Review Policy
Submitted articles are subjects to initial editorial screening and anonymous peer-review at least by two peer-reviewers. Firstly, the submitted articles will be evaluated within our initial editorial screening. After this preliminary stage, only afterwards it will be submitted to the peer-reviewers. For more details, please read the Review Policy section.

 

Anti-Plagiarism and Research Misconduct Policy
All articles will be checked by PlagScan before being sent to the reviewers. If a case of plagiarism or duplication is detected, the article will be immediately rejected. Additionally, the author responsible for plagiarism is prohibited from submitting further work to the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs. The similarity index should not exceed 25% (excluding in-text citations). If plagiarism or duplication is detected after the publication of the article, the journal editors have the right to issue a correction or retract the published article. The journal adheres to the COPE guidelines in addressing allegations of research misconduct in its publications.

 

AI Tools Policy
In line with COPE guidelines, artificial intelligence tools (e.g. ChatGPT) cannot be listed as named authors on submitted articles. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their article, even those parts produced by any AI tool, and are thus liable for any inaccuracies or breach of publication ethics. Authors who have used AI tools to develop their article must include a note in the article's Acknowledgements section describing the technologies used and the purpose. This does not apply to software such as spelling or grammar checkers or reference managers.

 

Citation Policy
Authors are expected to refrain from engaging in citation manipulation, as it is considered a form of misconduct. This manipulation can be identified when citations do not contribute substantively to the scholarly content of the journal article, being included solely to boost citation numbers. Please consult the COPE citation manipulation discussion document for further information.

Self-citation is allowed; however, it should be done judiciously and not excessively to prevent it from being considered a form of citation manipulation.

References provided by the author should not display bias towards a specific author, institution/organization, research group, or publication. Any behaviour aimed at artificially inflating citation counts for personal gain will be addressed following COPE’s best practices.

 

Open Access Policy
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs is an electronic and fully open-access journal, which means that all articles are freely available, ensuring maximum, worldwide dissemination of content, in exchange for an article publication fee. The journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The main principles of open access we support are:

  • peer-reviewed literature should be freely available without subscription or price barriers;
  • literature is immediately released in open access format (no embargo period); and
  • published material can be re-used without obtaining permission as long as a correct citation to the original publication is given.

Journal of Liberty and International Affairs accepts and is guided by the BOAI definition of open access:

"By open access to [peer-reviewed research literature], we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited".

The Journal of Liberty and International Affairs and the Institute for Research and European Studies have endorsed the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and signed the BOAI Declaration. Additionally, they have also endorsed the principles of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).

Please feel free to visit the following links in order to find further information about the free and open access initiative:

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
  • A Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROARMAP)


As an open-access journal, all contents are freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without prior permission from the publisher or the author. Therefore, this journal has been approved by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), which indicates that it has fulfilled the open-access requirements of a peer-reviewed journal.

Journal of Liberty and International Affairs is included in the reputable Szczepanski's List of Open Access Journals.

 

Proofreading
At JLIA, we consider the language aspect of the articles of particular relevance. Therefore, a language redactor assesses the language aspect of each article. The JLIA 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.

 

Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections
Following COPE post-publication discussions and corrections, any comments fostering discussion or expressing concerns about the published content should be submitted as a Letter to the Editor-In-Chief. JLIA encourage unbiased, evidence-based comments that add value to scholarly discussions and refrain from subjective opinions or derogatory language. If post-publication discussions indicate a necessity to correct or retract the published content, the concerns will be addressed through a Correction or Retraction Notice.

 

Article Correction and Retraction Policy

  • Erratum, is a statement by the authors of the original article, that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the article should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article.
  • Retraction, is a notice that the article should not be regarded as part of the scientific literature. The journal editors follow COPE guidelines on retraction.
  • Corrigendum, notifies readers that an article has been corrected subsequent to publication. It is issued by the publisher and is used in cases where production errors (either the fault of the authors or the publisher) affect the integrity of the article metadata (such as title, author list or byline) or will significantly impact the readers' ability to comprehend the article. The original article is removed and replaced with a corrected version and a Corrigendum describing the correction is linked to it. The date the correction is made is noted on the corrected article. Corrigenda are freely available to all readers.
  • The journal editors always are willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

 

Copyright Policy

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All materials are published under an open-access license that gives authors permanent ownership of their work.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (author's pre-prints on the author server or institutional server only, while the author's post-prints on the author's personal website, departmental website, employer's website, or institutional repository) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
  • Published sources must be acknowledged.
  • Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published before and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • The journal editors are not responsible for any possible violations of existing copyright in articles published in the journal all responsibility is on the authors of those articles. The journal or publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.

 

Authors Country Variation Policy
JLIA generally discourages articles with primary author and co-authors from different countries but recognizes situations where such collaboration can bring unique expertise. If co-authors from different countries are crucial, the primary author must explicitly acknowledge their contribution in the acknowledgment section, emphasizing its necessity. Acceptance will depend on the perceived merit, importance, and enrichment of the research by including co-authors from different countries, ensuring the journal maintains high scholarly standards.

 

Policy on Publication Limitations
Irrespective of the quantity of articles received for each subsequent issue, the journal can publish a maximum of 15 articles per issue that successfully pass the preliminary editorial screening and peer-review process. The remaining articles will be reallocated for consideration in the subsequent issue of the journal, with notification to the corresponding authors and their consent. The maximum of 15 articles per issue is an upper limit that must not be exceeded, while the editorial board will endeavor to publish as few articles per issue as possible.

 

Journal Self-Citation Policy
Authors are encouraged to cite sources from reputable academic databases, while avoiding intentional self-citation of JLIA unless essential for their research. Excessive JLIA self-citations without clear justification may undergo editorial scrutiny, and authors should ensure these references contribute meaningfully. The journal and its stakeholders (editors, reviewers, etc.) do not exert influence, and they must refrain from influencing authors to cite JLIA. Any evidence of influencing authors for JLIA self-citation should be promptly reported to the Editor-in-Chief.

 

Repository Policy
The publisher and the journal have a registered deposit policy with Sherpa Romeo.

 

Archiving
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs is archived in the National and University Library “St. Kliment Ohridski” - Skopje, Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR), and LOCKSS.

Each full text archived in SSOAR is assigned a URN (Unique Resource Name), which is a persistent identifier (PID) that enables unequivocal and permanent access to the publication and its scientific citation. In the case of preprints and postprints of published works, you are requested to also indicate the PID of the publisher’s version (as a rule, this is a Digital Object Identifier: DOI). 

Open Journal Systems supports the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) system to ensure a secure and permanent archive for the journal. LOCKSS is open-source software developed at Stanford University Library that enables libraries to preserve selected web journals by regularly polling registered journal websites for newly published content and archiving it. Each archive is continually validated against other library caches, and if the content is found to be corrupted or lost, the other caches or the journal is used to restore it.

 

Indexation Independence Policy

JLIA expressly disclaims any responsibility for alterations, modifications, or adjustments made during the indexation process or in indexing/abstracting databases. Despite JLIA's unwavering commitment to upholding the overall efficiency and functionality of its operations, it abstains from exerting control or authority over the indexation process. Consequently, JLIA cannot be held accountable for any changes, errors, or discrepancies that may arise in this specific domain.