Guidelines for authors

Procedure for accepting and reviewing articles in the Bulletin of Criminology

1 Submission of articles to the Bulletin of Criminology

1.1 Articles for the Bulletin of Criminology may be submitted in response to an individual invitation from the journal’s editorial board, in response to a public call for submissions, or on the author’s initiative.

1.2 All texts shall be sent electronically by the form on the journal’s website.

1.3 All submitted articles must be scholarly and must be prepared according to the following guidelines:

1.3.1. the text should not exceed a volume of approximately 100,000 characters with spaces;

1.3.2. the text should be accompanied by an abstract (a maximum of 1,500 characters with spaces) and 3–7 keywords. The title, abstract, and keywords should be included in both Polish and English;

1.3.3. the author is obliged to provide his/her affiliation, title/degree, e-mail address, and ORCID number; and

1.3.4. in those cases where the submitted text contains tables or graphs prepared in a format other than Microsoft Word (e.g., MS Excel), the source file of such a table or graph must also be submitted separately from the article text.

1.4 Texts are published in both Polish and English.

Texts sent after the deadline for the submission of articles shall not be considered for further editorial work within a given issue of the Bulletin of Criminology, unless the submission of an article after the deadline has been previously agreed with the editorial office. The editors, after obtaining the author’s consent, may also decide to move them to the next issue of the journal.

1.5 Unsolicited texts are subject to preliminary review by the editorial office, which decides whether to send them for review or reject them.

2 Prohibition of ghostwriting

By submitting a text, the author declares that it has not been previously published or submitted for print anywhere. Texts previously published elsewhere or submitted elsewhere for publication will not be published in the Bulletin of Criminology.

3 The procedure for reviewing submitted articles

3.1 Each article published in the Bulletin of Criminology must receive positive reviews from two independent reviewers.

3.2 Each submitted text is initially verified by the editors to the extent to which it meets the editorial requirements and its subject matter is related to the topics covered by the Bulletin of Criminology or to the extent to which it corresponds with the call for papers.

3.3 The editors appoint reviewers from the list of regular reviewers published on the journal’s website. In exceptional cases, a reviewer may be selected from outside the list of regular reviewers.

3.4 Reviewers must not be affiliated with the academic institution where the author works and must not have close personal ties with the author.

3.5 The review is based on the principle of double blindedness: the name of the author is not known to the reviewer, nor is the name of the reviewer known to the author or the other reviewer.

3.6 The reviewer shall consider the following elements during the review:

• (a) whether the article meets the standards of a scholarly text, i.e.:
  • whether the title of the article is consistent with its content;
  • whether the text is clear and does not contain contradictions;
  • whether the conclusions drawn by the author are based on the data given in the text or the author’s own findings;
  • whether the research methodology used by the author is correct;
  • whether the text is original and contains new information; and
  • whether the material takes into account the most up-to-date scientific knowledge and recent research;
• (b) whether the text has not previously been published in full or in substantial part in another publication by the author or by another person; and
• (c) whether there are no other objective impediments to publication of the text (e.g. whether other standards of honesty, conscientiousness, or reliability in conducting scientific research) have been violated.

3.7 The review should be neutral and objective. It should contain a clear conclusion as to whether the text should be published in the Bulletin of Criminology.

3.8 The reviewer may suggest to the author that changes or additions be made or that the text be shortened.

3.9 The review is submitted to the editorial office in an electronic form. It may be prepared as a separate document or as notes placed directly on the text.

3.10. The review should be completed within a maximum of 3 months of receiving the text for review.

4 Acceptance of an Article for Publication

4.1 The article is accepted for publication if both reviews are positive.

4.1.1. If the reviewers have found that changes or additions need to be made to the text, then publication is conditional on the author making the changes to the article.

4.1.2. If the article receives two different reviews (positive and negative), the editors will decide whether to reject the article or to appoint another reviewer.

4.1.3 If the author receives two negative reviews, the text is rejected.

4.2 Each article accepted for publication undergoes linguistic and editorial correction.

5 Final remarks

5.1 The Editorial Board does not return submitted materials to their authors.

5.2 The editors may refuse to publish the text without giving reasons.

5.3 The editors do not pay for the published texts.

5.4 The editors do not pay for reviews.