Peer Review Statement

Peer Review Policy

The quarterly journal “Wieś i Rolnictwo” (“WiR”) [“Village & Agriculture” (“V&A”)] accepts only original manuscripts that have not been previously published or submitted for publication in other journals or edited volumes. WiR publishes original theoretical and research articles, review papers, book reviews (of academic monographs and edited volumes), and reports from conferences and scientific events.

All submissions undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. This means that both the authors and the reviewers remain anonymous to each other throughout the entire review. To ensure the integrity of this process:

• Authors are required to remove any identifying information from their manuscripts.
• Reviewers’ identities are kept confidential and are not disclosed to authors at any stage.

Initial Editorial Screening

All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial assessment by the Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor. This evaluation is intended to verify the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s thematic profile, its scholarly value, and compliance with ethical standards. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria are desk-rejected without being sent for external review.

Peer Review Guidelines

Manuscripts approved for the next stage are submitted to two independent reviewers selected from specialists in the relevant field. Reviewers are chosen from outside the author’s affiliated institution(s) and must not be part of the editorial team. For manuscripts submitted in a foreign language, at least one reviewer must be affiliated with a foreign institution unrelated to the author.

The review process follows a double-blind peer review model, which means that neither the authors nor the reviewers are aware of each other's identities.

To ensure anonymity:

• Authors must remove all information that could reveal their identity from the manuscript.
• Reviewer identities remain confidential and are not disclosed to authors at any stage.

Each reviewer evaluates the manuscript using a structured review form that includes the following criteria:

• Relevance to WiR’s thematic profile
• Accuracy and appropriateness of the title
• Clarity and accuracy of the research objective and, if applicable, the formulation of hypotheses
• Originality and timeliness of the topic
• Scholarly and substantive value of the text
• Methodological soundness
• Scope and currency of the literature used
• Quality of language and logical organisation of the content.

Reviewers provide a clear recommendation: accept for publication, accept with minor or major revisions, revise and resubmit, or reject. All reviews must be objective, thorough, based on scholarly evidence, and free from any conflict of interest.

The WiR editorial team reserves the right to reject any article that does not align with the journal’s profile, fails to meet the standards of a scholarly publication, receives negative peer reviews, is not prepared following the author guidelines, has not been revised in line with the comments provided by the editors or reviewers, or shows signs of plagiarism. The final decision to accept or reject a manuscript lies with the Editor-in-Chief of WiR, who considers both the reviewers’ recommendations and their assessment.

Transparency and Accountability

A list of reviewers who have cooperated with the editorial board in a given calendar year is published annually on the journal’s website and in Issue 4 of that volume.

The journal does not guarantee acceptance of any submission and does not impose artificial deadlines for editorial decisions. The length of the peer review process depends on the complexity of the manuscript and the availability of reviewers. In this respect, the WiR editorial team maintains continuous communication with authors.

Any concerns regarding potential editorial bias, conflicts of interest, or irregularities in the review process may be reported confidentially to the editorial office.