Double Anonymous Peer Review Process for Acts Humanitatis:
- Author anonymity: The authors’ identities are hidden from the reviewers. This prevents the reviewers’ biases based on their identities, affiliations, or previous work.
- Anonymity of Reviewers: Similarly, the authors are not informed of the identities of the peer reviewers. This encourages reviewers to provide honest and unbiased feedback without fear of retribution or personal conflict.
The procedure for reviewing an article in the Acta Humanitatis follows the following steps:
- Submission and Initial Check: Authors submit their manuscripts to Acts Humanitatis Journal via an e-mail: actahumanitatis@vizja.pl. Initially, the editorial office checks the submission for completeness and adherence to the journal’s guidelines. Manuscripts that do not meet the basic requirements are returned to the authors for revision.
- Preparation for Review: The manuscript is anonymized to conceal the author’s identity from the reviewers. This includes removing any identifying information from the document and metadata. This ensures the first level of anonymity, where the reviewers cannot identify the authors.
- Reviewer Selection: The editor-in-chief or a co-editor-in-chief selects potential reviewers who are experts, ensuring no conflict of interest exists in the field. The reviewers’ identities are also concealed from the authors, establishing the second level of anonymity.
- Invitation to Review: Selected reviewers can evaluate the manuscript without knowing the authors’ identities.
- Review Process: Reviewers assess the manuscript based on originality, methodological rigor, clarity, and contribution to the field. They provide detailed comments and recommendations: accept as is, minor revisions, major revisions, or reject.
- Editorial Decision: The editor reviews the feedback from the peer reviewers and decides the manuscript, which is communicated to the authors along with the anonymized comments.
- Revisions: If revisions are required, authors revise their manuscripts, addressing the reviewers’ comments. The revised manuscript may undergo further rounds of review, maintaining double anonymity.
- Final Decision and Publication: Once the manuscript meets all the requirements and standards, the final acceptance decision is made. The accepted manuscript then goes through the production process, including copyediting and formatting, before being published in the journal.