Peer Review Policy

All research and review articles submitted to NINE are subject to peer review.

Process

1. Editorial screening. The editorial office checks scope, originality, structure, language quality and similarity (see the Plagiarism Policy). Manuscripts that do not meet the basic requirements are returned without review.
2. Peer review. Suitable manuscripts are sent to at least two independent experts in the field. Reviewers evaluate originality, methodology, validity of results, significance, clarity and the quality of references. The review is single-anonymized (single-blind): the reviewers know the identity of the authors, while the identity of the reviewers is not disclosed to the authors.
3. Decision. On the basis of the reviews the editor makes one of the following decisions: accept, minor revision, major revision or reject. Authors submit a revised version and a response to the reviewers.
4. Final acceptance. Revised manuscripts may be re-reviewed. Only manuscripts approved by the editor are published.

Timeline

Reviewers are asked to return their reports within 4 weeks. Authors receive the first decision, as a rule, within 4 to 8 weeks of submission.

Reviewer conduct

Reviewers must treat manuscripts as confidential, declare any conflict of interest, and give objective, constructive and respectful comments. Reviewers may not use any part of a manuscript for their own work and may not upload manuscripts to generative AI tools.

Editors

Editors who are authors of a submission, or who have a conflict of interest, are excluded from the decision. Such submissions are handled by another member of the editorial board.