Editorial policy
The Theological Bulletin of the Smolensk Orthodox Theological Seminary is a scientific publication of the Smolensk Orthodox Theological Seminary. The purpose of the journal is to promote the development of theological and historical disciplines within the framework of modern humanitarian research. One of the key conditions on the way to achieving this goal is compliance with ethical norms and rules adopted by leading international scientific publications.
Compliance with them is mandatory for all parties involved in the process of publishing scientific papers. These include: members of the editorial board and council, authors, reviewers and other editorial staff. The editorial policy of the journal is based on the recommendations of the International Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE Code of Conduct).
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CHIEF EDITOR AND THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The editorial board headed by the editor-in-chief carries out the general management of the journal. The editor-in-chief is responsible for the decision on a positive or negative decision on the publication of materials received by the editorial office. These decisions are made based on the conclusions of the reviewers and members of the editorial board. At the same time, the assessment of manuscripts is made on the basis of the scientific value and importance of the material under consideration for the researchers and readers of the journal.
The editor-in-chief and all editorial staff do not disclose information about the manuscript and its author, with the exception of the author himself, reviewers, and potential reviewers.
Editorial board members are obliged to refuse to work with the manuscripts of authors with whom they have a conflict of interest related to competition, personal or other forms of relationships with authors, or with organizations. Editorial staff should require all participants in the publishing process to disclose competing interests and related statements, if discovered after publication.
Any violation of ethical norms and rules during publication should be considered regardless of the limitation period.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF REVIEWERS
Peer review aims to assist the editor-in-chief in making editorial evaluations. In addition, the task of the reviewer is to improve the scientific level of the article. Peer review has an important function of creating conditions for scientific discussion and is an integral component of the scientific method.
The identities of the reviewers are not disclosed to the authors, just as the identities of the authors are not disclosed to the reviewers, which is a prerequisite for the principle of «blind review».
A specialist who is invited to become a reviewer, in the event that he considers his qualifications in a certain area of scientific knowledge insufficient, is obliged to inform the editor-in-chief about this and refuse to review. A similar decision should be made by a candidate for reviewer if there is not enough time required for proper consideration of the manuscript and writing a review within a certain time frame.
All manuscripts received by the reviewer are confidential documents, discussion and display of which to other persons is possible only with the permission of the editor-in-chief.
The conclusions of the reviewer must be objective. Personal criticism of the author is unacceptable.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AUTHORS
The authors of the article can only be those persons who made a decisive contribution to its creation, concept and conclusions obtained in the course of the study. All who participated in this process should be designated as co-authors. In the event that there are other persons who, in one way or another, contributed to certain aspects of a scientific project, they should be appropriately designated.
All sources, one way or another used in the publication, should be indicated as such in the references and the list of references. At the same time, authors are obliged to make sure of the original nature of their work. Plagiarism is a variety of forms, including: attributing someone else’s work to oneself, borrowing significant fragments of someone else’s work without attribution, publishing conclusions and conclusions previously reached by other researchers. All forms of plagiarism are ethical violations and unacceptable.
Authors should not submit the same manuscript to the editors of different journals at the same time. In addition, the publication of manuscripts that investigate the same issues is also unacceptable. This is unethical.
All authors must disclose in their manuscript any financial or other material conflict of interest that may affect the results or interpretation of the study. All sources of financial support for the project must be disclosed. Authors should be advised of potential conflicts of interest in advance.
When an author discovers a material error or inaccuracy in his published work, he is obliged to immediately notify the editor-in-chief of the journal or the editorial board and cooperate with the editorial board in order to correct or refute. If the editor-in-chief or publisher from a third party becomes aware that the published work contains material errors, the author must immediately withdraw or correct the article, or provide the editor-in-chief with proof of the correctness of the published material.
