All research articles undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review including initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing. If these articles are accepted, they are marked as “peer reviewed”.

Referees are asked to assess the quality of submitted papers and to point out mistakes, errors, omissions, unclear passages, and digressions. They may also offer substantive criticism. If, however, a high-quality paper encounters substantive criticism by a referee, the editors may still accept the paper without revisions concerning the substantial points of disagreement, and invite the referee to publish a comment, to which the author may respond.

To encourage discussions of current topics, contributions to the discussion section have to pass only a lighter and faster review process by the editors. The same applies to book reviews and to some invited contributions to special topics marked as ‘article’ (see Concept and Structure).