LIMINA – Grazer theologische Perspektiven

Publication Ethics Statement

The publication process of our journal involves authors, the journals office management, the (chief) editors, the peer reviewers, the members of the advisory board and the copy editor. All of us are human and thus by no means infallible. Yet, we have high standards we expect every person involved to meet. Below, we describe the most important points in this respect for which we refer to the COPE/Principles of Publication Ethics.

 

1. How we handle user data

LIMINA supports a strict open access policy. All public content is available without registering. However, if a user wants to submit papers or reviews, or if a user wants to do a peer review, he/she must register. Registration enables the users to submit contributions, act as editors/peers/advisors (if applicable) and to receive notifications from LIMINA about important news. This option can be disabled in the user profile, or the cancellation can be requested from the LIMINA office manager.

User registration requires entering of a name, surname and valid e-mail address. All other data are optional. All personal data are considered strictly confidential and are only used for the purpose of running this journal. Under no circumstances will LIMINA pass personal data to third parties with the exception of legal authorities according to the conditions of law. The users are entitled to request the immediate and permanent deletion of their data.

 

2. The authors

The authorship of a manuscript submitted to LIMINA is limited to people who made a significant contribution to the content submitted. This means everyone who did actual work shall show up as (co)author; on the other hand, we discourage the practice to include co-authors for ideational reasons.

The authors are our estimated partners in the challenge to produce original and creative content. We trust that they submit manuscripts containing an accurate representation of their results, and their objective discussion. If the authors use the work of others (e.g. data, texts, pictures, figures etc.), they are obliged to quote the originator properly according to the standards defined in our style guide. Also, the authors are obliged to point out which publications had an influence on their manuscript and cite them properly.

We also expect that the author refrains from parallel submission of the same work to different journals. We consider this as bad style and would not accept it.

The submitter of the manuscript is responsible to seek permission for submission from his co-authors, and that all of them approve the galley files before publication.

If a submitter has received financial or material support from third parties, especially from entrepreneurs, he or she has to disclose this information.

Finally, a word on copyright issues: LIMINA is located in Graz, Austria. Therefore, Austrian law is applicable and the place of venue is Graz, too. The Austrian copyright law is very restrictive, yet it gives some room for scientific quotations of text and other media. Being an author, please make sure that media you use (e.g. pictures, screenshots, filmstills, audio files, scans etc.) are either covered by §42f. UrhG or approved by the current copyright holder.

 

3. The office management staff

If the submitter does not enclose an explicite note stating something different, our office manager is bound to direct submissions to the editors of the issue that is currently prepared. He/she will never pass manuscripts submitted to third parties prior to publications without written consent of the author. Confidentiality is our watchword, especially in all respects concerning the double-blind peer review process. Thus, the office manager will never give away names of authors to peer reviewers and vice versa. See also our description of our peer review process.

 

4. The editors and the advisory board

The editors are responsible for organizing the journal management, its public appearance and its representation/business operations.

They ultimately decide which submissions they accept and which they decline. Yet, this decision is made without regard to the person of the submitter, and neither gender, race, religion, ethnicity or other factors like these will have any influence on it.

The editors are obliged to keep every information about submitted works strictly confidential except other members of the editorial board and/or members of the advisory board if appropriate. They will never give a submitted but unpublished manuscript to any third party and/or use it or parts of it for their own work without the written consent of the author(s).

The members of the advisory board are consultative partners of the editorial board in their respective field of expertise. When considering topics for upcoming issues, they are our preferred respondents. They also may be involved in the peer review process.

 

5. The peers

Peer reviewers are esteemed partners in the quality management process of our journal. Their recommendations are of severe influence for both the editors and the authors. Thus, our reviewers commit themselves to these statements:

Objectivity shall be maintained throughout the review process, irrespective of the personal or professional bias of the reviewer. The reviewer may cancel his participation in the review process at any time if he considers himself to be insufficiently expert, professionally biased or personally involved.

Although reviewers are required to critically evaluate the texts, they shall aim to provide constructive critique. Not only will their review be a suggestion for the journal editors to publish or reject a specific paper, it also should provide guidance on how it might be improved. The reviewers keep in mind that the author may be a younger colleague that may have less experience in publishing and is grateful for any helpful advice from seniors.

The reviewers shall maintain full confidentiality. Neither will they discuss aspects of the review process with other persons than the editors nor will they actively try to identify the submitter of a paper. They will not take any advantages of the ideas that are discussed in the paper to be reviewed. See also our description of our peer review process.

 

6. The copy editor

The task of the copy editor is to maintain a consistent level of language throughout each issue. He/she does the proofreading and checks not only for correct grammar and spelling but also for consistency and comprehensibility of a text. Also, he/she checks whether the author has formatted the article according to our style guide and may request improvements.

 

7. Financial aspects

The journal offers its services free of any charges for all involved parties. Please note that there is no legal claim to their free use.

 

This statement is subject to changes and/or addons without further notice.