Double-Blind Peer Review

The Editorial Board entrusts the proposed articles to the anonymous evaluation of two referees, experts in the subject matter and external to both the Editorial Board and the Editorial Staff of the journal, in order to have a judgment on the suitability or otherwise of the contribution for publication.

Duties of Referees

• Contribution to the Editorial Decision: Peer review is a procedure that helps the Editorial Board to perform its evaluation activity regarding the proposed articles and also allows the author to improve their contribution.
• Respect for Deadlines: The referee who does not feel adequate for the task proposed or who believes they are unable to carry out the reading within the required time is required to promptly notify the Editorial Board.
• Objectivity: Peer review must be conducted objectively. Any personal judgment on the author is inappropriate. The referees are required to adequately motivate their judgments.
• Indication of Texts: Referees undertake to indicate precisely the bibliographic details of fundamental works eventually neglected by the author in the proposed article. The referee must also report to the Editorial Board any similarities or overlaps of the text received for reading with other works known to them.
• Conflict of Interest and Disclosure: Confidential information or indications obtained during the peer-review process must be considered confidential and cannot be used for personal purposes. Referees are required not to accept articles for reading for which there is a conflict of interest due to previous collaboration or competition with the author and/or with their institution of affiliation. Every text assigned for reading must be considered confidential. Therefore, such texts should not be discussed with other people without explicit authorization from the Editorial Board.

Duties of Authors

• Originality and Plagiarism: Authors are required to submit a publication proposal relating to an original work in its entirety and to cite punctually each text used, applying the editorial criteria of the journal.
• Prior Publication and Approval: The author undertakes not to propose to the journal published works or works in progress for publication in other periodicals, or within other volumes, without the express consent of the Editorial Board. Any publication in other journals or volumes of a contribution already published in “Fundamental Rights” must be preliminarily approved by the Editorial Board.
• Originality and Single Submission: Authors must guarantee that their contribution is original and unpublished, undertaking not to propose the same contribution to more than one journal simultaneously and not to publish articles that describe the same research in more than one journal or volume.
• Authorship of the Work: The authorship of the work must be indicated clearly and precisely. All those who have made a concrete and relevant contribution for the purposes of conceiving and completing the article must be indicated as “co-authors.” Subjects who have provided significant contributions to the research underlying the article must also be explicitly indicated. In the case of articles written by multiple authors, the parts respectively developed by each author must be indicated clearly and unambiguously.
• Integration of the Article and Errata: The Editorial Board, also based on the evaluations carried out anonymously by the referees, may ask the author to correct or integrate their article. In the event that the Editorial Board deems it appropriate, the anonymous judgments will be transmitted to the author. The author, both with respect to the evaluations received from the referees and to the requests for correction and integration made by the Editorial Board, will have the right to advance their own observations or objections, on which the Editorial Board will decide. In order to preserve the homogeneity of publication of the journal, the Editorial Board may make merely editorial changes after the first correction of the proofs.
• Notification of Erratums: In the event that the author should detect an erratum or an inaccuracy of particular significance, they must inform the Editorial Board promptly, providing all the information necessary for the purpose of the correction activity. In the event that the notification should, instead, come from the Editorial Board or the Editorial Staff, the author must provide for it, unless otherwise agreed with the bodies of the journal.
• Conflict of Interest: Authors must indicate all sources of financial support underlying the research project on which their contribution is based, as well as any financial or general conflicts of interest that could influence the outcomes or interpretations attributable to their contribution.