About the Journal

ISSN 2345-0355 (Online)

Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development is the international, peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (former name Aleksandras Stulginskis University) the leading institution of research in agricultural & rural business management and bioeconomics in Lithuania.

The aim of the journal is to promote exchange in scientific knowledge by publishing scientific articles in social sciences areas: management and administration, business studies, public administration, economic, as well as application oriented, practically and / or theoretically associated with the countryside, agriculture and its infrastructure. There could be also published theoretical articles in the previous mentioned fields.

The journal provides a platform to share papers for scientists, academicians and professionals of scientific institutions from around the world.

FOCUS AND SCOPE

  • Frequency. Journal is published quarterly, in March, June, September and December.
  • Language of the article. Articles are published in English language. 
  • Indexing. The journal is indexed by the international databases: Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection, Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), EBSCO, Business Source Complete, CAB Abstracts, Ulrich’s, DOAJ, OAJI, IndexCopernicus, ERIH PLUS, AcademicKeys.com, Google Scholar.
  • Journal provides DOI (Digital Object Identifier) to each published article.
  • Originality. Presented articles must be original, not published elsewhere, and should correspond with the aims and scope of the journal. The editorial board uses the iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software for checking the originality of all manuscripts.

         Peer Review. All manuscripts are peer-reviewed by two experts, a double-blind review system is applied.

  • Publication fee. The fee for 8 pages publication (16 000 characters without spaces) - 150 EUR (excluding VAT). Each additional paper of submitted publication - 20 EUR (2000 characters without spaces) (excluding VAT).
  • The articles are published according to the author's originals. However, in order to ensure the scientific English standards of the journal publications, manuscripts are submitted for revision to the management/economics language specialists.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

  • All articles published in Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development (MTSRBID) are under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, that the work is not used for commercial purposes, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
  • Authors retain the copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy. However, authors are required to transfer copyrights associated with commercial use to the Publisher.

ARCHIVING

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

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING

  • Authors retain the copyright of their work published in Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development (MTSRBID), with first publication rights granted to Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post items submitted to this journal on personal or institutional websites, prior to and after publication (while providing the bibliographic details of that publication). 

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION STATEMENT

  • Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development (MTSRBID) are committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards. Our ethical statements are based on COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.
  • In order to provide our readers with the journal of high quality, MTSRBID is guided by the following principles:

EDITORS

  • The editor is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the academic record, for having processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish and for precluding business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
  • Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
  • The editor ensures that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests).
  • The editor has systems in place to give authors the opportunity to make original research articles freely available.
  • The editor has systems to ensure that material submitted to their journal remains confidential while under review.
  • MTSRBID employs the double-blind peer review: reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. There are at least three or more reviewers for the total number of articles in each issue.

REVIEWERS

  • The reviewers of MTSRBID assist the editors in taking the decision of publishing a submitted manuscript. By formulating suggestions to the authors, the reviewers can contribute to the improvement of submitted works.
  • Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
  • Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
  • The reviewers should comment on the originality of submissions and should be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism.

AUTHORS

  • The authors ensure that they have submitted original works and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
  • Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal is considered an unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
  • Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
  • When an author founds error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to notify the journal editor and cooperate with him to retract or correct the paper.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

  • Manuscripts submitted to Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development are subject to peer review to maintain the standards of the journal, promote rigorous research within the fields, and to offer authors constructive feedback on their submissions.
  • Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development have a 'double-blind' review process: Authors are not told who reviewed their paper, and referees do not know the name of the authors whose papers they review. The peer referees’ identity remains unknown to the authors.
  • Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place in the journal system or via e-mail. Although the peer-review process is accelerated by the use of electronic communication, traditional, high-quality peer-review standards are applied to all manuscripts submitted to the journal.
  • Peer reviewers are asked to give their opinion on a number of issues pertinent to the quality and suitability of a paper and to judge papers on grounds of originality and importance. We pride ourselves on providing constructive and formative feedback to authors.

          Reviewer Guidelines Reviewers of the journal are asked to consider the following points during their evaluation:

  • Does the paper have clear aims and objectives/research questions that can be achieved within the scope of the journal paper?
  • Does the paper make a contribution to knowledge?
  • Is the work suitably grounded in the literature to justify its contribution and frame the analysis/evaluation?
  • Is the research/evaluation methodology justified, clear, and appropriate? (Including ethical considerations/approval where appropriate)
  • Does the analysis/ evaluation have a clear flow and logical argument?
  • Does the analysis/evaluation link to an appropriate discussion and conclusions?
  • Is it presented in a way that is suitable for the journal’s international audience?

           Peer reviewers will have five possible options, for any paper:

  • Accept manuscript (i.e. no need for any revision).
  • Accept after revision (i.e. accepted if the author makes the requested revisions).
  • Revise and resubmit (i.e. accepted or rejected after revisions have been made - the paper will be sent out for another peer review round).
  • Reject manuscript (i.e. if the manuscript is not sufficiently developed for publication)
  • See comments (i.e. if the reviewer cannot choose from any of the above).
  • In addition, papers may be returned to authors by the Editors prior to review, if judged to be out of scope, out of the limits of the word length guidance or not sufficiently prepared for publication.
  • To facilitate rapid publication, authors are given a maximum of 6 weeks for revision. After 6 weeks, revised manuscripts will normally be considered new submissions.