About the Journal

Journal of East Central European Studies / Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung (JECES) is a leading open access journal covering the history of Central and Eastern Europe. It is edited by an independent team of globally renowned experts in the field. The journal appears in print and online with open access. The original contributions published in the journal encompass history and culture of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus as well as cutting edge methodological and conceptional approaches to Central and Eastern European history in general. JECES presents articles, research reports and book reviews in German and English on a quarterly basis. All submitted manuscripts are subjected to a double blind-peer review.

The Herder Institute in-house-publisher provides the journal’s authors with thorough editorial assistance in preparing accepted contributions for publication. It also ensures the high quality processing and optimization of graphics and images. Furthermore, the editorial office is available for advising on issues of text content and structure. JECES is thus an ideal, high profile forum for publication, especially for young scholars from Eastern and Central Europe.

JECES also offers guest editors the possibility of coordinating and publishing special issues that include approximately 4–6 articles related to a particular topic or theme. Further details are available here.

Peer Review Process

In a first step, every article submitted to JECES is thoroughly checked by the managing editor and/or the editors-in-chief. During this process, the sofware PlagAware is used to detect plagiarism. If the text meets the basic formal and substantive requirements of a scientific article, it is reviewed by two members of the editorial board by double-blind peer review. If the topic requires it, a reviewer who is not a member of the board can be consulted.

The review, which takes about two months to complete, is based on a form consisting of two sections: In the first section, the quality of the text (“Excellent,” “Very Good,” “Good,” “Acceptable,” “Poor”) as well as the required degree of revision (“None,” “Minor,” “Extensive” as well as “Abridgements,” “Additions,” “Re-examination after revision,” “Rejection”); in the second section, the actual text of the review follows. An article should have been rated at least “Good” in both reviews in order to be published in JECES. If the two reviews differ considerably, a third review will be commissioned.

The managing editor will inform the author about the result of the review. Any changes requested therein must be included in the revision by the author. If no clear result can be deduced from the expert opinions, the final decision lies with the two editors-in-chief after consultation with the managing editor.

Publication Frequency

JECES is published quarterly at the end of March, June, September and December. This publication schedule includes both regular and special thematic issues.