About the Journal | International Problems

Editorial policy, scope and aims

International Problems / Međunarodni problemi (in further text: International Problems) is the oldest peer-reviewed journal in Serbia and the Balkans publishing original research focused on international affairs. Its first issue was published in April 1949. International Problems is quarterly journal brought out by the Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade.

International Problems welcomes the submission of scholarly articles on matters of international relations, international security, international law, and globalisation studies. International Problems publishes original and review research articles and book reviews in English and Serbian, that have not been published before and that are not under consideration for publication anywhere else. International Problems does not publish foreign policy commentary or policy proposals.

The Editorial Board favours manuscripts that present the research addressing contemporary controversial issues in international relations from various disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Espousing no specific political or methodological stance and aiming to advance our understanding of and provoke deeper dialogue on rapidly changing world politics in the 21st century, the Editorial Board prioritises the following themes:

Transformation of world politics in the early 21st century;
Phenomenology and practice of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism;
Institutionalisation of international relations and its challenges;
Various theoretical standpoints on current global processes;
Controversial use of foreign policy instruments by major global actors (old and emerging);
The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its advanced technologies on international relations in the 21st century;
Civilisations, religion, and identities in the context of world politics and globalisation;
Conceptual and methodological innovations in epistemology of International Relations.

Responsibilities of the Editors, Editorial Board, and Publishing Council

Publishing Council is an advisory body that actively contributes to the development of the journal International Problems. The tasks and duties of the Publishing Council include: the support to the development of the journal, its promotion, encouraging scholars and academicians in the area of political, security, and legal aspects of international relations to get involved as journal’s authors and/or reviewers, writing editorials, reviews and commentaries.

Members of Editorial Board have tasks to act as the journal`s ambassadors in the academic community, to contribute with a view to identifying key topics, suggesting quality manuscripts on these topics, and encouraging potential authors to submit to International Problems, as well as to review submitted manuscripts and prepare editorials and comments.

Editor-in-Chief is accountable for published content and should strive to constantly improve the journal and the processes for assuring the quality of published material, as well as the protection of freedom of expression, integrity and standards of the research from the influence of political, financial and other interests. Editor-in-Chief is also in charge of issuing the potential corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies.

Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript, and the decision should be based on: 1) evaluation of the manuscript relevance to thematic scope of the journal defined by the editorial policy, 2) assessment of importance, originality, validity and disciplinary relevance of the study presented in the manuscript, 3) assessment of manuscript’s compliance with legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Editor-in-Chief has the discretionary power to reject a submitted manuscript without the peer review process if it does not meet the requirements regarding thematic scope of the journal and universal standards of the research (i.e. if it does not have structural elements either of original or review article). Submitted manuscripts that do not meet technical standards defined in Instructions for authors will be sent back to the authors for correction.

Under normal circumstances, the author receives a notification within ten working days from the date of manuscript submission, informing them whether the manuscript’s topic aligns with the editorial policy, as well as the status of the manuscript, such as when the review process is expected to begin.

New Editor-in-Chief must not overturn decision to publish a manuscript made by the previous editor-in-chief unless new facts are established referring to serious problems in quality of the manuscript.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board must not have a conflict of interest with regard to the manuscript they consider for publication. Members of Editorial Board who have conflict of interest will be excluded from the decision making on the submitted manuscript. If a conflict of interests is identified or declared, Editor-in-Chief selects reviewers and handles the manuscript.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board are obliged to disclose a conflict of interests timely.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board decisions’ to accept or reject manuscript should be free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board must not use unpublished material from submitted manuscripts in their research without written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts must be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and members of Editorial Board shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

Responsibilities of the Author(s)

By submitting the manuscript to the Editorial Team of International Problems, the author(s) warrant that the entire manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Multiple submission of the same manuscript constitutes ethical misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by International Problems.

The author(s) also warrant that after publication in the journal International Problems, the manuscript will not be published in another publication in any language without the consent of the Institute of International Politics and Economics as the copyright holder. Likewise, a paper already published in another journal may not be submitted for publication in International Problems.

In the case a submitted manuscript is the result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in a footnote attached to the manuscript title.

It is the responsibility of authors to ensure that manuscripts submitted to International Problems comply with ethical standards in scientific research. Authors warrant that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Content of the manuscript

Submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to allow reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented by authors. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards. Book or conference reviews should be accurate and unbiased.

Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that, if necessary, they have permission from all parties involved in the presented research to make the data public.

The authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s), and provide it with the submission, not later. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Authorship

The authors must make sure that only contributors who have contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have contributed to the submission are listed as authors. A manuscript with more than two authors shall not be considered for publishing unless it undoubtedly presents the results of a large-scale empirical study.

If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the presented research study and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote.

Acknowledgment of sources

The authors are required to properly acknowledge all sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials must not be used without the written consent of the information source.

Text recycling

Text recycling occurs when an author uses the identical sections of her/his text in two or more published articles, and it is considered a scientific misconduct and breach of publishing ethics.

Editor-in-Chief considers how much of text is recycled in a submitted manuscript, the significance of places in which the text recycling occurs in the manuscript (e.g. whether are they part of the introduction, section on applied methodology, discussion or conclusion), whether the source of the recycled text has been acknowledged, and whether there is a breach of copyright.

If detected overlap is considered minor, action may not be necessary or the authors may be asked to re-write overlapping sections and cite their previous article(s), if they have not done so. The authors cannot justify the text recycling only on the ground that she/he cited the source. More significant overlap constitutes a basis for rejection of the manuscript. When handling the cases of text recycling, the Editorial Board will follow guidelines and recommendations issued by the (Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE).

Conflict of interests

The authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.

Complaints

In case of complaints, the Editorial Board will follow guidelines and recommendations issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE.

Fundamental errors in published works

When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify Editor-in-Chief or the publisher and cooperate to retract or correct the paper.

By submitting a manuscript to the Editorial Team of International Problems, the authors agree to abide by International Problems’ editorial policies.

Responsibility of the Reviewers

The reviewers of articles for International Problems are required to provide competent, explained, and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript.

The reviewers assess manuscripts for the compliance with the thematic profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of results presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus.

The reviewer should alert the Editor-in-Chief to any reasonable doubt or knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewer should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors. The reviewer should alert the Editor-in-Chief to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. The reviewers should also alert the Editor-in-Chief to a parallel submission of the same paper to another journal, in the event they are aware of such.

The reviewer must be free from disqualifying competing interests with respect to the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflict of interest exists, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.

The reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research topic presented in manuscript – or is not familiar with the research area in which it falls – should notify the Editor-in-Chief. Editor-in-Chief will respect requests from authors that an individual should not review their submission if these are well-reasoned and practicable.

The review must be conducted objectively. The reviewer`s judgement should be stated in a clear manner and supported with arguments. Instructions for the reviewers provide detailed guidelines and criteria for the assessment of manuscripts.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. The reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Peer Review

The manuscripts submitted to the journal International Problems undergo a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assist the Editor-in-Chief in making decisions whether to accept or reject manuscript as well as the author in improving the paper. In normal circumstances, Journal strives to provide authors with the decision within 30 days of submission.

Peer review is double-blinded – both authors and reviewers are unknown to each other before, during and after the reviewing process. Editor-in-Chief is obliged to exclude all personal data on authors (name and affiliation) before sending manuscript to reviewers and to act in all reasonable ways to prevent the disclosure of authors’ identity to reviewers. Reviewers of a manuscript act independently from each other during the reviewing process. Reviewers are not aware of each other`s identities. If judgements of reviewers differ, Editor-in-Chief may ask for additional assessment.

The choice of reviewers is at the Editor-in-Chief`s discretion. The reviewers must be knowledgeable about the subject area of the manuscript; they must not be from the authors` own institution and they should not have recent joint publications with any of the authors.

Editor-in-Chief sends a submitted manuscript along with the Review Form to two reviewers with the expertise in the field in which the manuscript`s topic falls. In order to secure independent, impartial and objective evaluation, the reviews are not requested from the persons affiliated with the same institution as the author.

The Review Form includes a series of questions to help reviewers to cover all aspects that can decide the fate of a submission. In the final section of the Review Form, the reviewers must include observations and suggestions aimed at improving the submitted manuscript.

During the reviewing process, Editor-in-Chief may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scientific contribution of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

With respect to reviewers whose reviews are seriously and convincingly questioned by authors, Editor-in-Chief will examine whether the reviews are objective and high in academic standard. If there is any doubt regarding the objectivity of the reviewers or quality of the reviews, Editor-in-Chief will assign additional reviewers.

Dealing with Unethical Behaviour

The Editor-in-Chief of International Problems has a duty to initiate adequate procedure when she/he has a reasonable doubt or determines that a breach of ethical standards has occurred – in published articles or submitted manuscripts. Anyone may inform the Editor-in- Chief at any time of suspected unethical behaviour by giving the necessary evidence.

The Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with the Editorial Board will decide on starting an investigation aimed at examining the reported information and evidences. During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating procedure. The authors suspected of misconduct will always be given the chance to respond to any evidences brought up against them and to present their arguments.

The Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with the Editorial Board – and, if necessary, with a group of experts – concludes the investigation by making decision whether a breach of ethical standards has occurred or has not. In the case of determined breach of ethical standards, it will be classified as either minor or serious. Serious breaches of ethical standards are plagiarism, false authorship, misreported or falsified data or fabricated or falsified research results, and substantial text recycling (over 50% of a manuscript/article body text).

Along with the rejection of manuscript or retraction of published article from the journal (in accordance with the Retraction Policy), the following actions can be pursued, either individually or cumulatively:

A ban on submissions for a two-year period in the case of a minor breach of ethical standards.
A ban on submissions for a period 5–10 years in the case of a serious breach of ethical standards or repetitive minor breaches.
Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the case of breach of ethical standards.
Informing the wrongdoer’s head of department and/or employer of the breach of ethical standards by means of a formal letter.
Referring a case to a professional organisation or legal authority for further investigation and action.

When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (available at http://publicationethics.org/resources/).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism – that is, when someone assumes another’s ideas, words, or other creative expressions as one’s own without referring to the original author and source – is a clear case of scientific misconduct and a breach of publishing ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.

All manuscripts submitted to International Problems are subject to independent anti-plagiarism screening using specialized detection software: iThenticate 2.0.

Should the Еditorial Тeam determine that a submitted manuscript contains plagiarized material, the manuscript will be rejected and appropriate sanctions will be imposed. In such cases, the authors will be prohibited from submitting or publishing manuscripts in the Journal for at least two consecutive volumes. This policy applies to all forms of plagiarism, including, but not limited to, direct copying without proper attribution, paraphrasing without appropriate citation, self-plagiarism, as well as the fabrication or falsification of data. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Word-for-word, or almost word-for-word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author’s work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks).
Assuming other people’s ideas without stating the authorship and the sources in which those ideas are originally presented.
Copying figures or tables from someone else’s paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.
Self-plagiarism.
Fabrication or falsification of data.

The procedure in cases where there are clear indications that a submitted manuscript or published article fall under the definition of plagiarism is described in the sections Dealing with unethical behaviour and Retraction policy.

By submitting a manuscript to International Problems, authors acknowledge and agree that their submission may be software-screened, while appropriate measures may be taken in cases where plagiarism is detected.

Retraction Policy

Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or any major misconduct require retraction of an article. Occasionally a retraction can be used to correct errors insubmission or publication.

In dealing with retractions, Editorial Board complies with guidelines developedby the Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE (available at https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction-guidelines.pdf).

Open Access Policy

Journal International Problems is available in accordance with the open access principles. It is issued in hard-copy and digital forms. The articles can be downloaded free of charge from the website and distributed for academic and other purposes. The Journal adheres to the Budapest Open Access Initiative which states the following:

By “open access” to [peer-reviewed research literature], we mean its 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. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.

Journal enables free access to all its articles, without subscriptions and free of any related charges. Its content is released without any delays (such as the embargo period) and its materials may be used without asking for a specific permission on the condition that a full reference to the original document is provided.

Copyright Policy

The published articles will be disseminated in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0), allowing to share – copy and redistribute in any form or medium – and adapt – remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, provided that an appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided, it is stated whether changes have been made and the new work is disseminated under the identical license as the original work. The users must provide a detailed reference to the original work, containing the author name(s), title of the published research, full journal title, volume, issue, page span and DOI. In electronic publishing, users are also required to link the content with both the original article published in the journal and the licence used. The authors may pursue separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in International Problems.

The author(s) sign the Licence Agreement which regulates this domain. The template of this document is available here: http://www.internationalproblems.rs.

The Author(s) warrant that their manuscript is their original work that has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities at the institution where the work was carried out.

The Author(s) affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of others. The author(s) also affirm that they hold no conflict of interest that may affect the integrity of the Manuscript and the validity of the findings presented in it. If copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) bear responsibility to obtain written permission from the copyright owners. The Corresponding author, as the signing author, warrants that he/she has full power to make this grant on behalf of the Author(s). If the Author(s) are using any personal details of research subjects or other individuals, they affirm that they have obtained all consents required by applicable law and complied with the publisher’s policies relating to the use of such images or personal information.

The Journal allows Author(s) to deposit Author’s Post-print (accepted version) in an institutional repository and other subject-based repositories, or to publish it on Author’s personal website and departmental website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), at any time after publication, while adequately acknowledging the original source, a link to the article’s DOI, and in accordance with the aforementioned.

Upon receiving the proofs, the Author(s) agree to promptly check the proofs carefully, correct any typographical errors, and authorize the publication of the corrected proofs. The Corresponding author agrees to inform his/her co-authors, of any of the above terms.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the published articles and other materials do not express the views of Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board.

The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles.

The Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally liable in case of any compensation or similar claims.

AI Usage Statement

Policy on the use of generative AI tools

International Problems permits the use of generative AI tools only for language enhancement (grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity). Use of AI for content generation, data analysis, interpretation, drafting substantive sections, or creating/altering images and figures is prohibited and constitutes a breach of authorship and research integrity.

Authors must ensure AI is used solely for language improvement and that the final manuscript is reviewed and approved by all authors. AI tools may not be credited as authors. Disclosure is not required when used exclusively for language correction; any broader use must be disclosed at submission and may be subject to editorial review. The editorial team reserves the right to reject or retract work where AI use compromises originality or integrity.

Reviewing process AI policy

Use of large language models or AI tools in the peer review process—for analyzing manuscripts, drafting reviews, or making recommendations—is prohibited. Reviewers must not upload manuscripts into generative AI tools. AI use is permitted only for improving grammar and readability of review texts.

Archiving

Archiving is carried out by the National Library of Serbia (NLS).

The NLS archives both print and digital versions of the journal for the purpose of their long-term preservation.