All submitted manuscripts are assessed by the editor(s) for suitability for the review process. To save authors and referees time, only those manuscripts judged most likely to meet the editorial criteria are sent out for formal review to two referees, with expertise in the pertinent subject area. It is the major editorial policy to review the submitted articles as fast as possible.

Reviewers are asked whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, and will assess the manuscript quality, according to the criteria specified in the Paper Review Form.

PRO LIGNO shall not accept or publish manuscripts without prior open peer review. Based on the referees’ advice, the editor decides:

• to accept the manuscript, with or without minor revision;
• to invite the authors to perform a major revision of the manuscris, by addressing specific concerns before a final decision is reached;
• to reject the manuscript, on grounds of lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual advance or major technical and/or interpretational problems.

Referees may recommend a particular course of action in their confidential comments to the editor, but should bear in mind that the editors may have to make a decision based on conflicting advice. Furthermore, editorial decisions are not a matter of counting votes or numerical rank assessments, but rather are based on an evaluation of the strengths of the arguments raised by each referee and by the authors. In conflictual cases, members of the Editorial Board may be consulted to solve the disputes.

After the editor takes a decision based on the peer-review regarding the manuscript status, the decision is forwarded to the authors, along with the comments and recommendations of the anonymous reviewers.

Referee policy treats the contents of papers under review as privileged information not to be disclosed to others before publication. It is expected that no one with access to a paper under review will make any inappropriate use of the special knowledge which that access provides.

The review process shall ensure that all authors have equal opportunity for publication of their papers.

Acceptance and scheduling of publication of papers shall not be impeded by added criteria and procedures beyond those contained in the review process. The Editor-in-Chief will then make a decision about publication and schedule the article for a specific journal issue (volume/number). The Chief Editor's decision is final.