Article Review Procedure

1. The peer-review process of articles submitted to the academic journal Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne complies with the recommendations of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education outlined in Good practices in reviewing process in science (in Polish) (Warsaw, 2011), as well as with generally accepted standards of good practice in this area.

2. By submitting a manuscript for publication in the journal, the author(s) consent to the review procedure.

3. The procedure comprises the following stages:
a) Stage One: Preliminary assessment of the article’s content and form by the Editorial Office.
b) Stage Two: Forwarding the article to two independent reviewers, each holding at least a doctoral degree.
c) Stage Three: Providing the reviewers’ conclusions and comments to the author(s), maintaining the principle of double anonymity (double-blind review process).
d) Stage Four: Author(s) respond to the review and make necessary corrections.
e) Stage Five: Final editorial decision on the publication of the submitted article.
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4. Reviewers are typically not affiliated with the scientific institution of the author(s) or any institution with which the author(s) may have a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is defined as:

• Official or professional dependence;
• Direct scientific collaboration;
• Direct personal relationships (e.g., second-degree kinship, marriage).

Instructions for Reviewers

1. Each review must provide a clear recommendation regarding the acceptance or rejection of the article for publication. Reviews that fail to meet the substantive and formal standards of a scientific review will not be considered. This includes reviews that are predominantly critical without justification, excessively laudatory without basis, or lack a logical connection between the content and the conclusion - such as reviews that are overtly critical yet conclude positively, or vice versa.

2. Reviewers should select one of the following recommendations:
a) The article may be published without any revisions.
b) The article may be published after incorporating the suggested revisions.
c) The article should not be published without substantial revisions, and it should undergo another review after addressing the reviewer’s comments.
d) The article should not be published, as there is no realistic possibility of its revision.
e) The article may be suitable for publication in another journal.

3. Reviewers are expected to complete their reviews promptly. The standard timeframe for submitting a review is four weeks.

4. Reviewers are obligated to maintain confidentiality regarding all information provided by the Editorial Office. They must not use knowledge of the reviewed work prior to its publication.

5. Reviewers should inform the Editorial Office of any potential similarity between the reviewed article and previously published content. The article will undergo verification through the anti-plagiarism systems before publication.

6. A list of reviewers is published in each issue of the journal.

7. As is customary, reviews are conducted without compensation. Reviewers will receive a complimentary printed or PDF copy of the volume of the journal in which the article they reviewed is published.

The editorial office of the journal Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne (Poznan Theological Studies) adheres to the following ethical principles, which safeguard the rights of authors and prevent plagiarism as well as the unlawful use of published materials:  

1. The general principles are founded upon the guidelines of the Code of Ethics for Researchers developed by the Commission for Ethics in Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Code of Ethics for Research Workers (in Polish); the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE: Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing); and the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK) – Elsevier: Publishing Ethics.
2. In substantiated cases involving suspected plagiarism; the use of copyrighted materials belonging to third parties without their consent or without adequate acknowledgment; or disputes concerning the authorship of an article, the editorial office reserves the right to issue an erratum or corrigendum, retract the article even after its publication, notify the relevant authorities of the author’s faculty or institution, and/or initiate legal proceedings.
3. The editorial office strictly prohibits ghostwriting - where substantive contributions to a publication are made without any disclosure of such involvement (as an author, co-author, or consultant) - and guest authorship, in which an individual is listed as an author despite having made minimal or no contribution to the work.
4. All authors are required to disclose the contributions of all individuals involved in the creation of the submitted article, including their institutional affiliation and a description of the nature of their contribution. Authors must also provide - where applicable -information on the sources of funding for the research conducted in connection with the article. Such information shall be submitted in the form of a signed declaration, in which the authors confirm that the manuscript has not been previously published, is free of legal defects, and complies with the relevant ethical standards.
5. Authors submitting to the journal are expected to uphold the principles of scientific integrity, including originality of work, transparency in data sharing, prevention of conflicts of interest, accurate attribution of authorship, reliability of sources, prompt correction of errors in published works, and the avoidance of redundant, duplicate, or simultaneous submission to other journals.
6. Once a manuscript is accepted for review, it is submitted to two independent reviewers who hold at least a postdoctoral degree and have no conflict of interest with the author(s). Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to, employment within the same research unit, close scientific collaboration, professional dependency, or close personal relationships (e.g., second-degree kinship, marriage). Should such a conflict of interest arise, reviewers are obliged to notify the editorial office. The journal applies a double-blind peer review process, ensuring mutual anonymity between authors and reviewers. In cases where the number of specialists in a given field is very limited, exceptions to these principles may be considered.
7. If a manuscript lies outside the scope of a reviewer’s scientific expertise, the reviewer may decline to undertake the review.
8. The review must contain a clear recommendation as to whether the manuscript should be: (a) accepted for publication; (b) rejected; or (c) accepted subject to the author making the required revisions. The substance of the review is communicated to the author.
9. If any similarity is detected between the reviewed manuscript and other previously published material that is not appropriately cited or referenced in the scholarly apparatus, the reviewer must promptly notify the editorial office.
10. The review process is conducted in strict confidence. Reviewers may not, without the prior written consent of the author(s), make use of data, concepts, or ideas contained in submitted manuscripts prior to their publication in the journal. This prohibition also applies to manuscripts ultimately rejected by the editors.
11. All reviews are undertaken on a voluntary basis and without financial remuneration\
12. Authorship or co-authorship of a scholarly publication must be based on a creative and substantial contribution to the research. Such contributions include, but are not limited to: significant participation in formulating the research concept; designing the study; acquiring, analysing, and interpreting data; and making a substantial intellectual contribution to drafting and revising the manuscript. All individuals who meet these criteria should be listed as co-authors. Contributions of others who have influenced the research in a significant way should be appropriately acknowledged. Any financial support or other forms of assistance received must also be acknowledged. The sequence of co-authors’ names in the publication is determined by mutual agreement among the co-authors
13. The use of works by other authors, as well as the authors’ own previously published works, must be properly documented through citations in footnotes and in the bibliography. All forms of plagiarism and self-plagiarism - defined as the use of material from other sources without proper attribution in the scholarly apparatus - are strictly prohibited. The concealment of authorship or the attribution of false authorship is likewise forbidden. In such cases, the editorial office reserves the right to refuse publication of the manuscript, retract a published article, require the publication of an explanation or apology, and initiate appropriate disciplinary or legal action.
14. In accordance with the provisions of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights of 4 February 1994, Poland, the author transfers the copyright of the submitted work to the publisher of Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne (Poznan Theological Studies). The transfer of copyright applies to all fields of exploitation, in particular those specified in Article 50 of the Act, including:

14.1. Fixation and reproduction of the work - producing copies of the work by any technique, including printing, reprography, magnetic recording, and digital methods. 

14.2. Trading in the original or copies on which the work has been fixed - placing on the market, lending, or leasing the original or copies. 

14.3. Dissemination of the work in a manner other than that specified in point 14.2 - public performance, exhibition, display, reproduction, broadcasting, rebroadcasting, and making the work publicly available in such a way that any person can access it at a time and place of their choosing. 

1. 15. To prevent copyright infringement, the editorial office employs the Crossref Similarity Check anti-plagiarism system, which uses iThenticate software.
   16. With the prior consent of the editorial office, articles published in Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne (Poznan Theological Studies) be reprinted in other publications.

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Anti-plagiarism policy

To ensure the originality and high quality of published articles, the journal applies the latest procedures for evaluating them, and uses the Crossref Similarity Check anti-plagiarism system using iThenticate software. The system makes it possible to identify similarities in a text by comparing it with publications available on the Internet and indexed databases, and identifying the sources of passages. Works in which borrowings from other authors are found inappropriately cited or plagiarized will be rejected by the editors, and violations of either copyright or good scientific practice will be reported to the management of the author's employing institution. If plagiarism is found in a published paper, the Editorial Board will withdraw the text and post a notice to this effect on the journal's website and/or in the printed version.

Open Access Policy

Open Access (OA) articles are published under a Creative Commons license:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The journal provides immedaite, open access (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International) to all journal content, following the principle that freely accessible research enhances and accelerates global scientific development and knowledge exchange.
The Author(s) retains copyright to their article and the right to freely dispose of the work, granting Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons licence. The editors encourage authors to submit articles published in the journal to open access repositories as long as they provide a link to the journal's website and the DOI number of the article.
The journal does not charge the authors any fees related to the process of publication.