Peer Review Process

The aim of the peer review process is to ensure that high-quality and original scientific studies are published. All articles published in the Business and Economics Research Journal (BERJ) are peer-reviewed and all manuscripts submitted follow the procedure outlined below.

Preliminary Evaluation

All manuscripts submitted for publication consideration in BERJ are first evaluated by the Editor and Editorial Board. Manuscripts that do not comply with the scope and/or writing rules of the Journal are rejected without preliminary evaluation. Submitted manuscripts that comply with the journal’s scope and instructions for authors are taken into preliminary evaluation by the Editor or the Editorial Board in terms of originality, contribution to the literature, language, international principles of research and publication ethics, plagiarism, etc. After positive plagiarism checking, the editor can want the author(s) to make some revisions. Manuscripts are never accepted/published by the editor without a referee report, at this initial stage.

Plagiarism Checking

In the preliminary evaluation, submitted manuscripts are subjected to a similarity/plagiarism scanning by using a plagiarism screening program, or the authors are asked to conduct this plagiarism scanning and forward the plagiarism report to BERJ. Any manuscript with a similarity percentage (excluding references) greater than 20% is rejected. Manuscripts that pass the preliminary evaluation stage and have a similarity rate below 20% are included in the peer-review process. The plagiarism report is not sent to the referees unless the referees request it.

Policy of Peer Review

BERJ employs double-blind reviewing, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process.

Referee Evaluation

Manuscripts are sent to at least two external referees assigned by the editor and/or editorial board. If necessary, the number of referees may be increased by the Editor or Editorial Board. The referees are chosen from the referee board according to their expertise.

Referees are asked to evaluate the manuscript’s originality, methodology, contribution to the literature, presentation of results and support for the conclusions, and appropriate referencing of previous relevant studies. Referees may either recommend accepting the manuscript, rejecting the manuscript or may require a revision for style and/or content. For a manuscript to be accepted for publication, two positive reports are required. In case one referee report is negative while the other is positive, the manuscript is forwarded to a third referee for additional evaluation.

When a revision is required by the referee or referees, the author(s) are to consider the criticisms and suggestions offered by the referees, and a revised manuscript should be submitted within 60 days. If the revised manuscript is not submitted in this time frame, the manuscript will be removed from the referee evaluation process. Referees may request more than one revision of a manuscript.

Final Evaluation

After favorable opinions of referees, the Editor or Editorial Board makes the final publication decision. Manuscripts accepted for publication by the Editor/Editorial Board are placed in an issue sequence. Manuscripts that are rejected are not returned to the authors.

Time of Peer Review Process

BERJ aims to complete the peer review process within 10 weeks* (70 days) after submission (one week for initial evaluation, 8 weeks for referee evaluation, and one week for final evaluation).

*: This period is the target period for sending the first referee reports to the author(s). The process may take longer, according to the referees’ minor/major revision requests.