Publication Ethics

PUBLICATION ETHICS

The editorial team of the Journal of Visual Theology strictly adhere to the standards of publishing ethics and makes every effort to prevent its possible violations, guided by the recommendations of international and Russian organizations on the ethics of scientific publications:

Compliance with ethical standards and rules is mandatory for all participants of the process of publishing scientific materials: authors, reviewers, editorial team members, editors and publishing staff

Publication ethics is understood as a set of basic principles that organize professional activities for the selection, publication, presentation and dissemination of scholarly materials.

All authors are equal in their right to publish in the Journal. The material received by the editor is sent for review under the condition of the author's compliance with the guidelines for authors. The material is accepted for publication on the basis of a positive review of the reviewer (reviewers). The editors reserve the right to reject the submitted article in case of non-compliance with the field of the journal, poor academic quality, violation of the rules of registration or on the basis of a reasoned negative review of at least one reviewer.

The responsibility of editorial team of the Journal of Visual Theology

The editorial team evaluates the content of manuscripts regardless of race, gender, religion, origin, citizenship or political views of the authors. Personal criticism of the author is also unacceptable. The manuscript accepted for consideration is a confidential document. The editors do not disclose information about the manuscript to anyone other than the authors, reviewers and publishers. Unpublished data obtained from submitted manuscripts may not be used in any form in other studies without the written consent of the author. The activity of the editors is focused on openness and objective reporting. Biased attitude or abuse of official position by the members of the editorial team in the course of their professional activities is not allowed. Editorial team members do not work with articles for which they have a conflict of interest.

The editor-in-chief is personally responsible for the decision to publish based on the results of the review. If necessary, the decision to publish the material is made by the editor-in-chief in cooperation with the members of the editorial board. The decision to publish is based on the academic quality and scientific significance of the work. The editor-in-chief ensures a high scientific level of published materials, organizes the process of objective reviewing, and makes balanced decisions on controversial issues, independent of commercial interests or personal preferences.

The executive secretary of the Journal represents the editorial team in the process of communication with the authors, checks the authors' compliance with the established “Author Guidelines” and checks the received materials through the “Anti-plagiarism” system, provides a document flow, controls the timing of reviewing and correcting materials sent to the author for revision, the timing of publication of each issue of the Journal and their placement on the Internet, as well as in scientometric databases. The executive secretary analyzes the best publishing practices, develops the Journal and provides support in registering the Journal in scientometric databases.

The editorial team publishes on the Journal's website information about corrections, rebuttals, and retractions of articles, if necessary. The editorial team, together with the publisher, in accordance with COPE guidelines for dealing with allegations of misconduct, will take appropriate action in the event of ethical claims relating to submitted or published material.

 The responsibility of the reviewers of the Journal of Visual Theology

Reviewing helps the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Visual Theology to decide whether to publish and, through appropriate interaction with the authors, contributes to the improvement of the submitted work.
The reviewer evaluates the work and agrees to participate in the process of reviewing material only if there is sufficient time to perform the review in a qualitative and timely manner. The reviewer treats the received material as a confidential document, does not pass on information about the article to third parties, and does not use the information obtained from the article for personal purposes. The reviewer's judgments must be objective, reasoned, correct, and unbiased. The reviewer should not participate in the examination of manuscripts in the event of a conflict of interest that is a result of any competitive, cooperative, and or other interactions and relationships with any of the authors, companies, and or other organizations involved in the creation or presentation of the works.
When reviewing the material, the reviewer is guided by the relevant COPE guidelines.

The responsibility of the publisher of the Journal of Visual Theology

The publisher upholds the ethical principles of scholarly publication and ensures accessibility, diversity, fairness, and inclusiveness in all aspects of publication. The publisher contributes to the development of the Journal and provides legal support to the editorial team when necessary. The publisher promotes good research practices, publishes revisions, clarifications and withdrawals of articles in which violations of scientific ethics or critical errors have been identified.

The responsibility of the author of the Journal of Visual Theology

1. Authorship
Only persons who have made a significant contribution to the study can be authors of the publication. The list of authors should contain only valid authors and should not include those who are not related to the paper. All co-authors must agree to submit material to the Journal, and must read and approve the final version of the material before publication.

2. Acknowledgement of Sources
The author is responsible for the accuracy of the published information and statements. The information given in the text should be accompanied by verifiable references to the source. All sources that were used in the work should be cited. The author acknowledges and indicates the contribution of any other persons (informants, experts, translators, etc.) to the process of conducting research and preparing material for publication.

3. Originality and Plagiarism
By submitting the material to the editorial team, the author guarantees that this work is original. If the article is based on previously published materials, the author notifies the editorial team about this. The author avoids self-plagiarism in the manuscript and artificially increasing the volume of publications. The author provides appropriate bibliographic references when using the works of other authors. Plagiarism in any form constitutes unethical research behavior and is unacceptable.

4. Multiple, Redundant and Simultaneous Publications
The author guarantees that the submitted material is not under consideration by the editors of other journals. Simultaneous submission of the same material to different journals is unacceptable. An author does not submit a previously published article to another journal for review. In general, an author should not publish material, mostly dealing with the same research, in more than one journal as an original publication. It is permissible to republish certain types of materials (translations) of high scientific significance for the field of visual theological research, with explicit reference to the original publication and with the consent of the first publisher.

5. Data Access and Retention
The author should be prepared to provide access to raw data relevant to the submission if necessary (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases). This data should be retained for a reasonable time after publication of the material.

6. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest
The author must notify the editorial team of any potential conflicts of interest that may affect the results and interpretation of the article and guarantee that all possible conflicts of interest related to copyright are resolved.

7. Significant errors in published papers
If significant errors are found in a published work, the author immediately notifies the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Visual Theology and works with him to have them corrected as soon as possible. The author responds correctly to comments and observations that may arise in the process of reviewing the submitted material.

 

Due to the open nature of knowledge and freedom of critical thinking inherent in the process of scholarly inquiry, the debatable nature and style of published author's materials, judgments and conclusions are recognized as acceptable.