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Editoriial Policy

The journal Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry focuses on topics in the fields of Forestry and Nature Conservation, Wood Technologies, Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and Ecological Engineering for Soil and Water Resources Protection.

The journal was launched in 1950.

The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry publishes original, previously unpublished articles (review and original scientific papers, methodological contributions, etc.).The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry is available in open access mode.

The manuscripts must be written in Serbian (Cyrillic alphabet) or in English.

The journal is published twice a year, and if necessary, special or thematic issues are published.

Archiving of the digital version

All published journal volumes are archived in the digital repository of the National Library of Serbia as the primary full-text database.

Obligations of the Editor and Editorial Board

Decisions on the publication of manuscripts are made solely on the basis of the value of the manuscript. They must be free from racial, gender, religious, ethnic or political prejudice. When making a decision on publication, the Editorial Board is guided by the editorial policy, taking into account the legal regulations related to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The final decision on which manuscripts are to be published shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

Members of the Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief, must not be in a conflict of interest in relation to the manuscripts they are considering. Members of the Editorial Board, who are presumed to be in a conflict of interest, do not participate in the decision-making process on a particular manuscript.

The manuscripts are kept confidential.The information and ideas contained in the manuscripts may not be used for personal purposes without the express written permission of the author.

The Editor-in-Chief and the members of the Editorial Board shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the authors and reviewers remain anonymous during and after the evaluation process in accordance with the procedure in use.

Obligations of the Author

The authors guarantee that the manuscript represents their original contribution, that it has neither been published previously nor that it is considered for publication elsewhere, as confirmed by a signed and scanned brief statement submitted electronically together with the manuscript. Simultaneous submission of an identical manuscript in several journals is a violation of ethical standards, which excludes it from further consideration for publication in the journal. Am article that has already been published in its entirety elsewhere cannot be reprinted in the Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry.

The authors (no matter how many of them wrote the manuscript, without any division of responsibility between them) bear all responsibility for the entire content of the manuscript. The manuscript mustn’t contain unfounded or unlawful claims, or violate the rights of other persons.

Authors are obliged to ensure that their team of authors listed in the manuscript includes only those persons who have significantly contributed to the content of the manuscript. If other persons participated in the essential aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be stated in a footnote or special note [(Acknowledgements)].

The author is obliged to indicate in the note the name and code mark of the scientific research project within which the manuscript was created, as well as the full name of the financing institution. In the case that a manuscript under the same or similar title was presented in the form of an oral statement at a conference (but not published in whole or in part in the conference proceedings), the details of this should be stated in the same place.

Authors are obliged to fully and correctly cite sources that have significantly influenced the content of the research and manuscript. Parts of the manuscript, including text, equations, images or tables, taken verbatim from other sources must be clearly marked with a special note, e.g. quotation marks, with a precise indication of the page number or, if more extensive, given in a separate paragraph.

Full references of all citations in the text must be stated in a separate section (Literature or References) in a uniform manner, in accordance with the citation style used by the journal. The References section lists only the quoted and not other sources used in the preparation of the manuscript.

In the event that the authors discover an important error in their article after its publication, they are obliged to immediately inform the Editor-in-Chief and to cooperate on withdrawing or correcting the article.

It is the obligation of the authors to state in the manuscript whether they are in a financial or any other significant conflict of interest with sponsors that could affect their results or interpretation of the results.

By submitting the manuscript, the authors undertake to respect the editorial policy of the Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry.

Plagiarism

The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry does not publish plagiarized manuscripts. The editorial board holds that plagiarizing, i.e. taking over other people’s ideas, words or other forms of creative contribution and presenting them as your own, is a gross violation of scientific and publishing ethics. Plagiarism may also involve copyright infringement, which is punishable by law.

Plagiarism includes:

  • verbatim (word-for-word) or almost verbatim downloading or deliberately, in order to conceal the source, paraphrasing parts of the texts of other authors without clearly indicating the source, even if it is their own already published articles (self-plagiarism), in the manner described under Author’s Responsibilities (link);
  • copying equations, data or tables from other documents without properly indicating the source and/or without the permission of the original author or copyright holder;
  • there is no place in the results and conclusions for any, however brief, quotation or interpretation taken from other authors, as these parts are reserved exclusively for the given research and the authors who conducted them;
  • if the submitted manuscript has already been published elsewhere and in another language under the amended title, the author(s) are obliged to inform the Editorial Board thereof and explain the reasons for republishing.

A manuscript that contains clear indications of plagiarism (using someone else’s words and presenting them as their own) will automatically be rejected. In the event that plagiarism is detected in an already published article, the article will be retracted (withdrawn) in accordance with the procedure described under the Retraction policy (link).

Reviewers’ obligations

The reviewers are obliged to provide the Editor-in-Chief with an assessment of the scientific or professional value of the manuscript within the set deadlines. The reviewer takes special care of the true contribution and originality of the manuscript. The review must be completely objective. The reviewers’ assessment must be clear and based on arguments.

The reviewers evaluate the manuscripts in relation to the conformity of the content with the profile of the journal, the importance and usefulness of the content, the adequacy of the applied methods, the scientific value of the information contained, the style of presentation and the equipment of the text. The review has a standard format that includes evaluations of individual dimensions of the manuscript, a general evaluation and a concluding recommendation.

The reviewer must not have a conflict of interest with the authors or the funder of the research. If such a conflict exists, the reviewer is obliged to inform the editor about it in a timely manner. If the reviewer believes that he/she is not qualified to evaluate a given manuscript, he/she can refuse to review it, with the possible recommendation of a person who is more qualified for that.

Reviewers should detect possible misconduct by the author during the publication of the given manuscript (plagiarism, double publication, replica of research and other types of violation of moral and ethical standards by the author of the manuscript) and warn the Editor-in-Chief about it. They should also recognize relevant sources that were not taken into account in the manuscript. They can recommend the citation of certain references, but not require the citation of articles published in the Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry or their own articles without justification.

Reviewers are expected to improve the quality of the manuscript with their suggestions. If they assess that the manuscript deserves publication with corrections, they are obliged to specify the way in which this can be achieved.

The manuscripts sent to the reviewer must be treated as confidential documents. The reviewers must not use material from the manuscript for their own research without the express written permission of the author.

Review procedure

Reviewers

The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry applies the procedure of double anonymous review of all manuscripts. Each manuscript is reviewed by two reviewers. The reviewers act independently of authors and each other, and their identities are unknown to each other. The reviewers are selected solely based on whether they have the relevant knowledge to evaluate the manuscripts.

The aim of the review is to assist the Editor-in-Chief in deciding whether the manuscript should be accepted or rejected. The aim is also to improve the quality of the manuscript in the process of communication with the Editor-in-Chief, authors and other reviewers.

Review process

The manuscripts are referred for review only after the Editor-in-Chief’s initial assessment of whether, given the form and thematic scope, they are suitable for publication in the journal. Special care is taken to ensure that the initial assessment does not take longer than necessary.

Under normal circumstances, the review process takes a maximum of 15 days, and only exceptionally 21 days. The period from the receipt of the manuscript to its publication lasts on average 60 days.

During the review process, the Editor-in-Chief may require from the authors to provide additional information, including primary data, if necessary, to make a judgment on the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief and reviewers must keep such information confidential and must not use it for other purposes.

Resolving disagreements

Reviewers can enter into a polemic with the authors or with each other, with the mediation of the Editorial Board, whereby the identity of all participants in the polemic is still hidden (it takes place anonymously and only the editorial staff is aware of their identity).

In case the authors have serious and well-founded objections to the review, the Editorial Board checks whether the review is objective and meets academic standards. If there is doubt about the objectivity or quality of the review, the Editor-in-Chief hires additional reviewers.

Additional reviewers are also engaged in cases where the decisions of the reviewers (to reject/accept the manuscript) are contradictory or otherwise irreconcilable.

The final decision on the end of the polemic and the acceptance of the manuscript for publication is made exclusively by the Editor-in-Chief.

Resolving disputed situations

Any individual or institution may at any time report knowledge of violations of ethical standards and other irregularities to the Editor-in-Chief and/or the Editorial Board and provide credible information/evidence to initiate an investigation.

The procedure for verifying the presented evidence takes place as follows:

  • The Editor-in-Chief makes a decision to initiate an investigation;
  • during this procedure, all evidence is considered confidential material and presented only to those persons directly involved in the case;
  • suspects are given the opportunity to respond to the allegations made;

If it is determined that an irregularity has actually occurred, it is assessed whether it is a minor violation or a gross violation of ethical standards.

Minor offenses, without consequences for the integrity of the manuscript and the journal (for example, in cases of misunderstanding or misapplication of publishing standards), are resolved in direct communication with the authors and reviewers, without involving third parties, in one of the following ways:

  • a warning letter is sent to the authors and/or reviewers;
  • a correction of the article is published, e.g. in the event that the sources cited in the text itself are omitted from the list of references in the prescribed manner;
  • an erratum is published (e.g. if it turns out that the error was caused by an editorial mistake).

In the event of a gross violation of ethical standards, the Editorial Board may take various measures, e.g.:

  • publish a statement or editorial describing the case;
  • officially inform the affiliate organization of the author/reviewer;
  • withdraw the published article, as described under the Retraction policy (link);
  • impose a ban on publication in the journal for a certain period of time;
  • introduce competent organizations and regulatory bodies to the case for the purpose of taking measures within their competence.

These measures can be applied individually or simultaneously. In the case resolution process, relevant expert organisations, bodies or individuals shall be consulted as necessary.

When resolving ethically controversial procedures, the Editorial Board is also guided by the guidelines of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE).

Retraction of already published articles

In the event of infringement of the rights of publishers, copyright holders or authors themselves, publication of the same manuscript in several journals, false authorship, plagiarism, manipulation of data for the purpose of fraud or any other abuse, the published article must be retracted.

The article may also be retracted in order to correct serious and numerous errors that cannot be covered by the publication of a correction. The retraction is published by the Editorial Board, the author(s) or both parties by mutual agreement.

Retraction takes the form of a separate manuscript that is displayed in the content of the volume and is editorially classified as Retraction. In SCIndeks, as the journals’ primary full-text database, a two-way communication (HTML link) between the original article and the retraction is established. The original article is still kept in the unmodified form, with a watermark on the PDF document on each page indicating that the article has been retracted.

Retractions are published according to the COPE requirements elaborated by CEON (link) as the publisher of the database in which the journal is primarily indexed.

Open access

The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry is issued in the regime of the so-called open access. Its entire content is available to users free of charge. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search the full text of articles, as well as establish HTML links to them, without the obligation to seek the consent of the author or publisher.

The right to use the content without written consent does not relieve users of the obligation to cite the content of the journal in the manner described under Licensing.

The Bulletin of the Faculty of Forestry does not charge the costs of publication to authors or third parties. The services of submitting manuscripts and their processing, as well as the services of publishing articles, are free of charge. There are no hidden charges.

Self-Archiving

Authors are allowed to deposit the published version of the article in an institutional or thematic repository or publish it on personal websites (including social media profiles, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), on the website of the institution in which they are employed, at any time after publication in the journal.

In doing so, the authors are obliged to provide a full bibliographic description of the article published in this journal (authors, article title, title of the journal, volume, issue, pagination) and place a link, both to the DOI label of that article and to the license used.

Copyright

Authors retain copyright over published articles. They give the publisher a non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be listed as its primary publisher in the event of further use of the article, as well as to distribute the article in all forms and media.

Licensing

Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license. It is permissible to copy and distribute the article in all media and formats, to rework, modify and upgrade it for any purposes, including commercial ones, provided that its original authors are properly cited, a link to the original license is provided and it is indicated whether the article has been modified.

Users are obliged to provide a full bibliographic description of the article published in this journal (authors, article title, title of the journal, volume, issue, pagination), as well as its DOI label. In the case of publication in the electronic form, they are also obliged to post an HTML link, both with the original article published in the Journal of the Faculty of Forestry and with the used license.

Authors may enter into separate, contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article published in the journal (e.g. placement in an institutional repository or publication in a book), stating that the article was originally published in this journal.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the published articles do not express the views of the Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board of the journal. The authors assume legal and moral responsibility for the ideas presented in their articles. The Publisher shall not be liable in the event of any claims for damages.