Author Guidelines

Ekonomski fokus publishes original research articles, review articles, preliminary communications, professional papers, and other contributions in the fields of economics, business economics, finance, and related disciplines.

Before submitting a manuscript, authors are expected to familiarize themselves with the journal’s aims and scope, peer review procedure, and publication ethics policies. By submitting a manuscript, the author confirms that the work is original, has not been previously published, and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal.

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts are submitted electronically through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform of Ekonomski fokus.

During submission, authors must provide complete metadata for the manuscript and for all authors. Particular attention should be paid to the accuracy of author names, affiliations, e-mail addresses, and ORCID identifiers.

The main manuscript file should be submitted in an editable format, preferably Microsoft Word (.docx). The file intended for peer review must be anonymized in order to ensure a double-blind review process.

Types of Papers

The journal considers manuscripts that, according to their content and methodological approach, fall within one of the categories defined by the editorial board, particularly original research articles, review articles, preliminary communications, and professional papers.

The final classification of a manuscript is determined by the editorial board on the basis of its content, peer review reports, and applicable criteria of scholarly publishing.

Language of the Manuscript

Manuscripts may be submitted in Croatian or English.

For every manuscript, the title, abstract, and keywords must be provided in both Croatian and English, regardless of the language of the main text.

The manuscript must be linguistically and terminologically appropriate. The editorial board may request additional language editing before final acceptance.

Manuscript Structure

The structure of the manuscript should correspond to the nature of the research and the field to which it belongs. For empirical research articles, the following structure is recommended:

• title
• abstract
• keywords
• introduction
• literature review and/or theoretical framework
• research questions and/or hypotheses, where applicable
• research methodology
• results
• discussion
• conclusion
• limitations and recommendations for future research, where relevant
• references
• appendices, if applicable.

Authors may adapt the structure to the specific characteristics of their research, provided that the manuscript is clearly and logically organized.

Title

The title should be clear, informative, and sufficiently precise to reflect the content of the research.

The title must be provided in both Croatian and English.

Unnecessarily long titles, unexplained abbreviations, and formulations that do not contribute to understanding the subject of the paper should be avoided.

Abstract

The abstract should briefly present the subject and objective of the research, the methodology used, the main findings, and the principal scientific or practical contribution of the paper.

The abstract should not contain references, tables, figures, or unexplained abbreviations.

For manuscripts written in Croatian, an English abstract must also be provided. For manuscripts written in English, a Croatian abstract is required.

Keywords

Authors should provide an appropriate number of keywords that clearly describe the topic and scope of the manuscript.

Keywords must be provided in both Croatian and English. The use of standardized academic terminology is recommended in order to facilitate indexing and retrieval in scholarly databases.

Author Information

For each author, the OJS system should include the full name, institutional affiliation, country, e-mail address, and ORCID identifier, where available.

The corresponding author must be clearly identified.

The order of authors should be agreed upon before submission. Changes to authorship after acceptance are permitted only upon a justified request and with the consent of all authors.

Manuscript Anonymization

Because the journal uses a double-blind peer review process, the manuscript file submitted for review must not contain information that reveals the identity of the authors.

Authors should remove names, affiliations, acknowledgements that could disclose authorship, and other direct identifying information.

Self-citations should be written neutrally, without expressions such as “in our previous study”.

Author details are entered separately in the OJS system.

Manuscript Formatting

The manuscript should be prepared in a clear and consistent manner. Headings and subheadings should be used hierarchically and numbered only where this improves clarity.

The text should follow standard academic and professional writing conventions. Internationally accepted symbols, units, and terminology should be used.

Excessive document formatting is unnecessary, as accepted manuscripts are adapted to the journal’s graphic and technical standards during production.

Tables

Tables should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the manuscript and should have clear titles.

Each table should be understandable without extensive explanation in the main text. The source of the data should be stated directly below the table when the data are not the result of the authors’ own research.

Tables should preferably be submitted in editable form rather than as images.

Figures and Graphs

Figures, graphs, diagrams, and other visual material must be of sufficient quality and readability for electronic and, where applicable, print publication.

Each figure or graphic element must have a number and a title. The source must be provided when the material is not the original work of the authors.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to use copyrighted material.

Citations and References

Citations and the reference list must be formatted consistently according to the bibliographic style used by the journal.

For Ekonomski fokus, the recommended standard is APA, 7th edition (APA 7).

All sources cited in the text must be included in the reference list, and every source listed in the references must be cited in the text.

Where available, the DOI should be provided in URL form, for example:

https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy of all bibliographic information before submission.

Research Data and Reproducibility

Authors should ensure that research findings are presented accurately, transparently, and in a manner that allows appropriate scholarly verification.

Where applicable and permitted by ethical, legal, and contractual restrictions, authors are encouraged to make research data, code, and other materials necessary for the verification of results available.

If data cannot be made publicly available, the reason for their unavailability should be stated.

Ethical Approval

For research involving human participants, personal data, or other content requiring ethical approval, authors must confirm that the research was conducted in accordance with appropriate ethical standards.

The editorial board may request evidence of ethical approval or other relevant documentation.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors must disclose any financial, professional, personal, or other relationships that could be perceived as an actual or potential conflict of interest.

If no conflict of interest exists, authors are encouraged to state this explicitly.

Research Funding

If the research was funded by a project, institution, foundation, or other funding source, the name of the funder and, where applicable, the project or grant number should be provided.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Generative artificial intelligence tools may not be listed as authors.

If artificial intelligence tools were used in manuscript preparation, data analysis, programming, image generation, or other substantively relevant parts of the research process, their use should be transparently disclosed in an appropriate section of the manuscript.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, reliability, and ethical acceptability of the entire manuscript, regardless of the technological tools used.

Originality and Plagiarism

Submitted manuscripts must represent the authors’ original work.

Plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data manipulation, fabrication or falsification of results, inappropriate authorship, simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to multiple journals, and other forms of research misconduct are not permitted.

The editorial board reserves the right to screen manuscripts using appropriate tools and procedures for detecting similarity and possible violations of publication ethics.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts that pass the initial editorial screening are sent for double-blind peer review.

As a rule, each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent reviewers. Based on their reports and the editorial assessment, a manuscript may be accepted, accepted with minor revisions, returned to the authors for major revisions, or rejected.

A detailed description of the process is available on the Peer Review Process page.

Manuscript Revision

If revisions are requested, authors should submit a revised version of the manuscript together with a response to the reviewers’ comments.

Authors are encouraged to respond to each comment individually and clearly indicate where the corresponding revision has been made.

If a particular recommendation is not followed, the reasons should be explained.

Copyright and Open Access

Before publication, authors must accept the copyright and licensing terms applied by Ekonomski fokus.

Information on the journal’s open access model, copyright policy, and applicable licence is provided on a separate journal policy page.

After Acceptance

After acceptance, the manuscript undergoes final editorial and technical preparation for publication.

Authors may receive the final version of the manuscript for proofreading before publication. At this stage, only minor linguistic, typographical, and technical corrections are generally permitted. Substantial changes to the content after final acceptance require editorial approval.

The published article receives its final bibliographic information and, where applicable, a DOI identifier.

Author Responsibility

By submitting a manuscript, the authors confirm that they have read and accepted the journal’s policies, that all listed authors have made a significant contribution to the work, that they are familiar with its contents, and that they agree to the submission of the manuscript to Ekonomski fokus.

The authors are responsible for the content of the manuscript, the accuracy of the data, proper citation of sources, compliance with copyright requirements, and adherence to applicable ethical standards.