Topic Areas:

economic theory
econometrics
global and regional economy
international relations
competitiveness in the empirical research
global competitiveness
national competitiveness
regional competitiveness
industry competitiveness

Content type: academic/scholarly

Format: online

Subject: business and economics

Audience: professional economists, researchers and analysts, lecturers and students, public officials, business community

Dewey Number: 330

Country: Russian Federation

Status: active

“Journal of regional and international competitiveness” is an open access journal and is subject to the CC BY-NC license.

Journal open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition – it means that articles have 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.

A full-text version is available for free on the website of the Journal, the electronic archive of Yaroslavl State Technical University, and on the platform of the Scientific Electronic Library (e-Library).

INDEXING

The journal is covered by the following abstracting and indexing services: e-Library, CyberLeninka, Google Scholar, OpenAlex, Dimensions AI, UlrichsWeb.

FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER

Founder and Publisher: Yaroslavl State Technical University | 150023, Russia, Yaroslavl, Moskovsky prospect, 88

Founded: 2020

PUBLICATION FREQUENCY

4 issues per year

PRIVACY STATEMENT

All names and addresses provided by the authors on the website of the Journal shall only be used for technical purposes in the publication process to contact authors and reviewers. Under no circumstances shall they be disclosed to third parties or organisations.

Policies

Publishing Ethics
Peer Review Policy
Authorship Policy
Retraction Policy
Generative AI policy
Policy of disclosure and conflicts of interest
Data Access Policy
Open Access Policy
Financial Policy
Advertising Policy
Preprints Policy
Post-Publication Policy
Archiving Policy

PUBLISHING ETHICS

The Journal of regional and international competitiveness (hereinafter – the Journal) is guided by visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage, and impact of quality of scientific publications. Authors shall observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Free Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME), and the provisions of the Declaration ”Ethical Principles of Scientific Publications” of the Association of Scientific Editors and Publishers (ANRI).

The main principles governing the activities of the Editorial Board, reviewers, authors, and the Publisher of the Journal are hereinbelow. The Journal adheres to standards of publication ethics. If violation of publication ethics is identified and confirmed after approval, the Journal may reject the manuscript. If violation of publication ethics is identified and confirmed after publication, the Journal may retract the manuscript.

1. Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

1.1. The Editors of the Journal shall be responsible for the content of the published materials. The Editors shall be responsible to evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their intellectual merit, ensure confidentiality of manuscripts, and have the responsibility to decide when and which articles are to be published.

1.2. The Editors ensure the objectivity and validity of their decisions and exclude the influence of commercial interests. The Editors guarantee honest, transparent, and independent review process.

1.3. The Editors shall be responsible to evaluate manuscripts fairly and solely on their intellectual merit, ensure confidentiality of manuscripts and have the responsibility to decide when and which articles are to be published.

1.4. Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

1.5 Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the Journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

1.6. Editors shall publish errata or corrections, clarifications, or retractions of any materials when needed and as quickly as possible if competing interests are detected after publication.

1.7. Editors shall moderate all communication exchanges between authors and reviewers during the entire review process. Editors are strongly encouraged to develop and implement a contributorship policy.

1.8. Editors shall respect authors' requests to exclude specific individuals from the peer review process. Such requests shall be communicated to the Editorial Board. The authors shall be promptly informed whether their request to exclude particular reviewers has been granted.

2. Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

2.1. Reviewers accept manuscripts for evaluation only if they possess sufficient expertise in the relevant field of knowledge. If reviewers lack the necessary qualifications or unable to meet the established deadlines, they notify the Editorial Office of their refusal to review.

2.2. Reviewers shall inform the Editorial Office of any potential conflicts of interest prior to commencing the review process.

2.3. Reviewers shall maintain the confidentiality of the information contained in the manuscript and shall not disclose it.

2.4. Reviewers are not permitted to use the information from the manuscript for personal or commercial purposes.

2.5. Reviewers shall evaluate manuscripts in terms of their scientific content and avoid the subjective judgments.

2.6. Reviewers shall provide justified and objective conclusions, consider all key aspects of the work under reviewing.

2.7. Reviewers perform their duties on a voluntary basis and do not have any compensation for their work.

3. Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

3.1. The authors submitting the manuscripts to the Journal confirm their agreement with its ethical standards.

3.2. Authors shall state their results clearly, honestly, without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. Authors shall get a permission to use any previously published material from the copyright holders.

3.3. Authors shall not reproduce work previously published in other journals without proper permission and citation. Authors shall not provide multiple submissions that are being reviewed or considered by other journals simultaneously.

3.4. For complete transparency all submitted manuscripts shall include an author statement specifying the work of each author. For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions shall be provided.

3.5. Authors are required to notify the Editorial Board of possible conflicts of interest.

3.6. Authors shall not copy a text from another source without the quotation marks and the original source quotation.

3.7. Authors shall state their results clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. The methods used in the work shall be clearly and unambiguously described so that the findings can be repeated and confirmed by other researchers. It is incumbent on all authors to refrain from plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification associated with the submitted manuscript.

3.8. During the review process the authors shall provide the initial data at the request of the Editorial Board. The authors are required to respond promptly to the comments and observations of reviewers, interacting with them through the Editor-in-Chief.

3.9. The corresponding author shall contact with the Editor and the other authors, keep co-authors informed, and involve them in major decisions about the publication.

4. Duties and Responsibilities of Publisher

4.1. The Publisher of the Journal is Yaroslavl State Technical University, Yaroslavl, Russia.

4.2. The Publisher does not interfere in the Editorial policy of the Journal. Editors shall solely and independently decide whether to accept or reject a manuscript based on its quality and relevance to the scope of the Journal.

5. Intellectual property

Intellectual property issues are regulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation, international norms, and agreements. The Editorial Board emphasises on respecting intellectual property rights, collaborating with legal departments to prevent violations of applicable legislation and international conventions.

6. Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

Researchers are free in scientific investigations and share knowledge and ideas without censorship. They shall adhere to the principles of intellectual honesty and avoid any potential harm may arise during the research process or as a result of its publication concerning other individuals, society, and the environment.

7. Impact and Harm of Research

Research shall respect the dignity and rights of participants (individuals or groups) associated with the objects or topics under study, or the communities in which the research is conducted. The rights of tangible and intangible heritage, natural resources and the environment shall be equally respected.

Indirect harms may also result from publication, such as stigmatisation of vulnerable groups or misuse of results for unintended purposes (e.g. policies undermined the human rights).

The advancement of knowledge and understanding is a public good. However, although the pursuit of knowledge is considered a public good, considerations of potential harm may sometimes outweigh the purpose of finding or disseminating new knowledge. It may be appropriate to decide not to conduct the research or not to publish the manuscript. Consideration of the risks and benefits of research underlies the editorial process of all forms of scientific publication. Editors may consider the potential harm of publication, seek external advice on the risk of harm and, in cases of significant risk that outweighs the potential benefit, may reject publication (or correct, retract, remove or otherwise change material already published).

8. The Independent Editorial Policy

This policy reflects the Journal’s commitment to the fundamental principles of editorial independence and intellectual freedom as the basis for making objective editorial decisions. Adherence to this principle ensures editorial decisions and processes remain free from any commercial or external factors.

The key provisions of the Editorial independence policy are as follows:

Independence of Editorial Decisions: all editorial decisions regarding peer review, acceptance, rejection, and publication of articles are made by the Journal’s Editorial Board based on scientific criteria, the quality of the submitted material, and its relevance to the Journal’s scope. These decisions are maintained independently of commercial or external interests and aimed exclusively at upholding scientific and editorial integrity.
Editorial Structures and Responsibilities: the management of editorial processes is conducted strictly within the framework of the editorial structure, which includes the Editor-in-Chief, the Editorial Board, peer reviewers, and an ethics committee if necessary. Those work together to ensure the independence of editorial decisions, their scientific objectivity, and adherence to high professional standards.
Prohibition of External Influence: interference by representatives of commercial divisions, external sponsors, or other interested parties in the decision-making process is strictly prohibited. Any form of interference, whether attempts to influence or comment on editorial decisions, is not allowed under any circumstances.
Preservation of Editorial Integrity: The principle of strict editorial independence is mandatory for all participants in the editorial process. Any deviation from this principle undermines the integrity of the editorial process and can negatively impact the scientific reputation of the Journal. The Journal strives to follow this principle in all situations to maintain the high level of trust within the scientific community.

9. Editorial Decision Appeal Policy

Authors who believe that contesting the editorial decision regarding the review or rejection of their manuscript is justified may submit an official appeal. Appeal requests should be made in writing via the Journal’s email address (jraic.ystu@gmail.com), with the subject line stating “Appeal” and including the manuscript number.

Appeals are only considered for manuscripts have undergone peer review and are not applicable to manuscripts rejected by the Editorial Board without review.

The appeal shall be submitted by the corresponding author of the manuscript; all authors shall agree to its submission.

The corresponding author shall:

Submit the appeal within one month of receiving the Editorial Board decision;
Not send the manuscript to another journal or initiate the transfer process while the appeal is under consideration.
Clearly state in the appeal letter the reasons for disagreement with the decision and provide responses and relevant evidence to each of the editor’s and/or reviewers’ comments that may have influenced the rejection. Appeals will not be considered if the manuscript was rejected due to non-compliance with the Journal’s editorial policies or disagreements related to interest, novelty, or suitability for the Journal.
Provide evidence if the author believes that the editor or reviewer made technical errors in evaluating the manuscript.
Provide evidence if the author suspects any conflicts of interest or bias on the part of the editor or reviewer.

Appeal requests are not conforming to the above requirements will be rejected and will not be considered by the Journal.

The time required to review an appeal may vary depending on the circumstances prompting the appeal.

The corresponding author may withdraw the appeal request by sending an email to the same address from which the appeal was submitted, with the subject line stating “Appeal Withdrawal” and including the manuscript number.

An appeal will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated representative (for example, a member of the Editorial Board), depending on the nature of the appeal. If the appeal concerns a conflict of interest involving an editor, it will be considered by a member of the Editorial Board who was not involved in the editorial process related to the manuscript.

The appeal will be evaluated in accordance with the policies and objectives of the Journal. The Journal will notify the corresponding author of the outcome of the appeal.

The Journal’s agreement to reconsider a decision on a submitted manuscript does not guarantee its acceptance; the review process may include a re-review by previous or new reviewers and/or editors, as well as significant revisions of the manuscript. One appeal per manuscript is considered; the decision on the appeal is final. The Journal will not consider an appeal if the issue is part of a legal dispute and reserves the right to suspend or terminate the consideration of an appeal in such cases.

10. Promoting Ethical Research and Combating Scientific Dishonesty

10.1. Editors shall be confident that the research published in the Journal has been conducted in accordance with relevant international guidelines. Editors have the right to request official confirmation of the ethical approval of the research from the relevant authority (e.g., a research ethics committee or an international review board), if such exists. Editors shall recognise and remember those confirmation does not guarantee the ethical nature of the research and cannot replace adherence to applicable international standards.

10.2. Editors shall take action if there are suspicions of scientific dishonesty or if they become aware of relevant allegations. It arises upon receiving materials for publication, regardless of the final result.

10.3. Editors have an ethical duty to continue investigating of potential scientific misconduct (including plagiarism, data fabrication, authorship disputes, etc.). If the response raises further doubts, the editor shall refer the case to the appropriate employer, institution, or government authority (including regulatory agencies or national bodies responsible for combating scientific dishonesty) and share the available information. The process of examining these cases shall remain confidential to prevent misinformation and protect the reputation of the author. Until the investigation is complete, editors are not entitled to make definitive claims classifying the scrutinised articles as dishonestly conducted. Editors shall inform the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board of the investigation’s findings. The Editorial Board and the Publisher shall make a final decision on the discovery of academic dishonesty facts up to and including public disclosure of facts of academic dishonesty based on actual legal norms.

11. Promotion of Debates

11.1. In pursuit of stated objectives and in fulfilling its mission, the Journal is committed to establish a platform for broad academic debates within relevant fields of knowledge. Editors shall encourage discussion and stand ready to considering the publication of critical articles.

11.2. Authors of critical articles shall have the opportunity to respond within the pages of the Journal.

11.3. Research reporting negative results shall not be excluded from consideration for publication.

PEER REVIEW POLICY

Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal undergo sequential process based on principles of transparency, objectivity, and adherence to scientific standards.

The main stages of the procedure are as follows:

1. The submitted manuscript is registered and undergoes an initial review based on formal and quality criteria: compliance with the Journal’s scope, adherence to content, and formatting requirements. Manuscripts do not meet these criteria are not considered for reviewing. Authors are notified of the rejection within 10 days of receipt of the manuscript by the Editorial Board.

2. Manuscripts accepted for review are assigned to a handling editor responsible for the correspondence with the author. The editor assigns the manuscript to two independent reviewers who possess expertise in the relevant subject area and have publications on the subject within the last three years. In contentious cases, the manuscript may be sent to more than two reviewers, including external experts and members of the Journal’s Editorial Board.

3. Journal conducts double-blind reviews. Reviewers receive the manuscript without any author-identifying information; authors do not know the reviewers’ identities. The review process typically takes four to six weeks.

4. Based on the reviews, the manuscript may be: accepted for publication (4.1), returned to the author for revisions (4.2), and rejected (4.3). The Journal offers review copies upon request. All requests are subject to the Publisher’s approval.

4.1. If review is positive, the Editors include the manuscript in the Editorial portfolio for subsequent preparation of materials for publication.

4.2. The author’s revised manuscript is resubmitted to the original reviewer, who assesses whether the revisions satisfactorily address their/other reviewers’ comments and/or whether the author’s refusals to implement certain suggestions are justified. If the author completely declines to incorporate the reviewers’ recommendations, the manuscript is withdrawn from the review process and formally rejected.

4.3. If review is negative, the manuscript shall be considered by a designated working group of the Editorial Board. It shall decide either to reject the submission outright or pursue an additional review from an independent expert. The author shall be promptly notified of the rejection via electronic mail.

5. Common reasons for rejection are as follows: inaccurate or incomplete statistical analysis; misinterpretation or false interpretation of results; insufficient or inappropriate scientific methodology; insufficient or biased sample size; unclear and poor written text; improper formulation of the research problem; inaccuracy or insufficiency of data presented; inadequate, outdated, or insufficient literature review; insufficient data provision; errors or inaccuracies in tables, schemes, figures, etc. The reviewer’s conclusion shall substantiate the decision and include constructive recommendations for the authors.

6. The author has a right to appeal editorial decisions. The author shall submit the grounds for their appeal to the Editorial Board addressed to the editor. The appeal shall include the revised manuscript if revision is deemed appropriate. Authors are discouraged from directly contacting Editorial Board Members and editors with appeals. If irreconcilable disagreements arise between authors and reviewers concerning manuscript revisions, the final decision shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief. The decision of the Editor-in-Chief is final.

7. Kindly note that positive review does not guarantee the acceptance, as final decision in all cases lies with the Editorial Board. The final decision for publication rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.

8. The Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editor-in-Chief makes and approves the final decision regarding the publication date of the article in accordance with the standard procedures during the preparation of the issue. The author will be informed of the final editorial decision.

9. When selecting reviewers for a manuscript, priority is given to external experts. However, if necessary, manuscripts may also be assigned to members of the Editorial Board. The review process remains unchanged. Review of manuscripts by the Editor-in-Chief is conducted by external reviewers only.

10. Reviewers have the right to decline manuscript review for any reason. In such cases, the reviewer shall promptly notify the Journal’s Secretary or the Editor-in-Chief.

11. Review reports are stored in the Editorial Office for five years. The Journal shall provide copies of reviews to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation upon request.

12. Peer reviews of manuscripts received by the Journal’s Editorial Office since 2022 are published on the platform of the Scientific Electronic Library (e-Library, https://elibrary.ru).

13. The Editorial Office does not retain manuscripts that are not accepted for publication. Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are not returned to the authors.

14. Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in review, and shall prepare to provide public access to such data in accordance with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases. Additionally, authors shall retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

Guidelines for Reviewers

The key criteria for evaluating scientific publications on the Scientific Electronic Library platform (e-Library) is the peer review process. The Journal provides double-blind peer review. Only the review text is published on this platform; the reviewer’s identity is confidential throughout the review process with the reviewer's identity remaining confidential. Information about the reviewer will be uploaded to the e-Library.

Participating in the review process is reflected in the reviewer’s Science Index profile. The Journal’s Editorial Office provides review guidelines openly to enhance the quality of expert assessments, structure, and content of reviews.

Reviewers shall provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Personal comments to the author(s) are inappropriate. Reviewers shall clearly and logically express their opinions. If a manuscript does not satisfy one or more criteria, the reviewer is required to emphasise the need for revisions within the review and to offer constructive recommendations aimed at enhancing the manuscript, including identification of any inaccuracies or errors committed by the authors.

If the manuscript does not meet one or more of the criteria, the reviewer indicates in the review the need for revision of the manuscript and provides recommendations to the author for improvement (specifying any inaccuracies or errors).

The Journal’s Editorial Board expects the peer-review process will help to:

prevent the publication of low-quality articles;
verify the accuracy and following to the international standards of data presented;
ensure the references to prior scientific articles;
confirm the correctness of the author's interpretation of the results and the reasonableness of the conclusions;
provide authors with recommendations for improvement if necessary;
make a decision regarding the publication of the manuscript.

The review is written in free format or by filling the following points:

1. Relevance of the research topic.

2. Originality of the work, novelty of the obtained data.

3. Completeness and correctness of the problem presentation in the literature review.

4. Clarity of the objectives of the study and their correspondence to the presented material.

5. Appropriateness of the chosen research methods.

6. Correspondence of the results to the stated objectives of the study.

7. Presence of an evaluation of the obtained results and comparison with previously published research.

8. Justification of the conclusions.

9. Scientific and/or practical significance of the results.

10. Clarity of material presentation (presence of tables, figures, etc.).

11. Availability of necessary references to all significant publications on the topic.

12. Quality of the abstract and correctness of keyword selection.

13. Compliance with ethical standards, absence of conflicts of interest.

The concluding section of the review shall include:

Substantiated assessments of the manuscript and recommendation for the publication of the reviewed material.
Recommendation for the publication of the reviewed material contingent upon revisions to the manuscript.
Recommendation for rejection of the reviewed material.

These recommendations have been prepared based on the materials of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journal s (DOAJ), and “Preparation and Publishing of a Scientific Journal. International Practice on the Ethics of Editing, Reviewing, Publishing, and Authorship of Scientific Publications: Collection of Translations” / Comp. O.V. Kirillova. Moscow: Financial University, 2013. – 140 p.

AUTHORSHIP POLICY

All individuals contributing to academic work shall be clearly defined as either named authors (published in the byline and details specified in the contributions statement) or contributors (credited for their contribution in the acknowledgments section). Only individuals who have made a substantial contribution to the research and writing of the manuscript may be listed as authors.

The Journal assumes that all authors agreed with the content and that all gave explicit consent to submit and that they obtained consent from the responsible authorities at the institute/organisation where the work has been conducted, before the work is submitted.

Authorship also implies responsibility and accountability for published work. The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to an article are given credit as authors, but also that contributors credited as authors understand their role in taking responsibility and being accountable for what is published. Submission of a manuscript requires that all authors agree to the authorship and contribution as listed in the manuscript. The corresponding author takes primary responsibility for communication with the Journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author typically ensures that all the Journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, clinical trial registration documentation, and disclosures of relationships and activities are properly completed and reported, although these duties may be delegated to one or more co-authors. The corresponding author shall be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way. The corresponding author shall be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the Journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

The Journal requires that all authors sign the manuscript submission letter and that the order of authors stated in the cover letter be followed. A manuscript submitted to the Journal implies agreement by all listed authors with the contents of the manuscript, including the order and number of authors, and their contributions to the manuscript. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that this agreement is achieved and for communication with the Journal before and after publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for filing a conflict-of-interest statement on behalf of all authors of the article.

The corresponding author is responsible for:

Maintaining standards of transparency and reproducibility of data.
Ensuring the preservation of original data/materials in accordance with best practices for their analysis.
Confirming that the submitted data/materials are accurate to the original.
Anticipating and minimising barriers to the exchange of data/materials.
Validity of the author list and description of their contribution.

After acceptance of the manuscript, the corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of the content of the proofs, including co-authors' names, addresses, and affiliations. After publication, the corresponding author remains the primary contact for questions arising with the life cycle of the article and shall promptly inform co-authors of any questions arise. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission, such as reordering, adding, or deleting authors, is approved by all authors and accompanied by a protocol describing the author's contribution with the rationale for the change in authorship. The editors are not involved in the resolution of disputes about authorship.

Author Contribution Statement

The Journal of regional and international competitiveness supports research transparency by publishing author contribution statements detailing each author's contribution (author contribution is described according to the author roles described in the CREDIT system).

Author Identification
To enhance the transparency of the publication process, authors must provide an ORCID/Author id identifier.

RETRACTION POLICY

The manuscript will be withdrawn from publication if at any stage of consideration or pre-publication the Editorial Board reveals a violation of the requirements of publication ethics. Unauthenticity of data can be result of conscientious delusion or conscious violations (duplicate publications, plagiarism, concealment of a conflict of interest, etc.). Retraction is a mechanism for correcting the literature and alerting readers to publications that contain such seriously flawed or erroneous data. Main grounds for retraction are as follows:

plagiarism
complaints and claims from authors, right holders and other third-parties regarding the violation of the use of copyright and related rights
serious errors undermining paper scientific value
author's request

The retraction involves an investigation, drawing up a protocol, and publication of a notice in the Journal. Retracted articles are removed from reference databases. Authors may disagree with the position of editors, but this does not negate the right of the editors to conduct the procedure. Articles may be retracted by their author(s) or by the editor. Retraction does not compromise the author/authors but ensures integrity and transparency of communication and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Based on investigation, the Journal decides that a retraction is required and sends a retraction notice to the author (authors). The authors (the corresponding author) are sent a notification justifying the reason for the article's retraction. As it the Editorial Board is responsible for the content of the Journal, it has the right to withdraw the article without the author consent.

According to the COPE guidelines, retraction statements shall:

Clearly relate to the original article by citing the title and linking to the original article.
State the reason for the retraction clearly and objectively, specifying who is retracting the article (e.g. all of the authors, some of the authors or the Journal itself).
Be published promptly and be freely available to all readers.
While the original article generally remains available in order to preserve the publication record, albeit prominently linked to the retraction, in rare cases the original article may be deleted. This would most often be the case with an egregious research ethics violation such as a paper that violated patient privacy.

GENERATIVE AI POLICY

This policy was initially stimulated by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, which were expected to increasingly be used by researchers and have now been updated to reflect evolving good practice. The policy aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, reviewers, editors, readers and contributors. The Journal will continue to monitor developments in this area and will adjust or refine policies as appropriate.

Policy for the authors

The policy concerns generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process and do not consider its potential as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise, and evaluation.

Purpose of AI and AI-assisted technologies Use

Authors are allowed to use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies only to improve the readability and linguistic quality of their manuscripts. The use of these technologies shall be supervised by human authors, and the results shall be carefully reviewed and edited by the authors as AI may generates text containing incorrect, incomplete, or biased statements.

Responsibility and Disclosure

Authors are responsible for the content of their work. The use of AI-assisted technologies shall be disclosed in the manuscript and in the published article to ensure transparency of the publication process.

Exclusion of AI as Co-Authors

AI and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship implies responsibility and the performance of tasks that can only be assigned to a human. Authors ensure that their work is original, complies with ethical standards, and does not infringe the rights of third parties.

Use of AI in Illustrations and Graphic Design

Creating or Modifying Images Using AI is Prohibited

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies to create, modify, or process images in manuscripts is prohibited. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, and color balance are permitted, provided they do not distort the data presented.

Exception

If the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies is a part of the research methodology (e.g., in biomedical imaging), it shall be described in detail in the Methods section, including the name and characteristics of the AI-assisted technologies used.

Reviewer Policy

Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential documents. Their or their parts uploading to AI-assisted technologies is unacceptable as it may violate the authors' privacy and intellectual property rights. This also applies to reviews as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and authors. The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies to assist in scientific peer review is unacceptable as the peer review process requires critical thinking and independent assessment. Responsibility for the content of the review rests entirely with the reviewer.

The Journal admits the use of secure AI and AI-assisted technologies to check manuscripts for completeness, detect plagiarism, and identify suitable reviewers, while maintaining confidentiality standards.

Editors Policy

Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential documents. Their or their parts uploading to AI-assisted technologies is unacceptable as it may violate the authors' privacy and intellectual property rights. This also applies to the editors as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and authors. Responsibility for the content of the review rests entirely with the editors. Editors are responsible for the editorial process, the final decision on the manuscript, and its communication to the authors.

POLICY OF DISCLOSURE AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

To ensure transparency and enable independently assess potential biases, the Journal requires authors to declare any financial and/or non-financial interests related to the research reported. The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a Declaration of Interest on behalf of all authors. A conflict of interest is defined as a financial or non-financial interest that could directly undermine, or be perceived to undermine, the objectivity, integrity, and value of the publication by potentially influencing the authors’ judgments and actions regarding the objective presentation of data, analysis, and interpretation.

Financial Conflicts of Interest

(1) Funding: research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, and other expenses) from organisations that may benefit or lose financially from this publication. Any role the funding organisation played in the conceptualisation, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript shall be disclosed.

(2) Employment: recent (at the time of the study), current, or proposed employment with any organisation that may benefit or lose financially from this publication.

(3) Personal financial interests: stock or shares in companies that may benefit or lose financially from the publication; consulting fees or other remuneration (including payment for participation in symposia) from organisations that may benefit or lose financially; patents or patent applications (issued or pending) filed by the authors or their institutions, the value of which may change as a result of the publication. For patents and patent applications, the following information shall be disclosed: applicant (author or institution), name of inventor(s), application number, application status, specific aspect of the manuscript covered by the patent application.

Non-financial Conflicts of Interest

Non-financial conflicts of interest can take various forms, including personal or professional relationships with organisations and individuals. Authors and reviewers shall declare any unpaid roles or relationships that may affect the publication process. Examples of non-financial conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

(1) Unpaid membership in a government or non-governmental organisations.

(2) Unpaid membership in an advocacy or lobbying organisation.

(3) Unpaid advisory role in a commercial organisation.

(3) Consulting for a company.

Authors

Authors shall disclose any conflicts of interest during manuscript submission through the submission system. The corresponding author shall provide a statement on behalf of all authors. In the case of double anonymous peer review, reviewers will receive a minimal statement during the review process indicating any financial or non-financial interests to avoid disclosing the authors' identities.

Regardless of the review model, all authors shall provide a statement at the end of the published article regarding their conflict of interest, using one of the following options:

The authors declare the following conflicts of interest: ...
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
The authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that do not allow them to disclose their conflicts of interest in this work.

Editors

Editors shall declare potential conflicts of interest to the Editor-in-Chief before agreeing to review a manuscript and discuss with the Editor-in-Chief whether they need to recuse themselves because there may be a concern of potential bias. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) collaborations between the editors and author(s), editors and author(s) who are based in the same institution, and editors and authors who have close personal relationships or associations with one of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the submitted manuscript. The editor shall request disclosure of any existing competing interests from all participants in the process. If a competing interest is discovered after the article's publication, the editors shall publish the corrections. The Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board shall not participate in reviewing if they have conflicts of interest.

Reviewers

Reviewers shall declare potential conflicts of interest to the Editor-in-Chief before agreeing to review a manuscript and should discuss with the Editor-in-Chief whether they need to recuse themselves because there may be a concern of potential bias. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) collaborations between the reviewer and author(s), reviewers and author(s) who are based in the same institution, and reviewers and authors who have close personal relationships or associations with one of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the submitted manuscript. The reviewers shall request disclosure of any existing competing interests from all participants of the review process.

The Journal applies the following mechanism for submitting and reviewing manuscripts by the Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board: manuscripts submitted by the Editor-in-Chief and members of the Editorial Board undergo all stages of review in accordance with the peer review policy. To ensure an impartial review of the Editor-in-Chief's and members of the Editorial Board manuscripts, they are reviewed by external reviewers, who are engaged by the Deputy Editors-in-Chief.

Permission to Use Third-Party Materials

The Journal's policy on obtaining permission to use third-party materials requires adherence to the following key provisions:

1. Mandatory Permissions

Any reproduction of a substantial part of a copyrighted work requires official permission from the copyright holder. This applies to the text itself and all visual materials, such as illustrations, diagrams, tables, photographs, and any other materials previously published.

2. Permission Procedure

To obtain permission to use material published by another publisher, author shall:

Identify the copyright holder of the specific material is planned to be use.
Contact the copyright holder (e.g., the publisher or author) to obtain formal written permission. It can be done through specialised platforms providing licensing rights or by inquiring with the publisher.
Ensure the permission covers use of the material in the context of publication in a scientific article, specifying the form of use, such as publication in a scientific journal or online repository.

3. Obtaining Permission

After receiving permission from the copyright holder, author shall:

Include written confirmation in the documentation accompanying the manuscript submitted to the Journal.
Ensure that all necessary references and attributions in the manuscript or under pictures, figures, and tables are correctly formatted in accordance with the copyright holder's requirements.

4. Author Responsibilities

The author is responsible for:

Providing proof of permission to use any copyrighted material in the manuscript.
Cite the source and ensure compliance with license terms, if applicable (e.g., Creative Commons open licenses).

5. Exclusions from Copyright Protection

The following materials are excluded from copyright protections:

These are born directly into the public domain, free to copy, reuse, adapt or distribute.
Open Access licensing: all materials are published under a Creative Commons International License by default. The license allows the unrestricted reuse of contents to maximise the reach and influence of the work, with the requirement being that the author is given attribution. This license allows readers to share any part of the work by any means and format, modify it for any purpose, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author, excluding commercial purposes.

Compliance with this policy is essential to maintain the legal integrity of the published work and protect the rights of all participants. Authors shall exercise caution when using third-party materials to avoid potential copyright infringement, as this may result in the rejection of publication or the withdrawal of the article if violations are found.

DATA ACCESS POLICY

The Editorial Board of the Journal ensures the transparency and reproducibility of scientific research. This policy applies to data that are not included directly in the text of the manuscript but may be needed by reviewers and other researchers to verify the reliability and validity of the conclusions presented in the article.

Authors Responsibilities

Authors shall be prepared to provide any additional data supporting the study results if requested by the editors or reviewers during the peer review process. They may include:

1. Raw data (e.g., observational or experimental data).

2. Data processing methods, scripts, and algorithms.

3. Experimental materials and protocols facilitating reproducibility of the results.

4. Any intermediate stages of analysis for verification of the final results.

Data Formats and Access

The authors provide data available in formats easy to reuse (e.g., CSV, Excel, or text formats for data, and PDF or protocols for methods and descriptions). Data may be:

1. Transmitted to reviewers directly through the Journal platform while maintaining confidentiality.

2. Stored in publicly accessible data repositories such as Zenodo or Mendeley Data with the option to temporarily restrict access until the article is published.

The Role of Reviewers

Reviewers have the right to request additional data from authors for thoroughly verification of the conclusions presented. These requests shall be justified and only pertain to data directly impacts the validity of the study.

Data Publishing

After reviewing is complete and a manuscript is accepted for publication, authors are encouraged to publish additional data in open access repositories for transparency and promotion of scientific data. The references to repositories and data shall be provided in the article.

Refusal to Provide Data

If authors refuse to provide data upon reviewers’ reasonable request, the Editorial Board can suspend the review process or refuse publication, considering the importance of the data for validating scientific conclusions.

Control and Responsibility

The Editorial Board can request and verify the accessibility of data from authors in response to substantiated complaints concerning the opacity of results post-publication. In instances of violations of principles of transparency, the Editorial Board may initiate an investigation and re-review the publication.

The Journal’s Editorial Board highly appreciates the contributions of the authors to the advancement of scientific transparency and actively supports initiatives aimed at facilitating data reuse. This policy is intended to ensure compliance with the highest standards of scientific ethics, thereby promoting transparency and reproducibility in scientific research.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

“Journal of regional and international competitiveness” is an open access journal and is subject to the CC BY-NC license.

The Journal’s open access policy refers to the free, immediate, online availability of research outputs such as Journal articles, combined with the rights to use these outputs fully in the digital environment. Journal content is open to all, with no access fees. This allows anyone to copy, download, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text of published articles, transfer them as data for software, index or use them for any other legal purposes, without financial, legal, technical, or medical infringement, excluding technologies inherent in access to the internet itself. The Journal permits authors of published materials to retain copyright without restriction. For authors of materials published in the Journal, copyright is defined as unlimited.

The Journal assigns DOIs (Digital Object Identifier) to electronic copies of individual articles.

FINANCIAL POLICY

The Journal of is funded by Yaroslavl State Technical University, Yaroslavl, Russia (the Journal’s Founder and Publisher).

No fee is charged for publishing an article in the Journal.

ADVERTISING POLICY

The Journal does not publish promotional materials. The Publisher shall make all the decisions related to advertising. The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject promotional materials from the Publisher that do not comply with the publication's policies.

PREPRINTS POLICY

Articles, which have been previously posted by the author on personal and or public websites that have no relationship to any other publishers, are allowed to be submitted to the journal.

POST-PUBLICATION POLICY

Changes in the manuscript accepted for publication which have gone through the stages of peer review could be included into one of three categories:

Addendum
Publisher Correction (Erratum)
Author Correction (Corrigendum)

Decisions about the types of correction are made by the Journal’s editors, sometimes with the advice of reviewers or Editorial Board Members. This process involves consultation with the authors of the article. However, the Editors/Editorial Board Members make the final decision about the necessity of the amendment and the category in which the amendment is published.

Addendum

Adding new material to the accepted article that supplements its original content (addendum) requires mandatory reviewing. Additional material is uploaded on the Journal’s website as a new manuscript with a link to the original article. If the new material replaces the original content of the accepted article, the editor may consider the publication of an erratum or a corrigendum.

Publisher Corrections (Erratum)

Erratum refers to a mistake made by the Publisher that compromises the accuracy of the version of record, the authors’ reputations, or the Journal’s reputation. An erratum is a brief statement made by the original article’s authors outlining any corrections made in response to mistakes or omissions. Corrections are not published for simple, obvious typographical errors.

Author Corrections (Corrigendum)

A corrigendum is a statement that the article’s authors committed a serious mistake. All corrections are typically approved by the Journal’s editors; corrigendum or author correction. The notification of a significant mistake committed by the author(s) that compromises the article’s scientific integrity, publishing history, authors' or Journal’s reputation, or all three.

If the author(s) consider(s) it necessary to make corrections after the publication of the article (corrigendum), they shall send a request via email (jraic.ystu@gmail.com) with justification to the Editorial Office of the Journal. The final decision on the publication of the correction (corrigendum) is made by the editors of the Journal and the Editorial Board Members after assessing the impact of the change on the scientific accuracy and significance of the published article. The identification of serious errors and inconsistencies in the published article may require its retraction.

ARCHIVING POLICY

All articles from the journal are placed or (and) indexed:

in the scientific electronic library ELIBRARY.RU
in the open library CyberLeninka.ru
in the electronic archive of Yaroslavl State Technical University

This policy was initially stimulated by the rise of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies, which were expected to increasingly be used by researchers and have now been updated to reflect evolving good practice. The policy aims to provide greater transparency and guidance to authors, reviewers, editors, readers and contributors. The Journal will continue to monitor developments in this area and will adjust or refine policies as appropriate.

Policy for the authors

The policy concerns generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process and do not consider its potential as a substitute for human critical thinking, expertise, and evaluation.

Purpose of AI and AI-assisted technologies Use

Authors are allowed to use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies only to improve the readability and linguistic quality of their manuscripts. The use of these technologies shall be supervised by human authors, and the results shall be carefully reviewed and edited by the authors as AI may generates text containing incorrect, incomplete, or biased statements.

Responsibility and Disclosure

Authors are responsible for the content of their work. The use of AI-assisted technologies shall be disclosed in the manuscript and in the published article to ensure transparency of the publication process.

Exclusion of AI as Co-Authors

AI and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Authorship implies responsibility and the performance of tasks that can only be assigned to a human. Authors ensure that their work is original, complies with ethical standards, and does not infringe the rights of third parties.

Use of AI in Illustrations and Graphic Design

Creating or Modifying Images Using AI is Prohibited

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies to create, modify, or process images in manuscripts is prohibited. Adjustments to brightness, contrast, and color balance are permitted, provided they do not distort the data presented.

Exception

If the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies is a part of the research methodology (e.g., in biomedical imaging), it shall be described in detail in the Methods section, including the name and characteristics of the AI-assisted technologies used.

Reviewer Policy

Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential documents. Their or their parts uploading to AI-assisted technologies is unacceptable as it may violate the authors' privacy and intellectual property rights. This also applies to reviews as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and authors. The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies to assist in scientific peer review is unacceptable as the peer review process requires critical thinking and independent assessment. Responsibility for the content of the review rests entirely with the reviewer.

The Journal admits the use of secure AI and AI-assisted technologies to check manuscripts for completeness, detect plagiarism, and identify suitable reviewers, while maintaining confidentiality standards.

Editors Policy

Manuscripts submitted for review are confidential documents. Their or their parts uploading to AI-assisted technologies is unacceptable as it may violate the authors' privacy and intellectual property rights. This also applies to the editors as they may contain confidential information about the manuscript and authors. Responsibility for the content of the review rests entirely with the editors. Editors are responsible for the editorial process, the final decision on the manuscript, and its communication to the authors.

For Authors

Author Guidelines
Publication Fee
Copyright and Publication Rights
Derivation and Plagiarism

AUTHOR GUIDELINES

Preparing the manuscript, authors are kindly requested to adhere to the following guidelines.

These guidelines prepared in accordance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and EASE (European Association of Science Editors) guidelines.

By submitting the manuscript, the author warrants that the paper is an original work that has not been previously published in Russian or other languages. If the paper has already been published, the author must inform the Editorial Team about the previous publication and provide written consent of the copyright holder to republish the paper. If the manuscript was written by more than one author, filling the author contributions is needed.

We do not accept:

previously published works or simultaneous submissions
submissions not meeting the below content and layout requirements

An eligible article should have the following structure:

A. Article details

B. Article text

C. Acknowledgements

D. Information about the conflict of interest

E. References

A. Article details

The following information should precede the article text (both in Russian and English languages):

initial letter of the given name and surname of the author (names of multiple authors should be separated by commas), academic degree and title, official place of work and position (full official name of the organization), contact e-mail address (to be published in the journal) for each author, ORCID iD or e-library SPIN-code
article title
abstract (200-250 words; the abstract should outline the contents of the article: goals, objective and methods of research, and a short conclusion)
keywords (up to 10)
JEL codes

B. Article text

General Requirements

The editorial office accepts manuscripts not exceeding 20 pages (format settings: Times New Roman, 12pt, 1.15 line spacing, page layout: 2 cm margins on all sides, standard tab (1.27 cm)), i.e. 40,000 characters (including spaces). We only accept articles submitted as .doc/docx files.

The translation from native languages should be made by professional translators or edited by proof-readers. Machine translations will be rejected. English-language papers should be written in accordance with the rules of punctuation, spelling and syntax.

The manuscript should be structured:

For research articles, the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) format is preferred.
For theoretical articles and reviews, the sections "Introduction", "Methods" or “Main part” and "Results" or "Conclusion" are required.

Unstructured manuscripts are not accepted for consideration.

Tables. Tables should be formatted as MS Word tables. The text and numbers within cells should be aligned using standard tools rather than spaces or empty lines. All tables should be numbered (consecutive numbering). The author should indicate the sources of the data given in the tables. All tables should be referenced in the text of the article.

Figures. The figures should be created in a format that allows editing and configuration changes without further recourse to the author. The figures created by other means than MS Word should have *jpeg (*jpg), or *tiff extension, with a resolution not less than 300 dpi. Graphs generated using specialized software should be saved or exported as PDF-document. All figures should be numbered (consecutive numbering). If the figure is not original the author’s obligation is to indicate the authorship.

Formulas. All formulas presented in the article should be numbered. The formulas should be editable and typed in MS Equation Editor or MathType. The automatic formula numbering and cross-references to the formulas or the reference list are unacceptable.

Citation. The Journal uses the Vancouver citation style. All sources referred to by the author should be mentioned in the text of the article. When creating a list of references, the author should refer to works available to reviewers and readers. Self-citation (inclusion the authors' works in the list of references) is allowed (however, no more than 10% of all references).

Links to Internet sources (news, reports, forums, videos), legal documents (laws, regulations, acts, etc.), statistical collections, newspaper publications, study guides should be put in footnotes (not in the list of sources). It is accepted to refer to dissertations/theses if these texts are available to the reader. Unpublished sources should not be referenced. For all Internet sources, including in footnotes, the date of access should be indicated.

C. Acknowledgements

The section includes all sources of external funding influencing the results, as well as information on people who contributed to the study but was not an author.

D. Information about the conflict of interest

The article should include any actual or potential conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, author should write that "the author declares no conflict of interest".

E. References

The list of references in Latin script should be formatted according to the APA standard.

The reference list should include only the sources you refer to in the article. References should be arranged in alphabetical order.

All titles in Russian should be accompanied with their translations into English, with the words “(In Russian)”, enclosed in parentheses, at the end.

PUBLICATION FEE

Publication in “Journal of regional and international competitiveness” is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any article processing or submission charges.

COPYRIGHT AND PUBLICATION RIGHTS

All articles are published under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC). This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

It includes the following elements:

BY – Credit must be given to the creator
NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted

The author retains copyright and reserves the right to use the paper and its parts in their scientific research by including reference to the original publication in the Journal. Once published, a paper may only be republished after obtaining the written consent of the Journal, indicating copyright and referencing the publication in the Journal.

By submitting an article for publication to the Editorial Team, the author grants the Journal the following rights:

the right to reproduce, publish, distribute and archive the paper or its parts in any form. Each copy of the paper must contain the name of the author (authors) of the Paper, copyright and license type (CC BY-NC 4.0);
the right to put it into the public domain;
the right to use metadata of the paper by distributing them and putting in the public domain and including them in various databases and information systems;
to store and process personal data.

By submitting the article for review to the journal, the authors confirm their authorship. When a manuscript is written by a group of authors, one of them handles the manuscript submission process, acknowledging all co-authors. Each co-author must have participated sufficiently in the study to be listed as a co-author.

In accordance with CRediT authorship is based on significant intellectual contribution at any of the following stages of research: conceptualization; methodology; software; validation; formal analysis; investigation; resources; data curation; writing – original draft; writing – review & editing; visualization; supervision; project administration; funding acquisition.

Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, including specific intellectual contribution, preparation and critical revision of the manuscript, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreement to be accountable for the work as a whole, cannot be listed as authors. Their contributions should be acknowledged in the “Acknowledgments” section of the article.

DERIVATION AND PLAGIARISM

“Journal of regional and international competitiveness” use plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to check the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.