The periodical «Religion. Church. Society» aims at making actual range of research problems in the field of Christian theology and religious studies.
The editorial policy is based on the principles of interdisciplinary and multiconfessional dialogue. The editorial board retains the right to put an end on attempts to stir up religious extremism and confessional discord.
One of the main editing principles is open access to the almanac materials.
Full-text articles and metadata in Russian and English could be found on the website of the almanac (rcs-almanac.ru) and on the platform of the Scientific Electronic Library (elibrary.ru).
The editing boards proceeds from the idea of the high ethical standards of science and the academic community, voiced in a number of international documents and texts (Recommendation concerning the status of workers of science (1974), recommendations of the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity compliance (Singapore, 22–24 July 2010), ethical standards of the Committee on publication ethics (COPE) and the rules of chapter 70 «Copyright» of the Civil Code). We take responsibility for compliance with all the recommendations in the published texts and strictly supervise the academic materials.
Publication ethics
The editorial board adheres to the following principles:
- papers submitted for publication must have been conducted to the highest ethical standardts and meet the criteria of originality, relevance and scientific novelty;
- all the papers must be original and unpublished; re-publication of the whole texts or their fragments without any changes (self-plagiarism) is not permitted;
- references to the works and conclusions of other authors are to be provided to avoid cases of plagiarism;
- all the materials undergo single-blind peer review process;
- the editorial board selects materials for publication in combination with the principles of justice and of high scientific ethics.
Duties of the editorial board
The editorial board is guided by the principles of objectivity and fairness, without discrimination on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographic origin of the authors. The editorial board is responsible for the content of the almanac materials, their scientific level and compliance to the topic of publications, fulfilment of the requirements and regulations of the current Russian legislation, and approves or denies articles for publication. The editors reserve the right to make editorial (that do not change the meaning) changes in the original paper.
In case of conflicts, the editorial board is committed to seeking a way of resolving them in accordance with established standards. Complaints and questions are received and considered, regardless of the time of publication. If necessary, the editorial board is ready to publish corrections, clarifications, denials and apologies to the published articles.
Duties of authors
Submitted manuscripts should be drawn up in accordance with the technical requirements of the editorial board, available on the almanac website. The authors guarantee that all the data and materials are original and authentic, do not violate the rights of third parties, and that publication does not bear signs of disclosure of sensitive or confidential information.
Appling for publication, the author provides the editorial board of the almanac the right of publishing the submitted materials to the editorial board.
In the case of the manuscript fragments or references to works are protected by copyright, or owned by third parties, the authors should provide links to relevant sources, and, if necessary, to grant permission of the copyright holders. A reference list should be placed at the end of the manuscript. The sources of support and funding are recommended to be indicated in the paper. Fraudulent or knowingly false statements are perceived as unethical and unacceptable. To quote from materials that are deemed extremist in accordance with the Russian legislation or describe them with the aim of promoting extremism is forbidden. The author should refrain from expressiveness, even in polemical and controversial issues. Authors should be actively involved in the process of reviewing of manuscripts, promptly providing answers to the reviewer and making necessary changes at the request of the reviewers and the editorial board.
The authors hold retain publishing rights without restrictions.
Review procedure
All articles received by the editorial office undergo single-blind peer review.
- review is carried out strictly in accordance with the reviewing Plan approved by the editorial board and should be completed within a period of editorship;
- reviews are carried out by members of the Editorial Board and the leading experts on the topic of publication who are familiar with the provisions on reviewing;
- process of reviewing is completely confidential: a reviewer does not have the right to share information about the content of articles and reviews with third persons without the authorization of the editorial board;
- only the scientific component of the work is to be reviewed, the criticism of the author’s personality is not allowed;
- authors are informed of the results of the review;
- in the case of mutual interest reviewer is entitled to apply to the author with suggestions for improving the quality of work;
- the reviewer should not participate in the review procedure of the manuscript if there is a personal conflict with the author or conflicts of interest caused by the competitive, collaborative and other relations with the author of the publication or with the company and other organizations that submits the work;
- the decision to publish the manuscript or to refuse publication is accepted at by the editorial board on the meeting in accordance with the recommendations of reviewers;
- if the editorial board refuses to publish the work, its members and the reviewers may not use fully or partially materials of the article before it would be published by the author;
- review is carried out free of charge;
- reviews are collected in electronic form and are stored by the editor-in-chief;
- reviews can be provided on request to the official research and certification agencies and organizations.