The journal Folkloristika [Folkloristics] (print ISSN 2560-4414, online ISSN 2560-3191) is the double-blind peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Serbian Folklore Association.
Folkloristika promotes the mission of the Serbian Folklore Association through publishing original and review articles that advance and interpret the scientific knowledge in the field of folklore studies. The Journal also publishes scientific critiques, reviews of books, scientific bibliographies, and chronicle, that are dealing with the issues of importance to the Serbian Folklore Association and the folklore studies and related humanities in Serbia and abroad. In addition, Folkloristika discloses selected folklore field and manuscript material, thus supporting the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in Serbia.
By encouraging the exchange of ideas and various theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives, Folkloristika is dedicated to both traditional and emerging topics. The interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary areas covered in the Journal include, but are not limited to, folklore and its relation to humanities and social sciences: literary and language studies, ethnology, ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, social anthropology, history (especially social and oral history), arts, studies of religion, cultural studies, along with their interactions.
Folkloristika welcomes submissions in Serbian and English, other Slavic or world languages in agreement with the editors, with summaries in English if the article is in Serbian or in Serbian if the article is in any foreign language.
Articles may contain audio, video and photographic documentation.
The Journal is published bi-annually. There are no publication fees or honoraria.
Folkloristika also publishes special issues, focused on specific themes and edited by guest editors.
Folkloristika is indexed in doiFil and doiSerbia.
Digital copies of the Journal are archived in the Digital Repository of the National Library of Serbia.
Editorial responsibilities
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are responsible for deciding which articles submitted to Folkloristika will be published. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.
The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within two months from the date of the manuscript submission.
Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor of The Main Theme section and members of the Editorial Board must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the paper shall be made by the Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board must be made aware of any possible conflict of interest in due time.
Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor of The Main Theme section and the Editorial Board shall evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.
The Editor and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.
Author’s responsibilities
Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same paper to another journal constitutes a misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by Folkloristika.
The Authors also warrant that the manuscript is not and will not be published elsewhere (after the publication in Folkloristika) in any language without the consent of the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board.
In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in the first footnote of the paper. A paper that has already been published in another journal cannot be reprinted in Folkloristika.
It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that papers submitted to Folkloristika are written with ethical standards in mind. Authors affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Reporting standards
A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.
Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the data public.
Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
Authorship
Authors must make sure that all only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section.
Acknowledgment of Sources
Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.
Plagiarism includes the following:
• Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author’s work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks);
• Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else’s paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.
Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism.
Any paper which shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected.
In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy.
Conflict of interest
Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation.
Fundamental errors in published works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.
By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the Folkloristika’s Editorial Policies.
Reviewers’ responsibilities
Reviewers are required to provide written, competent and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript.
The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus.
Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the Editor to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the Editor to a parallel submission of the same paper to another journal, in the event they are aware of such.
Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay.
Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
Peer review
The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to provide benevolent constructive criticism, advice and recommendations for revision, so the author can enhance the quality of his article, strengthen the research methodology, ameliorate interpretation. Peer review assists the Editor-in-Chief in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author it may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Peer reviewing in Folkloristika is anonymous and voluntary (there is no honoraria). Each proposed paper is being reviewed by two peer reviewers. The reviewers are expected to return peer-review forms to the Editorial Board in 30 days from the day they accepted the original paper, so that the authors could be informed about the acceptance or rejection of their contributions within two months from the moment of the submission of the paper.
The choice of reviewers is at the Editors’ discretion. The reviewers should be knowledgeable about the subject area of the manuscript; they cannot be from the authors’ own institution and they should not have recent joint publications with any of the authors.
In the main review phase, the Editor sends submitted papers to two experts in the field. The reviewers’ evaluation form contains a checklist in order to help referees cover all aspects that can decide the fate of a submission. In the final section of the evaluation form, the reviewers should include observations and suggestions aimed at improving the submitted manuscript; these are sent to authors, without the names of the reviewers.
All of the reviewers of a paper act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities.
If the decisions of the two reviewers are not the same (accept/reject), the Editor-in-Chief may assign additional reviewers.
In case that the reviewers’ opinions are again not in accord, the Editor-in-Chief, together with the Guest Editor of The Main Theme section or with the Editorial Board makes his final decision without consultations with additional reviewers.
During the review process Editor may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scholarly merit of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.
The Editorial team shall ensure reasonable quality control for the reviews. With respect to reviewers whose reviews are convincingly questioned by authors, special attention will be paid to ensure that the reviews are objective and high in academic standard. When there is any doubt with regard to the objectivity of the reviews or quality of the review, additional reviewers will be assigned.
Procedures for dealing with unethical behavior
Anyone may inform the editors and/or Editorial Staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by giving the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation.
Investigation
Editor-in-Chief will make a decision regarding the initiation of an investigation with the purpose to check the factual evidence.
During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating.
The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them.
If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious.
Minor misconduct
Minor misconduct will be dealt directly with those involved without involving any other parties, e.g.:
• Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred
• A warning letter to an author or reviewer regarding fairly minor misconduct.
Major misconduct
The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Board, and, when appropriate, further consultation with a small group of experts should make any decision regarding the course of action to be taken using the evidence available. The possible outcomes are as follows (these can be used separately or jointly):
• Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct.
• Informing the author’s (or reviewer’s) head of department or employer of any misconduct by means of a formal letter.
• The formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the Retraction Policy (see below).
• A ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period.
• Referring a case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action.
When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editorial Staff will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/resources/.
Retraction policy
Legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or any major misconduct require retraction of an article. Occasionally a retraction can be used to correct errors in submission or publication. The main reason for withdrawal or retraction is to correct the mistake while preserving the integrity of science; it is not to punish the author.
Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by Folkloristika: in the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article, a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”
Open access policy
Folkloristika is an Open Access Journal. All articles can be downloaded free of charge from the following link (www.Folkloristika.org, www.folkloristics.org), and they can be used free of charge in accordance with the Creative Commons ‒ Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 RS).
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/rs/deed.en_US
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/legalcode
Folkloristika does not charge APC (Article Processing Charge).
The journal does not charge any fees at submission, reviewing, and production stages.
Self-archiving Policy
The journal Folkloristika allows authors to deposit Publisher’s version/PDF in an institutional repository and non-commercial subject-based repositories or to publish it on Author’s personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.) and/or departmental website, in accordance with the Creative Commons ‒ Attribution-NonCommer-cial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 RS), at any time after publication. Publisher copyright and source (full bibliographic information: authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) must be acknowledged and a link must be made to the article’s DOI.
Copyright
The following non-exclusive rights to the manuscript, including any supplemental material, any parts and copies thereof are transferred to the publisher:
• the right to reproduce and distribute the Manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
• the right to produce prepublications, reprints, and special editions of the Manuscript;
• the right to translate the Manuscript into other languages;
• the right to reproduce the Manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these reproductions;
• the right to reproduce and distribute the Manuscript electronically or optically on any and all data carriers or storage media ‒ especially in machine readable/digitalized form on data carriers such as hard drive, CD-Rom, DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), Mini-Disk, data tape ‒ and the right to reproduce and distribute the Article via these data carriers;
• the right to store the Manuscript in databases, including online databases, and the right of transmission of the Manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
• the right to make the Manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the internet, other online services, or via internal or external networks.
The authors and third parties who wish use the article in a way not covered by the Creative Commons ‒ Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 RS) must obtain a written consent of the Publisher. All requests for such a use of the article must be sent in written form to the publisher’s address (Udruženje folklorista Srbije [Serbian Folklore Association], Birčaninova 24, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia) and also to the e-mail address of the Editor-in-Chief: Folkloristika.ufs@gmail.com.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. Publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.