Publishing Procedure

Editorial Office Assessment – MaPE checks the paper’s layout and its conformity with MaPE Guidelines (MaPE Paper template) to ensure that it includes the required sections and formatting. In addition, antiplagiarism software ( iThenticate ) is employed to check the ethical standards. The quality of the paper is not assessed at this point. If the paper does not meet the MaPE Guidelines/ethical standards, it is rejected by MaPE.

) Statistical Methods Assessment – the paper with statistical calculations is checked by the SE for statistical assumptions, methods, and calculations. If the paper includes critical statistical errors and the evaluation of SE was negative, the paper is rejected by MaPE.

Appraisal by EIC – EIC checks the paper and consults a subject-matter expert from the Editorial Board (EB) to verify that the paper is appropriate for MaPE, it is original, and its content meets the academic standards. If the paper does not meet these requirements, it is rejected without being reviewed any further.

Invitation to Reviewers – MaPE sends invitations to a minimum two or three reviewers who are experts in the relevant field. Each reviewer signs the Disclosure statement concerning no potential conflict of interest. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of acceptances is obtained – commonly this is two, but the number of reviewers may vary depending on the field of study and sometimes three reviewers are invited. Reviewers are appointed on the basis of absence of conflict of interest, their research reputation and quality of their previous reviews, if they have conducted any beforehand.

Evaluation of the Reviews (Journal do not editing reviews in any case) – if the reviews differ widely, upon prior agreements with EIC, ME may invite a member of EB or an additional reviewer to obtain an extra opinion about the paper. In addition, EIC rates each of reviews (reviewer) and assesses their usefulness for the authors by using a five-point scale. In the case of an unprofessional review, the journal's response is in accordance with COPE recommendations and includes, among other things, hanging the reviewer and discontinuing further cooperation. COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) provides detailed guidance on addressing issues related to unprofessional peer reviews, which include:

• Communication with the Reviewer: Informing the reviewer about their unethical or unprofessional behavior and explaining why it is inappropriate.

• Revocation of Review: Disregarding the review in question if it is found to be biased, inflammatory, or unprofessional.

• Ending Collaboration: Journals may choose to discontinue future cooperation with the reviewer for serious violations.

• Reporting Serious Misconduct: In cases of significant ethical breaches, such as breaches of confidentiality, the journal might escalate the issue to the reviewer’s institution or employer.

For more precise steps, you can refer to COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and their case-based resources that outline responses to specific ethical dilemmas encountered in peer review.

Acceptance – If reviewers and EIC believe that the revision has adequately addressed their previous concerns and the paper has been improved after the revision, the paper moves to the last step. EIC sends the author an acceptance letter and a request to submit the final version of the paper (with names, acknowledgment, finding, etc.).

Production – the paper is proofread by the English Editor (EE) and checked by the Publishing Editor (PE), formatted by the Technical Editor (TE), and then put into production. DOI is assigned to the paper.

Publication fee - Once the article has been accepted for publication, the Editorial Office will contact the Corresponding Author about the publication fee payment. Researchers and Academicians and institutions: 280USD + VAT (value added tax paid in the buyer's country) All bank commissions are paid by the buyer. The above amounts apply to articles of no more than 12 pages. For each additional page over 12 pages the fee is 20USD + VAT.

Online version - At the end of each month, Online version is submitted from the Online-first collection of papers. The Online version is the final article assigned to actual volume/issue/pages.

Retractions of the articles: Journals editors will consider retracting a publication if:

• They have a clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of misconduct (e.g. data fabrication) or honest error (e.g. miscalculation or experimental error)

• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper cross-referencing, permission or justification (cases of redundant publication)

• It constitutes plagiarism or reports unethical research.

Notice of the retraction will be linked to the retracted article (by including the title and authors in the retraction heading), clearly identify the retracted article and state who is retracting the article. Retraction notices should always mention the reason(s) for retraction to distinguish honest error from misconduct. Editorial board always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.