Aim and Scope

Policy revision date: 04/04/2025 (the journal's policies are reviewed once a year).

Aims

1). Publication of original research on modern scientific and practical achievements in the field of Church history. Special attention is paid to research on the history of the Church, which is part of a common history, the history of social and cultural relations in a global context.

2). Publication of specialized critical translations of sources, which are the basis for the development of Church historical science.

3). Consolidation of Russian and international researchers dealing with issues relevant to the journal's subject matter, the formation of scientific dialogue and communication between researchers from different countries.

Scope

• To be a neutral platform for the publication of research results: graduate students, scientists, researchers, as well as secular and religious academic institutions.
• To develop the Russian school of Church history, to participate in improving the scientific and practical qualifications of young specialists, and to reflect the results of training programs.
• To have a scientific, peer-reviewed nature with a humanitarian focus. To post and give expert assessment to scientific articles and source materials directly related to the history, archeology and history of Church art of various denominations of Christianity, including Western and Eastern denominations, as well as philological and archeographic research.

Our  advantages: The history of the Church is part of the general history, the history of social and cultural relations in a global context. The journal has a scientific, peer-reviewed nature with a humanitarian focus. The journal publishes scientific articles and source materials directly related to the history, archaeology and history of church art of various denominations of Christianity, including Western and Eastern denominations, as well as philological and archaeographic studies.

The manuscripts are reviewed by experts who pay attention to the correct presentation of the data obtained: the originality of the hypothesis and the formulation of the research question, the use of the methodology of historical research, scientific analysis, the selection of relevant literary sources, a review of historiography.

Published articles are important in the global research dialogue. Summaries of articles are translated into English.

Full-text articles are posted on the journal's website in a format that easily translates text into the languages of the world by online translation programs.

An open access journal. Indexed in DOAJ.

Subject areas:

1. ASJC international classification, in the Subject Area: Arts and Humanities, including two categories: History, Religious Studies; and Social Sciences, including two categories: Cultural Studies, Education.

2. International standard classification of education fields (ISCED-F 2013) of education and training: specialty code 0221 — Religion and theology (history of religion, study of holy books, studies of various religions, theology), includes — code 0222 History and archeology, code 0223 Philosophy
and ethics, code 0231 Language research (interpretation, language features), code 0213 Fine arts (history and philosophy of art).

3. The list of peer-reviewed scientific publications in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of Candidate of Sciences, for the degree of Doctor of Sciences of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) in the following specialties should be published (from 12/20/2022):

5.11.2. Historical theology (in the research area: Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, Protestantism) (theology),

5.6.1. National history (historical sciences),

5.6.2. General History (historical sciences),

5.6.5. Historiography, source studies, methods of historical research (historical sciences),

5.10.1. Theory and history of culture and Art (philosophical sciences),

5.10.1. Theory and History of culture and art (cultural studies),

5.10.1. Theory and History of culture and art (art criticism),

5.10.2. Museology, conservation and restoration of historical and cultural objects (historical sciences),

5.10.2. Museology, conservation and restoration of historical and cultural objects (art history),

5.10.2. Museology, conservation and restoration of historical and cultural objects (cultural studies).

4. The journal was recommended by the Academic Council of the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Protocol 4 dated 09/16/2020. It is included in the list of journals recommended by Moscow State University for publishing articles by graduate students.

Types of publications:

• Research articles,

• publications and translations of sources,

• Review articles,

• reviews of scientific monographs, collections and articles.

Simonov V.V., Rodionova Yu.V. Editorial evaluation of articles on Church History or its sub-branches: brief recommendations. Russian Journal of Church History. 2021;2(1):7-12. (In Russ.) (In English) https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2021-1-53

Section Policies

Brief message

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Editorial

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Celtic Church History

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Christian archaeology

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Church history

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

History of culture and art

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

History of culture Editors

• Юлия Бузыкина

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Publication of sources

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews of books and textbooks

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Modern science: review of scientific journal publications

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

New findings Editors

• Ирина Бузыкина
• Юлия Родионова

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Information

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Modern science: review of scientific publications

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Theory and history of Christian culture

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Editorial

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Theology and Church History

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Peer Review Process

Policy revision date: 04/04/2025 (the journal's policies are reviewed once a year).

The scientific specialty "History of the Church" is a unique field of study, since an expert must have additional education not only in the specialty "theology", but also historical, philosophical, art history and linguistic knowledge in order to correctly evaluate the manuscript submitted for publication. The journal maintains a balance between "external" and "internal" experts. The review goes through several stages: primary, external and internal (scientific revision of the manuscript after review).

All manuscripts submitted to the journal are sent according to the profile of scientific research for review by one of the permanent reviewers or an independent expert. There are only 2 reviewers – one is a specialist in the narrow field of the subject of the article, the second is a specialist in the “History of the Church” and its sub-branches.

The review period is 4 weeks.

The journal's policy on accepting manuscripts:

Simonov V.V. Professional journal in the system of scientific knowledge. Russian Journal of Church History. 2020;1(1):5-12. (In Russ.) (In English). https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2020-1-15

Simonov V.V., Rodionova Yu.V. Editorial evaluation of articles on Church History or its sub-branches: brief recommendations. Russian Journal of Church History. 2021;2(1):7-12. (In Russ.) (In English). https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2021-1-53

Recommendations for the editor are posted on the website:

https://churchhistory.elpub.ru/jour/about/editorialPolicies#custom-15

Publication Frequency

Periodicity of the journal – 4 times a year

Publication plan of the Russian Journal of Church History in 2025

No. 1. "Christian Modernism: Origins, development, contradictions"

Articles are accepted until March 10, 2025.

The release date for the electronic version is April 09, 2025.

The print version is due in April.

No. 2. "The Celtic Church: History and traditions."

Articles are accepted until May 15, 2025.

The release date for the electronic version is June 28, 2025.

The print version is due in July.

No. 3. "Christian Modernism in theology and Philosophy."

Articles are accepted until July 15, 2025.

The release date for the electronic version is September 30, 2025.

The print version is due in October.

No. 4. "Christian modernism in Church practice."

Articles are accepted until October 15, 2025.

The release date for the electronic version is December 10, 2025.

The print release date is December.

The work plan of the Russian Journal of Church History for 2025

Open Access Policy

"Russian Journal of Church History" is an open access journal. All articles are made freely available to readers immediately upon publication.

Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition - it means that articles have free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.

For more information please read BOAI statement.

Archiving

• Russian State Library (RSL)
• National Electronic-Information Consortium (NEICON)

Peer-Review

A double-blind peer review method is mandatory for processing of all scientific manuscripts submitted to the editorial stuff of "Russian Journal of Church History". This implies that neither the reviewer is aware of the authorship of the manuscript, nor the author maintains any contact with the reviewer.

See: Editorial evaluation of articles on Church History or its sub-branches: brief recommendations https://churchhistory.elpub.ru/jour/article/view/53 English language is available

Number of reviewers: 2. One is specialist in narrow topic of the article and one has specialization in “Church History” and its sub-branches (including Christian archeology and the history of Christian art)

1. The manuscript should be sent electronically to the Editorial Office via the electronic editorial platform. The manuscript should be designed in accordance with the "Recommendations of the journal on the design of manuscripts".
2. The author is sent a notification letter on receipt of the manuscript with a number (ID) that will be used in subsequent correspondence.
3. The manuscript must be initially selected: the Editorial Board has the right to refuse publication or send its comments to the article, which must be corrected by the Author before reviewing. 

- Checking the completeness of the manuscript: in case of non-compliance with the requirements of the Guidelines for authors to the completeness of the manuscript or its design, the Editorial Board has the right to refuse publication or request in writing to send the missing materials.
- Manuscripts are checked in the "Anti-Plagiarism" system. The originality of the manuscript must be at least 75%. The editorial policy of the Journal assumes that the manuscripts sent for publication do not contain large unprocessed fragments of the text previously published by the Author. Manuscripts with an originality below 75% are not accepted for consideration or the issue of their publication is decided on an individual basis.

4. All manuscripts submitted to the Journal are sent according to the profile of scientific research for review by one of the permanent reviewers or an independent expert. Associate editors may perform peer review and choose reviews in corresponding areas and/or invite independent reviewers.

5. The review is conducted confidentially both for the Author and for the Reviewer themselves. The manuscript is sent to the Reviewer without specifying the names of the authors and the name of the institution. The review period is 4 weeks, but at the request of the Reviewer it can be extended. Reviewer has an option to abnegate the assessment should any conflict of interests arise that may affect perception or interpretation of the manuscript.

6. The Editorial Board informs the Author of the results of the review by e-mail.

7. If the Reviewer makes a conclusion about the possibility of publication of the article and does not make significant corrections, the article is given to the expert on statistics and after a positive report, is accepted for further work.

8. If the Reviewer has recommended any refinements, the editorial staff would suggest the Author either to implement the corrections, or to dispute them reasonably, when preparing a new version of the article. In this case, the Author must make changes to the last version of the article file, which is located on the site (download the file from the site, make changes and once again place the corrected article to the personal record). The article revised by the Author is re-sent for review, and it is concluded that all the recommendations of the Reviewer have been taken into account. After receiving a positive response from the Reviewer, the article is accepted for further work.

9. If Author and Reviewers meet insoluble contradictions regarding revision of the manuscript, the Editor-in-chief resolves the conflict by his own authority. The Author of the peer-reviewed work is sent a waiver on behalf of the journal. In case of disagreement with the Reviewer's opinion, the Author has the right to provide a reasoned response to the Editorial Office. The article can be sent for re-reviewing, or for approval by the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board or its authorized Editor sends its response to the Author.

10. All manuscripts that have been reviewed and evaluated are submitted to the Editorial Board, which decides on publication. After the decision to allow the article to be published, the Editorial Board inserts the publication of the article into the publication plan. Information about the annual (thematic) plan of publications is posted on the website of the journal.

11. The decision to publish a manuscript is made solely on the basis of its significance, originality, clarity of presentation and correspondence of the research topic to the direction of the journal. Reports on studies in which negative results are obtained or the provisions of previously published articles are challenged are considered on a general basis.

12. Original reviews of submitted manuscripts remain deposited for 5 years.

13. In the case of a decision to refuse publication of the article, its archival copy remains in the electronic system of the editorial office, but access to it by editors or reviewers is closed.

See: Publishing ethics (for peer-reviewers).

Indexation

Articles in "Russian Journal of Church History" are indexed by several systems:

• Russian Index for Science Citation (RISC) – a database, accumulating information on papers by Russian scientists, published in native and foreign titles. The RSCI project is under development since 2005 by “Electronic Scientific Library” foundation (elibrary.ru).
• Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The Google Scholar index includes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers, plus scholarly books and other non-peer reviewed journals.

Publishing Ethics

The Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement of the journal «Russian Journal of Church History» are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines available at www.publicationethics.org,  and requirements for peer-reviewed journals, elaborated by the "Elsevier" Publishing House (in accordance with international ethical rules of scientific publications)

1. Introduction

1.1. The publication in a peer reviewed learned journal, serves many purposes outside of simple communication. It is a building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. For all these reasons and more it is important to lay down standards of expected ethical behaviour by all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, the publisher and the society for society-owned or sponsored journal: "Russian Journal of Church History". 

1.2.Publisher has a supporting, investing and nurturing role in the scholarly communication process but is also ultimately responsible for ensuring that best practice is followed in its publications.

1.3. Publisher takes its duties of guardianship over the scholarly record extremely seriously. Our journal programmes record «the minutes of science» and we recognise our responsibilities as the keeper of those «minutes» in all our policies not least the ethical guidelines that we have here adopted.

2. Duties of Editors

2.1.Publication decision – The Editor of a learned "Russian Journal of Church History" is solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working on conjunction with the relevant society (for society-owned or sponsored journals). The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underwrite such decisions. The Editor may be guided by the policies of the "Russian Journal of Church History" journal’s Editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The Editor may confer with other editors or reviewers (or society officers) in making this decision.

2.2.Fair play – An Editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

2.3.Confidentiality – The Editor and any editorial staff of "Russian Journal of Church History" must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

2.4.Disclosure and Conflicts of interest

2.4.1. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an Editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

2.4.2. Editors should recuse themselves (i.e. should ask a co-editor, associate editor or other member of the editorial board instead to review and consider) from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers.

2.5.Vigilance over published record – An Editor presented with convincing evidence that the substance or conclusions of a published paper are erroneous should coordinate with the publisher (and/or society) to promote the prompt publication of a correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other note, as may be relevant.

2.6.Involvement and cooperation in investigations – An Editor should take reasonably responsive measures when ethical complaints have been presented concerning a submitted manuscript or published paper, in conjunction with the publisher (or society). Such measures will generally include contacting the author of the manuscript or paper and giving due consideration of the respective complaint or claims made, but may also include further communications to the relevant institutions and research bodies.

3.    Duties of Reviewers

3.1.Contribution to Editorial Decisions – Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper. Peer review is an essential component of formal scholarly communication, and lies at the heart of the scientific method. Publisher shares the view of many that all scholars who wish to contribute to publications have an obligation to do a fair share of reviewing.

3.2.Promptness – 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 of "Russian Journal of Church History" and excuse himself from the review process.

3.3.Confidentiality – Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorised by the Editor.

3.4.Standard and objectivity – Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

3.5.Acknowledgement of Sources – Reviewers  should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

3.6.Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

3.6.1.Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

3.6.2. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

4. Duties of Authors

4.1.Reporting standards

4.1.1. Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

4.1.2. Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial 'opinion’ works should be clearly identified as such.

4.2.Data Access and Retention – Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be prepared to provide public access to such data (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), if practicable, and should in any event be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.

4.3.Originality and Plagiarism

4.3.1. The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

4.3.2. Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4.Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

4.4.1. An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal of primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

4.4.2. In general, an author should not submit for consideration in another journal a previously published paper.

4.4.3. Publication of some kinds of articles (eg, clinical guidelines, translations) in more than one journal is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. The authors and editors of the journals concerned must agree to the secondary publication, which must reflect the same data and interpretation of the primary document. The primary reference must be cited in the secondary publication. 

4.5.Acknowledgement of Sources – Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source. Information obtained in the course of confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, must not be used without the explicit written permission of the author of the work involved in these services.

4.6.Authorship of the Paper

4.6.1. Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

4.6.2. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

4.7. Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

4.7.1. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

4.7.2. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the earliest possible stage.

4.8. Fundamental errors in published works – When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the Editor of "Russian Journal of Church History" journal and cooperate with Publisher to retract or correct the paper, If the editor or the publisher learn from a third party that a published work contains a significant error, it is the obligation of the author to promptly retract or correct the paper.

5. Duties of the Publisher (and if relevant, Society)

5.1. Publisher should adopt policies and procedures that support editors, reviewers and authors of "Russian Journal of Church History"  in performing their ethical duties under these ethics guidelines. The publisher should ensure that the potential for advertising or reprint revenue has no impact or influence on editorial decisions.

5.2. The publisher should support "Russian Journal of Church History" journal editors in the review of complaints raised concerning ethical issues and help communications with other journals and/or publishers where this is useful to editors.

5.3. Publisher should develop codes of practice and inculcate industry standards for best practice on ethical matters, errors and retractions.

5.4. Publisher should provide specialised legal review and counsel if necessary.

Founder

Author fees

Publication in “Russian Journal of Church History" is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn't have any Article processing charges.

The journal doesn't have any Article submission charges.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in a reviewer’s own research without the express written consent of the author. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.

Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Plagiarism detection

"Russian Journal of Church History" use native Russian-language plagiarism detection software Antiplagiat to screen the submissions. If plagiarism is identified, the COPE guidelines on plagiarism will be followed.

Preprint and postprint Policy

Prior to acceptance and publication in "Russian Journal of Church History", authors may make their submissions available as preprints on personal or public websites.

As part of submission process, authors are required to confirm that the submission has not been previously published, nor has been submitted. After a manuscript has been published in "Russian Journal of Church History" we suggest that the link to the article on journal's website is used when the article is shared on personal or public websites.

Glossary (by SHERPA)

Recommendations of the journal on the design of manuscripts

SECTION 1. Cover letter

The file "Cover letter" should reflect the following information:

1) the manuscript is not under consideration in another journal; 2) the manuscript has not been previously published; 3) the manuscript includes information about the sponsors of the study and disclosure of the conflict of interest (if it is stated. See: Conflicts of Interest) 4) all authors meet the authorship criteria, have read the manuscript and approved it; 5) the author (s) are responsible for the power of attorney of the materials presented in the manuscript 6) all contact information of the author responsible for the correspondence; 7) brief information about the authors (place of work, position, research interests), information about previous publications of the authors on the same topic or pre-publication.

If the manuscript is part of the dissertation work, it is necessary to specify the estimated time of thesis defense.

The "Cover letter" should not exceed 2 pages. At the choice of the author's team, it can be printed on the letterhead of the official institution. The address reads: "To the Editor-in-Chief of The Russian Journal of Church History, V. V. Simonov." The signatures of all authors of the manuscript should be located at the bottom.

The "Cover letter" is scanned and presented in a file format .jpeg or protected .pdf without editing capabilities.

SECTION 2. Information about the authors

The “Manuscript Information file” provides information about the manuscript, including the following sections:

1. Title page of the manuscript. The title of the manuscript is written without quotation marks, with a capital letter, without hyphenation, in bold. Initials and surnames of authors – Ivanov I. I., Petrov P. P. The footnote(s) contains the full name of the institution(s) in which the manuscript was prepared, the city, the country. Footnotes are put in Arabic numerals, after the initials of the author.  Example of formatting:

Images of saints in the slopes of the windows of the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Composition and program of painting

Buzykina Yu. N.¹

¹State historical and cultural Museum-reserve "Moscow Kremlin", Moscow, Russia

Be sure to additionally provide an English translation of the title page.

2. Information about the authors, includes: full name, place of work of all authors, their positions, ORCID (additional links to the ResearcherID profile are possible, Academia.edu or in the ISTINA system); full contact information (e-mail and available phone number) is required for each author.

It is recommended to indicate the scope of scientific interests and main publications (in Russian and in English) of each of the authors. 

The authors listed on the title page must meet all modern authorship criteria recommended for scientific journals. Authors are those who 1) took a direct part in the whole process of research or in a certain part of it; 2) made a significant contribution to the study, reflected in the text of the proposed article for publication; 3) agree with the final version of the text of the manuscript and 4) agree to be responsible for the content of the article.

Persons who do not meet the criteria of authorship, but who have made a certain contribution to the work, should be listed in this document and at the end of the article in the section of Acknowledgements.

If the author has several places of work, then it is written: 1. "The name of the institution...", 2. "The name of the institution..."… The name of the institution is written in abbreviated form, for example, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow. Brackets are not placed.

Batalov A. L.^{1, 2}

¹State historical and cultural Museum-reserve "Moscow Kremlin", Moscow, Russia

²State Institute of art history, Moscow, Russia

3. Conflicts of Interest information.

The section contains disclosure by all authors of possible relations with financial organizations that can lead to a conflict of interest in connection with the material presented in the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, it is written: "Conflicts of interest is not declared." Or, for example,

"The positions and points of view presented in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of any organization or the Russian scientific community»

Information about the presence of a conflict of interest is also provided in the text of the manuscript – in the abstract after the keywords and at the end of the article before the Literature section.

4. Information about grants.  Should be specified after the keywords and also at the end of the article text.  Example of formatting of this item:

Funding. The study was supported by RFBR project 17-01-00286.

Funding. The study was carried out within the framework of the basic part of the state task in the field of scientific activity (project No. 33.5677.2017/8.9).

5. Information and compliance with ethical standards in conducting research.

If the study involves interviewing or questioning people, this should be done in an ethical manner.

This information should also be reflected in the text of the article section when describing the research methods used.

6. Information on overlapping publications (if any).

If the manuscript is part of a large study already under way and the author (s) has already had publications on this topic, they should be indicated.

7. Copyright. The use of any material in the article (photo material, table, picture), marked with a copyright icon must be confirmed by a written permission (contract for the provision of a fee or gratuitous transfer) from the rightsholder: the author, publisher, custodian of the collection or data Bank of digital images. The absence of the consent of the copyright holder may cause the publication to be refused.

8. The number of characters in the manuscript (excluding summaries, sources, literature, captions to figures and tables), the number of tables and figures.

SECTION 3. Registration on the site and information about the authors

Any author can submit a manuscript to the journal. Usually this is the one who then conducts correspondence with the editors and to whose mail notification letters come (when submitting a manuscript through the site, you can choose to send notifications to all authors).

The author is registered on the site, entering his full name. All authors and all additional information (places of work, positions, scientific titles, institutions, ORCID – all authors) are indicated in the form to be filled in when submitting the article.

If the author has several places of work, then it is written: 1. "The name of the institution...", 2. "The name of the institution...". The name of the institution is written in abbreviated form, for example, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow. Brackets are not placed.

SECTION 4. Design of sections of the article

1. Resume design

The summary is written in a free form and should contain information about the sources used and the main results of the study. Summaries are not written for publications and translations of sources, as well as reviews.

Key words should be no more than 6 (six). Words are written with a small letter and separated by commas.

After the Key words is put a Conflicts of interest (it is also duplicated at the end of the article), after the text (if available), and Funding (if available).

Be sure to additionally provide an English abstract (not a literal translation).

2. The list of References

For formatting of references in the text, we recommend using the APA style.

[Koraev 2015:230] [Nikolaeva 2019:360]

Two lists of references are compiled. The first, entitled Literature, alphabetically lists the names of Russian-language published sources in Russian and English-language (and other languages) in the original language.

Koraev 2015 – Koraev T.K. (2015) Saladin. GRE, vol. 29. Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia Publ, p.230 (In Russ.)

Nikolaeva 2019 – Nikolaeva N.A. (2019) The Earliest History of Ciscaucasia: a Perspective from the Concept of Indo-European Migrations. Part 1. Oriental Studies, 43(3), 355-366. (In Russ.) doi:10.22162/2619-0990-2019-43-3-355-366

The second, entitled References, lists the sources in the same order. Russian-language sources are transliterated using official encodings in the following order: the authors ' surnames and initials are transliterated in Latin, the title of the article is translated into English. The name of the journal where the work is published is transliterated in Latin, if the journal does not have an official name in English.

Koraev 2015 – Koraev T.K. (2015) Saladin. GRE, vol. 29. Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia Publ, p.230 (In Russ.)

Nikolaeva 2019 – Nikolaeva N.A. (2019) The Earliest History of Ciscaucasia: a Perspective from the Concept of Indo-European Migrations. Part 1. Oriental Studies, 43(3), 355-366. (In Russ.) doi:10.22162/2619-0990-2019-43-3-355-366

The names of all authors of the source are placed in the lists of references.

The author(s) are responsible for the correctness of the data given in the list of references.

It is mandatory that all articles have doi (if any), all books have ISBN. References to dissertations, patents, theses and any collections without output data and ISBN are not accepted.

All references are checked by the Editors for correctness. Significant errors in citation or duplication of the source are the reason for returning the manuscript to the authors for revision.

References to other sources – archival documents, unpublished documents, manuscripts, biblical texts, classical texts are given inside the text after the quotation in parentheses.

Examples of formatting:

(GARF. F. 6971. Op. 1. D. 291. L. 144-148)

(1Cor 12:13)

(Ovid. Met. VI. 743)

The list of other sources precedes the list of literature; the abbreviated form of writing and the full name of the archive, Fund, case are given; the names of biblical books are not disclosed, the names of classical works are disclosed in the list of abbreviations.

3. Making a list of abbreviations

The list of abbreviations used in the article (including text, tables and figures) includes, in addition to authors’ abbreviations, all accepted abbreviations of published sources, as well as abbreviations indicating archival, library and museum ciphers, sigils, inventory numbers.

Abbreviations should be match generally accepted in the humanitarian scientific literature. Unwanted abbreviations that match the writing with others that have a different meaning.

Abbreviations in the list of abbreviations are written in alphabetical order using "dashes", each item with a new line, first Latin, then Cyrillic. In case of presence of several languages in Cyrillic abbreviations, first Russian-speaking, then others are given. Sources with different graphics (for example, Greek) are given at the very end.

Example of formatting:

CSEL – Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum

ПСРЛ – Полное собрание русских летописей

ΔΧΑΕ — Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανιϰῆς Ἀρχαιολογιϰῆς Ἑταιρείας

4. Design of the main text of the manuscript

The text of research articles should be related to stated in the summary plan, contain sections corresponding to the problem statement, review of sources and historiographical base, explaining methods and strategies of research, analysis material, results and conclusions. Depending on the specifics of the study, the composition and layout of the manuscript may vary. The manuscript can be divided into paragraphs and sections.

The text is submitted electronically in .doc or .docx, on an A4 sheet, font size-12 pt, line spacing-1.5, margins 2 cm on all sides. The citation in quotes "..."; quotes inside of quotes: "...". The sign "dash" ( – ) is used in addition to the main punctuation to indicate the time periods: XIV–XVI century.; years and centuries are reduced: XIX–XX centuries, 1979, 1760-1767. the text of the manuscript should be carefully verified by the authors for the correctness of the citation, the correctness of references and other factual data.

Special formatting, hyphenation in the text are not allowed.

Underscores are not used in the text. Italics (preferred) or bold (minimum) are used for highlighting.

Please note that in the main file of the manuscript the names of authors and institutions are not SPECIFIED.

5. Registration of the section of Acknowledgements

Thanks are given to all participants who do not meet all the criteria of authorship. This section is located at the end of the article before the Literature section.

6. Design of graphs, diagrams and figures – tables and figures should be visual and provide the reader with visual information directly related to the issues raised in the article. It is desirable to place them after the text of the article, since the reviewer and the editor look at the manuscript as a whole. At the stage of creating the layout, graphics, diagrams and drawings will be required in electronic form in formats readable by standard applications: MS Excel, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, photos in formats .jpeg or .tiff with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (300 dpi).

In the printed version, figures and tables are published only in black and white. In the electronic version-in color.

The names of graphs and figures and the text of captions under the figures are placed in a separate list, which should be placed at the end of the text of the article.

Tables should present the necessary data in a concise form. They are placed at the end of the text (after the list of references), each with its own number, title and explanations (note, abbreviations). Figures should not repeat materials from tables.

The dimension of the indicators and the presentation of the data should be clearly indicated in the tables. All figures, percentages and final results should be carefully verified, and correspond to those specified in the text. Notes (if necessary) are located under the table and footnotes on them are designated by special signs in the following order: *, †, §, ||, ¶, #, **, †† etc.

Abbreviations should be listed in a footnote under the table in alphabetical order (tables have their own list of abbreviations!).

If a reference to a figure or table is included in a sentence, the full spelling of the word – "figure 1", "table 1" - is used; if the words are enclosed in brackets, the abbreviation - (Fig. 1), (tab. 1).

For all copyrighted material used, copies of the permission to publish must be provided.

SECTION 5. Design of the review text for a monograph, collection of articles or an article.

A review of the book can be sent independently or written on the instructions of the Editorial Board.

"Russian Journal of Church History" publishes reviews of scientific monographs, collections of articles or individual significant articles. The volume of the review is up to 15 000 characters.

Content and style

The text of the book review should contain the following:

Presentation and analysis of the author's conclusions, his arguments, list of main sources and description of the research methodology.

Assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the study.

For collected papers, you must specify a common topic and concept of the collection and compliance with the articles stated in the topic.

When citing in the review of the analyzed book, links to the pages should be given.

Description of the peer-reviewed book:

Reformation in Germany ... Ivanov I. I., Petrov P. P. Moscow: ABV, 2018. 250 p.

SECTION 6. Submission of manuscript for publication

1. The author prepares the text of the manuscript in strict accordance with the recommendations and sends it to the Editorial office of the journal in electronic form in the personal account.

The manuscript submitted for publication must be original, never previously published and not sent for consideration anywhere. The size of the manuscript should not exceed the limits set by the journal.

2. The author is registered on the site https://churchhistory.elpub.ru.

3. The author sends the manuscript of the article through his personal account on the website https:// churchhistory.elpub.ru.

Submitting an article consists of 5 steps:

• 1. Start

• 2. Download manuscript

• 3. Enter metadata

• 4. Download additional files

• 5. Confirmation

Step 1. Start

The author specifies the section of the journal and the language of the article.

Step 2. Download manuscript

In Step 2, the author downloads the manuscript for "blind" review in Word format.

This file does not contain the names of the authors.

Step 3. Enter metadata (form Language; name; E-mail; URL (if available: personal site); Institutions; Country; Short about yourself; Google Analytics account Number; ORCID; Name; Abstract; Indexing; References in Russian).

Step 4. Download additional files.

Here the author downloads:

1) a Cover letter

2) Information about the article.

Policy on revocation or correction of articles

Editors should consider retracting a publication if:

 • They have clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, either as a result of major error (eg, miscalculation or experimental error), or as a result of fabrication (eg, of data) or falsification (eg, image manipulation)

• It constitutes plagiarism

• The findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper attribution to previous sources or disclosure to the editor, permission to republish, or justification (ie, cases of redundant publication)

• It contains material or data without authorisation for use

• Copyright has been infringed or there is some other serious legal issue (eg, libel, privacy)

• It reports unethical research

• It has been published solely on the basis of a compromised or manipulated peer review process

• The author(s) failed to disclose a major competing interest (a.k.a. conflict of interest) that, in the view of the editor, would have unduly affected interpretations of the work or recommendations by editors and peer reviewers.

Notices of retraction should:

• Be linked to the retracted article wherever possible (ie, in all online versions)

• Clearly identify the retracted article (eg, by including the title and authors in the retraction heading or citing the retracted article)

• Be clearly identified as a retraction (ie, distinct from other types of correction or comment)

• Be published promptly to minimise harmful effects

• Be freely available to all readers (ie, not behind access barriers or available only to subscribers)

• State who is retracting the article

• State the reason(s) for retraction

• Be objective, factual and avoid inflammatory language.

Retractions are not usually appropriate if:

• The authorship is disputed but there is no reason to doubt the validity of the findings

• The main findings of the work are still reliable and correction could sufficiently address errors or concerns

• An editor has inconclusive evidence to support retraction, or is awaiting additional information such as from an institutional investigation (for information about Expressions of Concern see https://publicationethics.org/expressions-of-concern-forum-discussion)

• Author conflicts of interest have been reported to the journal after publication, but in the editor’s view these are not likely to have influenced interpretations or recommendations or the conclusions of the article.

For more information: COPE (Version 2: November 2019)

https://publicationethics.org/files/retraction-guidelines.pdf

The journal's advertising policy

The journal does not place advertising messages.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific activity

Policy revision date: 01/02/2025 (the journal's policies are reviewed once a year).

General definitions

Any activity (human activity) is characterized by the influence of the subject on the object with the definition of aim and plan. The subject (person) carries out activities aimed at transforming the object. In this case, the subject is motivated to act by a motive (the need to carry out activities), and then the following are formulated: the aim (what is the desired result of the activity?), the means (with what does the activity take place?), actions (what steps does the subject take?), the result (what happened after all the actions?).

Labor is a type of human activity aimed at creating material and spiritual values. A person uses various means of labor – devices and mechanisms. In the process of work, a person is active, expends his strength and energy.

Mental work is a mental activity, the product of which is a certain formalized information. Creative work is not inherent to every employee, it is determined by both the level of education and qualifications, as well as the ability to innovate.

Recommendations

The creation of a manuscript of a scientific article by one author or a team of authors is a combination of mental and creative work of a person.

To facilitate their work (editing text, searching for additional sources of literature, collecting and analyzing data), the author or a team of authors uses various tools, ranging from writing materials and a computer, ending with AI-based software.

The use of AI tools (such as computers, writing materials, etc.) refers to the means of labor, but does not replace human labor.

The generally recognized criteria for authorship of scientific articles include four fundamental aspects: 1) development of the concept and design or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) justification of the manuscript or verification of critical intellectual content; 3) final approval for publication of the manuscript; 4) consent to be responsible for all aspects of the work. AI cannot be the author of the manuscript of a scientific article, since it is a means of labor and does not participate in the above-mentioned labor activity. Also, the AI cannot declare the presence/absence of a conflict of interest.

The editorial board of the journal does not include basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, and references to cited works in the concept of generative AI. When creating images using AI, the type of system used must be indicated.

Thus, it is possible to use the capabilities of AI when creating a manuscript of a scientific article by one author or a team of authors only as a means of labor. At the same time, in the "Materials and Methods" section, the authors should indicate the specific generative AI technology used with an https address or other identifying information. Chatbots such as ChatGPT (and similar ones) cannot under any circumstances be listed as the author of the article or the person who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. The authors should take into account that chatbots often transmit false information, which requires additional verification.

If the use is detected and the main text of the article is created, or the editor is in doubt, a notification is sent to the author with a proposal to revise the text or refuse further consideration.

Fast Track Policy

Fast Track involves posting an article with output data on the journal's website outside the deadlines set by the journal for the normal and competent work of experts and reviewers.

The journal does not support such a policy, therefore, the article cannot be posted on the website in the "ONLINE FIRST" section earlier than 4 weeks from the date of admission to the expert work (see the Review process section for more details).

Post publication discussion

The journal is open for post-publication discussion of materials in the form of "letters to the editor", "comments on a published article", "reviews".