Peer Review Policy

In order to be approved for publication, all research submissions, regardless of their genre and type, have to undergo a process of double peer review by two independent experts in the relevant academic fields. The experts are not affiliated with the same academic institution as the author of the submission.

The reviewers of the Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies are prominent scholars from Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and others. For the purposes of the review process, the Editorial Board maintains a list of potential reviewers which is continuously supplemented and updated.

The submission and review process is administered through Open Journal Systems (OJS).

Prior to the review process, all submissions are checked for plagiarism through the StrikePlagiarism.com Plugin on the Sofia University ELearning platform.

The journal is published annually in November. The annual submission deadline is June 1.

The review process for submissions to the Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies consists of the following stages:

1. Within 2 weeks after the submission of the material, the Editors-in-Chief evaluate whether the material may be allowed to undergo double-blind peer review or will be rejected, depending on whether it aligns with the thematic scope of the journal and the generally accepted requirements for a scholarly text.

If the submission does not meet the requirements, the author is briefly informed about the decision to reject it and the reasons of the Editors-in-Chief.

2. Within 2 months after the submission of the material, an anonymised version of it, with author name and file metadata removed, is submitted for review to two independent experts in the appropriate academic field who are not affiliated with the same academic institution as the author of the submission.

The reviewers are selected by the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal in accordance with the subject of the submission.

3. Within 1 month after receiving the review invitation, the reviewers complete an anonymous review form in Bulgarian, English, or German. The review form includes recommendations for improving the submission and a general evaluation of its suitability for publication in the journal in its current state. In the case of contradictory evaluations, the submission is sent to a third reviewer.

4. Based on the content of the review forms and upon deliberation, the Editorial Board takes the final decision on whether or not the submission is to be published in the Journal and, if necessary, makes further additions to the reviewers’ recommendations for improvement of the submission.

5. The author is informed of the reviewers’ conclusions and recommendations, as well as the decision of the Editorial Board. The author is requested to implement the recommended improvements and resubmit the revised text within 2 weeks. If the author fails to meet the deadline, the submission will be rejected.

6. If the submission has been revised in accordance with the recommendations of the reviewers and the Editorial Board, it is edited and prepared for publication in the issue of the relevant year.

If plagiarism, unreliability of the scientific findings or other violations of research integrity are detected in a submission, it is rejected.

Manuscripts that have already been published or are forthcoming (“in press”) elsewhere are not accepted for publication.