Norms and Standards
The editorial board of the journal is guided in its work by the current legal requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation with regard to copyright and plagiarism, by the ethical principles upheld by the community of leading scholarly periodical publishers, by the norms approved at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity (Singapore, July 22–24, 2010), as well as other normative documents governing the ethics of publishing scholarly findings.
The scientific and ethical standards adopted by the Editorial Board may not be altered in favor of commercial or business interests.
Principles of Scholarly Publication
Adherence to ethical norms and rules is mandatory for all participants in the scholarly publication process. All participants in the publication process are guided by:
The principle of scholarly objectivity and independence in the selection of research materials:
The rejection of articles is carried out solely on the basis of the relevance, scholarly significance, and originality of the submitted materials, as well as their compliance with the journal’s stated requirements and subject area. The decision to publish or reject an article may not be influenced by the author’s race, ethnicity, citizenship, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political views;
The principle of integrity and competence of scholarly evaluation and preparation of materials for publication:
All materials submitted for publication undergo a plagiarism and improper textual borrowing check and a double-blind peer review process. Articles containing personal criticism are rejected without review.
The principle of confidentiality:
Information contained in the materials submitted for publication may not be used by the editorial staff, reviewers, or members of the Editorial Board in their own research, not disclosed to third parties without the written permission of the author. Confidential information obtained in the course of peer review may not be disclosed or used for personal gain;
The principles of collegiality and transparency:
All members of the Editorial Board participate in shaping the content of the journal and bear equal responsibility for the quality of the published materials. When making publication decisions, the Editorial Board strives to prevent conflicts of academic and personal interests. If situations of conflict are identified, the Editorial Board takes all necessary measures to remedy any infringement of author’s rights.
Responsibilities of the Editor
The Editor-in-Chief of the journal is responsible for:
- administering the peer review process and communicating with authors and members of the Editorial Board to ensure the journal’s publication schedule;
- the final decision on the publication of the submitted material, which is made taking into account the opinions of reviewers and members of the Editorial Board;
- making available, upon request from the publisher, founder, or other third parties (including representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation), the materials related to the preparation of the article for publication, which are retained for at least five years from the date of receipt by the editorial office.
Responsibilities of Reviewers
Reviewers are responsible for:
- scholarly soundness, objectivity, and independence of the evaluation conducted; personal criticism of the author is unacceptable;
- conducting the review in light of the current state of religious studies research, and taking into account the diversity of existing points of view on the issues addressed in the article;
- ensuring that materials submitted for review cannot be used by the reviewer for personal purposes or disclosed to third parties. A reviewer has the right to decline a review and to notify the Editor-in-Chief if a conflict of interest arises.
Responsibilities of Authors
Authors who submit materials to the journal for publication are responsible for:
- the scholarly reliability, originality, theoretical rigor, and ethical integrity of the research findings presented. Articles and materials offered for publication must be original, i.e., not previously published anywhere;
- ensuring that all borrowed statements and ideas of other individuals are properly attributed in accordance with copyright and citation requirements;
- ensuring that articles written with co-authors accurately reflect the contributions of all persons who participated in the research and influenced its course, and that references are provided to works that were significant in conducting the research. Persons who provided only technical, advisory, organizational, moral, or material support may not be listed as co-authors.
Ethics Violation and Retraction
The Editorial Board and the publisher have the right to reject any materials that violate the principles set out above. In the even that a published article is found to contain violations of scholarly publication ethics (plagiarism, improper borrowing, concealment of conflicts of interest, data falsification, or similar infractions), the Editorial Board and the publisher have the right to retract the article, notifying the author within 10 days of the decision. The Editorial Board may carry out retraction of an article on the basis of an official request from the author or authors of the article setting out reasons for their decision, on the basis of its own expert assessment, or on the basis of information received by the editorial office.