METHODOLOGY on the procedures for scientific articles’ reviewing published in the Magazine Scientific Annals of the “Stefan cel Mare” Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova
1. This Methodology aims to regulate the review procedure of scientific articles published in the journal Scientific Annals of the “Stefan cel Mare” Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova (hereafter Magazine/Journal).
2. The methodology is developed in accordance with the provisions of the Code on Science and Innovation No. 259 of 15.07.2004, the Education Code No. 152 of 17.07.2014, Government Decision No. 201 of 28.02.2018 on the organization and functioning of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Research (hereinafter – NAQAER (ANACEC)), the Regulation on the evaluation, classification and monitoring of scientific journals, approved by the Decision of the CC of NAQAER No. 6 of 18.12.2018, with subsequent amendments.
3. The purpose of the Methodology is to create a minimal and uniform framework of rules, based on which the review procedure for articles published in the Magazine will be carried out.
4. The peer-review procedure (evaluation of each article by two independent reviewers) is applied anonymously, with the review materials being kept for at least 4 years.
5. Reviewers are entered into the Register of Experts held by the Journal.
6. The reviewer must have the scientific title of PhD or habilitated doctor, respectively the scientific-didactic title of associate professor or university professor, corresponding to the field in which the article submitted for review is developed.
7. The quality of membership of the Editorial Board of the journal is assimilated to that of reviewer. Based on the decision of the Scientific Council of the Magazine, other persons from the institution or from outside it, who meet the conditions set out in the previous point, may be included in the Register of Experts.
8. In exceptional cases, when the article is written in a specialty in which the journal does not have experts, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine may appoint other specialists in the field as reviewers on an ad-hoc basis, provided that they possess the scientific titles mentioned above.
9. The review procedure is carried out based on the principle of confidentiality, so that the authors do not know the reviewers, and the reviewers do not know the authors of the articles they review.
10. The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for respecting the anonymity of the review of the article. For this purpose, a review register will be kept, in which information regarding authors and reviewers will be recorded.
11. The Editor-in-Chief will distribute the articles for review confidentially, having the obligation towards the reviewer not to disclose to the author information regarding the reviewer’s person, as well as the obligation towards the author not to disclose to the reviewer his name or other data on the basis of which his person can be identified.
12. The article will be offered for review without indicating the author’s name and surname, as well as the institution they represent.
13. Within 10 days of submission of the article, the Editor-in-Chief will assign two anonymous reviewers. Information regarding the reviewer and author will be recorded in the register which will be confidential.
14. It is mandatory that one of the reviewers should be part of the Editorial Board of the Journal. Reviewers, impartially and independently, will evaluate the article proposed for publication.
15. During the evaluation, the reviewer will take into account the following criteria:
– Novelty and originality of research;
– Methodological support of the work;
– Scientific support;
– Scientific relevance of the results;
– Editing and technical content of the paper;
– Compliance with scientific ethics and deontology;
– Correspondence of the publication with the research strategies of the institution;
– The author’s personal contribution to the development of the research field;
– The potential to deepen/advance knowledge in the chosen field;
– Possibility of using the publication as teaching material.
16. The reviews will be developed based on the evaluation grid provided in Annex No. 1 of this Methodology.
17. To accept the article for publication, it is mandatory that the reviewer, based on the evaluation grid, should obtain at least 70 points.
18. If the score is lower, the reviewer will submit certain objections to the author, which he will have to remove for the subsequent publication of the article.