Aim and Scope

The purpose of the scientific and analytical journal "Observer-Observer" is to publish materials on foreign and domestic and military policy, economics, international law, sociology and demography, history, reflecting the views of Russian scientists and specialists of major research centers and universities of the country, as well as foreign authors (Canada, China, China, Sweden, Hungary, Germany, USA, Mongolia, Turkey, CIS countries, etc.).

The journal reviews monographs of domestic and foreign scientists, political and public figures.

Since 2014, the journal has become a leading publication, publishing materials reflecting the results of projects implemented by the staff of the Institute of CIS countries.

For many years, the staff of the journal has been actively engaged in scientific and publishing activities. 

More than 200 scientific books have been published as supplements to it: "Modern Political History of Russia", "Investments in Russia and Foreign Countries", "Revival of the Volga River – a Step to the Salvation of Russia", "Life Beyond the Earth", "The Supreme Mind and the Universe", "Russia on the Threshold of the XXI Century", "National Security of Russia", "Military Doctrine of Russia", "Central Russian Region: Problems and Prospects", "The Glory of the Fatherland", "Russia and Chechnya", "Adjara", "Portugal and the Muslim World", "Central Asia in the System of International Relations" and others.

The published materials can be used by political scientists, sociologists, historians, military experts and are a good scientific basis for the preparation of analytical reports and forecasts and in research works.

Section Policies

Political sciences

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

History of international relations and foreign policy

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

International legal sciences

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Scientific life

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Obituary

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Publication Frequency

6 issues per year

Open Access Policy

This is an open access journal. All articles are made freely available to readers immediatly upon publication.

Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition - it means that articles have free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

For more information please read BOAI statement.

Archiving

• Russian State Library (RSL)
• National Electronic-Information Consortium (NEICON)

Peer-Review

1. The author of the article provides an excerpt from the decision of the department (scientific division), where the article was written, containing the recommendation for its publication in the journal. Statement is to be signed by the head of the department (the head of the scientific department) or his deputy, shall be certified by the signature of the corresponding division.
2. Author of the article is to provide a review made out and certified by the expert – the doctor of sciences, containing recommendation for the publication of the article in the journal.
3. The article provide by the author is reviewed by an expert doctor of sciences or a PhD, a renowned expert in this field. Expertise is confidential, the review is available to the author at his written request and on an appropriated request to the HAS without signature and the name, position, place of work the reviewer.
4. The final decision on acceptance of the author’s article and its publishing in one of the issues is made at a meeting of the editorial board.
5. The editorial board will inform the author about the final decision upon a request. The author whose article was not accepted receives (upon request) a reasoned refusal from the editorial board by e-mail.
6. Reviews of submitted articles are stored in the editorial office at least 5 years.

Publishing Ethics

The editorial board of the scientific journal adheres to the principles of ethics adopted by the international community, reflected, in particular, in the recommendations of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Code of Ethics of Scientific Publications, and also takes into account the valuable experience of authoritative international journals and publishers.

To avoid unfair practices in publishing activities (plagiarism, misrepresentation, etc.), in order to ensure the high quality of scientific publications, the recognition by the public of the scientific results obtained by the author, each member of the editorial board, author, reviewer, publisher, and institutions participating in publishing process, must comply with ethical standards, norms and rules and take all reasonable measures to prevent their violations. Compliance with the rules of the ethics of scientific publications by all participants in this process contributes to ensuring the authors' rights to intellectual property, improving the quality of the publication and excluding the possibility of misuse of copyrighted materials in the interests of individuals.

Ethics of scientific publications is a system of norms of professional conduct in the relationship of authors, reviewers, editors, publishers and readers in the process of creating, distributing and using scientific publications.

1. Principles of professional ethics in the activities of the publisher

In his activities, the publisher is responsible for the publication of copyright works, which entails the need to follow the fundamental principles and procedures listed below:

1.1. To promote the fulfillment of ethical duties by the editorial staff, editorial- and-publishing team, editorial board, reviewers and authors in accordance with these requirements. To support the editorial staff of the journal in reviewing claims to the ethical aspects of published materials and to help interact with other journals and/or publishers, if this contributes to the fulfillment of the duties of editors.

1.2. Ensure the confidentiality of the publication received from authors and any information before it is published.

1.3. To realize that the activity of the journal is not a commercial project and does not carry with it the goal of making profit.

1.4. Be always ready to publish corrections, clarifications, refutations and apologies when necessary.

1.5. Provide editorial staff with the possibility of excluding publications containing plagiarism and inaccurate data.

1.6. The publisher (editor) has the right to reject the manuscript or to require the author to finalize it, if it is framed with violations of the Rules adopted in this journal and agreed with the Publisher.

1.7. The article, if accepted for publication, is placed in the public domain; Copyrights are reserved for authors.

1.8. Place information on the financial support of the study, if the author of such information leads to the article.

1.9. If there are any content, grammatical, stylistic or other errors, the editorial board undertakes to take all measures to eliminate them.

1.10. Coordinate with the author the introduced corrections in the article by editorial staff.

1.11. Do not delay the release of the journal.

2. Ethical principles, which should guide the author of a scientific publication

Authors (or a team of authors) when submitting materials to a scientific journal realize that it bears primary responsibility for the novelty and reliability of the results of scientific research, which implies compliance with the following principles: The authors of the article should provide reliable results of the conducted studies. Knowingly erroneous or falsified statements are unacceptable.

2.1. The authors must ensure that the results of the study, as described in the manuscript provided, are completely original. Borrowed fragments or statements must be made with a mandatory indication of the author and the source. Excessive borrowing, as well as plagiarism in any form, including unformulated quotes, paraphrasing or assigning rights to the results of other people's research, are unethical and unacceptable. The existence of borrowings without reference will be considered by the editorial board as plagiarism.

2.2. Authors should only provide genuine facts and information in the manuscript; provide sufficient information to check and repeat experiments by other researchers; do not use information obtained in private, without open written permission; do not allow fabrication and falsification of data.

2.3. Do not allow duplication of publications (in the cover letter the author must indicate that the work is published for the first time). If individual elements of the manuscript were previously published, the author must refer to earlier work and indicate the differences between the new work and the previous one.

2.4. Authors should not submit to the journal a manuscript that was sent to another journal and is under consideration, as well as an article already published in another journal.

2.5. It is necessary to recognize the contribution of all persons who somehow influenced the course of the study, in particular, the article should contain references to the works that was important in the study.

2.6. Authors must abide by ethical standards, speaking out with criticism or comments on research of third parties.

2.7. The co-authors of the article should indicate all persons who have made a significant contribution to the study. Among co-authors, it is inadmissible to identify persons who did not participate in the study. Authors should respect the work of the editorial board and reviewers and eliminate these shortcomings or explain them reasonably.

2.8. Authors should submit and issue the manuscript in accordance with the rules used in the journal.

2.9. If the author finds significant errors or inaccuracies in the article at the stage of its consideration or after its publication, he must immediately notify the editorial office of this;

2.10. The authors must provide the editorial board or publisher with proof of the correctness of the original article or correct material errors if the editorial board or publisher has learned about them from third parties.

3. Ethical principles in the activity of the reviewer

The reviewer carries out a scientific examination of the author's materials, as a result of which his actions should be impartial in nature, consisting in the following principles:

3.1. The manuscript received for review should be considered as a confidential document that cannot be passed on for review or discussion to third parties without authorization from the editorial office.

3.2. Reviewers are obliged to know that the manuscripts sent to them are the intellectual property of the authors and refer to information that is not subject to disclosure. Violation of confidentiality is possible only in the case of a reviewer’s statement of unreliability or falsification of the materials described in the article;

3.3. The reviewer should pay attention of the editor-in-chief to the substantial or partial similarity of the estimated manuscript with any other work, as well as the facts of the absence of references to the provisions, conclusions or arguments previously published in other works of this or other authors.

3.4. The reviewer should note the relevant published works, which are not quoted (in the article). The reviewer is obliged to give an objective and reasonable assessment of the results of the research and clearly grounded recommendations. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.

3.5. The comments and wishes of the reviewer should be objective and principled, aimed at raising the scientific level of the manuscript.

3.6. The reviewer must make decisions on the basis of concrete facts and give evidence of his decision.

3.7. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of manuscripts for their own needs.

3.8. Reviewers do not have the right to take advantage of knowledge about the content of the work before it is published.

3.9. The reviewer, who does not, in his opinion, possess sufficient qualification for the evaluation of the manuscript, or cannot be objective, for example, in case of a conflict of interest with the author or organization, must notify the editor of this request to exclude him from the process of reviewing this manuscript;

3.10. The feedback on the article is confidential. Full name of the reviewer is disclosed to the executive secretary and the editor-in-chief of the journal. This information is not disclosed further.

4. Principles of professional ethics in the activity of the editor-in-chief

In his activity, the editor-in-chief is responsible for the publication of the author's works, which imposes the necessity of complying with the following fundamental principles:

4.1. When deciding on publication, the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal is guided by the reliability of the data presentation and the scientific significance of the work in question.

4.2. The editor-in-chief must evaluate the intellectual content of manuscripts regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, social status or political preferences of the authors. Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts should not be used for personal purposes or transferred to third parties without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during editing and related to possible benefits should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

4.3. The editor-in-chief should not allow the publication of information, if there is sufficient reason to believe that it is plagiarism.

4.4. The editor-in-chief undertakes:

- to constantly improve the journal;

- to follow the principle of freedom of opinion;

- to strive to meet the needs of readers and authors of the journal;

- to exclude the influence of business or political interests on the decision to publish materials;

- to decide on the publication of materials, guided by the following main criteria: the correspondence of the manuscript to the subject matter of the journal; relevance, novelty and scientific significance of the presented article; clarity of presentation; reliability of results and completeness of conclusions. The quality of the research and its relevance are the basis for the decision to publish;

- to take all reasonable measures to ensure the high quality of published materials and protect the confidentiality of personal information;

- to take into account the recommendations of reviewers in making a final decision on the publication of the article. Responsibility for the decision to publish is entirely on the editorial board of the journal;

- to justify the decision in case of acceptance or rejection of the article;

- to provide the author of the peer-reviewed material with an opportunity to substantiate his research position;

- upon the change of the editorial board is changed, the decision of the previous one to publish the material should not be canceled.

5. The editor-in-chief, together with the publisher, should not leave unanswered claims regarding the manuscripts or published materials, and also in the event of a conflict situation, take all necessary measures to restore the violated rights. Guidelines for the production of articles

5.1. Compliance with the publishing ethics by the editorial board.

5.2. Compliance with the guidelines when rejecting articles.

5.3. Maintaining the integrity of academic writing.

5.4. Prevention of damage to intellectual and ethical standards in the presence of commercial interests.

5.5. Readiness to publish corrections, clarifications, rejections and apologies when necessary.

5.6. Prevent the publication of plagiarism and fraudulent data.

6. Conflict of interest

In order to avoid cases of violation of the publication ethics, it is necessary to exclude the conflict of interests of all parties participating in the process of publishing the manuscript.

Conflicts of interest arise if the author, reviewer or member of the editorial board has financial, scientific or personal relationships that may affect their actions. Such relationships are called ambivalent obligations, competing interests or competing loyalties.

In order to prevent conflicts of interest and in accordance with accepted ethical standards of the journal, each of the parties has the following responsibilities.

The editor must:

- transfer the manuscript for consideration to another member of the editorial board, provided that the originally designated reviewer has a conflict of interest with the author of the manuscript;

- ask all participants in the process of publishing the manuscript information about the possibility of competing interests;

- decide on the publication of the information specified in the author's letter concerning the conflict of scientific and/or financial interests, if it is not confidential and may influence the evaluation of the published work by the reader or the scientific community;

- ensure the publication of amendments, if information on a conflict of interest was obtained after the publication of the article.

The author is obliged:

- to indicate the place of work and the source of research funding;

The reviewer is obliged:

- to inform the editor-in-chief about the existence of a conflict of interests (dual obligations, competing interests) and refuse to examine the manuscript.

Violations

If a situation arises that relates to the violation of the publication ethics by the editor, author or reviewer, a mandatory investigation is required. This applies to both published and unpublished material since the publication of the document. The editorial board is obliged to demand clarification, without involving persons who may have a conflict of interest with one of the parties.

If a material containing significant inaccuracies has been published, it must be immediately corrected in a form that is accessible to readers and indexing systems.

Founder

• Institute of the CIS countries

Author fees

Publication in “Обозреватель–Observer" is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any Article processing charges.

The journal doesn't have any Article submission charges.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Plagiarism detection

“Обозреватель–Observer" use native russian-language plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

Preprint and postprint Policy

Prior to acceptance and publication in “Обозреватель–Observer", authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites.

As part of submission process, authors are required to confirm that the submission has not been previously published, nor has been submitted. After a manuscript has been published in “Обозреватель–Observer" we suggest that the link to the article on journal's website is used when the article is shared on personal or public websites.

Glossary (by SHERPA)

Revenue Sources

The publication of the journal is financed by the funds of the parent organization, at the expense of the publisher, publication of advertising materials, publication of reprints, article processment charges.