Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

Sections

Management

The section publishes the results of original research on management theory, various aspects of public administration, enterprise and organizational management, and management in the energy sector.

Economics

The section publishes the results of original research on topical issues of economic science and practice, economics of the energy industry. 

Informatics

The section publishes the results of original research on topical issues of informatics, information protection and information security. 

Peer Review Process

An obligatory condition for the editorial board of the scientific journal “M.E.I.” to make a decision to publish an article is a positive review of the reviewer. Feedback of the supervisor for scientific articles of undergraduate and graduate students is mandatory, but does not replace the review.

The Editorial Board organizes “double-blind” review of the received manuscripts (the reviewer and the author of the article do not have access to cross-personal information). The period of article review cannot exceed 30 calendar days from the beginning of the review process.

The Editor-in-Chief after the general evaluation of the manuscript, in case it meets the formal requirements, selects a reviewer and sends the article to him/her for review. As reviewers can be involved both members of the editorial board of the journal and other scientists and highly qualified specialists with deep professional knowledge and experience in a particular scientific field, who have publications for the last three years, corresponding to the subject of the reviewed article.

The reviewer is informed that the manuscript submitted to him for review is an object of copyright and intellectual property of the author, and the review process is confidential. Reviewers should not use the received materials for any personal purposes.

The reviewer evaluates the manuscript of a scientific article in terms of its compliance with the following criteria:

• relevance of the research topic;
• correspondence of the title of the article to its content;
• informative abstract;
• correctness of the choice of research methods;
• scientific novelty, originality, practical significance of the research;
• compliance with the logic and scientific style of presentation;
• compliance of conclusions with the purpose and objectives of the study;
• reliability of the research results;
• correctness of citations, design of the list of used sources and References;
• compliance of the content and design of the manuscript of the scientific article with formal requirements.

Expert evaluation of the article should be objective, reasoned, based on authoritative sources. Personal criticism of the author by the reviewer is inadmissible.

The review may contain one of the following conclusions:

• recommend the article for publication (the editorial office sends the review to the author upon his/her request);
• recommend the article for publication after its revision (the editorial office sends the author a review with comments);
• not to recommend the article for publication (the editorial office sends the author a review with arguments justifying the impossibility of publishing the article).

After finalization of the article and elimination of remarks, it is sent again to the expert reviewing the manuscript.

The final decision on the possibility to publish the article after receiving a positive review is made by the Editorial Board, which reserves the right to reject manuscripts in case of ignoring the reviewer's comments.

The original reviews are kept in the editorial office for five years after the publication of the articles. The Editorial Board undertakes to send copies of reviews to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation upon request.

Intentions of cooperation between potential reviewers and the editorial board are welcomed. In case of such, please send the following information to the e-mail address info@meijournal.ru: Full name, academic degree, academic title, area of research and personal identifiers in Russian and international scientific databases (SPIN RINC, ResearcherID, Scopus ID, ORCID).

Publication Frequency

The periodicity of the journal issues is once a quarter.

Open Access Policy

The scientific journal “M.E.I.” adheres to the open access policy. Published articles are available on the Internet without restrictions, including search, downloading, reading, copying, distribution, printing. Thus, the journal contributes to the availability and dissemination of knowledge in the field of management, economics and informatics for all interested parties. Journal materials are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author Self-Archiving

The scientific journal “M.E.I.” allows authors to place their publications in the institutional repository and non-commercial subject repositories, such as the library, or publish them on the authors' personal websites (including social networking sites) or on their organization's website in accordance with Creative Commons Attibution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), at any time after publication in the journal. In doing so, authors should indicate that the article is published in the scientific journal “M.E.I.”; there should also be a citation in the form of the DOI of the article.

Code of Ethics

The editorial board of the scientific journal “M.E.I.” is guided by traditional ethical principles of scientific periodicals and a set of principles of the Code of Ethics of Scientific Publications, developed and approved by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The requirement of observance of publication ethics in the preparation and publication of the journal applies to all participants of the editorial and publishing process - authors, editorial board, reviewers.

 

1. General Provisions

 

1.1 Publication ethics is a system of professional rules aimed at regulating the interaction of authors, reviewers, editors and readers in the preparation, dissemination and citation of scientific articles.

1.2 Compliance with publication ethics is ensured by the Editorial Board, Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board of the Journal.

1.3 The Editorial Board, headed by the Editor-in-Chief, is the main regulatory body that controls the observance of publication ethics at all stages of the editorial and publishing process.

1.4 Decisions of the Editorial Board and the Editor-in-Chief on the issues of ensuring compliance with publication ethics are final and cannot be challenged.

 

2. Publication ethics for authors of scientific articles

 

2.1 Authors of scientific articles are personally responsible for their content and are obliged to:

• to send to the editorial office exclusively original materials, representing the result of independent and autonomous work;
• not to send scientific articles describing the same research to other editions for publication;
• to correctly present the results obtained and not to allow the submission of knowingly false or misleading information in the text of the scientific article;
• disclose any non-material or material conflicts of interest;
• correctly indicate in the text of the article references to all cited sources;
• provide access to the research data at the editorial board's request, both during and after the publication of the article;
• report any errors found in the paper to the editors at any stage of the publication process;
• identify sources of funding for the research;
• to study the requirements for the content and design of the scientific article before submitting the manuscript for publication and make sure that the material sent to the editorial office complies with them.

2.2 In the case of collective authorship of a scientific article should:

• provide recognition as co-authors of all persons who directly participated in the work and describe the contribution of each author (the grounds for authorship may be: a significant contribution to the development of the concept of scientific work, obtaining, analysis or interpretation of data, critical analysis of the results of the work and making reasonable suggestions to increase their scientific value or practical significance);
• obtain the consent to publish the results of the study of all co-authors and their approval of the final version of the manuscript;
• to indicate all those who contributed to the work on the article, but are not its author in the section “Acknowledgements”;
• identify the corresponding author responsible for communication with the publication during manuscript submission, review, and publication of the article. The corresponding author should be available for clarification of possible questions and promptly respond to the editorial office, including after the publication of the article (if necessary). The author for correspondence acts as a guarantor of fulfillment of the requirements for scientific articles published in the journal “M.E.I.”.

 

3. Publication ethics of the editorial board

 

The editor-in-chief, editorial board and editorial board are responsible for the content of articles published in the journal. In its activities, the editorial board is guided by the norms of publication ethics and the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, including with regard to libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board should:

• recognize and ensure the equality of authors in the right to publish articles that meet the requirements for content and design published on the website of the scientific journal “M.E.I.”;
• ensure timely and efficient processing of submitted manuscripts;
• interact with the authors based on the principles of mutual respect, honesty and transparency;
• to place informational materials for authors (rules of article submission, procedure of reviewing and policy of reviewing scientific articles, requirements to content and design, etc.) on the journal's website;
• reject articles at the stages preceding the review if there are good reasons for this (the subject of the article does not correspond to the subject of the journal; the article was published earlier; the article contains obvious signs of poor quality, numerous errors; fundamental requirements for content and design are violated; contradictions to the principles of publication ethics are revealed, etc.) or on the basis of a reasoned negative reviewer's feedback;
• check all received articles for the presence of borrowings (plagiarism) using the Anti-Plagiarism system (www.antiplagiat.ru); if numerous borrowings (over 80%) are detected, reject the manuscript and do not send it for review;
• make a decision on the publication of the article based on the results of reviewing;
• ensure confidentiality of information of reviewers and authors;
• ensure professional, confidential, independent and objective review of articles regardless of the race, gender, religious views, origin, citizenship, political views, official position of their authors;
• not to use information or ideas contained in submitted manuscripts for personal use;
• promptly consider each claim related to violation of publication ethics, take adequate and reasonable measures to eliminate the causes with respect to such claims.

 

4. Publication ethics for reviewers

 

Reviewing is a mandatory and important part of the publication process of the scientific journal “M.E.I.”, providing an opportunity to maintain high quality standards of published articles. A review is a document prepared by an expert. Scientists with academic degrees and publications on the subject of the article or on topics related to the subject of the reviewed article are involved as experts to work on the manuscripts of articles. The reviewer, taking part in the work on the manuscript, realizes the most important professional function, contributes to the improvement of the quality of scientific research. The reviewer evaluates the scientific work, its advantages and disadvantages, gives a conclusion on the expediency (inexpediency) of publication in the journal. The Journal adopts double “blind” reviewing.

Reviewers of scientific articles are obliged to:

• familiarize themselves with the journal's policy on reviewing, act responsibly, observing ethical norms and rules;
• refuse reviewing in case of insufficient expert knowledge for a comprehensive and objective assessment of the content of the article (timely informing the editorial office);
• refuse reviewing in case of a conflict of interest (by informing the editorial office in due time);
• prepare the review within the deadlines set by the editorial board; - adhere to the algorithm of evaluation adopted by the editorial board: make objective, constructive and specific comments, be professional and reserved in evaluations, avoid personal attacks and disrespect;
• to be objective and evaluate only the content, to remain impartial in matters concerning nationality, religious and political beliefs, gender or other personal qualities of the authors of the reviewed manuscripts;
• notify the Editorial Board immediately if any violations of research or publication ethics are discovered (ensuring confidentiality and not taking any action without the approval of the Editorial Board);
• communicate with the author exclusively through the editorial office, and do not allow direct interaction with the authors of the article;
• to observe the confidentiality of the review and not to use the information obtained for the purpose of deriving any benefit for themselves or third parties or to discredit or harm third parties.

Article Submission Procedure

Articles are submitted for consideration electronically through the “Submit an article” option on the journal's website or by e-mail info@meijournal.ru. To use the “Submit an article” option, the author must be registered on the journal's website.

The editorial office receives:

1. electronic version of the article in MS Word program (in Russian);
2. information about the authors (table);
3. letter of guarantee;
4. license agreement (in case of a positive decision to publish a scientific article, the form is sent to the author by the editorial office);
5. expert opinion (in the case of a positive decision on the publication of a scientific article, it is executed according to the sample or according to the accepted form at the place of work of the author (author for correspondence).

Before submitting the article we ask the authors to familiarize themselves with the requirements to the content and design, publication ethics, the order of consideration of the article, these rules and make sure of the following:

• a complete set of documents has been prepared for sending to the editorial office: (file with the text of the scientific article, files containing accompanying documents: information about the authors, letter of guarantee, expert opinion);
• the UDC of the article is correctly defined and indicated;
• information about all authors of the article is fully specified;
• the title of the article is formulated succinctly and concisely and corresponds to the content;
• the subject of the article corresponds to one of the scientific specialties of the journal;
• the text of the article includes an abstract, including: introduction, materials and methods, research results, acknowledgements; the volume of the abstract is 200-250 words;
• the text of the article includes a list of key words (5-10 words and word combinations);
• title of the article, abstract and list of keywords are presented in Russian and English;
• the main part of the article includes: introduction; literature review; materials and methods; research results;
• all materials used in the preparation of the article are referenced in the list of used sources; the list of used sources and references are arranged in accordance with the requirements of the journal;
• the design of the article meets the technical requirements: Times New Roman font, 14 point font, 1.5 line spacing, paragraph indent - 1.25, margins (top, bottom, left, right) - 2.5.
• tables and figures are numbered, each table and figure has a title, designed in accordance with the requirements of the journal;
• article is an original work of the author (author's team), has not been previously published and is not under consideration by the editors of other scientific publications.

Procedure for reviewing an article

The Editorial Board confirms to the author the receipt of the article no later than 30 working days after its receipt.

The article received by the editorial office of the scientific journal “M.E.I.” is reviewed for:

• compliance with the subject of the journal;
• absence of borrowings from open sources (plagiarism);
• compliance with the design requirements.

Then the article is sent to the editor-in-chief, who evaluates its scientific level and style of presentation.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject articles submitted by authors at the stages preceding the review, if there are good reasons for this:

• inconsistency of the content of the article with the subject and scientific rubrics of the journal;
• the article was published earlier;
• plagiarism of data, ideas or fragments;
• low scientific level (lack of problem field - object and subject of research, clear statement of the purpose and objectives, justification of scientific novelty, specification of the place of the proposed approaches and hypotheses in the scientific “system of coordinates” in the researched area, review of scientific sources on the issue under consideration, reliability, validity of the empirical material, its representativeness, completeness, etc.);
• numerous stylistic, syntactic and grammatical errors;
• non-compliance with the requirements to the design;
• contradiction to the principles of publication ethics.

In case of a negative decision, the editorial board informs the author. Rejected articles are not sent for review.

After the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, a “double-blind” review is organized. Its duration is not more than 30 calendar days.

Articles that have received a negative review are not published and are not stored. The editorial board sends a motivated refusal to the author of the article not accepted for publication.

Only articles approved by reviewers are published in the journal. The final decision on the possibility of publication after receiving a positive review is made by the Editor-in-Chief. Articles are printed in the order of their receipt by the editorial board. The content of each issue is approved by the Editor-in-Chief.

The texts of articles are subject to stylistic and grammatical editing. The editorial board is not engaged in bringing the articles to the necessary scientific and methodological level; it does not enter into discussions with the authors regarding the content of articles, reviewers' conclusions and other issues.

The authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the information presented in the article. Administrative and criminal liability is provided for any copyright violations according to the legislation of the Russian Federation.

When citing materials published in the scientific journal “M.E.I.”, references to the original source are mandatory.

Rules for retraction (withdrawal) of articles

 

1. General provisions

 

The rules of retraction (review) of articles published in the scientific journal “M.E.I.” are based on the provisions of guidelines, recommendations and standards of international professional organizations, including the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the rules of the Association of Scientific Editors and Publishers (ASEP).

The main purpose of retraction is to correct the published information and warn other authors and readers about the inappropriateness of using the results of the retracted article in research, to ensure the integrity of bona fide research, as well as to protect the reputation of the journal seeking to maintain the confidence of the scientific community in the quality and content of its journal. Retraction does not depend on the period of limitation of publication of the article in which the violations were found.

Retraction of an article from the scientific journal “M.E.I.” is carried out on the basis of an official appeal to the editorial office of the authors, initiative persons with a statement about the identified violations, or on the initiative of the editorial office. Anonymous statements are not grounds for initiating the retraction process.

If the plagiarism is a minor part of the article (e.g., a few sentences), it is possible to correct it (making edits without revocation).

To ensure the high quality of scientific content and to prevent the need for retraction of articles related to ethical violations, the editorial board of the scientific journal “M.E.I.” checks incoming manuscripts for plagiarism, self-plagiarism, duplication, falsification and fabrication of text, organizes and supports the process of quality review.

 

1. Grounds for article retraction

 

The grounds for retraction of an article published in the scientific journal “M.E.I.” can be:

• incorrect and/or unformatted borrowing (plagiarism) in the published article;
• duplication of an article in several publications;
• self-plagiarism with a large amount of repetition of research results and text already published in other publications;
• detection of falsification or fabrication (e.g., falsification of experimental data);
• detection of serious errors in the publication (e.g., misinterpretation of research results) that call into question its scientific value;
• incorrect composition of the authors;
• a hidden conflict of interest;
• republication of the article without the author's consent;
• other violations.

 

1. The procedure for withdrawal of an article

 

1. The procedure of retraction (withdrawal) of an article is carried out after investigation and decision making on its basis by the Chief Editor and the Editorial Board of the scientific journal “M.E.I.”. To investigate the incident, the Editor-in-Chief of the journal may appoint experts from among the editorial staff, involve members of the editorial board or invited external specialists.
2. The decision to retract an article is formalized by the minutes of the editorial board meeting. The minutes indicate: the date of the meeting; the composition of the editorial board members who participated in the meeting and made the decision; a description of the results of the examination; the rationale for the decision; the output data of the retracted article; information about the initiator of the retraction.
3. The message about the retraction of the article is placed on the website of the scientific journal “M.E.I.” in the appropriate section and includes information about the article (output data) and the grounds for its withdrawal. If a decision is made about the need for correction, the relevant information is also posted on the website.
4. On the website of the journal in the content of the issue in which the article was published and in its metadata in HTML-format the information about the article retraction is placed.
5. After completion of the article retraction procedure in the journal, the relevant information is sent to the information resources in which the journal is indexed.

Guidelines for Authors on Declaring Conflicts of Interest

Compliance with publication ethics implies the necessity to exclude conflicts of interest of the parties involved in the editorial process. Conflict of interest is understood as a situation when an author, reviewer, member of the editorial board or editorial office have financial, scientific or personal relationships that may affect their actions. To avoid conflicts of interest, the following responsibilities are imposed on each party in accordance with the ethical standards of the journal.

 

The editorial board is obliged to:

• transfer the text of the article for examination to another reviewer if the originally selected reviewer has a conflict of interest with the author;
• request information from all participants in the editorial process about the possibility of competing interests;
• publish information on the existence of a conflict of interest (scientific or financial) provided by the author, if it is not confidential and may influence the evaluation of the published work by the reader or the scientific community;
• ensure that amendments are published if the conflict of interest information was received after the article was published.

 

The author is obliged to:

• indicate in the cover letter the existing and possible sources of conflicts of interest;
• indicate affiliated organization (one or more) and sources of funding for the research;
• if there is no conflict of interest, indicate this in the accompanying documents for publication.

 

The reviewer is obliged to:

• inform the editorial office about the existing conflict of interest (double obligations, competing interests);
• refuse to review the text of the article if there is a conflict of interest.