RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITORS, EDITORIAL BOARD, AND PUBLISHING COUNCIL

Publishing Council is an advisory body that actively contributes to the development of the journal International Problems/Međunarodni problemi. The tasks and duties of the Publishing Council include: the support to the development of the journal, its promotion, encouraging scholars and academicians in the area of political, security, and legal aspects of international relations to get involved as journal’s authors and/or reviewers, writing editorials, reviews and commentaries.

Members of Editorial Board have tasks to act as the journal`s ambassadors in the academic community, to contribute with a view to identifying key topics, suggesting quality manuscripts on these topics, and encouraging potential authors to submit to International Problems, as well as to review submitted manuscripts and prepare editorials and comments

Editor-in-Chief is accountable for published content and should strive to constantly improve the journal and the processes for assuring the quality of published material, as well as the protection of freedom of expression, integrity and standards of the research from the influence of political, financial and other interests. Editor-in-Chief is also in charge of issuing the potential corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript, and the decision should be based on: 1) evaluation of the manuscript relevance to thematic scope of the journal defined by the editorial policy, 2) assessment of importance, originality, validity and disciplinary relevance of the study presented in the manuscript, 3) assessment of manuscript’s compliance with legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Editor-in-Chief has the discretionary power to reject a submitted manuscript without the peer review process if it does not meet the requirements regarding thematic scope of the journal and universal standards of the research (i.e. if it does not have structural elements either of original or review article). Submitted manuscripts that do not meet technical standards defined in Instructions for authors will be sent back to the authors for correction.

Under normal circumstances, the author receives a notification within ten working days from the date of manuscript submission, informing them whether the manuscript’s topic aligns with the editorial policy, as well as the status of the manuscript, such as when the review process is expected to begin.

New Editor-in-Chief must not overturn decision to publish a manuscript made by the previous editor-in-chief unless new facts are established referring to serious problems in quality of the manuscript.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board must not have a conflict of interest with regard to the manuscript they consider for publication. Members of Editorial Board who have conflict of interest will be excluded from the decision making on the submitted manuscript. If a conflict of interests is identified or declared, Editor-in-Chief selects reviewers and handles the manuscript.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board are obliged to disclose a conflict of interests timely.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board decisions’ to accept or reject manuscript should be free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts in their research without written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.