Socrates. Rīga Stradiņš University Faculty of Law Electronic Scientific Journal of Law.

Guidelines for Reviewers

The editors first evaluate all manuscripts. It is rare, but it is possible for an exceptional manuscript rejected at this stage if articles are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are normally passed on to at least 2 experts for review.
Each article in each edition is assigned to at least two reviewers. The reviewers are required to evaluate the quality of the submitted works and point to errors, flaws, and deviations. If a high-quality article has received criticism by a reviewer, the editorial board may accept the unedited manuscript. In case of a disagreement the reviewer is invited to publish a comment to which the author can respond.
With the support of Rīga Stradiņš University, no fee is charged for submission, processing or for the review of articles.

Obligations of the reviewers:

• To contribute to the decision making process and help improve the quality of the work published by objectively and timely reviewing the manuscript.
• To maintain full confidentiality of information received from the editor or the author. To warn the editor of plagiarism, i.e., the content similarities in published or submitted manuscripts.
• To be aware of all potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative, or other relationships between the reviewer and the author) and warn the editor about them, recalling their work on this manuscript if necessary.
• The reviewers help the editor decide on accepting or rejecting articles submitted to the journal for publication. By interacting with the editor, the reviewers may also help the author improve an article’s quality.
• To give a written statement that the submitted manuscript is not in the review or accepted for publishing elsewhere. If parts of the content overlap with the content of a submitted or published manuscript, it should be referenced appropriately.
• To conduct the research which is at the base of the submitted article in an ethical and responsible manner, and ensure that it conforms to all legal standards. The results must be clear, honest, without signs of falsification. Research methods must be described precisely. Dishonest, fraudulent manuscripts are unacceptable.
• The article must include clear, unambiguous, and verifiable references. Appropriate references to other authors’ works must be provided, and publications which are not directly quoted, but have influenced the essence of the author’s work must be cited.
• Authors must indicate those conflicts of interest which might affect research results in their manuscripts. Authors must indicate the source of their research funding.
• Authors’ work must be original. The use of thoughts and ideas by other authors without a proper reference is unacceptable.
• Copyrighted material will be published only with a proper reference and permission.
• The author must give a written statement that the submitted article has not been published previously, or published in another language. Submitting one article to several journals is unacceptable.
• The authors of the article are to be considered those who have greatly contributed to the concept, development, or interpretation of the research. All those who have made such contributions are listed as co-authors. If there are persons who have participated in the research project in any other way they must be acknowledged and indicated in the Acknowledgements section. The lead author must ensure that the list of authors contains all respective co-authors and that there are no unsuitable co-authors, and that all co-authors have seen and confirmed the final version of the article and have agreed to its publication.
• Authors must ensure that all research involving humans or animals corresponds to national and international requirements, e.g., the Declaration of Helsinki, the Policy on Use of Laboratory Animals, and the EU Directive on the use of animals.
• If a significant error is discovered in a publication, the journal’s editor or publisher must be contacted immediately and the author must collaborate with them to publish a corrected version or to recall the article.