"The novel. Theories, Forms, Devices" is the open access electronic journal of the International Research Group "Institutions of the novel". The journal aims to investigate the novel form in all its forms in any historical period and with any methodological approach.

The aim of the journal is to contribute to the deepening and dissemination of knowledge of these topics in the international academic community and among all those who are interested in them, through the online publication of original and unpublished scientific articles.

"The novel" follows the editorial guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html)

 

Open Access Policy

"The Novel" applies a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License to all published material.

Under the CC-BY license, authors retain the copyright on their contributions, while guaranteeing anyone the possibility to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the materials published by "Filosofia", with the sole condition that the author and the title of the journal are correctly cited.

It is not necessary to request further authorizations from the author or the editorial staff of the journal.

All this is in accordance with the definition of Open Access given by the Budapest Open Access Initiative.

Frequency of publication:

"The novel" is published every six months.

Article Processing Charges (APC) and submission charges

"The novel" does not require authors to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) or submission charges.

Archiving

"The Novel" uses the LOCKSS system  to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and allows them to create permanent archives of the journal for preservation purposes.

Code of Ethics

"The Novel" adheres to the best publication criteria. The prevention of negligent publishing practices is one of the most important responsibilities of the Editorial Directors and the Editorial Board. The Code describes policies to ensure the ethical treatment of all those involved in the review and publication processes. The Directors and Editors of "Filosofia", the Editors, the Reviewers and the Authors are advised to study these guidelines and to address any questions or doubts to the management and editorial team.

These guidelines apply to any manuscript submitted to "The Novel", and may be reviewed at any time by the Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Directors. The following duties, indicated for directors and editors, authors and reviewers are based on COPE – Core practices, https://publicationethics.org/core-practices (accessed January 2024).

Duties of the Editor-in-Chief and the Curator(s)

The Editor(s) and the Editor are responsible for the content of the journal and are responsible for ensuring the integrity of any work published therein.

-Decisions for Publication: The Editors/Editors have the right to make a final decision on the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript, depending on the relevance, originality and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal.

-Revision of Manuscripts: "The novel" practices a double-blind revision process, in which the Authors do not know the Reviewers and vice versa. It is the responsibility of the Editors/Editors to ensure timely, independent, and anonymous reviews by qualified reviewers who do not have disqualifying conflicts of interest for any manuscript submitted to the journal. It is the responsibility of the Editors/Editors to ensure that the journal has access to an adequate number of competent reviewers. The reviewers will be indicated in the journal at the end of each year. The list of reviewers is public, available on the journal's website.

-Impartial Review: The Editors/Editors and the Editorial Board must ensure that every manuscript received by "Philosophy" is reviewed for intellectual content, without consideration of the authors' sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc.

- Confidentiality of the material submitted: The Editors/Editors and the Editorial Board must ensure that systems are used to ensure the confidentiality and protection from abuse of the material submitted to the journal under review, and of the identity of the authors and reviewers who must take all possible measures to protect the confidentiality of the identity of authors and reviewers.

-Disclosure: The Directors/Editors must ensure that the submitted manuscripts are examined confidentially and that the contents are not disclosed to anyone other than the author and reviewers, as established.

- Conflicts of Interest: Editors/Editors shall refuse to consider a manuscript for which they have a real or potential conflict of interest resulting from a financial relationship or connection, competition, collaboration, or otherwise, with any of the Authors, companies or institutions connected with the manuscript.

-Authority: The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Directors have the authority and decisive responsibility of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Directors must respect the constituent parts of the journal (Readers, Authors, Reviewers, Editors, Editorial Committee) and strive to ensure the honesty and integrity of the contents of the journal and provide for the continuous improvement of its quality.

The duties of the Auditors

-Impartial reviews: Reviewers will be expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively, impartially, and professionally. Reviewers should avoid personal bias in comments and judgments and should express their opinions clearly and argue them. The Auditors shall provide justified and unbiased reviews. They must avoid personal attacks and must not include any material that is defamatory, inaccurate, libelous, misleading, obscene, scandalous, illegal, or otherwise objectionable, or that violates the copyright, privacy or any other right of any other person.

- Confidentiality: Information about manuscripts submitted by authors must be confidential and treated as inside information. Reviewers shall not discuss the manuscript with anyone other than the Editors/Editors, nor shall they discuss any information from the manuscript without permission.

- Source recognition: Manuscript reviewers will have to ensure that authors have recognized all sources of data used in the research. Any similarity or overlap of the manuscript in consideration with any other published article of which the reviewer has personal knowledge must be immediately communicated to the Editors/Editors.

- Punctuality: if a reviewer thinks that he/she will not be able to complete the revision of the manuscript within the set time, he/she must inform the Editors/Editors, so that the manuscript can be sent to another reviewer.

- Right of withdrawal: Reviewers must refuse to review manuscripts: a) in the event that they have provided the Author with comments on the manuscript or on a previous version; b) in the event that they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive relationships or connections, financial, institutional, personal, or otherwise, with any company, institution, or person connected with the manuscripts.

-Complaints: Any complaint about the magazine must, in the first instance, be directed to the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Directors of "Il Romanzo".

Duties of the Authors

- Originality: Authors must guarantee that their work is not copied, in any part, from other works, either of their own production or of others, that the work is original and that it has not been previously published in whole or in part. The author must not submit manuscripts (or manuscripts describing the same content) to several journals at the same time.

-Author of the article: The author(s) must be understood as those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the study described. Those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. The author must ensure that all co-authors have confirmed the final version of the article and have given their consent to the final publication.

- Plagiarism and self-plagiarism: All manuscript work must be free of plagiarism, forgery, forgeries, or omissions of significant material. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism constitute unethical editorial behavior that is unacceptable. "Il Romanzo" reserves the right to evaluate cases of plagiarism and redundancy from time to time.

- Acknowledgment of sources and conflicts of interest: the author must explicitly indicate all the sources that have contributed to the research and also declare any conflict of interest.

- Access to data and storage: The Author must provide the raw data related to the manuscript for editorial review and keep the data themselves.

- Punctuality: Authors must be prompt in revisions. If an author fails to meet the deadline, the author should contact the Editorial Editor as soon as possible so that a decision can be made on whether to choose to grant a longer period of time or whether the article should be withdrawn from the review process.

-Fundamental errors in published articles: The Author shall promptly inform the Editors/Editors of any obvious error in the published article and seriously cooperate with the Editors in withdrawing or correcting the article. If the Editor-in-Chief learns from anyone other than the author that the published article contains an obvious error, the author shall write a retraction or make the correction based on the publication's media.

The Code of Ethics is largely based on the following online source, which is recommended reading for ethical guidelines:

- COPE – Core practices, https://publicationethics.org/core-practices (accessed January 2024).

- Download the complete Code of Ethics in pdf file (English)