Theological Reflection is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that adheres to all ethical guidelines necessary for publishing high-quality original articles in the field of theology. Communication between authors, editors, reviewers and the editorial board is transparent and professional. It is conducted in accordance with the COPE Code of Conduct. All articles published in Theological Reflection must be relevant to the journal's area of expertise and pass the peer review process.

Acceptance to the review process

The author who offers a manuscript to Theological Reflection guarantees that the text is his/her own work, has not been published anywhere else and is not offered for publication elsewhere. He/She also warrants that ideas and formulations in the text not authored by him/her are properly identified as such and that their author is acknowledged in the appropriate citation. Offering the same manuscript to more than one journal at the same time is unethical and unacceptable. Similarly, it is unethical and unacceptable for an author to plagiarise or deliberately make inaccurate statements in his/her text. Detailed information for authors can be downloaded HERE.

Submissions are first reviewed by the editors, who assess whether the article or review corresponds to the characteristics of the journal in terms of subject matter, scope and level of preparation. If so, the article is accepted for anonymous peer review. Otherwise, the editors will inform the author of the reasons for non-acceptance.

Review process

The editors are sending an anonymized version of the article to two independent experts for review. The reviewers must be from an institution other than that of the author of the article. They work for the journal on a voluntary basis and have the right to decline to review a particular manuscript at their discretion, e.g. if their current workload or other commitments prevent them from completing the review in a timely manner. Reviewers should not accept manuscripts that they do not feel competent to review or in relation to which they feel a conflict of interest. Reviewers who have accepted a manuscript for assessment are expected to submit their assessment within four weeks. All manuscripts offered to a reviewer for review are considered confidential documents. The assessment should be conducted impartially, comments should be clearly formulated and supported by arguments. Reviewers should draw attention to works that the author uses and does not cite in the manuscript. Any such notice should be accompanied by an appropriate reference. The reviewer should alert the editors if he/she sees similarities between the manuscript under review and another text with which he/she is familiar. The form for reviewers can be downloaded HERE.

Upon receipt of the reviews, the editors will inform the author of the outcome (acceptance without reservations, acceptance with reservations, or rejection) and send him/her any requests for revisions. It is a prerequisite for the publication of an article in Theological Reflection that the author adequately revises his/her text in light of the reviewers' reservations. In the event of an indecisive outcome of the reviews, the editors will commission a further review. The editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles offered to the journal will be published. They base their decision on the reviewers' recommendations and may also refer to the journal's editorial board. They evaluate manuscripts solely on the basis of their intellectual content and their contribution to the field of research. They may only provide information on a submitted manuscript to the author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and in some cases, members of the editorial board and the publisher. The editors will make every effort to ensure the integrity of the review of the manuscript; in particular, they will not disclose the name of the author of the manuscript or the names of the reviewers to the author.

Proofreading

The authors are responsible for the linguistic accuracy of their published texts. Before submission to the press, the authors are sent the published texts for final proofreading. At this stage, only minor changes to the text are allowed. Authors are obliged to proofread and send their texts back to the editor without delay.

Misconduct statement

Editors are responsible for preventing, identifying, and addressing any misconduct related to a submitted manuscript or an already published article. If there are concerns about an ethical aspect of a manuscript or published article, they should address the matter accordingly. If they are unable to resolve the issue within the editorial office, they may invite two independent members of the editorial board to work with them to form an internal ethics committee. Where possible, editors should follow the procedures recommended by COPE in resolving problems.

Declaration of open access to the content of the journal

Theological Reflection is an open access journal, which means that all content is available free of charge on the journal's website. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print or link to the full text of articles in this journal without needing prior permission from the publisher or author. This is in accordance with the BOAI platform definition. The Journal Theological Reflection uses a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license for peer-reviewed articles and other text it publishes. By submitting a paper to the journal, authors agree to use the CC BY 4.0 license for their work. Copyright is retained by the publisher.

Fees and honoraria

The journal Theological Reflection does not charge any fees for the acceptance of articles for peer review, editorial processing and publication. Contributions to Theological Reflection are not honoured; the author receives one author's copy. Reviews are also not honoured.