Author Guidelines

Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem [Studies on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism] (by 2011: Studia nad Faszyzmem i Zbrodniami Hitlerowskimi [Studies on Fascism and Hitlerite Crimes]) is a scientific quarterly dedicated to the issues of totalitarian crimes (communist, Nazi and fascist ones) presented in historical terms and examined from the perspective of the law, as well as to the analysis of the phenomenon of despotism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, communism and Nazism in terms of doctrines, law, history, political science, sociology, psychology, religious studies and economy.

The journal is of interdisciplinary nature and is addressed to a wide range of representatives of humanities and social sciences referring in their research to the aforementioned subject areas.

The following is published in the journal:

• original scientific articles,

• review papers,

• commentaries,

• critical review papers (scientific review papers),

• reviews,

• reports on research or scientific conferences.

   

Examples of addressed issues

The texts published in the journal are the ones dedicated to the following issues in particular:

• historical and legal research on totalitarian crimes (communist, Nazi, fascist and other ones), of which the research on the grounds of liability (in nation-level legal orders and the international law) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, etc.

• interdisciplinary research on places dedicated to the memory of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes and on historical politics.

• legal aspects of functioning of authoritarian and totalitarian states (in particular the theory of law, constitutionalism, political system and practice of justice, functioning of individual branches of the law in authoritarian and totalitarian states);

• legal research on authoritarianism and totalitarianism in contemporary legal orders (criminal liability for promoting totalitarian political systems, limits of the freedom of speech and right to privacy, surveillance, hate speech, etc.);

• research on the security in the scope of threats posed by authoritarian and totalitarian states and fundamentalist movements;

• historical research on political systems, legal institutions and political ideas the understanding of which contributes to the explanation of the phenomenon of totalitarianism and authoritarianism (also before the 20th century);

• research on despotism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, communism and Nazism in terms of doctrines, law, history, political science, sociology, psychology, religious studies and economy;

   

Formal requirements for texts

1. The texts to be published in the journal should be prepared in one of the following languages: Polish, English, German or Russian,

2. Length of texts

• for original scientific articles, review papers and critical review papers - the length should be not shorter than 0.5 of a publisher’s sheet and not longer than 2 publisher’s sheets (a publisher’s sheet means 40,000 characters with spaces);

• for commentaries, reviews, reports on research or scientific conference - the said length is 0.1-0.5 of a publisher’s sheet respectively.

3. The texts should be submitted for publication electronically through Open Journal System, which is available on the journal website after registration.

4. The typescript and the remaining metadata of bibliography should fulfil the requirements set by the Publishing House of the Wrocław University made available on the web page of the said Publishing House.

• The technical guidelines for preparation of the typescript are available at https://wuwr.eu/wskazowki-dla-autorow/

• Bibliography and notes - https://wuwr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Szczegolowe-wytyczne-bibliograficzne-1.02.2023.pdf

Font: Times New Roman, 12 points, line spacing: 1.5. Margins: 2.5 x 2.5 cm. Footnotes (Chicago style): Times New Roman, 10 points. Justified text.

4. Original scientific articles should present a problem, question and research objective.

5. The typescript should be enclosed with:

• the author’s data/list of authors, together with the affiliation of each author, description of each author’s contribution to the text, correspondence address, e-mail address and ORCID number (in the left upper corner of the title page of the typescript);

• the article title given in the language of the text and in the English language;

• a bibliography prepared in the Latin alphabet in its entirety (if bibliography is prepared with other characters, their transliteration into Latin characters should be provided) Chicago style (cf. Zasady sporządzania przypisów i bibliografii [Guidelines for notes and bibliography]);

• an abstract (300-600 words) in the language in which the article is prepared and in the English language (the details concerning the text of the abstract are given in section 5 hereinbelow);

• the list of keywords (from 3 to 6) given in the language of the text and in the English language;

• a scan of the author’s statement signed personally by each author (cf. the Author’s Statement) confirming that:

• the authors have read and observed - when preparing the text - the ethical guidelines for the authors of Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem [Studies on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism],

• the authors have read and accept the content of these “Publication Rules in Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem [Studies on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism],

• the publication does not violate other persons’ copyrights,

• the publication or its significant part has not been simultaneously submitted or published in another journal, joint work or monograph,

• there is no conflict of interests which may influence the content of the publication (if there is any such conflict, it should be described, e.g. through specification of the source of funding the publication).

7. An abstract should include the introduction into the research problem (background), hypotheses or research questions (objectives), research methods (methods), the most important findings (results) and their interpretation and conclusions (conclusions). The review papers and other articles with extensive scope of the subject matter may include descriptive abstracts, i.e. listing the most important discussed issues, without specific results. It is recommended to use the keywords in the text of the abstract.

8. ORCID profile - Open Research and Contributor ID used to identify scientific achievements of a given author in the Internet. The registration form is available on https://orcid.org/signin.

Submission of the text for publication

1. If the author sends the text to the journal, it shall simultaneously mean that:

• the author represents that the author is entitled to the author’s economic rights to the text, that the text is free from any legal defects, and has not been earlier published in whole or in part, and has not been submitted to the editorial section of any other journal;

• the author gives their consent - free of charge - to the publication of the text in the journal of Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem [Studies on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism] and to its unlimited distribution in terms of time ad territory, of which marketing the copies of the journal and making its copies available in the Internet for a fee or free of charge;

• the author gives their consent to entering the text into the Internet database of Scientific Journals Online (CNS from Polish Czasopisma Naukowe w Sieci) and into other databases that have the cooperation established with the Publishing House of the Wrocław University, and - in addition to the text itself - also the basic data about an article, including but not limited to its abstract, keywords, bibliography (in the language in which the text has been prepared and in the English language) and the author’s personal data (first name and surname, affiliation, e-mail address).

2. Within 7 days of submitting the text, the authors shall receive the confirmation of its submission for publication by e-mail correspondence.

3. The Editorial Board (hereinafter referred to as the “Board”) shall verify the texts submitted for publication in Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem [Studies on Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism] in terms of formal requirements, ethical guidelines and its compliance with the profile of the subject matter of the journal. The texts which do not fulfil the formal requirements shall be sent back to their authors with the request that they be corrected or supplemented. The texts which are prepared in violation of the ethical guidelines or the rules of the journal shall be rejected (the text can be rejected for such reasons at any stage of the procedure). The text may be also rejected by the Board if its originality or scientific (factual) quality raise any serious and justified doubts.

4. The texts presenting the results of statistical research may be verified by the Board in terms of applied methodology and the correctness of calculations made.

5. The failure to fulfil the formal requirements may suspend the submission of the texts for factual review.

Review procedure

1. The texts which fulfil the formal requirements and are in compliance with the profile of the subject matter of the journal undergo their factual review.

2. Each text is sent for evaluation to two independent reviewers selected by the Board from the list of regular reviewers listed in the journal or selected temporarily for the purpose of reviewing a specific article. All reviewers have to be recognised specialists in the area to which the article refers, holding at least the university degree of doktor [Doctor of Philosophy], who are not from the affiliation unit of the authors of the article and who are not in the conflict of interests with the authors (subordination, blood relationships, direct scientific cooperation within the last two years preceding the preparation of the review). The list of reviewers in a given year is published in the last issue of the journal in the year.

3. The review model applied in the journal is the double-blind review, that is the authors do not know the reviewers’ name and vice versa - the reviewers do not know the identity of the authors and other reviewers.

4. The procedure of factual review lasts three months. The reviewers give their opinion on the text through evaluating its following aspects with the use of five-grade scale (Fail, Satisfactory, Good, Very Good, Outstanding):

• Cognitive value and originality of the work (To what degree does the work contribute new elements to knowledge and science?);

• Methodological correctness (To what degree is the assumed research method correctly selected and applied?);

• Formal and linguistic aspects (To what degree is the work written with correct, professional and comprehensible language?);

• Logic and transparency of disquisition (To what degree is the disquisition clear, cohesive, transparent and logical?);

• Selection and use of literature (To what degree is the literature selected in a correct and sufficient manner?);

• Utility (To what degree are the issues covered in the work useful in practice or can be used for the development of science?);

provided that each “fail” grade shall be obligatorily and separately justified.

4. The reviewers are obliged to point out obligatory and optional changes which should be introduced in the text before its publication.

5. The review ends with the conclusion which is the overall evaluation of the text:

• the work is suitable for publication in the presented version;

• the work is suitable for publication after making the changes;

• the work is not suitable for publication;

7. After receiving two positive reviews, the text is sent for printing in compliance with the publishing schedule set by the Board. If the conclusion states that the work is suitable for publication after making the changes, it is considered that such a review is positive provided that the author follows the obligatory reservations.

8. If the reviewers state that it is necessary to make the obligatory or optional changes, the anonymised reviews are sent to the author to enable them to correct or supplement the text. The time limit for correcting the text by the author is one month, otherwise the text is rejected. The Board evaluates the changes introduced to the text in compliance with the reservations included in the reviews and makes the final decision about the publication on that basis. The Board may also request the reviewer for re-evaluation of the anonymised text to verify whether the author has followed the reviewers’ reservations.

9. The author is entitled to appeal against the conclusion or individual reservations made by the reviewer provided that the author sends the justification of their view. In case of any disputes, the final decision is made by the Chief Editor.

10. In special cases, the Board may ask the Scientific Council (the Editorial Council) or its selected members to make a decision about the publication, in particular in the case of an argument between the author and the reviewers or in the case of the conflict of interests with the members of the Board.

11. If two reviews do not permit the publication of the text, the text is rejected. If the reviewers’ evaluations differ, the Chief Editor may appoint the third reviewer and when the third reviewer gives their opinion about the acceptance of the text - may decide about the publication.

Proofreading

1. Before printing, the issues are proofread by the Publishing House of the Wrocław University.

2. Before the publication, the proofreading results are forwarded to individual authors so that they could read the remarks of the editors and make the author’s proof.

3. The authors make the author’s proof within non-extendible period of 7 days, according to one of the following methods:

• with the use of Adobe Reader (https://get.adobe.com/pl/reader/) — the tool “Comment”;

• through showing in a separate text file the changes by giving the number of page, line (counted from the top or the bottom line) and version: “jak jest” [is]/ “jak powinno być” [should be].

4. The failure to keep the deadline referred to in point 3 hereinabove may result in the change of the publishing schedules and postponing the publication of the text to another issue.

Publication of the text

1. The author shall be informed about the acceptance of the text for publication and the publishing schedule by electronic mail sent to the address specified by the author within 6 months of submitting the text. In justified cases, the said deadline may be prolonged, and the author shall be informed accordingly about it.

2. The issues of the journal are accessible on-line (in PDF format) via the Scientific Journals Online (Czasopisma Naukowe w Sieci) repository owned by the Publishing House of the Wrocław University operating as Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością with its registered office in Wrocław (plac Uniwersytecki 15, 50-137 Wrocław, number of entry into the National Court Register (KRS): 0000184833). The issues are available on the website of https://wuwr.pl/sfzh

3. Provided that the Board is provided with the correspondence address, the author(s) of the text published in the journal shall receive their free authorial copy.

4. Unless agreed otherwise, the author shall not receive the author’s fee for the published texts.