Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

MEST Journal is an open-access international academic journal, of the non-profit organization MESTE, published in cooperation with the "MB" University Faculty of Business and Law (former the Faculty of Business and Industrial Management of the "Union - Nikola Tesla" University in Belgrade), Serbia, and SZ & Associates - Toronto, Canada.
The journal is published online as well as in print (subscription). It publishes scientific and professional research articles and reviews in the English language.
The focal point of the journal is at the international level, with a view on matters from a global perspective, but, also, some papers concerning some local specific events could be published.
The science and technological advancement and its socio-political impact that happens all over the world can find a place in the MEST.
MEST Journal's broad platform allows the publishing of papers in the fields of management, education, science and society, technology and information technology, and economics.

THEMATIC AREAS

Economics

Management in economics

Public management

Management in industry

Entrepreneurship

Management in crisis situations

Management in transport

Technologies and quality tools in management

IT use in the management

Management in ecology

Management in sport

Education in the field of economics and economics teaching

Business information system

Information security and information system security

Innovation and technology

Legal aspects of management

Economics and Law

 

 

Section Policies

Articles

Articles of 8 to 14 pages are expected, but the length of the article is not the main criterion for accepting or rejecting the article. The MEST Journal publishes interdisciplinary articles from the areas of: management, education, science & society, and technologies, as it is shown bellow, in Thematic areas, but these are not exclusive themed areas. The main thematic areas are presented on URL: http://mest.meste.org/Main_menu.html

The submitted article should be in compliance with the Template which can be downloaded from URL:
http://www.meste.org/mest/documents/MEST_Template.docx

All articles will be peer reviewed and indexed.

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Checked Peer Reviewed

Reviewers

Checked Open Submissions Checked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Supporting Documents

Supporting documents and templates

Template.docx

Title page

Declaration

Reviewer's declaration

Review form

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Printed version of the journal

From here it is possible to download a book, printed version of this journal. Please, press the button "Printed version"

Checked Open Submissions Unchecked Indexed Unchecked Peer Reviewed

Supplemental Edition

1. Description of Supplemental Edition
The MEST Journal may, depending on specific current needs, publish additional content alongside regular issues. The Supplemental Edition of the journal is published in cases where the significance and timeliness of a topic are related to a specific moment, and delaying the publication of works could diminish their importance and impact on the academic community. Publishing a bulk of such works in regular issues could lead to an imbalance in the journal and question its coherence. The Supplemental Edition ensures consistency across all publications.

2. Acceptance Criteria for Submissions
Authors submit their papers through the usual process, and the Editorial Board will assess whether there is a need for the works to be published in regular issues of the journal, as a "Special Edition" or "Supplemental Edition." In cases where publishing works outside the regular journal issues is necessary, the editorial board will decide on the publication of the work in consultation with the corresponding author.

3. Peer Review Process
Articles published in Supplemental Editions are equal in all respects to articles in regular journal issues, have their DOI numbers, and are categorized depending on the type of work. These articles are subject to a defined peer-review procedure. As an exception, articles published in the "Position Paper" category are not required to undergo peer review, as these works represent the author's viewpoint.

4. Deadlines and Publication Dates
In cases of planned publication of "Special Edition" or "Supplemental Edition," the Editorial Board announces submission deadlines and publication dates for the Supplemental Edition to ensure transparency and timeliness. In the case of unplanned "Supplemental Editions," they are formed from the received works.

5. Authorship and Ethics
There is no difference between regular journal issues and the Supplemental Edition in terms of ethical guidelines and publication rules.

6. Contact Information
In cases of planned "Special Edition" or "Supplemental Edition," authors will be provided with contact information for the editor of those editions as part of the call for authors to participate in the publication.

Editors
  • Damjan Čekerevac
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Peer Review Process

Double-blind peer review

Peer review is a system where independent researchers evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. They assess originality, validity, and significance in the relevant research field to assist editors in deciding whether the manuscript meets the criteria for publication. Double-blind peer-reviewed articles means that articles are professionally evaluated by appropriate colleagues. Editors choose the reviewers from the group of available reviewers and protect reviewers’ identities. However, if reviewers wish to disclose their names, this is permitted.

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

Peer reviewers assist the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. The reviewer submits a report on the review on the form that the editorial office gives him together with the anonymized work for which the review is to be performed.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process, as it is written in the Reviewer’s statement.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments as it is shown in the Reviewer’s report.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

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.

Peer Review in the MEST Journal

MEST Journal follows a double-blind reviewing procedure. All manuscripts submitted to MEST Journal will be reviewed by up to three experienced reviewers. At least two of reviewers must recommend the article for publication. Reviewers’ names will be listed in the journal. For the purpose of the reviewing, authors are requested to submit all documents at once at the time of their submission with the following structure. Authors are therefore requested to submit three documents at the time of their submission.

  1. Declaration of originality of paper and about the transfer of copyright;
  2. A title page, including:
    • The title of the article
    • The short title of the article (up to 50 characters)
    • The name(s) of the author(s) with the concise and informative title(s)
    • The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
    • The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author
    • Abstract (The abstract should be in the range of 150 to 250 words, and should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
    • Keywords (up to 10 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes)
  3. A blinded manuscript without any author names and affiliations in the text or on the title page. Self-identifying citations and references in the article text should either be avoided or left blank.

Authors should take into account peer review comments for the sake of the manuscript improvement. All changes must be elaborated and improved manuscript should be submitted to the Editor-In-Chief. Of course, authors can argue peer review comments by giving reasons/references to counter peer review comments. After receiving of resubmitted manuscript Editor-in-Chief will choose whether the manuscript will be published, or sent to the old/new reviewers.
Time taken to conduct reviews depends on the paper thematic and a time of the paper submission. Usually, review procedure takes up to two months.
After the decision that the paper will be published, processed article will be returned to the author for an approval. The aim of the approval is that author checks if some incorrectness appeared during the processing. Also, author checks the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Any change must be noted and returned to the MEST Journal. After online publication, further changes can be made only in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article. All changes must be specified and returned to MEST Journal journal. Any substantial change can be done only with the approval of the Editor.

 

Publication Frequency

The MEST Journal is published twice a year, on January 15th and July 15th, but we keep the practice that the papers, that have undergone peer review and will be published in the next issues, we make available to readers in the form of preview - early posting.
There is a difference between articles published as a preview ("early birds") and the papers officially published online and in print. The preview version can be in a format different than the format in the published journal, and it is not equipped with a DOI number, paper category, final page numbers, examples of citing, and other elements important to fully identify the article. After being officially published, preview articles disappear from the web page "In the next issue".

 

Open Access Policy

* Important: The publication of papers in the MEST Journal is completely free for authors, and the papers are available to readers completely free of charge.

The MEST Journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge, meaning:

  • everyone has free and unlimited access to the full text of articles published in the MEST Journal; manuscripts are freely available without subscription or price barriers
  • All papers published by MEST Journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.
  • papers are immediately released in open-access format (no long waiting periods),
  • Open Access publication is supported by the MESTE NGO - Belgrade and the "MB" University.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

AI-Policy

Policy on AI Use in the MEST Journal

The MEST Journal actively supports responsible AI use, particularly in language refinement, APA citation compliance, data analysis, and academic integrity, while maintaining strict ethical standards. AI should be a tool for enhancing scholarly work—not a substitute for human intellectual effort.

1. General Stance on AI

MEST Journal acknowledges the growing role of AI in academic research and writing. AI tools may be used for language enhancement, citation formatting, and analytical assistance, provided that their use is transparent and responsibly applied.

2. Preferred Citation Tools

  • Microsoft Word Citation Tool (Primary Recommendation) – The preferred tool for APA-style referencing in all submissions.
  • Additional Citation Management Options – Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley may be used, but all references must be verified by authors.

3. Recommended AI-Assisted Practices

  • AI tools may assist in grammar correction, citation formatting, and readability improvement, but cannot replace critical academic reasoning.
  • AI must not be used to generate research findings or fabricate sources.
  • Authors must disclose AI usage if it significantly contributed to writing or data analysis.

4. AI in Peer Review and Editorial Evaluation

  • Reviewers may use AI tools for language clarity, citation validation, and plagiarism screening, but final judgments must be entirely human-driven.
  • AI-enhanced tools (such as readability analysis) can assist evaluation but cannot replace human academic expertise.
  • AI-assisted review tools (e.g., Grammarly, Turnitin) may support technical assessments, but review comments must reflect independent scholarly judgment.

5. Ethical Guidelines for Reviewers

  • Reviewers must ensure AI is only used as a supplementary tool—critical evaluation and recommendations should be human-driven.
  • AI cannot generate review reports—each critique must represent individual expertise.
  • If AI-assisted tools were used in linguistic analysis or plagiarism detection, reviewers must mention them in their feedback and provide human interpretation of the results.
  • Reviewers should maintain academic fairness and confidentiality, ensuring AI does not compromise the integrity of the peer-review process.

6. AI in Data Analysis and Research Methodology

  • AI-driven statistical tools (IBM SPSS, MATLAB, Python libraries) may assist in data processing and visualization, but authors must provide transparent documentation of AI involvement.
  • AI-generated analyses must be critically reviewed by human researchers to ensure validity and reproducibility.
  • AI cannot be used to alter or manipulate datasets—any AI-assisted data modeling must follow ethical research practices.

7. Academic Integrity and AI Ethics

  • AI must not be used to generate false conclusions, manipulate results, or mislead readers.
  • Authors and reviewers must ensure that AI tools enhance scholarly work rather than compromise academic integrity.
  • AI-generated content must be cited appropriately if it significantly contributes to research or textual structure.