Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

 «Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology» publishes articles on the whole range of sociological, political science and philosophy: theory, methodology and history of sociology, political science, philosophy; methods and results of research in the sphere of economic, social, political and spiritual life of the society, both in Belarus and abroad.

Much attention is paid to the publication of educational materials for teachers of humanities and social sciences, bibliographic reviews and reviews, as well as information about scientific conferences and new publications in sociological and political journals.

The journal is a platform for discussing new ideas, approaches, data, therefore, the editorial board members pay special attention to materials reflecting the scientist's personal position, reflecting his or her opinion on topical issues of the state's domestic or foreign policy.

The problems of the development of education, science, culture, training of specialists, forms and methods of transferring knowledge, abilities and skills to the younger generation, working with young researchers and graduate students are widely discussed in the journal.

The editors of the journal consider it their duty to target authors engaged in theoretical and empirical research to develop proposals for improving the forms and methods of managing and regulating social processes in the country, in regions, organizations and public associations.

SECTIONS

 Editor-in-Chief Column

Articles and Reports

To Know so that to Foresee...

From the Working Table of a Sociologist

Biographies of Scientists

Round Table

Discussion

Option Course

Sociological Study

Synopsis of a Sociologist

Creative Workshop

Review and Bibliography

Chronicle, information

Jubilees

In Memoriam

PERIODICITY

The Journal is published 4 times a year (quarterly)

 OPEN ACCESS POLICY

“Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology” 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

Printed versions of the journal are transferred to the National Library of Belarus and other large libraries of Belarus and the countries of near and far abroad.

The electronic version of the journal is stored in the electronic library of the Belarusian State University.

Electronic Library System of the Publishing House «Lan».

Information about all articles published in the journal is also stored in the Scientific Electronic Library eLIBRARY.ru. You can use an advanced search for journal articles (by keywords, author, title, section) in the NEB. A link to the full text of article is indicated on its page in the Scientific Electronic Library eLIBRARY.ru.

PEER-REVIEW

 

The decision of the compliance/inconsistency of the articles submitted to the editorial office with the profile, concept and subject of the journal is the prerogative of the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Based on the review, the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision on the publication (or rejection) of the articles. The names of the reviewers are not disclosed. Editorial reviews are for internal use only. In the case of rejection of a paper, the editorial board members do not enter into a discussion with the authors.

When reviewing received manuscripts, the editorial board, external reviewers and editorial staff members are guided by the following criteria:

• the formulation of the scientific problem, its relevance in terms of solving scientific problems that relate to the problems and the profile of the journal;
• originality, independence, novelty, use of interesting and / or controversial approaches;
• theoretical justification of the selected topic;
• observance of methodological and methodical culture (description of the object and the subject, aims and objectives of the study, hypotheses, sampling, time, initiators of the study, etc.);
• reliability and credibility of the data;
• use of materials from predecessors, the presence of polemics with previously published materials, including in «Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology», proceeding from the fact that the journal is a platform for discussions;
• the level of the literary revision of the text, the accuracy of the expression, conciseness, harmony and logic of the argumentation, as well as compliance with editorial requirements (see manuscript requirements).
• The decision on admission to publication is accepted within 2 months from the date of registration of the manuscript in the editorial office. Selection of materials for the current issue is determined by the Editor-in-Chief.

The main reasons for refusal to publish the articles:

• inconsistency with the subject of the journal;
• the absence or weakness of the scientific apparatus. The article should contain references not only to the history of the problem, but also to contemporary research on the topic under discussion;
• exceeding the length of 40 000 characters and non-compliance with the manuscript requirements;
• extensive repetition of the text from the previously published works of the author.

INDEXING

 Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) based on eLibrary.ru (NEB)

Google Scholar

PUBLISHING ETHICS

 All participants of publishing processes, i. e. authors, editors, reviewers, publishers, are responsible for observing publishing ethics. The editorial board members monitor the fulfillment of ethics requirements based on the guidelines prepared by international specialized organizations, associations and publishers, as well as the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP). The editorial board members of «Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology» follow the main standards, developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in the United Kingdom, as well as the declaration of «Ethical Principles of Scientific Publications», adopted by ASEP.

 https://publicationethics.org/

 https://ori.hhs.gov/

https://www.councilscienceeditors.org/

https://ease.org.uk/

When preparing the manuscript, authors should follow the rules prepared in accordance with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines, ORI (the Office of Research Integrity), CSE (Council of Science Editors) and EASE (European Association of Science Editors) guidelines, ASEP (Association of Science Editors and Publishers) guidelines and VAK (Higher Attestation Commission) requirements.

Author responsibility

 The author submits materials, which have not been previously published, for review.

The author does not submit the same article for review to different journals.

All co-authors agree to the submission of their article to the journal.

The list of authors includes only persons who have made a significant contribution to the study. Guest or gift authorship is not allowed.

If participation of contributing persons was insufficient to guarantee their identification as authors, they should be named in the section «Acknowledgments».

The author should obtain the consent from each person named in the section «Acknowledgments» since the editors may verify the information.

Authors should appoint a corresponding author who is responsible for communicating with the editorial staff.

The author should be familiar with the editorial policy of «Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology» before submitting materials, i.e. rules of correspondence with the reviewer and editorial staff, publication ethics, author guidelines and restrictions.

If the author wants to submit the manuscript, which is currently under review, to another journal, he should send an official notification to the editorial staff to withdraw the article. All co-authors should accept the withdrawal requirements.

The author should guarantee that the peer-reviewed manuscript is original and doesn't contain plagiarism.

The author should avoid duplicate publication, which reproduce the exact content of the previous works of the author.

The author should ensure that the citations and references in the submitted article are correct.

The author should cite his or her previous works correctly and prevent self-plagiarism in the manuscript and avoid artificial increase of publications’ volume (salami-slicing).

When using figures and tables already published in other publications, the author should indicate the reference to the source.

The author properly corresponds with the reviewer through the editor and responds to comments and remarks, if they arise.

The author, who is acting as a contact with the journal, informs all other co-authors of all changes and suggestions from the editorial staff, and does not make any decisions regarding the article alone without the written agreement of all co-authors.

If necessary, the authors either correct the data presented in the article, or refuse them.

The author should indicate all funding sources (state, commercial and other).

The authors should keep all correspondence with each other and with the editors in secret.

The authors should inform the editorial staff of a potential conflict of interest while submitting the manuscript.

Editor responsibility

The editors of the journal are personally and independently responsible for the content of published materials and recognize this responsibility.

The reliability of the work and its scientific significance should always guide decisions to publish.

The editors make fair and objective decisions, regardless of any commercial considerations and provide fair and efficient process for the independent review.

The editors should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

The editors do not work with articles for which they have conflict of interest.

Unpublished data obtained from submitted articles cannot be used in personal research without the written consent of the author. Information or ideas obtained during peer-reviewing should be kept confidential and not used for personal gain.

The editors resolve conflict situations occurring during the editorial process and use all available means to resolve them.

The editors of the journal publish information on corrections, rebuttals and reviews of articles, if it is necessary.

The editor, who provides convincing evidence that the statements or conclusions of a published paper are erroneous, should notify the publisher (and/or the appropriate scientific community) in order to provide prompt notification of corrections, withdraw the publication, expression of concern and other relevant observations.

The editors of the journal do not publish the final version of the paper without the consent of the authors.

The editors reserve the right to reduce and edit the materials of the paper.

Slight corrections of stylistic, nomenclature or formal nature are made into the article without the consent of the author.

The editors are responsible for observing of orthographic and punctuation norms.

If the article is revised by the author during the processing before publication, the submission date is the date of submission of the final text.

Reviewer responsibility

 The reviewer evaluates his or her own availability before the examination of the manuscript and accepts materials for review only if the reviewer has sufficient time for quality work.

The reviewer notifies the editorial staff of any conflict of interest (if any) before starting the peer review process.

The reviewers should identify relevant published works that has not been included into the bibliography of the manuscript. Any statement (an observation, conclusion, or argument) that had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant bibliographic reference. The reviewer should also draw the attention of the editor to the detection of significant similarities or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper within the scientific competence of the reviewer.

The reviewer does not make conclusions about the quality of the article on the basis of subjective data, e.g. the personal attitude to the author, gender, age, religion, etc.

The reviewer does not transmit information about the article and the data from the article to any third party.

The reviewer does not use the information obtained from the article for any personal and commercial purposes.

Publisher responsibility

 The publisher contributes to research and the implementation of industry standards in order to improve ethical recommendations, procedures for the removal and correction of errors.

The publisher not only supports scientific communication and invests in the process, but also is responsible for complying with all current guidelines and standards for publishing scientific works.

The publisher does not affect the editorial policy of the journal.

The publisher provides legal support to the journal, if necessary.

The publisher provides for the timely release of journal issues.

The publisher publishes edits, explanations and withdraws articles in which violations of scientific ethics or critical errors have been identified.

The publisher is responsible for the design of the journal in accordance with the requirements of international scientific databases.

General requirements for manuscripts

The authors of the manuscript containing the results of the original study should provide reliable results of the work done as well as an objective discussion of the significance of the study. The data underlying the work should be presented without errors, in accordance with the primary documentation. The description of the materials and research methods should be so detailed as to allow accurate reproduction of it and obtain appropriate results.

Reviews (including systematic reviews) should also be accurate and objective.

Presenting false data or knowingly erroneous statements in a manuscript will be regarded as a gross violation of publication ethics. Manuscript will be rejected from publication.

Advertising Policy

The editors adhere to ethical standards in their activities and, above all, defend the right to editorial independence. The placement of promotional materials and sponsorship cannot influence in any way editorial decisions regarding the selection of materials for publication and editorial content. The journal does not publish materials to accompany the advertising and does not sell advertising for specific articles. Advertising materials published in the journal are not mixed with editorial materials.

All decisions on the placement of advertising materials are made only by the Publisher.

The editors reserve the right not to accept promotional materials, the placement of which does not comply with the publication policy.

Data access and retention

The editors reserve the right to request from the authors the source (raw) research data, including for submission it to reviewers and editors. Authors should be prepared to provide this kind of information to the editorial staff (according to the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases), as well as to save this data for an adequate period of time after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

 Plagiarism takes various forms, from representing someone else's work as the author’s original work to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of someone else’s work (without attribution) and claiming rights to the results of research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behavior and is unacceptable.

Our journal does not publish plagiarism in any forms - including works containing plagiarism of text, plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of data.

The editors considers the following to be the forms of plagiarism:

• use (literal quotation) of any materials in any volume without indicating the source;
• use of images, figures, photographs, tables, diagrams, schemes or any other forms of graphical presentation of information without indicating the source;
• use of images, figures, photographs, tables, diagrams, schemes or any other forms of graphical presentation of information published in scientific and popular publications without the consent of the copyright holder;
• use of the materials without written permission from the authors or copyright holders, who prohibit the use of their materials without special consent.

The editors considers the following to be the forms of incorrect “borrowings”:

absence of graphic highlighting of literally quoted text in the presence of references to the source; incorrect references (incomplete bibliographic description of the sources, which prevents their identification;

a reference not to the first source of the borrowed text without explicit indication of this fact (an error in primary source determination);

absence of references from the text to the sources enumerated in the list below the article;

excessive citation, incl. own works (in case there are references to the sources and graphical highlighting of the quoted text), the volume of which is not justified by the genre and aims of the article.

Only original works are acceptable for publication in the journal. Mention of the results of other authors’ works should be accompanied by references to the relevant primary sources (which are to be included in the list of references). The quotation of the text previously published elsewhere should be made in the form of DIRECT SPEECH (the text should be enclosed in quotation marks and written in italics) with mandatory reference to the source. The inclusion of large fragments of borrowed text in the manuscript is unacceptable.

Manuscripts submitted to our journal for publication are checked for plagiarism by "ANTIPLAGIAT" software.

If the editors have grounds for more detailed verification, additional tools of searching for borrowings may be used.

The editorial board members of the journal strongly recommend omitting the use of any technical procedures for improving the assessment of the text by "Antiplagiat" software.

The articles in which signs of technical modifications are found in order to artificially increase the uniqueness of the text will not be published in the journal even in the case of revision.

The editors inform the reviewer of all such cases and, if the author works in an educational institution, his or her  management.

If plagiarism is detected or if the uniqueness of the text is low (<85%), the manuscript is rejected from publication.

Reviews and other articles, that, for objective reasons, require more citations, are reviewed individually by the editorial staff.

The articles the content of which is more than 20% consistent with other scientific materials of the author (dissertation, abstract, monograph, previous publications in journals and collections) are not accepted for publication.

Identification of plagiarism of ideas and plagiarism of data is conducted as part of a scientific review, as well as after the publication of manuscripts - upon the fact of submitted relevant statements from the readers. If the fact of plagiarism of data or plagiarism of ideas is identified, the manuscript will be withdrawn and rejected from publication, even if it has already been published.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

 Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same study in more than one journal as original works. Submitting the same manuscript simultaneously to more than one journal will be regarded as a violation of publication ethics. In such cases, the editors will reject from publication any manuscripts that are under consideration or previously published in other publications.

The publication of a certain type of articles (for instance, clinical guidelines, translated articles) in some cases is acceptable (under certain conditions). Authors, when submitting a manuscript for a “secondary” publication, should notify the editors of it and justify its appropriateness. In the case of a "secondary" publication, the settlement of issues related to copyright in the publication is determined individually in each such case.

The general requirements for the manuscript for "secondary" publication are:

indication of the full bibliographic reference to the “primary” publication;

preservation of the original bibliography of the "primary" work.

Acknowledgement of sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should refer to publications that were important in carrying out the scientific work reflected in the manuscript. Data obtained unofficially (for instance, during a conversation, correspondence or in a process of discussion with third parties) should not be used or presented without the explicit written permission of the source. Information obtained from confidential sources (for example, the provision of a research grant) should not be mentioned in the manuscript without the explicit written permission of the author of the work who is directly related to the relevant confidential sources.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study, as well as to the process of writing the manuscript (including those who conducted scientific and stylistic editing and design in accordance with the journal requirements).

The first author. The first author in the list of co-authors should be the head of the manuscript authors, who has made the most significant contribution to the process of preparing the text and is familiar with the whole process of conducting scientific work.

The leader of the team of authors should also be the "corresponding author" - to communicate with the editorial staff and readers (after the publication of the article).

Co-authors may be those who made a significant contribution to the preparation of the text of the manuscript and to the study. In the cases when the study participants made a significant contribution in a certain direction in the research project, they should be listed as persons who made a significant contribution to this study.

The author should ensure that all participants who have made a significant contribution to the study are presented as Co-authors and are not listed as Co-authors, who did not participate in the study, and that all Co-authors saw and approved the final version of the work and agreed to submit it for publication.

Hazards and human or animal subjects

If the manuscript contains the results of experimental studies with the participation of living beings as objects of the study, the editors will present special requirements for its content: manuscripts are accepted for consideration only if the experimental studies described in the paper were conducted in compliance with the norms of biomedical ethics. The manuscripts should reflect all risks (obvious and potential) to which the objects of research (people or animals) were subjected: chemical exposure (including drugs), procedures or equipment, and other situations that could be harmful to health or pose a danger for the life of objects of the study.

If living people or animals were the research objects in the experimental study, the authors should reflect in the manuscript that all stages of the study were conducted in accordance with the law and normative documents.

Authors should also provide information that the research protocol was reviewed by the ethics committee with the obligatory indication of the name of the committee (or organization at which the committee was created), the date and number of the minutes of the sittings at which the study was approved. The editors have the right to require from the authors certified copies of the relevant protocols.

The manuscript should clearly reflect that free and informed consent was obtained from all the people who became the objects of the study.

The authors are personally responsible for the fact that the identity of the study participants is not disclosed in any way in the manuscript.

Authors should ensure that it is impossible to identify research objects from the data presented in the manuscript.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

 All authors should disclose (declare in the appropriate section of the manuscript) financial or other apparent or potential conflicts of interest that could be viewed as having an impact on the results or conclusions presented in the work.

Examples of potential conflicts of interest to be disclosed:

• receiving financial rewards for participating in a study or writing a manuscript
• any connection (work under the contract, consulting, stock ownership, receiving royalty payments, providing expert opinions) with organizations that have a direct interest in the subject of research or review;
• patent application or registration of a patent for research results (copyright, etc.);
• obtaining financial support for any of the stages of the study or manuscript writing (including grants and other financial support).

Apparent and potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed as early as possible. Information on conflicts of interest received from the authors of manuscripts is not provided to reviewers and is available only to the editorial board when deciding on the publication of the manuscript. Information on conflicts of interest is also published as part of the full article.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper. If the editorial board or the publisher receives reasonable evidence from a third party that the publication contains significant errors, the author should withdraw the work or correct the errors as soon as possible, or refute the statement that the work contains errors by providing the necessary proof to the editorial board.

Retraction guidelines

 In some cases the editorial board may consider retracting a publication.

The paper will be retracted if at any stage of consideration, prepress preparation or after publication editors or readers reveal a violation of publication ethics. Retraction due to violation of publication ethics will also entail the prohibition on the publication of articles in this journal for all members of the author team involved in the incident in the future.

The reasons for retraction:

• detection of plagiarism, including detection of plagiarism of figures, graphs, tables, etc., if the fact of plagiarism became apparent after the publication of the article (see the Plagiarism policy); the emergence of claims in terms of copyright to the article or its parts by third parties;
• detection of the fact that the paper has previously been published elsewhere before the date of its publication in the journal;
• the published article has serious errors casting doubt on its scientific value.

In such circumstances, the editorial board of the journal initiates verification, on the results of which the paper can be withdrawn from publication. The act of withdrawing the paper is prepared and is signed by the Editor-in-Chief. A copy of the act is sent to the author of the paper.

In this case, the article is not physically removed from the published circulation and the release file on the site.

The editors publish a notice of retraction on the corresponding issue’s contents page on the official website of the Journal.

Privacy statement

Information about the authors (surname, name, patronymic, name of the affiliated organization, address of the organization, email, telephone number for readers to contact the author), provided by them for publication in the journal, is becoming available to an indefinite number of people, for which the authors give written consent to the fact of the Offer concept by submitting the article to the online acceptance system on the journal website. The publication of this information is conducted in the interests of the authors in order to provide the full and correct accounting of publications and their citation by the corresponding bibliography organizations and to ensure the possibility of contacts between the authors and the scientific community.

The personal information provided by the authors to the journal in addition to the information listed previously, including additional email addresses and phone numbers, will be used exclusively for contacts with the authors in the process of preparing the article for publication. The editorial board undertakes not to impart this personal information to third parties who may use it for other purposes.

FOUNDER

Belarusian State University

AUTHOR’S FEE

Publication in journal is free of charge for all the authors.

The journal doesn’t have any arcticle processing charges.

The journal doesn’t have any article submission charges.

POLICY OF DISCLOSURE AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

 Unpublished data from manuscripts submitted for consideration cannot be used for personal research without the written consent of the author.

Information or ideas obtained during peer-review and related activities, which potentially can be beneficial to any party other than the author, must be kept confidential and not be used for personal gain.

Reviewers should not participate in examination of manuscripts in case of conflict of interest that is a result of any competitive, cooperative, and/or other interactions and relationships with any of the authors, companies, and/or other organizations involved in the presentation of the work.

PLAGIARISM DETECTION

 Submitted materials are checked for plagiarism by «Antiplagiat» software. In the case of the discovery of multiple incidents of content matching, the editorial staff acts in accordance with the rules of COPE.

PREPRINT AND POSTPRINT POLICY

During the submission process, the author should confirm that the article has not been published and/or accepted for publication in any other journal.

Articles, which have been previously posted by the author on personal and/or public websites that have no relationship to any other publishers, are allowed to be submitted to the journal.