Interstudia is a biannual journal of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Contemporary Discursive  Forms  (Interstud).  This  statement  spells  out  ethical  behaviour  of  all  parties involved in the act of publishing an article for this journal, i.e. the chief editor and editors. the reviewers and the author. This statement is based on PERK (Publishing Ethic Resource Kit) URL: http://www.elsevier.com/editors/perk

Duties of Editors

Structure of editorial board

The chief editor works as the executive director of Interstudia. She is assigned by the Faculty Counsel for four years following the suggestions made by the members of Interstud Research Centre.

The chief editor and the secretary are in charge of the maintenance of journal’s archives (e.g. registration and regulation acts, published journal issues, mail exchanges with the members of the editorial board, the peer-reviewers and the authors). These documents must be preserved in electronic or printed form. The letters from the peer-reviewers and authors are to be preserved two years after a volume is published.

The chief editor and the senior editor assign (from the members of the editorial board) the persons responsible for each journal issue, as well as two peer-reviewers for each article to be published.

The secretary supervises the final form of the journal’s issues, proofreads the articles according to the established style sheet, and together with the person in charge of an issue s/he exchanges mails with the authors and peer-reviewers, respects the anonymity of the peer- review process, ensures the maintenance of the journal’s archives.

The members of the editorial board are assigned by the chief editor following the suggestions made by the general assembly of the members of Interstud Research Centre. The whole editorial board is in charge of the journal’s promotion, deals with the exchange contracts with other scientific publications, and with the subscriptions. All members identify the types and sources of financing the journal, index the journal in international data bases, participate in/at different book fairs, and are also in charge of getting the accreditation from CNCS (National Centre for Scientific Research). The editorial board is also in charge of the technical services concerning the editing activity: style sheet, proofreading, etc..

Announcement of themes

The chief editor assigns a person from Interstud members to be in charge of a journal’s issue six months before the volume is published. S/he comes up with suggestions regarding the issue’s topics (with respect to Interstud research plan), distributes the call for papers, constitutes the table of contents and together with the secretary exchanges mails with the authors or peer-reviewers and writes the presentation of the journal’s issue. The chief editor and the editorial staff must announce the theme of each issue through various means of broadcast at least five months before publication.

Decision on the publication of articles

A first step consists in the analysis of the compliance of recommendations for authors, followed by articles screening using the plagiarism software purchased by the University. In case of non-compliance of recommendations or obvious evidence of plagiarism, the manuscript is returned to authors for correction of deficiencies. In the second stage, each article is distributed by the chief editor or by any editorial board member for evaluation to two members of the Scientific Committee, specialists in the thematic field(s) of the article.

For a month, the articles will be evaluated by the committee, and the review forms with any comments will be sent to the persons in charge of the issue, then they will be sent to the authors. The editorial board reserves the right not to publish articles that do not comply with scientific and editing recommendations of Interstudia journal, articles which did not receive a favourable opinion after being scanned with the plagiarism software, and articles that are not sent to the specified time.

Confidentiality

No information about a submitted article should be revealed to anyone other than the corresponding author, the reviewers and the publisher.

Fair play

The chief editor and the editorial board must evaluate articles solely on their intellectual merit.

Duties of Peer-Reviewers

Structure of the Scientific Committee

The peer-reviewers are selected from the scientific committee, which consists of professors and researchers from Romania and from abroad, who have given a written approval, share the same interest fields as Interstudia, and who have already got outstanding scientific and professional credit for their research.

Contribution of Peer-Reviewers

Peer-reviewers assist the chief editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions concerning the publication of articles. At the same time, through their comments, they assist the author in improving the article.

Confidentiality

Peer-reviewers must treat the manuscripts received for review as confidential documents. Consequently, they must not disclose any information related to them to others.

Objectivity

Peer-reviewers should express their views objectively, without any personal criticism of the author. At the same time, their comments should be supported by solid arguments.

Duties of Authors

Article submission

Authors should submit their articles at least three months before publication. Manuscripts must be written in compliance with the scientific, ethical and stylistic requirements of the journal. Authors must also observe the style sheet imposed by Interstudia.

Submission of the corrected article

The final (corrected) form will be submitted in two weeks.

Originality and Plagiarism

Authors should ensure that their articles are original. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Such quotations and citations must be listed in the Footnotes section at the bottom of pages, while full bibliographical reference should be provided in the Bibliography section at the end of the articles.

Citation of Sources

Authors should correctly cite the work of others that they used in their articles.

Multiple Publication

Authors should not submit the same article to more than one journal concurrently. This constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgment of Funding Sources

If an article is part of a research project, the sources of funding should be duly acknowledged at the end of the article.

Agreement

Each author whose article is accepted for publication in Interstudia will complete an Author Statement form regarding the authenticity of the article, and the consent for the material to be published.