1. The submission process

All manuscripts to be considered for publication in The South East European Journal of Economics and Business should be submitted in electronic form via the Journal's online submission system available at
https://journal.efsa.unsa.ba/index.php/see/about/submissions. 

If you are submitting to this Journal for the first time, please choose the Register option in the editorial system. If you already have an account, please select 'Login' and use your existing username and password to be used in all future correspondence regarding your submission. 

If you have successfully logged in, from the Author's Menu, click "Make a new submission" and complete all stages to submit your manuscript. You can move forward and come back to a stage (if needed). Please follow the instructions on the screen. When submission is completed, a confirmation email will be sent automatically. 

Under normal circumstances, an author cannot submit (either s/he directly or through a co-author) more than two manuscripts within any 12-month period.  Manuscripts that are once rejected by the South East European Journal of Economics and Business will not be considered for publication again, even if the authors use a new dataset or a new model. This is only possible if the Editor in his or her decision letter explicitly leaves open this possibility. 

2. Required submission documents 

Authors must submit two separate documents: the Title Page and the Blind Manuscript. A separate Cover Letter may also be included and should be clearly labelled if it is intended to provide additional information to the editors.

Title Page 

The title page must include:
•    The full title of the manuscript; 
•    Names of all authors, along with their institutional affiliations and email addresses; 
•    The corresponding author clearly identified; 
•    Acknowledgements (if applicable); 
•    Funding information (if applicable); 
•    Conflict of interest disclosure (if applicable). 

Blind manuscript

The blind manuscript must:
•    Be fully anonymised to support the double-blind peer review process; 
•    Include the full title of the manuscript; 
•    Include an unstructured abstract of no more than 150 words;
•    Contain only the manuscript content, including the abstract, keywords, main body text, tables, figures, and references.
•    Contain at least 3 JEL codes that should be placed immediately below the "Keywords" (JEL codes) 

3.    Manuscript format and style guide

The manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the Journal's formatting guidelines. Authors are encouraged to carefully follow the requirements below to ensure a smooth review and publication process.

All manuscripts submitted on or after 1st September 2026 must follow the new formatting guidelines. The new style will appear in published issues beginning with Volume 22, Issue 1 (2027).

Manuscript format    
Manuscripts should adhere to the following formatting specifications: double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, with 1-inch margins on all sides. Please submit manuscripts in Microsoft Word format. Single spacing should be used only for tables and figures. Page numbers are to be placed in the upper right-hand corner of every page. A tab indent should begin each paragraph.

Manuscript length    
The manuscript should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words. This includes all text, such as the unstructured abstract, references, and all text in tables, figures, and appendices.

Manuscript title     
The manuscript title should be concise, clear, accurate, and unambiguous, and should accurately represent the content of the paper.

Manuscript structure
The manuscript should be organised logically so that readers (and reviewers) can easily follow your argument and understand your contribution. A common and effective structure includes the following key sections: 

1. Introduction
Begin with a clear purpose statement that explains the significance of your research, why it is original, and what contribution it makes. Provide background context and outline the structure of your paper. 

2. Theoretical background/Literature review 
Proceed with providing the review of the relevant theoretical frameworks and existing literature related to the research topic. It should critically synthesise prior studies, identify gaps or limitations in the current body of knowledge, and clearly position the study's contribution within the existing literature.

3. Methodology
Describe the research design, methods, materials, and procedures used in your study. This section should be detailed enough to allow others to replicate your work if applicable. 

4. Findings / Results
Present the main results of your research, focusing on the most important facts and insights. Use figures, tables, or graphs as needed to support clarity and impact. 

5. Discussion
Interpret your findings, explain how they relate to the research question and existing literature, discuss their implications, and acknowledge any limitations of your study. 

6. Conclusion
Summarise your key findings and their significance, highlight contributions to the field, and suggest avenues for future research. Avoid introducing new material in this section. 

7. Appendices (if applicable)
Include supplementary material that supports the main text but would interrupt the flow if included in the main sections. 

Acknowledgements    
If you wish to include an acknowledgements section, please prepare them in a separate Microsoft Word document – Title Page document and upload them together with your manuscript submission. The acknowledgements section may include recognition of funding sources, institutional support, or individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria.

Research funding    
All sources of external research funding must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript. Authors should provide the full name (s) of the funding organisation(s) and, where applicable, the grant number(s). The statement should describe the role of the funder or financial sponsor in the entire research process, from study design to submission. If the funder had no involvement in any of these stages, please include a statement such as: "The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript."

Abstract    
The manuscript file must include an unstructured abstract no more than 150 words. It should provide a concise summary of the study's purpose, methodology, key findings, and main conclusions. Authors should avoid using references, tables, figures, or undefined abbreviations in the abstract. The abstract must be written in clear and accessible language so that it can be easily understood by a broad academic readership. The abstract should include up to 7 keywords. Authors are encouraged to avoid multi-word keywords and to use abbreviations only when they are commonly accepted in the literature. The JEL classification code to facilitate electronic access to this manuscript should also be provided with the abstract. 
Headings
Headings within the manuscript should follow a consistent format to ensure clarity and readability. Major headings must be centred on the page and typed in all uppercase letters. Subheadings should be formatted flush left, boldface, uppercase and lowercase lettering. Authors should avoid using footnotes in the body of the manuscript. Where additional notes are absolutely necessary, they should be presented as endnotes, placed in a numbered list after the body of the text and before the reference list. However, the use of endnotes is strongly discouraged, as they may disrupt the manuscript's flow.

Notes or endnotes 
Notes or endnotes should be used only when absolutely necessary. In the text, they must be identified by consecutive numbers enclosed in square brackets (e.g., [1], [2], [3]). The corresponding notes should then be listed and explained in numerical order at the end of the article, following the main text and before the reference list. Authors are encouraged to minimise the use of notes, as excessive reliance on them can disrupt the manuscript's flow.

Figures
All figures must be prepared as clean, crisp, black-and-white, camera-ready copies. Authors should avoid grey-scale shading; instead, use hatch marks, dots, or lines to ensure clarity in reproduction. Each figure must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2) and provided with a clear, descriptive caption. Figures should be incorporated within the text of the manuscript at the point where they are first referenced, rather than grouped at the end. Authors must ensure that all text and numbers in figures are legible, and that, where permission has been obtained for reproduction, appropriate acknowledgements or credit lines are included in the captions.

Tables
All tables should be typed clearly and incorporated within the main body of the manuscript at the point where they are first referenced. Tables must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and each should be given a brief, descriptive title. Authors should ensure that tables are self-explanatory, with any superscripts or asterisks placed next to the relevant items and fully explained in the table footnotes. Non-significant decimal places should be omitted for clarity, and data should be arranged so that comparable items read down columns rather than across rows.

References
List references alphabetically, the principal author's surname first, followed by publication date. The reference list should be typed double-spaced, with a hanging indent, and on a separate page. Do not number references. 

The South East European Journal of Economics and Business follows the latest edition of APA referencing style. More info at: https://apastyle.apa.org/. 

Reference examples available at https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf

4.    Post-submission process 

All submissions undergo an initial editorial screening. At this stage, the Editor (s) may decline a manuscript if it falls outside the Journal's aims and scope or if the language or overall quality is deemed insufficient. Manuscripts considered suitable are then sent to at least two independent reviewers for double-anonymous peer review. Based on the reviewers' reports, the Editor (s) will decide whether to accept the manuscript, request minor or major revisions, or decline the submission.

5.    If your manuscript is accepted for publication 

Following acceptance of the manuscript, authors will receive a link to the licence agreement. The form should be reviewed to confirm the accuracy of all information, including contact details, affiliations, and name spelling, before being submitted electronically.

Once the completed licence form has been received, the article will enter the production process. This includes editorial checks, copyediting, and typesetting, after which page proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for review. Authors are responsible for carefully checking the proofs, correcting any typographical or grammatical errors, and verifying their author details. Substantive changes or rewriting of the text are not permitted at this stage.

After the page proofs have been finalised, the fully typeset and corrected version of record will be published online as an EarlyCite article. Although EarlyCite articles are not yet assigned to a specific volume or issue, they are published with a digital object identifier (DOI) and are fully citable. Articles will subsequently be allocated to an issue in chronological order according to the Journal's publication schedule.

Article Processing Charges

The South East European Journal of Economics and Business does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.

Copyright   

Authors retain copyright of their work.

All articles published in the South East European Journal of Economics and Business are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND 4.0).

Under the terms of the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license, users are permitted to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) under the following conditions:
•  Attribution - appropriate credit must be given to the original author(s), a link to the license must be provided, and any changes (if technically unavoidable) must be indicated
•  NonCommercial - the material may not be used for commercial purposes
•  NoDerivatives - if the material is remixed, transformed, or built upon, the modified material may not be distributed

Authors grant the University of Sarajevo – School of Economics and Business a non-exclusive license to publish, distribute, archive, preserve, and identify themselves as the original publisher of the work.

Authors may deposit and share the published version of their articles in institutional repositories, personal websites, and academic social networks, provided that appropriate citation to the original publication is included.

No additional permission is required from the publisher or the authors for uses permitted under the CC BY NC ND 4.0 license.