About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion (previously Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion) is published by the Finnish Society for the Study of Religion. The journal was founded in 1965 as a joint-publication with the learned societies of Comparative Religion in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to promote the research and communication of ideas between scholars. Temenos publishes scholarly articles, academic discussions, conference reports and book reviews within the field of the study of religion and culture. The notion of religion is looked at both as a folk category and a scholarly construct the various uses of which in diverse socio-cultural arenas and contexts - whether in traditional, modern, or late-modern settings - are important objects of critical inspection.

Temenos is a peer reviewed open access journal. It is published twice a year (one volume, two issues). In the Finnish Publication Forum it has been rated on top level (3). Please note that abstracts and full-text articles are available only from 2005 and forward in the journal.fi portal. The full-text articles of older issues can be retrieved in the ATLA Religion database. Please contact the Co-Chief Editor Sofia Sjö concerning digital copies if your institution does not provide access to the ATLA Religion database.

Temenos hopes to capture the actual intellectual climate in which present-day scholars of religion and culture work, not only in the Nordic countries, but throughout the world. One of the major themes that the editors wish contributors to pay growing attention concerns the role of religious traditions, religious ideas and representations in the making of nationalities, history, individual identities and various sorts of socio-cultural and political formations in different geographical locations. The old and new conversation partners in the fields of cultural and social anthropology, archaeology, folklore studies, cognitive science, economics, geography, history, political science and sociology are invited to join in. Papers addressing the northern aspect are given special consideration.

Temenos is currently included in the following databases and indexes:

  • ATLA Religion Database (full-text, also issues 1965-2004)
  • Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science)
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • ERIH Plus
  • Index to the Study of Religions Online (Brill)
  • MLA International Bibliography
  • Science of Religion: abstracts and index of recent articles
  • Scopus
  • Sherpa Romeo

The journal is also included in queries in Google Scholar.

Articles

Temenos is a Nordic journal, which means our primary focus is on Nordic topics and researchers. Secondary aims are to publish articles from outside the Nordic context which deal with central methodological and theoretical themes, articles based on presentations given at conferences organised in the Nordic countries and special thematic issues. Manuscripts should be written in English and submitted to the Chief Editors Minna Opas and Sofia Sjö. All manuscripts undergo peer review. Articles should not exceed 8.000 words and they should be accompanied by keywords and an abstract of no more than 200 words.

Book Reviews

The journal welcomes proposals concerning newly published books in the field of religion to be reviewed. Scholars who want to submit reviews to the journal should contact the book review editor Alexandra Bergholm.

Review process

Temenos follows a double-blind peer review system. After a preliminary examination, articles deemed suitable for the scope of Temenos are sent out by the editor to two experts in the particular field of the article (expert here meaning having a doctoral grade or equivalent expertise) that are independent of each other and of the author of the article. Based on the recommendations of the reviewers, the editor decides whether or not to publish the article, as such or with revisions, or if it needs to be resubmitted for review. Along with the decision, copies of the written statements of the reviewers are sent to the author of the article.

The reviewers are asked to pay attention to the following aspects of the article in their assessment: general significance of the topic; attention to the relevant literature; research design and data analysis; logic of the argument; quality of the writing and demonstrated relevance for the field. On the basis of her/his assessment, the reviewer will recommend one of the following:

  1. Accept Submission
  2. Revisions Required
  3. Resubmit for Review
  4. Resubmit Elsewhere
  5. Decline Submission

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. No subscription is needed to access the articles and no download fees are charged. Authors are not charged for publications in this journal, neither submission fee nor article processing fee.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal, starting with Vol. 56 (2020) agree to the following terms:

The use of the articles is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) as currently displayed on https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Please note that articles included in Vol. 55 (2019) and older are governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Author's Guarantee

  • The Author acknowledges that the Work will be publicly accessible on the Internet and that such access will be free of charge for the readers.
  • The Author guarantees that the Work is her/his original work that has not been published before and cannot be construed as copying or plagiarism. Furthermore, the Author confirms that the Work contains no statement that is unlawful, defamatory or abusive or in any way infringes the rights of others.
  • The Author confirms that she/he has secured all written permissions needed for the reproduction in the Publication of any material created by a third party.

User Rights

Under the CC BY 4.0 license, the Author/s and users are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially,
  • However, the Work must be attributed to the original Author and source of publication.

Under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions:

  • the Work must be attributed to the Author and Publication,
  • the Work may not be used for commercial purposes,
  • the Work may not be altered or transformed.

The license of the published metadata is Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)

Rights of Authors

The Authors maintain the right to:

  • copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the Work,
  • the right to use the substance of the Work in future own works,
  • the right to self-archiving/parallel publishing (publisher's PDF allowed).

Rights of Publisher

  • The Publisher reserves the right to make such editorial changes as may be necessary to make the Work suitable for publication in the publication, e.g. style of punctuation, spelling, headings and the like.
  • The Publisher will publish the Work if the editorial process is successfully completed and reserves the right not to proceed with publication for whatever reason.
  • The publication entitles the author to no royalties or other fees. This agreement will be governed by the laws of Finland.

Publication ethics and malpractice

The journal is committed to following the peer review instructions of Finnish Association for Scholarly Publishing and the instructions and principles in "Responsible conduct of research and procedures for handling allegations of misconduct in Finland" issued by Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity. Since 2020, all peer-reviewed articles are indicated with the peer-review label issued by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. 

Privacy Statement

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