Policies

Peer Review Process and Criteria

‘Yearbook of the History of Polish Press’ welcomes only fully original articles (not previously printed anywhere) which present the latest research results and which are not a compilation of already existing studies.

The first stage of the reviewing procedure is the opinion of the Editor-in-Chief (or a member of the Editorial Board indicated by him/her), who takes a preliminary decision on admitting the article to further reviewing or rejecting it, of which they inform the author immediately. In some cases, their decision is consulted with a member of the Editorial Board who specialises in the issue in question. The reasons for rejection at this stage may include, but are not limited to, incompatibility of the manuscript's subject matter with the journal's profile, failure to meet standards for article structure, low substantive level, gross linguistic deficiencies, non-compliance with the principles of publication ethics or other legitimate reasons.

The submission then proceeds to the external review stage. Each article undergoes anonymisation, i.e. the concealment of data that could identify the author, before it is sent to the Reviewers. At least two independent reviewers from outside the author's unit are appointed to evaluate each publication. The editors ensure that there is no conflict of interest (especially business or personal relationships) between authors and reviewers in the review process. Reviews are processed in a 'double-blind review process' in which reviewers and authors do not know each other's identities.

Reviews are written and descriptive. In his/her assessment the reviewer takes into account the originality and substantive value of the article, its form (composition, language), the quality of the sources, scientific reliability. Reviewers may also indicate the qualification of the article to a given category of scientific texts. All remarks, corrections and suggestions for possible changes are placed by the reviewer in the review form, so that the author can get acquainted with them and take them into account in the final editing of the text. The review concludes with a conclusion and an unequivocal request that the article should or should not be accepted for publication. Two positive reviews are required for an article to be accepted for publication. In t case of a significant divergence of reviews, the editorial board may decide to appoint a third reviewer.

Upon completion of the external review stage, the author is notified accordingly by the editorial board. In addition to the reviewers' conclusions, the author may receive additional comments and suggestions for changes from the Editor-in-Chief (or a member of the Editorial Board designated by the Editor-in-Chief) or the language editor.

The review process is confidential. A collective list of reviewers working with the journal is published once a year under Editorial Board / List of Reviewers. The ethical aspects of the responsibilities of reviewers and authors are outlined below in the Ethical Principles section. The editors also accept non-peer-reviewed material (reports, commentaries, letters, etc.) for publication.

Obligations of reviewers

The reviewer's opinion is a key element of the editorial process, as it is on the basis of this opinion that the editorial board makes the substantive decision on whether or not accept the article for publication. In order for this process to proceed properly, we ask reviewers to evaluate manuscripts objectively and we oblige them to maintain confidentiality, to report conflicts of interest and to pass on information on suspected plagiarism. For details, please see the chapter 'Reviewer policies' in the section on Publication Ethics (below).

Forms for reviewers

Review form (used for traditional review circulation);
A declaration of no conflict of interest (from 2023 onwards the statement is part of the review form);
System form (available to registered reviewers)..

List of reviewers

A detailed list can be found on the Editorial Board / List of Reviewers page.

Code of ethics

The Editorial Board of ‘Yearbook of the History of Polish Press’ (YHPP) applies core practices of publication ethics according to the guidelines of COPE – Committee on Publication Ethics. All parts involved in the publishing process (editors, authors, reviewers, and publishers) are familiarized with the practices applied in the journal.

The authors, when submitting the manuscript, must confirm their knowledge of these rules.In the case of manuscripts with multiple authors, the authors must declare who contributed to the work and in what capacity. YHPP does not accept the manuscripts that have been under consideration for publication anywhere else. Reviewers who accept to assess the manuscript must confirm the knowledge of the code of ethics (Guidelines for reviewers) as well as declare any conflict of interest.

Detailed guidelines on publication ethics applied in the journal are available at COPE website: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines. The basic standards of ethics applied in YHPP, based on the guidelines of COPE are presented below.

Code of conduct for Editorial Board

Fair play. Submitted manuscripts are assessed based on their content without discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religious or political beliefs.

Confidentiality. All submissions are confidential. It is unacceptable to disclose their content to the third parties by anyone except if authorized by the Editor-in-Chief. Any part of manuscripts cannot be used by the persons involved in the process of reviewing and editing.

Independence of the Parties and Conflict of Interest. The selection of reviewers is carried out with the utmost care and ethical standards, and in accordance with the principle of independence of the parties. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same academic institution as any of the authors of the manuscripts, and they cannot assess the manuscripts where a conflict of interest may occur between the reviewer and the author(s).

Prevention of ghostwriting and guest authorship. Editorial Board of YHPP feels responsible for the research reliability, and it implements the rules of prevention of ghostwriting and guest authorship. “Ghostwriting” is a phenomenon of not disclosing the name of a person who is the author or who has made a significant contribution to the submission. The significant contribution should be always reported by indicating the names of all authors or by acknowledging this person. “Guest authorship” is based on attributing to particular person authorship or co-authorship, even though her/his contribution to the publication was very little or did not happen at all. To prevent ghostwriting and guest authorship, the authors are asked to disclose each author’s contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study; the main responsibility in contribution reporting lies on the corresponding author. The Editorial Board requires a financial disclosure as well as disclosure of any support made by research institutions, associations, and any other subjects. The Editorial Board documents any manifestation of scientific misconduct, particularly violation of scientific research ethics. All cases will be revealed, and the relevant actors (i.e., institutions that employ the authors, scientific societies, scholarly editors associations, etc.).

Decisions on publication. The Editor-in-Chief takes the final decision on which materials will be and which will not be published. The Editor-in-Chief’s decision is based on the reviewers’ assessments, journal editorial policy, as well as on the legal requirements considering plagiarism and other copyright violation.

Code of conduct for Reviewers

Contribution to the work of Editorial Board. Reviewers assist in the work of the Editorial Board and they influence the decisions made by editors. They may also assist the authors in improving their manuscripts.

Qualifications and promptness. Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript, or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should immediately notify the Editorial Board.

Confidentiality. All texts submitted for publication, reviewed, and edited are confidential. It is unacceptable to disclose their content to third parties, except if authorized by the Editor-in-Chief. The content of the entrusted editorial staff and reviewed texts may not be used in any form by persons involved in the editing and reviewing process.

Standards of objectivity. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Reviewers should express their remarks clearly with supporting arguments.

Acknowledgment of sources. Reviewers, if needed, should indicate relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors. Any statement that has been reported in previous publications should be accompanied by the relevant in-text citation. A reviewer should also notify the Editorial Board of any substantial similarity between the manuscript under consideration and any other published manuscript.

Independence of the parties and conflicts of interest. The selection of reviewers is carried out with the utmost care and ethical standards, and in accordance with the principle of independence of the parties. In particular, the principle applies, according to which reviewers should not work at the same academic institution as any of the authors of the texts under evaluation, and they cannot evaluate texts where there may be a conflict of interest between the reviewer and the author(s).

Code of conduct for Authors

Scientific Reliability. The authors should describe their research in a reliable way and interpret the results in an objective manner. Collected data and the study should be described in a way that permits others to replicate the work. Unreliable and unethical presentation and interpretation of data and results are unacceptable.

Originality. Authors may submit only original manuscripts of their authorship. In case when they have used the work and/or statements of others, these elements should be cited. The Editorial Board checks all manuscripts for plagiarism in plagiarism checker software.

Data access. Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study, so they should be prepared to ensure public access to data. The authors should also archive data for a reasonable number of years after publication.

Redundant publication. Authors should not publish articles describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgment of sources. Authors should ensure that they have properly acknowledged the work of others, and should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported study. Information obtained privately, from conversation or correspondence with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Authorship of the manuscript. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors. The corresponding author should also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Conflict of interest. Authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Notification for fundamental errors. When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, they are obliged to promptly notify the Editorial Board and cooperate with them to either correct the paper in the form of an erratum or to retract the paper.

Open Access Policy

The journal ‘Yearbook of the History of Polish Press’ is published on an open access basis so that its resources can be freely used while respecting the authors' copyrights, so readers are obliged to follow the common rules of source citation and quotation as in the case of publication in printed form.

From 2021 onwards, articles are made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0) In previous years (2001-2020), articles from the journal YHPP were published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Declaration of primary version

The original version of the quarterly ‘Yearbook of the History of Polish Press’ is the electronic version of the journal.