Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

Aims and scope:

• provide scholars with an opportunity to publish their findings;
• highlight the most relevant, interesting and promising areas of humanities and social sciences;
• exchange scholarly information in the international academic space.

The journal is included by the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in the list of reviewed scientific journals, in which major scientific results of theses for academic degrees of candidate and doctor of science have to be published.

The journal is issued bi-monthly and publishes key research results in the following fields:

5.6. Historical Sciences

5.6.1. Russian history

5.6.2. World history

5.6.5. Historiography, source study, historical method

5.6.6. History of science and technology (historical sciences)

5.6.7. History of international relations and foreign policy

5.7. Philosophy

5.7.1. Ontology and theory of knowledge

5.7.7. Social and political philosophy

5.7.8. Philosophical anthropology, philosophy of culture

5.7.9. Philosophy of religion and religious studies

5.9. Philology

5.9.5. Russian language. Languages of the peoples of Russia

5.9.6. Foreign languages (German, English, Spanish, French)

5.9.8. Theoretical, applied and comparative linguistics

Manuscript Submission Requirements

1. The Editorial Office accepts manuscripts for the key sections of the journal, presenting a high degree of scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance. The paper must state principal findings of the study. Scientific papers are accepted throughout the year.
2. Only researchers, doctoral students, postgraduate students (starting from the second year of study) and applicants for an academic degree may be authors of our articles.
3. A manuscript can be accepted for publication in the journal upon receiving a positive peer review from recognized scientists in the given field of knowledge. In case of a positive review, the article is included in the next issue of the journal in the order of submission.
4. Only original scientific papers that have not been published before and that conform to our technical requirements are accepted for publication. Manuscripts failing to meet the requirements will not be considered.
5. The final decision on the acceptability of the manuscript for publication is made by the Editorial Board of the journal. A decision letter will be sent to the author.
6. Postgraduate students and PhD candidates are required to submit a recommendation letter from their scientific adviser. The letter does not substitute for a peer-review, but only guarantees the article’s sufficient academic level.

Articles are published free of charge.

Peer Review Process

1. All manuscripts submitted to our Editorial Office are subject to peer review.
2. The author should submit his/her paper in accordance with “Manuscript Submission Requirements”, “Manuscript Preparation Requirements” and “References Preparation Recommendations”.
3. The manuscript is sent to the members of the Editorial Board having the necessary subject expertise so that they can recommend scientists and specialists in this field (doctors or candidates of science) as reviewers.
4. Peer reviewers are notified that the manuscripts are private property of the authors and are confidential. Reviewers are not allowed to make copies of the manuscripts for their own needs.
5. The terms of sending for review are in each case determined by the executive secretary of the journal to ensure the fastest possible publication of the article. The time-frame for reviewing is at least 110 days.
6. We have a policy of double-blind review: the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are concealed from each other. Breach of confidentiality is only acceptable in the case of reviewer’s allegations about unreliable or falsified materials in the manuscript.
7. The reviewer should answer the following questions: a) Does the content of the article correspond to the stated branch of science and speciality? b) Is the relevance of the topic well-reasoned? c) Does the study present sufficient theoretical and practical significance? d) Does the author analyze how well the issue has been studied by others? e) Does the article present any scientific novelty? f) Is the author’s personal contribution to the development of the topic stated? g) Does the author apply methods of scientific analysis and synthesis? h) Are the results and conclusions well-grounded and do they correspond to the content of the article? i) Does the reviewer know whether any material of the article has been previously published elsewhere? j) Does the title of the article reflect its content? e) Is the paper recommended/recommended with corrections/not recommended for publication in the journal?
8. Upon request from the expert council, the review can be provided to the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation.
9. In case of a positive review and recommendation to publish from the reviewer, the manuscript and the review are discussed by the Editorial Board. A positive review in itself is not enough for an article to be accepted for publication. The final decision on the acceptability of the manuscript is made at the journal’s Editorial Board meeting and is stated in the minutes.
10. If the reviewer indicates that the material requires improvement, the manuscript is returned to the author. In this case, the submission date is considered the date when the Editorial Office receives the revised manuscript. The aspects requiring improvement are explained to the author by the editors on the basis of the review.
11. If the reviewer does not recommend the article for publication, both the manuscript and the review are discussed at the Editorial Board meeting, where the members either rejects the article or decide to publish it after it, upon appeal from one of the members, has been reviewed by another peer reviewer.
12. In case of a negative review or if the manuscript requires serious revision, the author should, within two months of the response from the editors, submit an improved version of the manuscript or notify the Editorial Office of paper withdrawal. In the event of force majeure or author’s long-term foreign trip or field research, this deadline can be restored if the author provides documents confirming his/her inability to meet the deadline. Otherwise, the article will be removed from the waiting list for publication.
13. After reading the review, the author may leave the text of the manuscript unchanged. However, in this case the Editorial Board reserves the right to reject the manuscript.
14. In case the manuscript receives two negative reviews, it will no longer be considered by the Editorial Board.
15. The Editorial Board informs the author about their decision. If the manuscript is rejected, the author will receive a letter from the Editorial Board stating the reasons for such rejection.
16. Postgraduate students and candidate degree applicants must submit a recommendation letter from their research adviser together with the manuscript.
17. The original reviews are kept at the Editorial Office for three years.

2. The following are not subject to peer review: reviews of academic literature published in the “Reviews and Bibliography” section.

Publication Frequency

Ежегодно издается 6 номеров журнала, где публикуется около 110 оригинальных статей.

Open Access Policy

The journal is an open access publication. The author of an article grants usage rights to others using Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This allows for immediate free access to the work and permits any user to read, download, copy, distribute and print full texts of articles or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Editorial Policy

1. By submitting an article to Vestnik of Northern (Arctic) Federal University.  Series “Humanitarian and Social Sciences”, the author consents to its publication in the journal, its free availability online on the journal’s website, as well as to provide the text of the article (including references, bibliographic information, etc.) to the organizations authorized to receive it, or other organizations, in order to allow any users to cite this article and to increase the citation index of the author and the journal.
2. All journal articles are thoroughly reviewed (double-blind peer review).
3. All submitted manuscripts are edited according to the requirements for publication of scientific literature, Russian State Standards for publishers and international requirements of such databases as Scopus and Web of Science.
4. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of factual materials and data in their articles.
5. Materials published in the journal reflect personal views of the authors that do not necessarily coincide with those of the Editor.
6. The decision on the acceptability of the manuscript for publication is made by the Editorial Board of the journal.
7. The articles are published free of charge.
8. No honorariums are paid to the authors upon publication.
9. We pursue the policy of open access: the journal is available on the Internet immediately after publication, without any embargo periods. All information about the journal, its Editorial Board / Editorial Council, policies and ethical principles as well as related documents are available on the journal’s website in Russian and English.

Archiving Policy
The journal articles and their metadata in Russian and English are archived on a regular basis. Archiving, indexing and depositing of the articles are done by the scientific electronic library eLibrary.ru according to Contract no. 253-06/2012. 
Full texts of the articles are also available in the Rukont electronic library system, Cyberleninka scientific electronic library, Lan publishing house, and in the systems of the Russian Book Chamber (ITAR-TASS) and Russian State Library. 
Authors are free to self-archive their articles as soon as they are published, by depositing short or full-text versions on their websites, blogs or pages on social media, as well as in open access repositories and open access libraries around the world, provided that the original source of publication is indicated and an active link to the relevant page on the journal’s website or on eLibrary.ru is given.
Ethics Policy 
Publication in a peer-reviewed journal is a direct reflection of the quality of the work of authors, their institutions and editors of the journal. Therefore, it is important that all the parties involved in the publishing process – authors, members of the Editorial Board, peer reviewers and editors – collaborate on the basis of goodwill, responsibility and impartiality. In view of this, our journal, Vestnik of Northern (Arctic) Federal University. Series “Humanitarian and Social Sciences”, ensures that all the parties conform to a certain policy of ethics.
1. Authors
The journal allows authors to retain the copyright of their papers. Authors grant the publisher the right of first publication and other non-exclusive publishing rights according to the license agreement.  When using article materials, one must indicate their authorship and reference the first publication.
Authors submitting their manuscripts for publication in Vestnik of Northern (Arctic) Federal University.  Series “Humanitarian and Social Sciences” should ensure that their work
•     is original (has not been previously published elsewhere in its current form or with similar content);
•     is not submitted to any other Editorial Office and that all conflicts of interest, if any, in terms of copyright and publication of this paper have been settled;
•     does not violate any existing copyright;
•     does not contain any scientific or technical data linked to state, official or trade secret.
The following is considered as breach of publication ethics by the author:
1. Plagiarism and copyright infringement
•    duplication of the works of others without crediting the authors, citing the source or using quotation marks;
•    incorrect paraphrasing of the works of others, changing more than one sentence in a paragraph or section of text or arranging sentences in a different order without proper reference to the source;
•    using parts of the works of others (such as figures, tables or text paragraphs) without crediting or acknowledging the author, citing the source or using quotation marks;
2. Self-plagiarism, including duplicate publication (publication of a paper that overlaps substantially with one already published): the authors should specify that their work is published for the first time; if parts of the manuscript have previously been published in another article, including any article in our journal, the authors should refer to the previous work and indicate the fundamental difference of the new manuscript from that earlier one, and at the same time reveal its relationship with the findings and conclusions presented in the previous work. Duplication and paraphrasing of one’s own works are unacceptable.
- To determine the share of original text in the manuscript, we use the Russian screening system Antiplagiat.vuz.  
3. Compilation of a manuscript not as a result of research conducted by the author but by putting together fragments of other investigators’ works.
4. Fabrication: inventing data or results.
5. Falsification: manipulating (changing, omitting) research data, equipment, or processes with the intention of giving a false impression.
6.  Misrepresentation of involvement:
•    honorary authorship (granting authorship to those who played no significant role in the work but have a high status or rank in the organization conducting the research); 
•    gift authorship (stating someone’s authorship in the absence of involvement as a gift, often in response to a favour); 
•    ghost authorship (failing to list someone who has made a major contribution as an author, e.g. a junior researcher);
•    other cases of misrepresentation.
Dealing with misconduct
If authors’ misconduct is revealed, editors are obliged to investigate the circumstances and take appropriate measures, up to retraction of the article.
Procedure
1. Editors seek a response from those suspected of misconduct. If no response is received, editors may turn to the authors’ employer or relevant institution.   
2. If authors prove that misconduct was caused through no fault of their own, editors and authors act together in order to eliminate the problem and offer apologies to those affected.
3. If the fault is insignificant (e.g. self-plagiarism in a minimal degree), editors issue a warning to the authors, who must ensure that the article is in compliance with the journal’s requirements.
4. In case of significant breach of publication ethics by the authors, the article can be retracted.
5. Editors inform the authors, as well as all relevant databases, about the retraction with an explanation as to the reason for retraction.
6. Retracted paper will get a red diagonal Retracted mark in the relevant journal issue.
Authors must notify the Editorial Office about any existing conflict of interest related to their research or the publication itself.
2. Members of the Editorial Board
•    are responsible for everything that is published in the journal;
•    should make fair and unbiased decisions independent from commercial consideration and ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process;
•    should guard the integrity of the published record, make corrections when needed and issue grounded rejections to the authors whose manuscripts fail to meet the requirements or research and publication ethics;
•    handle editorial conflicts of interest.
3. Peer reviewers
•    should assess the manuscripts in a timely manner and respect the confidentiality of peer review;
•    should be objective and unbiased in their reviews, proving their opinion by giving reference to the source, if necessary;
•    should trace and stop any potential conflict of interest. 
•    should check the papers for plagiarism using the Antiplagiat.vuz system.
4. Editors
•    should adhere to the ethics policy and make efforts to prevent its violation;
•    should help the authors improve the submitted manuscripts by editing them;
•    should not disclose the content of a negative review to anyone other than the author;
•    should prevent any disclosure of confidential information obtained in the course of correspondence with the author;
•    reserve the right to reject the manuscript in case of violation of the above rules;
•    do not provide a platform for post-publication discussions and corrections on the journal’s website. All post-publication corrections are made upon considering letters to the editor in chief. The journal has a mechanism for retracting articles in the event of information being received about their non-compliance with the requirements.
Conflict of Interest Statement
Conflict of interest in publishing exists when authors, peer reviewers or Editorial Board members may have conflicting interests that can influence the interpretation and perception of the manuscript or the decision whether to publish it. Such conflicts can be personal, political, academic / scientific, religious or financial. Financial conflicts, in their turn, can be direct (e.g., when the financial benefit from publication is received directly by the author) or indirect (e.g., when the financial benefit from publication is received by the organization where the author works). All participants in the publishing process are required to disclose any existing conflict of interest.
Authorship
Journal Vestnik of Northern (Arctic) Federal University adheres to the following authorship criteria:
– Substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, as well as acquisition or analysis and interpretation of data;
– Preparation of the manuscript and its final revision in terms of significant intellectual content;
– Willingness to take responsibility for the research;
– Willingness to take responsibility for the final version of the article.
Principles of assigning authorship:
–  It is the researchers’ responsibility, not the editors’, to assign the authors and acknowledge those who have made a significant contribution to the study.
–  Information about those who have made a significant contribution to the study and preparation of the manuscript, but whose participation was insufficient for attributing authorship, should be included in the “Acknowledgments” section.
–  All persons claiming authorship or mentioning in the “Acknowledgments” section should be included in the “Acknowledgments” section; and, vice versa, the authors and persons mentioned in the “Acknowledgments” section should be willing to be acknowledged in these roles.
–  Persons listed as authors are responsible for the final version of the manuscript published in the journal.
–  Authors and persons mentioned in the “Acknowledgments” section should determine their specific contributions to the work and make this information available to readers.
–  The key principle of assigning authorship is assigning responsibility for the work.