Manuscript submission

The majority of materials is published in Russian. Selected papers are also available in English (translated from Russian).

Manuscript type:

  • research articles;
  • research literature overviews and systematic reviews;
  • scholarly essays;
  • translations of both classical and contemporary works by international authors;
  • book and significant scientific article reviews authored by both Russian and foreign scholars;
  • archival documents and other relevant material;
  • short communication.

The manuscript should be submitted via the electronic submission system on the journal's website.

Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors

We recommend that authorship should be determined based on the following four criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged appropriately.

Examples of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for authorship are acquiring funding, general supervision of a research group or general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading. 

All individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.

Suppose authors request the removal or addition of an author after manuscript submission or publication. In that case, journal editors should seek an explanation and signed statement of agreement for the requested change from all listed authors and the author to be removed or added.

The corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer-review, and publication process. The corresponding author should be available throughout the submission and peer-review process to respond to editorial queries in a timely way and should be available after publication to respond to critiques of the work and cooperate with any requests from the journal for data or additional information should questions about the paper arise after publication.

The volume of original papers and scientific and systematic reviews should be at most 60 thousand characters, including spaces; the volume of reviews, essays, and archival materials should be at most 30 thousand.

For the initial submission, we ask that you send the following materials:  

  • Cover letter.
  • A file containing information about the manuscript:
    • Manuscript title.
    • Authors(s) full name.
    • Indicate who is the corresponding author.
    • Academic degree (if any).
    • Affiliation (position and place of employment, address).
    • Email address.
    • ORCID.
    • Funding (if any).
    • Acknowledgements (if any).
    • Conflict of interests.
    • Authors contributions.
    • Data sharing statement.
  • Anonymized manuscript in MS Word format (With the removal of the names of all authors from the text and file properties, as well as any links and acknowledgements that might reveal authorship) containing:
    • Manuscript title.
    • Keywords (5-6; try not to replicate words from the title entirely) in Russian and English.
    • References
    • Appendices
  • Abstract requirements:
    • 200–250 words; no abbreviations, literature references, tables, figures, or formulas.
    • Clearly outline your research question(s), data and methods, and findings in a way that highlights the significance of your work.

Original manuscripts should be structured (pages numbered), preferably following the IMRaD(C) structure (within each, preferably no more than three levels of section titles):

  • Introduction including your motivation for the research, the problem, its importance, what is already known and yet unknown in the research area, research questions, hypotheses, and objectives.
  • Methods and Materials: describe methods and data used and the adjustments and assumptions made.
  • Results section
  • The Discussion and Limitations section, with headings and informative figures, answers what the results mean after all and so what, explains the findings obtained, describes the extent to which the results were achieved, and discusses the limitations of the method, data, and study design. It also highlights implications for future research.
  • The Conclusion summarises the main findings but does not repeat what was said in the Discussion.

Tables, figures, graphs, and maps must be clear and readable. The captions within them should be in the manuscript's language and presented directly alongside the manuscript.

Registered materials are submitted to the editorial board for discussion and assigning reviewers. The peer-review process is in the section "Peer review process" in greater detail.

There may be several rounds of review. Discussion and revision of the manuscript are conducted until both parties agree (usually at most three rounds). Still, based on the editorial board's and editorial board's conclusion, the editor-in-chief may decide that the answers to the reviewer's comments are satisfactory.

The article is then prepared for publication, which involves proofreading the manuscript, literary editing, and formatting it according to accepted editorial and publishing standards. Any editing or proofreading corrections are communicated to the authors via email. The author is also sent the formatted manuscript for final approval and comments.

Current issues of the journal are composed of articles from the editorial portfolio as they are submitted. In exceptional circumstances, the editor-in-chief, their deputies and the editorial board reserve the right to approve the extraordinary publication of a manuscript. The editors can organise current issues and sections by thematic areas, prioritising publications on relevant topics.

The editor-in-chief approves the content of the current issue in agreement with the editorial board. The decision on which issue the material accepted for publication will be published in is solely within the jurisdiction of the journal's editorial board.