Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Journal has two submission deadlines every year. Please submit your manuscript by 31 December, if you wish it to be published in August of the coming year (e.g. 31 December 2022 –> August 2023). Submit it by 30 April, if you wish it to be published in December of the same year (e.g. 30 April 2023 –> December 2023).

The proposal must be an original manuscript that has not been published earlier in any form or language, or submitted for review in another publishing forum. In case of detecting signs of violating the responsible conduct of research (see About the Journal), the submission will be rejected.

The proposals submitted for peer review will undergo a double blind review by at least two invited specialists of the research field in question. The author is advised to familiarize with the Journal's Peer Review Policy.

We recommend the authors to set up an ORCID account (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) and provide its details during registration. The ORCID iD will be displayed next to the published article.

BEFORE PREPARING YOUR SUBMISSION, PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

Submitting a research article for peer review? 

Peer-reviewed articles should address a clearly defined research question/task, which is formulated in the introduction, analyzed and discussed in the following chapters, and evaluated in the conclusion. Please provide sufficient information about the sources, methods, theoretical background of the research, and the current status of research on the topic. Please consider the originality of your article: does it offer new information, a new perspective, to the topic? Does it complement existing research? Please provide sufficient references (in footnotes, not endnotes or any other system!), and a bibliography.

Submitting a review article (not for peer review)?

It is possible to submit a review article that features a review or a survey of a current topic (e.g., theoretical literature, status of research). Please provide sufficient references (in footnotes, not endnotes or any other system!) and a bibliography.

Submitting an article based on a conference paper (not for peer review)? 

It is possible to submit an article based on a paper (or a poster) presented at a scientific conference (organized by ISOCM or some other instance). Please revise your paper so that it is logically constructed (introduction with a basic research task, analysis/discussion, conclusion) and understandable to a wider audience. Please provide sufficient references (in footnotes, not endnotes or any other system!) and a bibliography.

Submitting another kind of article (not for peer review)?

It is possible to submit an article that is not intended for peer review nor based on a conference paper. Such articles will be published in the Miscellanea section of the Journal. The article may be, for example, an introduction to a chant manuscript or chant book or composition(s) with a short analysis and/or a transcript of its content, or a glossary, or a description of an archival collection, etc. Please use footnotes for possible references. A bibliography is not necessary, unless the author wishes to provide one.

THE EDITORIAL BOARD ONLY ACCEPTS MANUSCRIPTS THAT COMPLY WITH THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL GUIDELINES OF THE JOURNAL:

LENGTH

• Peer-reviewed articles should not exceed 60,000 characters (with spaces, including footnotes and bibliography).
• Review articles, articles based on revised conference papers, and articles for the Miscellanea section should not exceed 40,000 characters (with spaces, including footnotes and bibliography).
• Book/CD reviews should not exceed 5,000 characters (with spaces).

FONTS AND SPACING

• The preferred fonts are Times New Roman or Palatino Linotype, 12 pt, single line spacing.
• Do not insert additional line(s) between paragraphs.
• Use the Tab key to indent the first line of each paragraph (except the first paragraph following a heading or sub-heading or quotation).
• Do not use full capitals for emphasis; use italics.
• Please avoid excessive formatting.
• Please also submit any graphic files or tables separately, and also submit the complete paper as a PDF with graphics included.

QUOTATIONS

• Up to 3 lines: include in body of text, between quotation marks.
• Over 3 lines: left-right indent 1.5cm, without quotation marks.
• Use double quotation marks (“...”) for all quotations within the text, and single quotation marks only for a quotation inside the quotation (“... ‘...’ ...”). Quotations should not be in italics within quotation marks.

FOOTNOTES

• Times New Roman, 10 pt, single space line. Please follow carefully the Chicago Manual of Style (Notes and Bibliography system, basics are available here: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html).
• The titles of books, journals and periodicals should be in the original language (in original Cyrillic / Greek / other letters), as they have been published, and do not need to be translated into English, unless advised so by the editors.

NAMES AND SPELLING

• Names of institutions should be written without translation, such as Burgtheater or the Musée d'Orsay or the Teatro alla Scala. Translation into English should follow the original name of an institution in languages other than German, French or Italian, for instance: Srpsko crkveno pevačko društvo u Pančevu (Serbian Church Choral Society in Pančevo), or the Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre). The same procedure should be applied to the titles of compositions.
• Give the full name for all mentioned persons in your paper (e.g., Dobri Hristov, rather than D. Hristov). For transliteration of names, institutions, publications, etc., from Slavic languages, please use the system applicable in the context of your paper. ISOCM has adopted a policy of variable transliteration according to context and nationality of author; however, please also give the original Cyrillic spelling in case of doubt. Transliteration from Greek will be standardized by the editors according to a version of the system adopted by Grove.
• Liturgical terminology: please used transliterated Greek terms for this; thus, “kontakion” rather than “kondak”, etc. Such terms do not need to be italicized. The names of liturgical books should be capitalized; thus, “Horologion”, “Heirmologion”, as should names of chant repertories – “Znamenny”, “Demestvenny”.
• Abbreviations such as “Fr” for “Father” and “St” for “Saint”, in which the last letter of the abbreviation is that of the full word, should have no full stop after them, whereas “Rev.” for “Reverend”, etc., should. Use Cf. (instead of ‘to compare’). Use U.K. spelling style with “–ize” word endings.
• Spell out the names of centuries, for instance: nineteenth century. Elide numbers consistently to the shortest pronounceable form (281–3, except for the group ‘10–19’ in each hundred: ‘116–19’ not ‘116–9’, ‘210–11’ not ‘210–1’); years should be elided in the text (1924–5) but given in full in titles, subtitles and chapter titles (1924–1925).
• Omit ‘p./pp.’ before page numbers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• At the end of the article, the author should include a Bibliography. It should be in alphabetical order, following the Chicago Manual of Style (Notes and Bibliography system, https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html).
• The titles of books, journals and periodicals should be in the original language (in original Cyrillic / Greek), as they have been published, and do not need to be translated into English, unless advised so by the editors. It is possible to place bibliography written in letters other than Latin (e.g., Cyrillic, Greek) in a separate section.
• Please make sure that the bibliography contains all the references made in the article and, vice versa, that all titles mentioned in the bibliography are found in the body text or footnotes.
• NOTE! When the bibliographic item has a DOI, it is important that you copy it at the end of the reference! Please use the full URL, e.g., https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxx (instead of DOI: xxxxx).

SUMMARY AND KEYWORDS

• Submitting the manuscript, the author is asked to provide an English summary of 1,000–2,500 characters (with spaces) and 3–5 keywords that characterize the research or review article, or the article based on a conference paper.

FORMAT

• The text should be submitted in .doc or .docx file format.
• A copy of the text (can include author’s stylistic formatting) should also be submitted as a .pdf file.
• We will try to accommodate special typographical needs. If you wish to have formatting that the editors see as too complex, we will notify you and attempt to come to a satisfactory compromise.
• Digital formats: Illustrations should be submitted in PDF, JPEG, TIFF, or EPS format. Tables can be submitted as separate .doc, .docx files. Scores created with Sibelius can be sent as .sib files, otherwise notation files should be submitted in EPS or PDF format.

EXAMPLES

• Music examples, tables, plates and appendices should be clearly marked with the author’s name and the example numbers.
• For the layout, the places of the illustrations should be indicated in the text with ”[Illustration 1 here]”.

PERSONAL DETAILS (concerns peer-reviewed articles only)

• In view of the anonymity of the reviewing process, please avoid personal indications in the article text (for example, references to your own publications, referring to "I / me / my", etc.). Please do not include your name or other personal details in the manuscript submitted in .doc or .docx format, because that version will be forwarded directly to the referees. Your details will be visible for the editors on the electronic platform.