The Publishing Policy of the EEJRS aims to encourage the authors to express their most original opinions through their articles, reviews, and thoughts in various directions of the economic research. The responsibility for the originality of the papers/articles relies entirely on the author (s), who signs a Statement of non-plagiarism.

EEJRS was launched in 2015, edited by Centre for Studies in European Integration and released within Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova. The journal is also available on-line in order to assure good visibility of research analysis and materials

Please, see The Institutional Policy of the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova on Open Access

AIMS AND SCOPE

Eastern European Journal for Regional Studies (EEJRS) seeks to provide a forum for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue between ideas, and a framework for theoretical and empirical analyses.

EEJRS covers major topics related to European studies: European history and politics, European economy and European policies, EU community law, European culture and society, Regional Development, Eastern European Neighbourhood countries, Cross-border cooperation and development, Innovation and entrepreneurship development, Higher education and research.

EEJRS aims at encouraging studies focusing on Central and Eastern Europe (including Eastern Neighbourhood) in order to better understand its transformations induced by the integration process and to address its specific challenges by supporting scientific debates on the general European theory and practice. Furthermore, the editorial board regularly coordinates thematic issues in order to stimulate productivity of research.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

The Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (AESM) and its Center for Studies in European Integration is committed to promote the dissemination of its research outputs. In order to support dissemination, ASEM provides an unrestricted on-line access to all the issues published by EEJRS as defined by the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

COPYRIGHT

EEJRS publishes original papers which are not describing essentially the same research as in other manuscripts and which have not previously been published, or submitted for reviewing to other journals. ASEM shall not be held legally responsible and shall not pay royalties in case of demands for financial compensations from third parties. In case of acceptance for publishing, EEJRS does not impose the exclusive right to publish and disseminate the paper. The article may be re-published, provided the author makes reference to the first publication by EEJRS. The ideas in the papers represent the views of the authors only, not the views of the publisher, of Editors, or of the International Scientific/Advisory Board members.

EEJRS is concerned about assuring a high-quality research standard and an ethical behaviour for all the parties involved in publication process (editors, authors and reviewers). Therefore, EJES adopted an ethic code based on the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE)

REVIEWING PROCESS

All research articles submitted for publishing to the Eastern European Journal of Regional Studies (EEJRS) are subject to a rigorous review process:

• The review process consists in an initial editor screening. If the manuscript passes the initial editor’s check, it is being sent to two reviewers in order to be evaluated. The adopted solution is a model in which the author(s) and reviewers do not know their identities (the so-called "double-blind peer review process").
• reviewers receive the manuscript, after removing metadata (names, affiliations, acknowledgments, etc.) along with review form, which is available on the EEJRS website
• authors, after receiving two anonymous reviews, are asked to revise the manuscript within the set time (usually 3 weeks), and return the revised version with responses for each reviewer, what was revised, and how. They mark the changes made with a different color.
• the reviewers evaluate the revision/corrections made by the authors. They decide whether the manuscript's revision is at an acceptable level; if not, a second-round follows.
• editors, after the end of the review process, accept the substantive version of the manuscript, with the indication that the EEJRS editors will submit other formal (editorial) comments to the final version of the manuscript.

EDITORS' OBLIGATIONS

• Review and publication decision | The editor has complete responsibility and authority to accept or reject a submitted manuscript. Based on an initial screening process the editor decides whether the manuscript is suitable for review or not. The reviewing process consists in requiring opinions from at least two anonymous reviewers. The editor reserves the right to reject the manuscript, considering reviewers' opinions or any concerns relating copyright or plagiarism violations. Furthermore, the editor may refuse to publish future articles from the authors who have committed plagiarism. When necessary, editors should be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies.
• Discrimination | An editor should evaluate all manuscripts submitted for publication without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship and respecting the intellectual independence of the authors.
• Confidentiality | The editor and any editorial staff should treat manuscripts as confidential documents, not providing information about submitted manuscripts, to anyone else except for the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers or other editorial advisers.
• Privileged information | The editor should not use the information gained from unpublished submitted manuscripts for its own research, unless obtaining the author's consent.
• Conflicts of interest | Any potential conflict of interest relating to a manuscript should be disclosed to the editor in chief.
• Appealing publication decision | An author may contest the decision of rejecting his submitted manuscript. The final decision is taken by the editor in chief. In order to decide, the editor in chief may consult other editorial members or reviewers.
• Corrections and retraction | If after publication errors are identified, the editor will ask author to make necessary corrections, mentioning the date when corrections have been made. If these corrections are significant, implying the invalidation of a considerable part of the research, the manuscript should be retracted, indicating the reason for this decision.

AUTHORS' OBLIGATIONS

• Multiple or concurrent publication | Authors should ensure that they submit original manuscripts, which are not describing essentially the same research as in other manuscripts and which have not previously been published. Authors should not submit the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time.
• Originality and plagiarism | Authors should make sure they appropriately cite/quote when using work of other authors. Plagiarism constitutes unethical scientific behaviour and is not acceptable, whether is related to copying or paraphrasing the work of others without mention it or in any other form. All authors must submit a statement of non-plagiarism (the template for can be found on the journal’s website, in the first paragraph of the “About EEJRS” section)
• Access to manuscript data | Authors must be prepared to provide the raw data for editorial review if requested and should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Conflicts of interest | Authors should disclose to the editor in chief any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
• Errors after publication | When an error/inaccuracy is identified after the manuscript has been published, it is authors' responsibility to correct/retract the manuscript
• Publication agreement| a publication agreement will be signed by authors

REVIEWERS' OBLIGATIONS

Objectivity | Reviewing process should be objectively done. Reviewers should complete the evaluation form by providing clear and concise recommendations in order to improve manuscripts, but without knowing any information regarding their authors. If they recommend that a manuscript should not been published, they should justify their views. Reviewers may be asked to read the revised manuscript if there are concerns that the paper has not been revised according to their recommendations. If the reviewers consider that they are unqualified in order to evaluate the manuscript or the objectivity/correctness of evaluation is threatened by any reason he should announce the editor.

Originality | It is reviewers' responsibility to notify the editor if they consider that the submitted paper is very similar to another paper they have previously read, either as reviewers or in print.

Source citations | The reviewers should include in the recommendations they provide to the authors any concerns regarding omitted citations.

Privileged information | The reviewer should not use the information gained from reviewing submitted manuscripts for its own research or personal advantage, unless obtaining the author's consent.