About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The Philologist, founded by the Faculty of Philology, Banja Luka, is an open access, peer-reviewed journal promoting contemporary theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of language, literature, and culture, with an international editorial board.
Searching for ways of gaining new critical and theoretical knowledge, the journal's editorial board aims at encouraging scholars to pursue the study of their national literature, language and culture, as well as foreign ones. Based upon the concept of interdisciplinary research, contemporary topics and approaches, Philologist should provide the reader with an insight into a wider intellectual context. With the intention of being comprehensive, the editorial board strives to support both synchronic and diachronic approaches to certain scholarly issues. The idea of a wider intellectual context represents the link among articles of various nature appearing in the journal.
We publish papers in the standard languages of philological areas studied at the Faculty of Philology in Banja Luka, that is, in Serbian, Russian, English, German, French, and Italian. A paper in another Slavic or world language may be published upon agreement with the editorial board, following a special procedure. It is essential that the notion and name of the Serbian language be understood as inviolable. It cannot be used in any shortened form that would imply any other connotation.
We encourage the submission of papers in the following categories:
- study of contemporary theoretical approaches to literature, language and culture;
- significance and necessity of metatheory in the humanities;
- application of contemporary theoretical approaches in the analysis of texts and cultural phenomena;
- interdisciplinary approach in linguistic, literary and cultural studies;
- language and literature in relation to other disciplines.
Peer Review Process
In order to provide the highest level of scholarliness possible, every paper submitted to the Philologist journal is reviewed before its final version is published.
In order to maintain the necessary level of academic atmosphere around the journal, every article is sent to two anonymous reviewers, whose unanimous opinion on the paper meeting high academic standards is requested prior to publishing.
After the initial evaluation, the editorial board will determine whether the paper submitted meets basic scientific criteria. If it does, the paper is forwarded to two experts from the field for a double-blind peer review. The paper is published if both reviewers confirm it meets the highest scientific criteria.
The deadline for reviews is one month.
The final decision on acceptance or refusal of the paper will be sent to the author along with the reviewers’ suggestions, comments and remarks.
It is important for reviewers to determine whether the paper follows the technical guidelines stated by the editorial board of the journal and fits the scope of the journal. In addition, the reviews must be competent, professional, and timely, and as detailed and argumented as possible.
Reviewers should also point out any potential conflict of interest.
All other guidelines and recommendations for reviewing and categorizing scholarly papers can be found in the reviewing guidelines. In order for the review to be complete and credible, the reviewer is required to fill in and sign the paper review form.
In case of an unduly review or any error regarding the technical aspect of publication procedure, the author is entitled to withdraw their paper from the process altogether.
Publication Frequency
Philologist journal is published biannually, in June and in December.
Open Access Policy
Philologist journal enables instantaneous open access to its whole content in accordance with a belief that the public accessibility of research findings prompts a wider exchange of knowledge and ideas. The journal makes its contents open for its readership to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to the full texts of the published articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose. As one of the signatories of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, we only put a constraint on distribution and reproduction concerning the domain of copyright, since it is necessary for authors to be given control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.
Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
The Philologist, founded by the Faculty of Philology, Banja Luka, is an open access, peer-reviewed journal promoting contemporary theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of language, literature, and culture, with an international editorial board.
The editorial board of the journal is committed to maintaining the highest ethical principles and preventing malpractice in the course of its publication. These principles are consistent with the standards found in similar statements and codes of conduct of leading journals published in English and Serbian. Articles that do not comply with these standards will not be published in the journal. This statement implies duties and responsibilities of the author, editor, reviewer and publisher respectively. The editorial board and the publisher take full responsibility for implementing the publishing policy.
Furthermore, the editorial board provides double-blind peer reviews for all papers submitted. Editors are obliged to ensure adequate reviews of all the papers submitted, paying respect to the anonymity of both the author and reviewer in a double-blind peer review process, preventing any possible conflict of interest. In addition, editors must insure the confidentiality of all information concerning the papers submitted prior to publication. In case of a complaint regarding an ethical issue or conflict of interest, the editors shall act upon the existing policies and procedures.
All papers submitted will be checked for plagiarism with the software provided by the University of Banja Luka. Plagiarism, fabrication and falsification of scientific results, as well as publication of already published papers and other forms of academic misconduct are ethically unacceptable acts that will be discharged in accordance with the principles stated above.
The authors take responsibility regarding the originality and authenticity of the papers by signing the statement. The manuscripts sent to the editorial board must not be published, accepted for publication, or undergoing a reviewing process in another journal or periodical. Furthermore, in the said statement, the authors take responsibility for the correct use of bibliography within the papers.
The reviewers evaluate the papers submitted solely on the basis of their contents, in an objective, qualified and competent manner, avoiding discrimination on any account and taking into consideration the highest ethical standards and codes of conduct, improving the quality of the papers through their remarks. They are guaranteed anonymity by the editorial board, and the reviewers, in turn, are obliged to provide confidentiality of all the information concerning, to report the violation of copyright, plagiarism and other ethically unacceptable procedures or instances of malpractice in the paper reviewed. Reviewers who feel incompetent or unqualified regarding the paper in question, who think that they will not be able to provide a prompt review, or who think of themselves as being involved in a conflict of interest, shall inform the editorial board about this and are exempted from the reviewing process.
List of External Reviewers
The publishing policy of Philologist implies the disclosure of the list of external reviewers. It is provided in the alphabetical order of the initial letters of the authors’ last names.
Printed edition and subscription
All the issues of the journal are available in print. Copies can be obtained at the Faculty of Philology, Bulevar vojvode Petra Bojovica 1a, Banja Luka. If you cannot reach us in person, please contact us via the following email: sasa.smulja@flf.unibl.org.
Subscribe to the printed edition of Philologist at a cost of BAM 50.00 within the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or EUR 50.00 (abroad) annually for two issues. The subscription includes shipping costs. All information regarding subscription is available at mara.keranovic@flf.unibl.org or via calling +387 51 340-129.
Author’s statement
Immediately after the paper submission, and prior to the commencement of the reviewing procedure, authors must sign a statement, which will be sent to them either by the Editorial Board Secretary or the Editor-in-chief. Authors will state that they agree with the open access policy which is supported by the Editorial Board and the Publisher of the journal Philologist, i.e. that they agree with the Copyright Notice. It means that, by keeping the copyright, they cede the first publication rights to the Journal, and, according to the CC-BY-NC licence, they agree with the open access policy and usage of the contents published on the website providing that the usage of the contents is non-commercial and the author(s) and the origin of the first publication are mandatorily labelled. At the same time, authors should state that they will follow the guidelines listed in the Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement. Authors should also point out any potential conflict of interest. Other author responsibilities are listed in the body of the text of the statement form.
Notes
- Philologistallows the author(s) to hold the copyright and to retain their publishing rights without any restrictions.
- Philologistallows the author(s) to self-archive preprint and/or postprint versions of their papers on a non-profit server or on the author’s personal website with an acknowledgement of the publication source. Using the published version in PDF is permitted.
- Philologistdoes not ask for article processing charges (APCs), article submission charges or publication fees.
- Philologistwill provide a free author’s copy of the volume in which their paper was published.
