Order of reviewing

I. General

  1. This Regulation on the initial screening and peer review of scientific articles submitted for publishing in the ‘Nuclear and Radiation Safety’ Journal (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Regulation’)
  • specifies process for the initial screening and peer review of scientific articles offered for publishing to the editorial team of the ‘Nuclear and Radiation Safety’ Journal (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Journal’) founded by the Federal Budgetary Institution ‘Scientific and Engineering Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety’ (hereinafter ‘SEC NRS’), and
  • details the requirements set out in the Regulation on the ‘Nuclear and Radiation Safety’ Journal.

  1. Scientific articles are peer reviewed to achieve a high academic standard of the Journal, and to publish the most prominent and relevant scientific papers.

  2. Subject to a peer review are articles positively screened for publishing in the Journal under the ‘Articles’ rubric.

II. Initial screening of articles

  1. Author(s) are expected to send to the Journal’s editor-in-chief an application to publish an article and attach to it a manuscript in pdf format, by e-mail: secnrs@secnrs.ru, or by postal mail addressed to the SEC NRS: 107140, Moscow, Malaya Krasnoselskaya ul., 2/8, bldg. 5.

  2. All submitted articles are subject to initial screening.

  3. Initial screening is performed by the Journal’s editorial team.

  4. The executive secretary acknowledges receipt and performs initial screening of the article submitted to the editorial team, writing down the article submission date, title, and author credentials.

  5. The document package sent to the editorial team for initial screening includes:

  • an application to publish an article (Annex No. 1 to this Regulation);
  • a manuscript copy signed by the author(s) and prepared in keeping with format requirements for the Journal scientific publications (Annex No. 2 to this Regulation);
  • a filled-in author details form (Annex No. 3 to this Regulation) and a consent to personal data processing (Annex No. 4 to this Regulation).

  1. The executive secretary of the editorial team shall notify author of documentation receipt within no more than three working days from the date of receipt.

  2. The initial screening shall be completed within seven working days from the date of documentation receipt. Authors are notified of initial screening result by e-mail.

  3. Based on initial screening outcome, the paper may be accepted for further appraisal, or rejected.

  4. The paper may be rejected also on the following grounds:

  • not relevant to the Journal scope;
  • classified information;
  • there is a lot of unoriginal text;
  • the article has been published elsewhere.

  1. If the submitted manuscript is not accepted for publishing in the Journal, the author is informed of the rejection, with a proposal to rectify non-compliances found by the initial screening.

  2. Manuscripts accepted for publication are not sent back.

III. Scientific peer review of articles

  1. All successfully screened scientific contributions undergo a peer review.

  2. Authors and reviewers communicate through the executive secretary of the editorial team.

  3. The Journal uses the following peer review models:

  • single-blind peer review: the reviewer knows the author’s name, but the author does not know the name of the reviewer;
  • double-blind peer review: the reviewer and the author do not know each other's name.

  1. Members of the Journal editorial team, high-profile scientists and other professionals possessing deep knowledge and expertise in nuclear and radiation safety regulation and in the article scientific area are invited as reviewers. Reviewer shall be a renowned expert in the reviewed article area. The article author or co-authors may not be engaged as peer reviewers of their article. The author’s scientific advisor may not conduct the peer review as well.

  2. The reviewer selection decision is made by the Journal’s editor-in-chief or by his deputy. The executive secretary forwards the paper to the reviewer for a peer review. The reviewers are advised that the forwarded paper shall be treated as confidential information not subject to disclosure.

  3. The reviewer shall evaluate the submitted manuscript within 15 working days from the date of receipt and shall send signed peer review report to the executive secretary of the Journal.

    The reviewer’s decision to decline the invitation to perform a peer review shall be sent to the editorial team within five working days.

  4. The reviewer may evaluate the article in a free form, following the recommendations given in Annex No. 5 to this Regulation.

  5. The reviewer comments shall be up to the point; negative comments shall be supported by arguments. The wrap-up part of a peer review report shall contain conclusion from the peer review insights.

  6. The reviewer shall sign the finalised peer review report, indicating the signatory name, scientific degree, affiliation, job position, and e-mail address.

IV. Making decision on scientific article publication

  1. The reviewer shall make one of the following conclusions in the wrap-up part of a peer review report proceeding from the peer review findings:
  • the article is recommended to be published in the Journal without further revision;
  • the article is recommended to be published in the Journal after it is revised as appropriate, without additional peer review;
  • the article is recommended to be published in the Journal after it is revised as appropriate and peer-reviewed again;
  • the article is not recommended for being published in the Journal.

  1. Peer review report serves as a basis to make a decision on publishing or rejecting submitted manuscript.

  2. The executive secretary of the editorial team sends a copy of peer review report to the author by e-mail (without disclosing the reviewer details).

  3. The revised article submitted by the author to the Journal editorial team may be sent for another peer review.

  4. The author of the article may ask the editorial board to send the article to another reviewer for a peer review; the request shall be supported with arguments.

  5. The peer review reports are kept for five years from the date of article publication or the date the decision was made to reject it.