According to the rules of COPE - Committee on Publication Ethics, reviews should only be prepared by reviewers who meet the key condition of having the required expertise and adequate time resources. Reviews must be confidential and reviewers must not disclose any details of the information contained in the reviewed material to third parties. The data included in peer-reviewed materials may not be used for one’s own benefit or that of others. The content of the peer-reviewed article must also not be used to harm or discredit the authors of the peer-reviewed paper. If there is a conflict of interest between authors and reviewers, the experts assessing the quality of the text should immediately and clearly inform the journal’s editors thereof. Characteristics such as authors’ nationality, religious beliefs, political beliefs, gender, authors’ affiliation and other sociodemographic characteristics must not affect the quality assessment of the manuscript. The reviews prepared must be characterised by objectivity and constructive feedback without using oppressive wording. Reviews should be carried out in line with the timeframe guidelines provided by the journal editors. Whereas the journal’s editorial team should have the necessary information about the reviewer’s academic record to show their scientific profile.
After receiving an invitation to review from the editor of the Polska Myśl Pedagogiczna journal, reviewers verify the possibility of a conflict of interest. In case of a conflict of interest, the reviewer is obliged to notify the journal editor immediately. Papers are reviewed in double-blind peer review mode. This procedure not only preserves anonymity and avoids potential conflicts, but also enables the preparation of an in-depth, constructive opinion to improve the quality of the article.
The time for preparing a review is specified in the invitation to review. If it is not possible to meet the review deadline, the expert is obliged to notify the journal editor thereof. The reviewer may not use the reviewed material for any purpose. The reviewer is obliged to maintain high ethical standards. When plagiarism or self-plagiarism is detected, the reviewer notifies the editor. The reviewer’s details are confidential. The editors of the Polska Myśl Pedagogiczna journal do not disclose the details of the reviewers to the authors of the manuscripts or to any third parties. The entire process is subject to strict supervision in order to maintain the high standards of double-blind review.
Reviewers receiving an article for review first verify whether the paper is consistent with the journal’s profile. In order to do so, they can use the information about the journal’s objectives and examine the themes featured in the journal to date. When there is uncertainty about the manuscript’s compatibility with the journal profile, this information is included in the review form.
Providing a review on the quality of the article is done by filling in the review form. The report aims to identify areas in need of change. The suggestions specified in the form are intended to lead to greater readability, referring to the theoretical basis, the research methodology used, the analysis and the interpretation of the results. The reviewer’s task is also to indicate whether the article extends existing knowledge in the areas discussed by the authors and whether the article will be of interest to readers. The reviewer also verifies the structure of the article (introduction, theoretical background and review of previous research results, methodological part, data analysis method, conclusions, relevance of literature used).
After completing the analysis of the article and preparing an assessment of the quality of the paper, the reviewer prepares a final recommendation, which may be:
Once corrections have been made, the article can be re-evaluated by a reviewer. This will be decided by the editor of the journal. If an article needs to be reviewed again, but the original reviewer does not agree to conduct a review, the article is sent to another reviewer who cooperates with the Polska Myśl Pedagogiczna journal.