Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor (Lex localis Press) offers authors the possibility to publish their monographs or edited volumes in Open Access. Publishing in Open Access grants free immediate access to full-text versions of the published work. With unrestricted accessibility to scientific content, Open Access accelerates the pace of scientific discovery, encourages innovation, and improves education. To make that possible, the publisher applies an Article Processing Charge. In addition to publishing freely accessible content online, print versions of all published works are also available on demand. A collection of our books and conference proceedings is indexed in the Web of Science™ Core Collection. Web of Science is the world’s leading citation index with multidisciplinary content from the top-tier international and regional journals, conference proceedings, and books.

We publish:

BOOK CHAPTERS
•    Edited and SSHS Edited Volumes,
•    Publishing by invitation,
•    Editorial review process,
•    Titles indexed in major and relevant scientific databases,
•    Comprehensive analysis,
•    20+ pages.

MONOGRAPHS
•    Long and Short form,
•    Professional publishing partner to researchers and research groups,
•    Single Author Monographs,
•    Multiple Author Monographs,
•    Edited Books.

Peer Review Process

All the papers submitted to the Lex localis Press are peer-reviewed in double-blind form by two anonymous peer reviewers. Before sending for review, all manuscripts submitted for publication are verified using iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software. The report from the verification being made available to reviewers by the Editorial Board, without revealing the identity of the Author. At least two independent reviewers shall be appointed from outside the scientific unit affiliated by the author. Reviewers shall be appointed by the Editor-in-Chief in cooperation with the Associate Editors in consultation with the Editorial Board members. The reviewer, when accepting the request to review a manuscript submitted to Lex Localis Press, shall make a declaration of the lack of conflict of interest. A conflict of interest shall be deemed to be the relationship arising from a competitive activity, cooperation or other personal, financial or professional relationships of the reviewer with any of the authors or institutions related to the manuscript submitted. The review shall be made in writing and shall be concluded with a proposal to either publish the manuscript or reject it. In situations of controversy or in the event of inconsistent reviews, the admission to publication shall be decided by an Editorial Board of Lex Localis Press, which may appoint an additional reviewer or reviewers. In the case of conditional reviews, the editorial board may allow the manuscript for publication provided that the author modifies the text as indicated by the reviewer. The manuscripts which have got two positive reviews shall be allowed for publication.

Plagiarism Detection

Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor is a member of the CrossCheck plagiarism detection initiative. In cases of suspected plagiarism CrossCheck report is available to editors to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. CrossCheck is a multi-publisher initiative allowing screening of published and submitted content for originality.

Publication Fees

The Open Access model, applied to all of our publications, eliminates subscriptions and pay-per-view fees, being free of charge to all readers. It enables an immediate contribution to general scientific knowledge.

To allow permanently unrestricted online access to the published works and keep the business sustainable, Lex Localis Press applies an Article Processing Charge that covers the costs associated with the editorial workflow, production and long-term hosting. These include:

•    Personal contact and support during the publishing process,
•    English language copyediting - correction of grammatical, spelling, and other common errors,
•    Indexing and listing across all major repositories,
•    Discoverability - electronic citation and linking via DOI,
•    Long-term archiving,
•    XML Typesetting and pagination - web (PDF, HTML) and print files preparation,
•    Permanent and unrestricted online access to your work,
•    Dissemination and Promotion.

Publishing fees:
•    Book Chapter - Edited Volume: 490 EUR,
•    Book chapter - SSHS Edited Volume: 390 EUR,
•    Monograph - Lex localis Briefs (from 50 up to 120 pages): 2.800 EUR,
•    Monographh - Long Form (from 120 up to 250 pages): 3.950 EUR.

All our books are published online under the Open Access model and are accessible for free on our reading platform. If you would like to order print copies, you can do so by contacting our Sales Department.

Open Access Book Publication Fees

Lex localis Press offers authors a choice to publish their research in Open Access. All papers published open access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. We offer authors a choice of user licenses, which define the permitted reuse of papers. We are continuously working with our author communities to select the best choice of license options, currently being defined for this journal as follows: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

For all parties involved in the act of publishing (the author, the editor(s), the peer reviewer, and the publisher) it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. The ethics statements for Lex localis Press are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Editor Responsibilities

Accountability
The editor is responsible for deciding which papers submitted to the Lex localis press should be published, and, moreover, is accountable for everything published within Lex localis Press. In making these decisions, the editor may be guided by the policies of the Lexlocalis Press editorial board as well as by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers when making publication decisions. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Fairness
The editor should evaluate manuscripts for intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s). The editor will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some instances the editorial board members, as appropriate.

Confidentiality
The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Disclosure, conflicts of interest, and other issues
The editor will be guided by COPE’s Guidelines for Retracting Papers when considering retracting, issuing expressions of concern about, and issuing corrections pertaining to articles that have been published within Lex localis Press.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’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.

The editor is committed to ensuring that advertising, reprint, or other commercial revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

The editor should seek to ensure a fair and appropriate peer-review process. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other members of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate action should be taken, such as the publication of a retraction or expression of concern.

Involvement and cooperation in investigations
Editors should guard the integrity of the published record by issuing corrections and retractions when needed and pursuing suspected or alleged research and publication misconduct. Editors should pursue reviewer and editorial misconduct. An editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Contribution to editorial decisions
Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

Promptness
Any invited referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its timely review will be impossible should immediately notify the editor so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

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

Standards of objectivity
Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable. Referees should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.

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 data 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 evaluating 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 submission.

Author Responsibilities
Reporting standards Authors reporting results of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the manuscript. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism
The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication
An author should not, in general, publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one primary publication. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to more than one press constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgment of sources
Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should also cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of a manuscript
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be named in an Acknowledgement section. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors (according to the above definition) and no inappropriate co-authors are included in the author list of the manuscript and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards and human or animal subjects
If the work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the authors must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the press editor or publisher and cooperate with them to either retract the paper or to publish an appropriate erratum.

Publisher’s Confirmation
In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question. This includes the prompt publication of an erratum or, in the most severe cases, the complete retraction of the affected work.