The articles published in the Palaeobulgarica / Starobalgaristica Journal are the object of a double anonymous reviewing. The peer-review procedure is as follows:
1. The manuscripts received in the editorial office are presented to all members of the editorial board.
2. Each manuscript is given to two external reviewers, whose research work is closest to the subject of the manuscript. They receive an anonymous copy of the manuscript, which they evaluate on the basis of the criteria given in the article evaluation card available here. The reviewers should give their evaluations within 20 days. The list of the independent reviewers is available here.
3. The final decision as to whether the article should be published is taken at a meeting of the editorial board, which is held immediately after the reviews have been received, and that decision takes into account the opinions of the reviewers.
4. The reviews (without the names of the reviewers) are immediately sent to the authors together with the information about the acceptance or rejection of the article (together with the arguments about that) and with the requirements concerning the article formed in the reviews and the opinions of the members of the editorial board. In the cases when the article is accepted with minimal corrections or after essential revision, the authors are given 20 days to make the corrections.
5. If the article has been accepted for printing without any remarks, the staff immediately begins its pre-press and it is included in the first following issue of the journal. If the article has been accepted for printing with minimal or essential corrections and the author returns the corrected text within the required time limit, the staff also begins immediately its pre-press and it is included in the first or second following issue of the journal, if the number of the materials ready for pre-press does not exceed the volume of respective issue of the journal. If the author does not return the article within the required time limit, its publishing is postponed for some of the issues that follow, depending on the time, when the text corrected by the author has been received. Depending on the number of articles ready for publishing, they are published within 3 to 9 months after they have been received in the editorial office. The time limit is prolonged to 9 months, if materials ready for publishing have exceeded the volume of two issues.
6. If the author sends a letter with written disagreement with the decision of the editorial board and with the remarks and recommendations made by the reviewers or by the editorial board, the latter has the right to give the article to a third reviewer and the editorial board takes the final decision in accordance with his/her evaluation for which it informs the author in writing.