Editorial Policy

The Philologia journal publishes papers on theoretical and applied linguistics, literature, cultural studies and other related scientific disciplines. The journal was еstablished in 2003 by a group of scholars from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, under the auspices of the Philologia Association. The initial mission of the journal was to provide young philologists with a publishing opportunity. The Philologia journal quickly earned its reputation as a journal recognized both nationally and internationally.

The Philologia journal publishes original peer-reviewed papers that have not been published previously. Authors are welcome to submit original scientific articles, (critical) review articles, book reviews and conference reports.

The Philologia journal is an Open Access journal.

Contributions to the journal may be submitted in Serbian (Roman alphabet), and in one of the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. A paper may also be published in a language other than the ones given above with the consent of the Editorial staff. If the submitted paper is written in Serbian, the author shall provide a summary in English, and where necessary in an additional language. If the submitted paper is written in a language other than Serbian, the author shall provide a summary in Serbian and in English, and where necessary in an additional language. 

The Journal is published once a year, typically in December.

The journal is indexed in the following databases: DOAJ, EBSCO, ERIH PLUS and MLA Bibliography. Digital copies of the journal are archived in the Digital Repository of the National Library of Serbia.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EDITOR AND THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The final decision regarding the publication of papers lies entirely with the Editor-in-Chief of Philologia. The Editor-in-Chief is guided by the Editorial Policy and is constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. As a rule, the Editorial staff will inform the author whether the manuscript has been screened in within 15 days of submisision. Normally, the Editor-in-Chief will inform the author whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within 90 days from the date of the manuscript submission.

The Editor-in-Chief must hold no conflict of interest about the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the manuscript shall be made by the Editorial Board. If there is a conflict of interest in one or more members of the Editorial Board, those members will be excluded from the process of selecting reviewers and deciding the fate of the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief and the members of the Editorial Board must duly disclose any conflict of interest.

The Editor-in-Chief shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the reviewing procedure.

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal constitutes ethical misconduct. Such a manuscript will be automatically eliminated from the reviewing process.

In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in a footnote at the beginning of the paper. A paper that has already been published in another journal cannot be reprinted in Philologia.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to Philologia abide by ethical standards related to research. Authors affirm that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Reporting standards

A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards. (Critical) review papers, book reviews and conference reports should be accurate, and they should present an objective perspective.

Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions. Before publication, they must make sure that they have permission, if required, from all individuals and institutions involved in the research presented in the manuscript to make the data public.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. In case of dispute (e.g., complaint by a copyright holder), the journal will publish a corrigendum or an official note expressing reservation regarding the paper and clearly stating that the error is the sole responsibility of the author(s).

Authorship

Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section.

Acknowledgment of Sources

Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, where someone assumes another’s ideas, words, or other creative expressions as one’s own, is a clear violation of research and publication ethics. Plagiarism also includes self-plagiarism, where the authors copy fully or in part the text they have already published without properly citing the source. Plagiarism may involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.

Plagiarism includes the following:

• Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing (with the aim of concealing plagiarism) portions of other authors’ work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (e.g., using quotation marks);
• Copying figures or tables from someone else’s paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original authors or copyright holders;
• Publishing a paper that is identical or similar in content to another paper already published by the same author in another language without the consent of the Editorial Board and a note explaining that the contribution is a translation of an already published paper.

Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism.

Any manuscript that shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected and the authors permanently banned from publishing in Philologia.

In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy, and the authors will be permanently banned from publishing in Philologia.

Conflict of interest

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.

By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree to abide by the Editorial Policies of Philologia.

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Reviewers are required to provide written, competent, and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript.

The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus.

Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should ensure that all published works relevant for the research reported in the manuscript have been cited by the authors. Reviewers should alert the editor to substantial similarities between the reviewed manuscript and any paper published or manuscript under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the editor to a parallel submission of the same paper to another journal, in the event they are aware of such.

Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research reported in the manuscript, the authors of the manuscript and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the editor without delay.

Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay.

Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

PEER REVIEW

The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assist the Editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communication with the author it may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

Philologia applies double-blind peer review, which means that the identity of the authors is unknown to the reviewers and identity of reviewers is not known to the authors, before, during and after the peer review procedure.

Each paper submitted to Philologia is reviewed by two competent reviewers. If necessary, the Editor-in-Chief may assign a third reviewer. Reviewers are expected to provide their reports within a month. Reviewers do not receive honoraria for peer review.

The choice of reviewers is at the Editor’s discretion. The reviewers must be knowledgeable about the subject area of the manuscript and preferably not be affiliated with the same institution as the authors. Persons who have recent joint publications with the authors are not eligible to be reviewers. The Editor shall ensure that the author’s personal data (especially the name and affiliation) will be removed from the manuscript before sending it to reviewers and shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the authors remain anonymous to the reviewers until the end of the peer review procedure.

Each selected reviewer is provided with a form that contains a series of questions indicating which aspects should be covered in order to make the decision to publish or to reject the manuscript. In the final section of the form, the reviewers are expected to provide a general evaluation of the manuscript. If the reviewer suggests that the paper should be rejected or requests a revision, then the recommendation should be explained in detail. If the reviewer has already assessed the manuscript positively in the answers to the questions in the form, it is not necessary to repeat the assessment in the final evaluation.

Throughout the review process, the reviewers of a paper act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities. If the decisions of the two reviewers are not the same (accept/reject), the Еditor-in-Chief may assign the paper to additional reviewers.

During the review process, the Editor may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if that is necessary for the evaluation of the manuscript’s scholarly merit. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

The Editorial Staff shall ensure reasonable quality control for the reviews. With respect to reviewers whose reviews are convincingly questioned by authors, special attention will be paid to ensure that the reviews are objective and that they follow high academic standards. When there is any doubt regarding the objectivity of the reviews or quality of the review, additional reviewers will be assigned.

PROCEDURES FOR DEALING WITH UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

Any individual or institution may inform the Editor and/or the Editorial Staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by providing the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation.

Investigation

The Editor-in-Chief will consult with the Editorial Board regarding the initiation of an investigation.

During the investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in the investigation.

The parties accused of misconduct will always be given a chance to respond to any charges made against them.

If it is confirmed that misconduct has occurred, it will be classified as either minor or major misconduct.

Minor misconduct

Minor misconduct will be resolved through direct communication with the individuals involved, without involving any other parties, e.g.:

• Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred.
• Sending a letter of warning to an author or reviewer regarding minor misconduct.

Major misconduct

Decisions regarding major misconduct shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Board, and, when appropriate, with a small group of experts. Possible measures include (these can be used separately or jointly):

• publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct;
• informing the author's (or reviewer's) head of department or employer of any misconduct by means of a formal letter;
• the formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the Retraction Policy;
• a ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period of time;
• referring a case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action.

When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editorial Staff will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/resources/.

RETRACTION POLICY

The infringement of the legal limitations imposed by the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), as well as the infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or any major misconduct, require retraction of an article. Occasionally an already published paper may be retracted due to errors discovered after publication.

Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by Philologia: in the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article (which is retracted), a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

Philologia is an Open Access Journal. All articles can be downloaded free of charge from the journal’s website: https://philologia.org.rs. The online version of the journal is published simultaneously with the print version. All articles are Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The journal does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages.

SELF-ARCHIVING POLICY

The Philologia journal allows authors to deposit Publisher’s PDF in an institutional repository and non-commercial subject-based repositories or to publish it on Author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.) and/or departmental website, at any time after publication. Full bibliographic information (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue and pagination) about the original publication must be provided and an HTML link must be made to the article's DOI.

COPYRIGHT

Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. Articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license allows commercial and non-commercial distribution use of the article, if the name of the author is properly acknowledged and if the article remains unchanged. In further use of the article, full bibliographic information of the original article published in the journal must be provided (author, article title, journal title, volume, issue and pagination), and an HTML link must be made to the article's DOI.

Authors may enter the separate, additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the journal published paper (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the Philologia journal.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editor and Editorial Board. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages.

July 13 2021