by the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief will determine the next steps for the manuscript.

If the (Deputy) Editor-in-Chief decides to accept the manuscript, including its revised version, for publication, the secretariat will notify the authors of this decision. The secretariat will also provide the authors with a list of documents (as outlined in section 4 of the Authors Guide) that need to be submitted to the secretariat via EPS or email. The required documents may include authors and license agreements, the accepted version of the manuscript, figures in the formats specified by the publisher, and any other materials as specified in the Authors Guide. The manuscript is considered finally accepted for publication only after the secretariat electronically receives all the specified materials in the correct format. Upon receipt, the secretariat transfers the manuscript to the Editorial Office for normalization and copyediting. Once the necessary corrections are made, the materials are assigned to a journal issue and sent to the publisher for publication.

Conflict of interest and journal ethics. All manuscripts are subject to the same peer review procedure described above, regardless of the identities of their authors, their affiliations, or nationality.

If Editors, including the Editor-in-Chief, publish in the journal, they do not participate in the decision-making process for manuscripts where they are listed as co-authors. Special issues published in the journal follow the same procedures as all other issues. If not stated otherwise, special issues are prepared by the members of the Editorial Board without guest editors.