Over the years, the European Scientific Journal (ESJ) has risen into a mega journal, especially in the publishing of scientifically sound content. A core element of distinction in ESJ is how it strives to reduce the timeframe of the selection of a reviewer and first decision through a highly structured editorial board. Also, the peer review procedure is described in detail. We encourage authors to follow the  author’s guidelines ( French language guidelines) ( Spanish language guidelines) and the ESJ template as proper submission would facilitate the entire process.

• ESJ accepts research articles and literature reviews in the areas of social sciences, humanities, natural and medical sciences.
• All articles must be in English, French, or Spanish and must have a title, abstract, and keywords in English.
• Recommended article length is 7-20 pages.
• Authors should submit their manuscripts via e-mail at contact@eujournal.org or using our OJS submission system.
• The corresponding author receives a confirmation for the submission within 12 hours.

ESJ Peer Review Procedure

ESJ’s editorial board mainly consists of academicians affiliated with the European Scientific Institute, ESI’s academic network, members of its partner Universities, conference participants organized or supported by the ESI/ESJ, authors who already published their papers in one of the journals or researchers recommended by the current members.

Every member of the editorial board has his or her own profile, which includes the academic domain, academic affiliation, number of review reports conducted for ESJ, and the month/year of joining the ESJ’s editorial board. At ESJ, we maintain a list of active reviewers only, who are in regular communication with the editorial office. However, we would like to thank the wide list of past members who have contributed to the development of the journal.

With the permanent support of our members of the editorial office, specialty chief editors, and ESJ reviewers, we work on including the peer-review procedure in a decent timeframe.

ESJ Reviewers are instructed to not estimate the potential impact of a paper in a given field nor its novelty. These subjective judgments could delay the publication of a work, which may later prove to be significant. At ESJ, we believe that the publication’s readership is in the most suitable position to determine what is of interest to them.

Review Process

1. After the submission, the corresponding author is asked to clarify that the paper has not been published elsewhere; and to contact the editorial office using his/her institutional email address; to confirm that he/she has thoroughly revised and agreed with the ESJ publication policies. The corresponding author is also asked to respond to the conflict of interest statement, funding statement, data availability statement, and human/animal participation statement.
2. The manuscript is screened for basic technical requirements.
3. The corresponding author receives a confirmation E-mail, informing him/her whether or not the manuscript has been properly structured.
4. Even though the authors are responsible for potentially plagiarized content, the editorial office, by using specialized software, scans the content of the paper for plagiarism.
5. The editorial office reserves the right to return to authors, without peer review, improperly formatted manuscripts, or non-authorized submissions.
6. ESJ reviewers for the manuscript are assigned.
7. The identity of the reviewers is anonymous, except for those who are willing to disclose their identity under the “open review” process, which is explained below.
8. ESJ specialty chief editors are invited to comment on the structure of the paper and the quality of the review reports received.
9. Author-suggested reviewers are also acceptable. However, the specialty chief editors and the members of the editorial office are instructed to be cautious when relying their decisions on these review reports.
10. All of the ESJ reviewers are familiar with the ESJ peer review policy. Their awareness of the necessity of a prompt response on whether or not they are able to conduct a review in a given moment is noted in the invitation.
11. Every single paper submitted to the ESJ undergoes a rigorous peer-review procedure. Two or more reviewers review a majority of the submitted manuscripts.
12. After the peer review process, the decision is made in accordance with the recommendations in the review reports i.e. the final decision is made by the reviewers of the manuscript. In case of opposite recommendations from the reviewers, a new reviewer is assigned. However, the specialty chief editors oversee the peer review process of each manuscript. The time of the peer-review completion depends on many circumstances. Even though we strive to provide peer review in a decent timeframe, fast publication cannot be guaranteed.
13. One of the editors in chiefs assesses the language aspect of each paper. If necessary, proofreading of the content may be requested from the author(s). The ESJ editorial office may offer to the authors its professional proofreading services. However, the author(s) is always informed that using these services is not obligatory. However, the author(s) have to provide a final version without grammar or punctuation errors.

There are several types of decisions possible. They include:

-Accept the manuscript as submitted;

-Accept it with minor revision;

-Accept it with major revision; and

-Reject the manuscript because it does not meet the journal criteria.

“Open Review”

ESJ is a peer-reviewed journal and all the papers submitted undergo a single-blind peer-review process. The latter means that reviewers know the identity of the authors, but authors do not necessarily know the reviewer’s identity.

However, in order to enhance the transparency of the peer review process, in 2016, ESJ introduced an “open review procedure”.

The result of the “open review” initiative is to publicly announce the review reports of the accepted paper, along with its full content. In this regard, the author’s approval has a key role to play in the development of this process.

As of June 2019, review history is available for every published paper. It includes the contact information of the corresponding author, the date of publication, the number of review reports received, and the names of the reviewers. The latter only if they decided to reveal their names.

Furthermore, we encourage the reviewers of the papers and the specialty chief editors to reveal their names on the ESJ evaluation form and approve that their names can be made available on the ESJ’s website.

Open Access

All ESJ articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Attribution License. With this license, authors retain copyright to their manuscript but allow any user to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt, and make non-commercial use of the work without needing to provide additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source. However, first publication rights are granted to the publisher. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent usage of the work. It is the author’s responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not acceptable in ESJ submissions and publications. After the submission, authors are requested to declare the originality of their work by properly citing, re-using, or copying previous publications. If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript would be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, the publisher has the right to issue an erratum/corrigendum or retract the paper.

The ESJ Editorial Office scans the content of the papers for plagiarism using specialized software.

Proofreading

At ESJ, we consider the language aspect of the papers of particular relevance. Therefore, a native language speaker assesses the language aspect of each paper. If decided proofreading is mandatory.

The ESJ editorial office may recommend its own proofreading services. However, authors are always informed that they are not obliged to use the suggested services but can choose other ones.

Permanency of Content

As of January 2016, all articles published in ESJ receive a DOI and are permanently published. ESJ articles are included in the Crossref database.

As of November 2021, ESJ participates in the CrossMark program, a multi-publisher initiative that has developed a standard way for readers to locate the current version of an article. By applying the CrossMark policies, ESI is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur.

Clicking on the CrossMark logo gives you the current status of an article and directs you to the latest published version.

In order to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record, the ESJ policies on the link below will be applied when published content needs to be corrected; these policies take into account current best practices in the scholarly publishing and library communities:

https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pems

Content Preservation:

As of May 2016, ESJ uses Portico as an archiving solution. Portico is among the largest community-supported digital archives in the world. Working with libraries and publishers, they preserve e-journals, e-books, and other electronic scholarly content to ensure researchers and students will have access to it in the future.

Moreover, along with the online content, every ESJ edition appears in the print version. It also represents a preservation solution. Thousands of hard copies have been disseminated to Universities and individuals around the world.

ESJ Ethics Committee

This committee consists of the ESJ Managing Editor, Editor-in-Chief, and associate editors. It is chaired by the Managing Editor. Its primary role is to cope with the complaints received by the editorial office.

Within seven (7) days of a reception, the ESJ Managing Editor shall forward the complaint to all the committee members and other interested parties.

The committee members shall discuss the validity of the complaint and express their opinion within two (2) weeks of its reception.

If necessary, the Managing Editor will include ESJ reviewers in the process to obtain their opinion. Opinions from the advisory editors may also be required.

Within four (4) weeks from the reception, the final decision on the complaint will be made and sent to the parties. This timeframe might be prolonged in specific cases.

In the past period, the ESJ Ethics Committee managed to successfully solve all of the several complaints received. The Erratum, Corrigendum, and Retraction notes for these cases are available on the website.

Conflict of Interest

When authors submit a manuscript to ESJ they are responsible for disclosing all relationships and activities that might bias or be seen to bias their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include but are not limited to financial interests (such as membership, employment, consultancies, stocks/shares ownership, honoraria, grants or other funding, paid expert testimonies, and patent-licensing arrangements) and non-financial interests (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, personal beliefs). The authors, reviewers, and editors should follow the ICMJE standards.

Submissions from ESJ editors and reviewers:

Submissions from members of the ESJ editorial board and reviewers will be handled as regular submissions without special treatment. All editorial board members have been informed that all necessary information regarding the progress of the peer review can be obtained from the editorial office only. Editors and reviewers should not communicate directly with the authors/reviewers and that is especially important if a member of the editorial board is among the authors. Members of the editorial office are allowed to submit their papers to ESJ. Submissions will be assigned to at least two reviewers. The submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the peer-review process. Their affiliation with the journal has to be disclosed in the manuscript`s ethical statements. The reviewers of these manuscripts will be also notified not to provide any special treatment during the peer review process. ESJ Guest Editors should not hold conflicts of interest with authors whose work they are assessing. In order to provide objectivity, the ESJ editorial office, together with the guest editor, manages the peer review procedure of each special edition and makes the decisions.

Letters to the editor

ESJ does not publish “Letters to the Editor”. However, at ESJ we encourage readers to online discussions and debate the articles ESJ has published, and to achieve this we support authors to use the ESI blog.

Article Processing Charges

ESJ is a self-sustained journal. To date, the publisher has not received any grant or funding for publication. With the low-level amount of article processing charges, APC serves only to cover the publication costs.

Accepted papers are assessed an Article Processing Charge of 97 Euros (or USD equivalent). The Article Processing Charge supports operating costs, review management, website maintenance, archiving, and the printing of hard copies.

The APC does not include printed copies. However, the author(s) can order printed copies that are available at 20 Euros (26 USD) per copy. Electronic copies can be downloaded without charge.

The Article Processing Charge does not include professional editing or proofreading which is available at an additional cost. One of the ESJ editors-in-chief assesses the language aspect of each paper. If necessary, proofreading of the content may be requested from the author(s). The ESJ editorial office may offer to the authors its professional proofreading services. However, the author(s) is always informed that using these services is not obligatory. However, the author(s) have to provide a final version without grammar or punctuation errors.

ONLINE PAYMENT!!! 

Use this link to pay article processing charges for papers accepted for publication.

https://eujournal.org/cpay/payment.php

Donations

By operating with a low level amount of Article Processing Charges (APC), ESJ grants publishing opportunities to academics from all around the globe, especially to those coming from developing countries. However, this model is very challenging for covering the operating costs of the journal.

Supporting ESJ financially will ensure continuous activity toward our mission to provide the academic community with a decent open-access publishing venue.

As of January 1, 2022, ESJ launched the campaign Donate to ESJ. ESJ accepts donations from institutions and individuals. Each individual donation eliminates the Article Processing Charges, APC of an ESJ accepted paper from scholars coming from low-income countries.

For details and donations >> click here