Tiltai

All manuscripts submitted as articles are double-blind peer reviewed by two reviewers. Scientific journal TILTAI follows a double-blind peer review process in which the reviewers and authors remain anonymous to each other. Reviewers can be scientists, but in the case a double-blind peer review, the reviewer can also be practitioners who have experience in the research area of the article being analyzed.

 Scientific journal TILTAI does not publish or disclose in any manner the names of reviewers and does not share the reviews with any third parties. TILTAI encourages only anonymous peer-review. As a default, scientific journal TILTAI are not passing a reviewer's name on to the authors along with the comments. Scientific journal TILTAI discourage any attempt on the part of authors to discover the identity of any reviewer or to contact this person directly. Reviewers of scientific journal TILTAI must adopt the same policy.

Reviewers are asked to fill in the Klaipeda University Manuscript Review Form: https://www.ku.lt/uploads/documents/files/senatas/2019/01-17/8%20Priedas-3_-Moksliniu%CC%A8-publikaciju%CC%A8-recenzijos-forma.pdf (provided by the Editorial Office and provide his/her comments to authors).

Submissions receive one of the following decisions:

1. Publish, no substantial corrections or revision needed.
2. Publish, but corrections needed according to the provided comments, no new review required.
3. Publish, but major corrections needed, and new review required.

The acceptance criteria for all manuscripts are the quality and originality of the research, and its relevance to our readership.

Authors should be aware that the submission evaluation process typically takes two to three months, and there is generally a period of approximately five to 12 months between the submission of an article and its publication.

 Editor-in-Chief and scientific secretary decide on reviewers for a particular manuscript based on many factors, including expertise, reputation, specific recommendations, and the editor's own knowledge of a reviewer. We regularly confer with potential reviewers before sending them manuscripts to review. Reviewers should bear in mind that even these initial messages or conversations contain confidential information.

Duties of reviewers
Scientific journal TILTAI relies on diligent, unbiased and confidential reviews to ensure the quality of the papers they publish. Our reviewers play a crucial role, not only by providing authors with a fair assessment of their manuscript, but also by helping to maintain the integrity and quality of the journal.

By accepting the invitation to review a manuscript, reviewers agree to become consultants to the journal and to follow its specific scope and policies.

Invited reviewers are expected to:

• Consider whether they have the expertise the editors are looking for to carry out a proper assessment before agreeing to review a manuscript;
• Consider the amount of time to complete the review in accordance with the journal’s deadline and respond to an invitation to peer review within a reasonable time-frame and without intentional delay;
• Consider conflicts of interest even if editors saw no such conflicts and declare them to editors;
• Be constructive, avoid bias, provide helpful guidance to authors, suggest improvements, focus on the paper and not on its authors;
• Avoid disclosing their identity in the comments to authors;
• Avoid passing the manuscript on to someone else to review, and remain strictly confidential about the manuscript when seeking advice from any other person;
• Avoid using information about the manuscript or review to anyone’s advantage or disadvantage, including their own;
• Avoid offering editorial assistance;
• Delete any copies and destroy any printed files of the manuscript when the review is finished to ensure confidentiality;
• Remain confidential about their role in the peer-review process, when the paper is published.

If, despite the double-blind character of the review process, the reviewer suspects the identity of the author anyway, he/she is asked to remain strictly confidential, to not contact the suspected authors about their paper, to not discuss it with the suspected authors, to not mention their suspicions in the review, and to remain blind to the suspected authors to reduce bias.

Duties of editors
Editors are requested to:

• Recuse themselves from editorial decisions on individual manuscripts if they have conflicts of interest.
• Mediate all interactions between reviewers and authors in strict confidence.
• Ensure that all published articles have been reviewed by suitably qualified reviewers and provide guidance to reviewers on everything that is expected of them.
• Consider the conflicts of interest (institutional affiliation and other relationships, strongly held personal beliefs) that might occur before selecting reviewers.
• Base their decisions exclusively on scientific journal TILTAI publication guidelines and the importance, originality and relevance of papers to scientific journal TILTAI.
• Keep any information or ideas obtained as a result of handling the submission confidential, and not to use it for their personal advantage.
• Handle all requests and submissions in a timely way.

Author’s rights and obligations

By submitting their manuscript to scientific journal TILTAI, authors agree to the following terms:

• Authors agree to revise the manuscript in accordance with the editors’ and reviewers’ comments and suggestions.
• Authors allow the editors to make changes to the manuscript, if accepted for publication. They include adjustment to the language policies, manuscript format requirements and guidelines on references, copy-editing and proofreading.
• Authors grant the publisher exclusive first publication rights to their original work accepted for publication, and further grant a non-exclusive license for other uses (including distribution, access and selling) of their work. This includes both print and electronic forms of the work. The electronic form will be available on the scientific journal TILTAI website.

Authors are permitted to post the publisher’s version of their work to a public online archive, institutional repository or their own website after its printing in the journal. The journal allows authors to deposit draft versions of their work in an institutional or other repository of their choice. This includes both the submitted version and the accepted version. However, in such cases, authors should declare that a draft version is available during submission and provide a link to its location. Authors should be aware that having a draft version publicly available means that the journal cannot guarantee the anonymity of the author during the peer review process. Should the submission be published, authors are expected to update the information associated with any draft version in any repository to show that a final version has been published in scientific journal TILTAI, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.

Authors retain their copyright, including the right to subsequently publish their work elsewhere, provided that they ensure that the publication in scientific journal TILTAI is acknowledged.