SOVIJUS. Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
Mission Statement
SOVIJUS: Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture isa semi-annual peer-reviewed journal of the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, dedicated to the study of important problems of cultural development, spread and interaction of different cultures, as well as to the development of new fields of cultural research. The journal publishes scientific articles and studies covering the results of research on cultural development and spread, cultural theory, civilisational comparative studies, social and cultural anthropology, cultural memory, cultural psychology, cultural sociology, and new media culture; it also includes translations of significant texts, historical sources, reviews, and conference overviews. The editorial Board of the journal focuses on the theoretical and methodological problems of culture and related research fields. The articles are published in Lithuanian, English and other languages commonly used by the international scientific community.
Studies and monographs are published in a separate series (as a supplement to the journal).
All of the content of the journal is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles published in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. The journal does not charge fees for article processing or submission. Articles published in the journal are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.
Editorial and research ethics
SOVIJUS is committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in research and publication. This includes ensuring that all submitted manuscripts are reviewed for ethical issues, such as plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication and falsification. Journal also follows international guidelines and standards for ethical research and publication, such as those outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All potential publications are considered under assumption that their essential content is not already published or being offered for publication elsewhere.
Manuscripts should be submitted by email to the editorial board (email: sovijus@lkti.lt). All manuscripts will be peer reviewed before publication. The initial submission of manuscript should include a Microsoft Word document or Open Document Format document. Final submission should consist of a copy of all text material in a text file and could also contain high-resolution images in separate files.
Authors should present an accurate account of the performed work. Details and references must be sufficient enough to permit others to replicate the work. Research results should be interpreted correctly so that to avoid damage to the trust in the journal. Authors are responsible for assuring that data, results, quotes, citations, images and/or other materials in the manuscript are cited accordingly, and not fabricated or manipulated. Proper acknowledgement of the work(s) of others must always be given. In addition, the journal has a mechanism for handling complaints and appeals related to ethical issues, and will investigate and take appropriate action in cases of research misconduct. The journal has the right to reject submissions suspected of plagiarism at any stage of the assessment process. It will also retract articles found to violate the requirement of originality after publication.
Members of the editorial board assess the general suitability of submitted manuscripts. All published manuscripts will have been reviewed by at least one of the members of the editorial board and at least two outside reviewers following the principles of double-blind peer-review, however, the final decision to publish rests with the editors.
The author is required to be able to demonstrate to the editorial board the possession of all necessary permissions to reproduce copyright material, for print and online publication. The author is also responsible for accurate and appropriate usage of references to the sources and secondary literature used in their texts. Authors must gain all types of necessary consent from the human participants prior to submitting the paper to empower the journal to use any related data as a way to ensure and maintain their right to privacy.
The journal expects authors to implement transparency of any data and any other related materials associated with the submitted paper. Authors must provide records of evidence to ensure that others were within reasonable position to replicate the research or to check its validity. We encourage authors to deposit data in the repository and kindly ask to provide a persistent identifier to the archived data set landing page.
We expect authors to use inclusive language. The content of the paper should not contain anything what could show that some people are superior to others on the grounds of any aspects of culture, race, gender, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, age and/or ethnicity. Writing should be free from any forms of bias; whenever possible, authors should employ gender neutrality in text. In the coding terminology, it is recommended to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms.
Authorship and Contributorship Principles
SOVIJUS follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for authorship and contributorship. These guidelines state that authorship should be based on significant intellectual contribution to the manuscript, and that all authors should have been involved in the planning, execution, and interpretation of the research. Additionally, all authors should have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.
The journal publishes only original works which have neither been published elsewhere nor are under review elsewhere. Exceptions are granted only for new works which expand previous publications. Authors are required to provide information on the reuse of the material. Unethical publishing behaviour extends to the cases when a single study is deliberately split up into several parts with the objective to increase the number of published works.
Significant contribution must have been made by each and every researcher included in the list of the authors in preparing the manuscript; authors share collective responsibility and accountability for the results. Anyone who has made a significant contribution must be included in the list of the authors. After acceptance of a manuscript, changes of authorship or the order of the authors are no longer possible.
We ask authors to provide information about financial support for the research or paper at the first page of the paper. If the funding source(s) had no involvement, then this should be stated.
Principles for Complaints and Appeals
The journal has a mechanism for handling complaints and appeals from authors and readers. Any complaints or appeals should be presented in written form to the Editorial board (sovijus@lkti.lt), they will be reviewed by the editorial board and investigated in a fair and transparent manner. The response with the results of the review procedure will be issued no later than within 7 days after the submission of the complaint and/or appeal. The journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for handling complaints and appeals, which include providing the complainant with a timely response, conducting a thorough and unbiased investigation, and providing a clear explanation of the outcome. If necessary, the journal may involve external experts or seek advice from relevant organizations or committees. The goal of the journal’s complaint and appeal process is to ensure the integrity and fairness of the research and publication process.
Allegations of Research Misconduct
The journal takes allegations of research misconduct seriously and will investigate any such allegations. Research misconduct refers to behaviour that violates ethical standards and undermines the integrity of the research, such as data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or unethical treatment of research participants. If the journal receives an allegation of research misconduct, the Editorial board will conduct a thorough investigation and seek advice from relevant experts or organizations, if necessary. If misconduct is found to have occurred, the journal will take appropriate action, which may include but is not limited to retracting the manuscript, issuing a correction or retraction notice, or banning the author(s) from future publication in the journal.
Conflict of Interest Policy
When issues outside the research could affect the objectivity of the submitted paper or its evaluation, conflicts of interest occur. We ask our authors to declare possible conflict(s) of interest along with the submitted paper so that we could decide whether or not these conflicts may have exerted any influence and could consequently make informed decisions. Conflicts include affiliations (being related in any kind of affiliation with the organisation interested in the particular outcome of the work); financial (benefits or services received or expected to be received by authors in connection with the object of the work or by an organisation interested in the result of the work); personal relationship (close personal ties) and similar.
An author, by virtue of submitting a work, must declare any potential conflict of interests. All potential interests must be explained by elaborating why a conflict of interest may have been involved. The authors must indicate any former, current and/or potential future benefits as well as any other payments, goods, perks or services that could have affected the work. All the presently listed aspects, whether or not they actually caused a conflict of interest, must be properly and honestly specified.
On our behalf, we assure that, in most cases, honest declaration of interests will not stop work from being forwarded to review and subsequently published.
If you have any doubts in relation to potential conflicts of interest, you are kindly invited to discuss the issue(s) with the editor-in-chief. If a conflict of interest is revealed during the peer-review stage, the journal may initiate rejection. If the paper has already been published, the retraction/withdrawal process may be initiated.
The journal follows a policy of the editors and reviewers not being involved in any kind of interaction with a submitted paper when they co-authored recently with the author(s), received or are likely to receive possible financial reward related with the subject of the work, are or recently were in some form of relationship such as marriage, parentage, other family/relationship bonds, recent work/cooperation on the same project with the author, when they are close/direct competitors or have previously discussed the manuscript with the authors.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose(s) or to any other party.
Copyright Notice
The journal follows Lithuanian and international copyright laws and expects all authors to respect the intellectual property of others. This means that any material used in a manuscript, such as text, images, or data, must be properly cited and permission must be obtained for any copyrighted material. The journal’s copyright notice is in accordance with applicable laws and conventions, such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
By submitting the manuscript of a research paper to a journal published by Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, the author inherently certifies that he/she has been fully and explicitly authorised by his/her co-authors to enter into these arrangements and he/she guarantees and warrants, on behalf of himself/herself and all of his/her co-authors that:
- He/she has the full power to enter into this Agreement and to make the grants contained herein. He/she/they is/are the sole author(s) of the paper and has/have full authority to enter into this agreement and to grant the appropriate rights to Vilnius University Press without breach of any other obligation.
- The paper is original and does not infringe any copyright, nor does it violate any other right(s) of any third parties.
- The paper contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or confidence or commitment given to secrecy.
- The authors agree to the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 agreement under which the paper in the Journal is licensed, and grant Lithuanian Culture Research Institute their permission to publish the previously unpublished and original manuscript, the abstract forming part thereof, all associated supplemental material, and the subsequent errata (if necessary) in the Journal under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-4.0). The author keeps the copyright and the publishing rights.
- Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published paper’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
- Anyone is free to share (copy and redistribute the material published in the paper in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material published in the paper) for any purposes, even commercially.
Preprint Posting
The journal allows authors to post preprints of their manuscripts on preprint servers, provided that the final published version is also made available on the journal’s website. The journal’s policy on preprint posting is in line with the principles of open science and the growing trend of preprint usage in the research community. The author(s) should notify the journal of any preprint related to manuscript submission. A preprint archive is not seen as overlap between publications when the version of record is recognisable.
Data Sharing and Reproducibility
SOVIJUS encourages authors to share their research data and make their methods and protocols reproducible. This means that authors should make their data available in a publicly accessible repository, and should provide sufficient detail in the manuscript to allow others to reproduce the research. Sharing data and making research reproducible enhances the transparency and credibility of the research, and allows others to build upon and verify the findings. The journal also encourages authors to follow best practices for data management and documentation, such as using standardized formats and metadata. The journal’s policy on data sharing and reproducibility is in line with the principles of open science and the growing emphasis on reproducibility in the research community.
Publishing Malpractice Policy
The journal has a policy for dealing with publishing malpractice, which refers to practices that violate the ethical standards of research and publication. Examples of publishing malpractice include plagiarism, duplicate publication, and data fabrication and falsification. The journal uses similarity check software to screen submitted manuscripts for potential instances of plagiarism, and has a mechanism for handling complaints and appeals related to publishing malpractice. If the journal receives an allegation of publishing malpractice, the editorial team will conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate action, such as rejecting the manuscript, issuing a correction or retraction notice, or banning the author(s) from future publication in the journal. The journal follows COPE’s Retraction Guidelines while considering retraction or correction of the published paper.
We provide a corrigendum when there is an error made by the author. The erratum will be issued if the journal is found to have made an error. Retraction is not initiated for minor corrections such as language or minor spelling issues. Retraction is initiated when the journal has obtained information that certain article findings or conclusions are false or that the content is/has been plagiarised.
Similarity Check Procedure
The journal uses Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate to screen submitted manuscripts for potential instances of plagiarism. This software compares the submitted manuscript with a database of published content to identify any text that may have been copied without proper attribution. If the similarity check software detects a high level of similarity with other published content, the manuscript will be flagged for further review by the editorial team. If plagiarism is confirmed, the manuscript will be rejected and the author(s) will be notified.
Archiving
The journal archives all published content on a stable and long-term basis. The archive is made available to readers and researchers to ensure the continued accessibility and preservation of the journal’s content. This ensures that the journal’s published articles remain accessible and citable long after they are first published. The journal uses digital preservation methods, such as periodic backups and migration to new formats, to ensure the long-term stability and accessibility of the archive. The journal’s archiving policy is in line with best practices for scholarly publishing, which recognize the importance of preserving the scholarly record for future generations.
Our preservation policy includes the following measures:
- All of our electronic content (website) is stored on one server which is owned by Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, located in Vilnius, is online and accessible to the readers.
- The electronic versions of all articles also is stored at Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library (eLABa), as a national aggregated open access (OA) repository (https://www.elaba.lt).
- Authors may archive all versions of the manuscript and the final published version of their articles in personal, institutional or other repositories without embargo.
- We intend and expect to continue to publish our journal for a long time. If, due to some rare, unfortunate circumstances, we are forced to stop publishing the journal, the manuscripts published in the journal will be kept online and accessible to the readers for at least 10 more years. When required under specific conditions, such as discontinuation of the collection or catastrophic failure of the website, the content will be accessible through Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library eLABa.