Publishing Ethics
The European Journal of Theatre and Performance (EJTP) is an international peer-reviewed journal published by the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP). EJTP aims to stimulate a close dialogue between theory and practice, as well as between theatre and performance scholars and artists across Europe and beyond.
The journal is published two times a year (in June and December). Its policies are closely aligned with COPE’s (Committee on Publication Ethics) Core Practices document, which can be accessed here.
Submissions to EJTP’s Essays Section must be based on original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere. EJTP is open to publishing articles in languages other than English, but in that case, authors will be asked to secure themselves professional proofreading.
Ethical standards are crucial to ensure the high quality, integrity, and credibility of all the material published. To that end, EJTP has several policies and guidelines in place to guarantee these standards.
Responsibilities of the Editors-in-Chief, the Associate Editor, Managing Editors, and Section Conveners
It is the duty of the Editors-in-Chief, together with the Associate Editor, to organize the workflow of the journal and to ensure the communication between everyone involved. They are hereby guided by the policies of the Editorial Board, the EASTAP Executive Committee, as well as by legal requirements regarding copyright and plagiarism.
The Editors-in-Chief, together with the Associate Editor, have an overall view on the contributions of the journal and give support to the Section Convenors. They also assert the general publication policy of the journal and the selection and review process of the contributions.
The Managing Editors are responsible for journal subscriptions and provide support with the production process by ensuring deadlines are met and by assisting with image editing.
The Section Conveners are responsible for the choice of texts to be published in their section. They give support to the authors and prepare the manuscripts for publication.
Selection and Peer Review Process of Essays Section
First selection: For the Essays section, EJTP issues a themed Call for Papers (for which authors can submit abstracts) or an open Call for Papers (for which authors are required to submit complete, original articles). These submissions are first evaluated by either the guest editors or the editorial board. They make a first selection and, in case of a themed Essays Section, authors are invited to develop their abstract into a full article. In case of an open Essays Section, the selected submissions are sent directly to two (or more) external reviewers.
Peer review: The guest editors or the editorial board select two (or more) possible reviewers for each submission. Potential reviewers receive a personal email that also specifies why their expertise is relevant to the article under review. When accepting the invitation for peer review, reviewers receive our EJTP Peer Review Form and the anonymized article manuscript. In case of one positive review and one negative review, we look for a third reviewer to assess the article.
Communication of review results: The guest editors or the editorial board collect the results of the double-blind peer review and communicate them in anonymized form to the authors. If the article is accepted for publication (with either minor or major revisions), the guest editors or the editorial board send their own editorial comments and requests for revisions together with the review results.
Fair review: The guest editors or the editorial board ensure that each manuscript is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship etc. of the authors.
Confidentiality of submitted material: The guest editors or the editorial board will ensure that systems are in place to assure the confidentiality and protection from misuse of material submitted to the journal while under review and the protection of authors’ and reviewers’ identities and will themselves take all reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of authors’ and reviewers’ identities.
Disclosure: The guest editors or the editorial board will ensure that submitted manuscripts are processed in a confidential manner, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, as appropriate.
Conflicts of interest: The guest editors or the editorial board will excuse themselves from considering a manuscript in which they have a real or potential conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, financial or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript.
Reviewers’ responsibilities: Each reader is asked to evaluate the manuscript under review, based on a specific Peer Review Form. The main review criteria are relevance, research quality, clarity, and coherence. The reviewer can either (1) accept the article with or without minor revisions, (2) advise to revise and resubmit the article with major revisions, or (3) decline the article.
Each reader justifies the general recommendation by inserting a written report. Reviewers are also encouraged to insert comments in the submitted manuscript using the MS Word track changes and comment function.
In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete review of manuscript within stipulated time, then this information must be communicated to the guest editors or the editorial board, so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.
Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly and professionally. Personal criticism of the author (i.e., gender/sexual orientation, religious/political beliefs, or ethnic/geographical background) is unacceptable.
Information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential and be treated as privileged information. Reviewers should not discuss the manuscript with anyone other than the guest editors or editorial board of the EJTP Essays Section, nor should they discuss any information from the manuscript without permission. If there are any concerns regarding the originality of the submission, they advise the guest editors or editorial board.
Author’s Responsibilities
Authors must ensure that their work is original and has not previously been published in whole or substantial part. The manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, self-plagiarism, falsification or fabrication.
Authors should indicate explicitly all sources that have supported the research and also declare any conflict(s) of interest.
Authors should be prompt in following the timeline of their submission. If an author cannot meet the deadline given, the author should contact the responsible Section Convener as soon as possible to determine whether a longer time period or withdrawal from the journal should be chosen.
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in the published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the Editors-in-Chief and/or Section Convener and cooperate to retract or correct the article. If the Editors-in-Chief are notified by any party other than the author that the published article contains an obvious error, the author should write a retraction or make the correction based on the medium of publication.
Grant of Rights and Copyrights
EJTP encourages its authors to adhere to the following publishing standards:
- In consideration of the agreement to publish the Work in EJTP, the author(s) grant(s) to EJTP the exclusive first publication right of the article.
- Author(s) retain the copyright of their work without restrictions when publishing under the license the journal adheres to.
- Should (the) author(s) publish or distribute the article elsewhere, at any time or in any alternate format, the Author(s) agree(s) to make reasonable efforts to ensure that any such additional publication cites the original version of the work in EJTP.
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are non-negotiable values. We guarantee our continuous effort in the promotion of these values and reject any kind of censorship. We are completely committed to this philosophy and we demand the same commitment to all reviewers and authors. For this reason, we support with conviction COPE’s Statement om Censorship and follow its guidelines.
Complaints
We constantly work for guaranteeing the highest ethical and academic standards. In order to assure impartiality, any complaint about the journal can be sent to the ExComm’s email address: comms@eastap.com.