1. All papers proposed for publication in Urban Studies and Practices are peer-reviewed and approved by the editorial board.

2. After papers are submitted to the editorial office, they are reviewed compliance with the journal’s theme and formal requirements. Authors are informed in the event a topic does not correspond with the journal’s field of interest.

3. Articles are sent for peer review; reviewers are selected from the editorial board (internal review). The paper may also be sent to an external expert (external review).

4. The review procedure is anonymous both for the reviewer and the author.

5. Following the review, the paper may be rejected, sent to the author for revision, or accepted for publication.

6. A review must include:

• Evaluation of the contents of the paper and the possibility of publishing it in the journal;
• Detailed list of errors (if any) in the methods and tools used;
• Suggestions for text revisions.

7. If the reviewer gives a positive conclusion, an editorial executive informs an author that a paper has been added to the editorial portfolio for publication.

8. If the reviewer gives a negative conclusion, the paper is discussed at an editorial board working group session, which decides either to reject the paper or obtain an additional review from an independent expert.

9. In the event a paper is rejected, a motivated refusal (signed by the journal’s executive secretary) is sent to the author.

10. The editorial office sends the authors of submitted papers copies of reviews or motivated refusals; it also sends copies of reviews to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation upon request.

11. Reviews are stored at the publishing house and the editorial office for 5 years.

12. The final decision on a paper’s publication and approval of the issue contents is made at an editorial board meeting.

13. The procedure of paper review and approval takes approximately 2 months, after which papers are published in order of precedence. The editorial board may decide to publish a paper out of sequence.

14. The editorial office’s procedure for preparing a paper for publication includes ordinary stylistic editing and ensuring compliance with the journal’s editorial standards. Editorial changes are coordinated with the authors.