Editorial process

How ST-OPEN gets manuscripts
ST-OPEN selects and solicits articles from students and their supervisors who have deposited their graduation (master) or doctoral theses in the university repository DABAR.

Editorial process for student works in DABAR

1. Editorial selection
Editors first select potentially interesting DABAR (or other offered or recommended) documents for consideration. In this phase of the work, the technical criteria are minor and the editors insist only that the work is original and interesting – that it has a potential to be transformed into a good scientific article.
The authors (e.g. student and supervisor) of the chosen work are then invited for cooperation in transforming the document into a scientific article. The process is done in Croatian for those who do not have good command of English language.  In this phase, we work closely with the members of the Faculty Editorial Boards, who have expertise in the discipline of the potential manuscript.

2. Intramural review
The original manuscript in Croatian is entered in the journal’s OJS program and sent for an official intramural review. The review is performed by the Editorial Board members or experts in the research field suggested by the Board members, especially discipline experts from Faculty Editorial Boards. The outcomes of this process are: acceptance for further external review, revision, and editorial rejection.
The authors of the works that are not rejected are expected to keep their submission with the ST-OPEN until the final decision of the editor. In other words, the withdrawal of the work or failure to answer editors’ requests (communication) will be considered as research misconduct.
The most important feature in this phase of the review is the readiness of the authors for cooperation with the editors. It is an educational phase and the editors offer necessary assistance in editing the manuscript, but expect responsible and diligent authors’ cooperation.

3. Extramural review
After the revision of the manuscript in the first peer review step, the article is translated into English (by ST-OPEN) and sent out for external peer review (external of the University/University Department and in most cases external to Croatia). We aim for at least two reviews, and the Faculty Editorial Boards help with th choice of discipline-specific experts. Manuscripts are checked for text similarity using Plagscan or Turnitin tools. The review process is blinded for the authors (single blinded) unless a reviewer indicates that he/she wants to be known to the authors. If the reviews are not unfavorable, the article is sent back to the authors for eventual revisions and accepted if the revised manuscript is acceptable, as decided by the Editors and relevant experts from the journal Editorial Boards.
After acceptance, the manuscript is published in ST-OPEN.

Editorial process for manuscripts submitted via ST-OPEN submission system

ST-OPEN accepts direct submissions via the online submission system. We encourage authors to first make a presubmission inquiry with the Editorial office about the suitability of the manuscripts for ST-OPEN. The editorial process is the same as for student manuscripts, except for the intramural part of the review.