Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Editorial Independence and Journal Policy

The journal’s editorial decisions are made independently and are based solely on scholarly merit, relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, methodological or interpretative soundness, clarity of argument, and compliance with ethical and formal requirements.

The publisher supports the journal’s operation, production, dissemination, metadata management, and long-term accessibility, but does not influence editorial decisions, the outcome of peer review, or decisions concerning acceptance, revision, rejection, correction, retraction, or expressions of concern.

The Editor-in-Chief has final responsibility for editorial decisions, in accordance with the journal’s policies, the results of peer review, and the principles of publication ethics.

Peer Review and Editorial Roles

The journal operates a double-anonymous peer-review system, in which the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another throughout the review process. Peer review is conducted in a fair, objective, confidential, and academically responsible manner. Research articles are normally reviewed by at least two independent experts with appropriate subject expertise.

⮕ A detailed description of the peer-review process is available here.

Responsibilities relating to the editorial assessment of manuscripts are allocated as follows:

• The Editor-in-Chief conducts or oversees the preliminary editorial assessment of submitted manuscripts, decides whether a submission is suitable to proceed to peer review, supervises the scholarly evaluation of the manuscript, and makes the final decision on acceptance, revision, or rejection.
• The Senior Editor supports the scholarly and strategic development of the journal and may, on a case-by-case basis, assist the Editor-in-Chief in the preliminary assessment of manuscripts, scholarly evaluation, the identification of suitable reviewers, and other assigned editorial tasks.
• The Executive Editor is responsible for the administrative and organisational coordination of the editorial and peer-review workflow, including communication with authors and reviewers, manuscript handling, monitoring of deadlines, processing of revised versions, communication of editorial decisions, and preparation of materials supporting editorial decision-making.
• Members of the Editorial Board support the journal through scholarly advice, reviewer recommendations, and subject-specific expertise. At the request of the Editor-in-Chief, the Senior Editor, or another editor designated for a particular case, they may contribute to the assessment of manuscripts within their fields of expertise.
• Members of the International Advisory Board do not participate in the routine handling of individual manuscripts or in the operational management of peer review. Their role is advisory and strategic in nature.

All persons involved in the peer-review and editorial process must preserve the confidentiality of manuscripts, review reports, and editorial correspondence. They must not participate in the handling or evaluation of any manuscript in relation to which an actual, potential, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest exists.

⮕ Further information on the journal’s editorial bodies is available here.

Authors’ Responsibilities

Authorship and contributorship

Authorship must be limited to those who have made a substantial scholarly contribution to the conception or design of the research, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of sources or data, and/or the drafting or substantive revision of the manuscript. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript and agree to its submission. Authors share responsibility for the content of the manuscript and must ensure that the submitted work is accurate, original, and ethically sound.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all persons who meet the criteria for authorship are listed as authors, that no person who does not meet those criteria is included as an author, and that all authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and its submission.

The journal may require the submission of an authorship or contributorship statement specifying the contribution made by each author. Contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship may be acknowledged appropriately, with their consent. The journal does not accept honorary, gift, or ghost authorship.

Any request made after submission to add or remove an author, or to change the order of authors, may be accepted only if supported by a written justification, approved by all listed authors, and authorised by the editorial office. Before accepting such a change, the journal may request further explanation or documentation.

Originality, integrity, and disclosure

• Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is original, has not been published previously, and is not simultaneously under consideration by another journal or publisher.
• All sources used must be properly acknowledged. Quotations, paraphrases, translations, borrowed ideas, and reproduced materials must be clearly identified and appropriately referenced.
• Plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, fabrication or falsification of data, manipulation of evidence, deliberate distortion of citations, and misleading presentation of sources are unacceptable.
• Authors must disclose all relevant financial, institutional, project-based, or grant support, as well as any conflict of interest that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research or its interpretation.
• Authors must disclose any prior public dissemination, preprint, closely related publication, or substantially overlapping submission at the time of submission.
• If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in a submitted, accepted, or published manuscript, the author must promptly notify the journal and cooperate in the publication of a correction or, where necessary, the retraction of the work.

Ethical Compliance in Research

Authors must ensure that their research complies with all applicable ethical and legal requirements and that all necessary permissions, approvals, and consents have been obtained.

Where research involves human participants, interviews, questionnaires, pastoral counselling materials, sensitive personal data, private correspondence, unpublished archival materials, or other ethically sensitive sources, authors must indicate whether ethical approval was obtained and, where relevant, identify the body that granted it. If formal ethical approval was not required, this must be stated clearly, together with a brief explanation.

Where research involves identifiable persons, sensitive personal information, or materials that could reasonably affect the privacy, dignity, reputation, or safety of those concerned, authors must ensure that publication is ethically justified and that all necessary consent or permission to publish has been obtained.

The editors reserve the right to request, prior to publication, documentation relating to ethical approval, permissions, consents, or the lawful use of research materials.

Editors’ Responsibilities

Editors are responsible for safeguarding the scholarly standards, professional credibility, editorial independence, and ethical integrity of the journal. They must ensure that the journal operates in accordance with accepted standards of academic publishing, the principles of COPE, and the requirements of fairness, impartiality, transparency, and confidentiality.

Editorial decisions must be based solely on scholarly considerations. Manuscripts must not be assessed on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, institutional affiliation, political conviction, or any other irrelevant personal or social characteristic.

Editors are responsible for the proper handling of ethical issues relating to manuscripts, authorship, contributorship, conflicts of interest, research integrity, and the correction or retraction of published work.

Editors and members of editorial bodies must treat manuscripts, peer-review reports, and editorial correspondence as confidential. Information or ideas obtained through the editorial process may not be used for personal advantage or for an editor’s own research without the author’s explicit written consent.

Editors must not handle any manuscript, complaint, or appeal in a case where an actual, potential, or reasonably perceived conflict of interest exists. In such circumstances, the matter must be reassigned to another suitably independent and qualified editor or senior editorial representative.

Members of the Editorial Board and the International Advisory Board may publish in the journal only if they are entirely excluded from the handling of their own manuscript, the coordination of peer review, the decision-making process, and any appeal procedure relating to their submission.

If the author of a submitted manuscript is the Editor-in-Chief, responsibility for handling the manuscript and making the publication decision must be entrusted to another suitably independent editor, on the basis of independent external peer review.

Responsibilities attached to individual editorial roles

• The Editor-in-Chief bears final responsibility for the journal’s scholarly standards, editorial integrity, and professional direction. The Editor-in-Chief ensures that editorial practice remains consistent with applicable ethical norms and that any necessary correction, retraction, expression of concern, or other post-publication editorial measure is implemented.
• The Senior Editor supports the Editor-in-Chief in maintaining the journal’s scholarly profile, editorial quality, and strategic development. The Senior Editor may assist in the preliminary assessment of manuscripts, scholarly evaluation, reviewer selection, and other editorial tasks assigned by the Editor-in-Chief.
• The Executive Editor is responsible for the administrative and organisational continuity of editorial operations, including coordination of workflows, consistent application of procedures, and communication with authors, reviewers, and editors.
• Members of the Editorial Board contribute to the journal’s professional quality, credibility, and development through scholarly advice, support for editorial policies, and subject-specific expertise.
• Members of the International Advisory Board support the journal’s international visibility, scholarly networks, and long-term development through strategic and academic advice.

Peer Reviewers’ Responsibilities

Peer reviewers assist the editors in determining whether a manuscript is suitable for publication. Their comments may also help authors improve the manuscript.

Peer-review reports must be objective, fair, academically well grounded, and constructive. Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts on the basis of originality, scholarly quality, clarity of argument, methodological or interpretative soundness, and relevance to the journal’s scope.

A reviewer must decline an invitation to review if they do not possess the necessary expertise, cannot complete the review within the requested timeframe, or have a conflict of interest that may affect — or may reasonably appear to affect — their impartial judgement.

Manuscripts sent for review are confidential documents. Reviewers must not disclose them, discuss them with others, copy them, or use unpublished material contained in them for personal advantage.

Reviewers must not upload manuscripts, in whole or in part, to generative AI tools or other external AI-assisted systems. They must not use such tools to create, formulate, or substantially revise peer-review reports.

Reviewers should, where possible, draw the editors’ attention to relevant publications not cited in the manuscript, as well as to any substantial similarity, overlap, suspected plagiarism, suspected manipulation of data or sources, or other ethical concern of which they have personal knowledge.

Publisher’s Responsibilities

The publisher supports the ethical, professional, and technically reliable operation of the journal and fully respects its editorial independence.

The publisher does not influence editorial decisions, the outcome of peer review, or decisions regarding the acceptance, revision, correction, retraction, or rejection of manuscripts. Final responsibility for editorial decisions rests with the Editor-in-Chief, in accordance with the journal’s policies and ethical standards.

The publisher supports the editorial office in preserving the integrity of the scholarly record, including the implementation of corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, and other appropriate post-publication measures.

The publisher is also responsible for supporting production, dissemination, metadata management, and long-term accessibility of published content. These responsibilities do not extend to interference in the scholarly evaluation of manuscripts.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors, reviewers, editors, members of editorial and advisory bodies, and editorial staff must disclose any interest or circumstance that may influence — or may reasonably appear to influence — their professional judgement or conduct.

Conflicts of interest may include, among other things, financial interests, institutional affiliations, personal relationships, scholarly rivalry, prior or ongoing professional collaboration, ideological commitments, or any other circumstance capable of compromising impartiality.

Where a conflict of interest exists, the person concerned must disclose it without delay and, where necessary, refrain from participating in the submission, review, editorial handling, evaluation, complaint, or appeal concerned.

Complaints and Appeals

Data Sharing, Source Verifiability, and Research Materials

The journal supports transparency in research and encourages authors, where possible and appropriate, to make the materials underlying their research accessible and open to verification. Authors must describe their sources, methods, and research procedures in sufficient detail to enable readers to understand, assess, and, where relevant, verify the scholarly argument.

Depending on the nature of the manuscript, the journal may require the submission of a data availability statement or another statement concerning the accessibility of sources, research materials, interview transcripts, datasets, archival documents, or other evidentiary materials relevant to the article.

If data or source materials cannot be made available because of confidentiality obligations, copyright restrictions, legal obstacles, contractual constraints, or ethical considerations, this must be clearly indicated in the manuscript, together, where possible, with the reason for the restriction.

Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Licensing

Authors are responsible for ensuring that any third-party material protected by copyright and included in their manuscript is used with the necessary permission and proper acknowledgement. This includes textual excerpts, images, tables, figures, maps, translations, and extended quotations.

Authors of works submitted to Studia Theologica Transsylvaniensia retain full copyright in their work. By submitting and publishing a manuscript, they grant the publisher, L’Harmattan Könyvkiadó, a non-exclusive licence to publish, archive, reproduce, distribute, preserve, and make the work available in digital and print form.

Articles published in the journal may be used by third parties under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). The rights granted to the publisher are non-exclusive, which means that authors remain entitled to reuse, republish, or distribute their work elsewhere, provided that they appropriately acknowledge the journal as the place of first publication.

⮕ Further information on copyright is available here, and further information on licensing is available here.

Research Misconduct and Publication Malpractice

The journal takes seriously all indications of research misconduct, publication malpractice, or conduct contrary to publication ethics. Such conduct may include, among other things, plagiarism, duplicate or redundant publication, citation manipulation, fabrication or falsification of data, distortion of evidence, unethical authorship practices, undisclosed conflicts of interest, manipulation of the peer-review process, breach of reviewer confidentiality, improper use of AI tools, and unethical research involving human participants or sensitive materials.

Concerns relating to possible misconduct may be raised before or after publication. The journal will examine such concerns carefully, fairly, and confidentially, whether they are raised by a named or anonymous complainant, provided that sufficient information is available to permit a preliminary assessment.

Plagiarism screening

All submitted manuscripts are examined for originality by the editors and reviewers. In addition, the journal uses plagiarism-detection software, currently Turnitin.

Similarity reports are always assessed individually and in context; a similarity score does not in itself prove plagiarism. Although a limited degree of textual similarity may be legitimate, unattributed borrowing, substantial undisclosed overlap, misleading reuse of one’s own previously published text, and other forms of plagiarism are unacceptable. In assessing suspected plagiarism and text recycling, the journal follows the relevant COPE guidance.

Editorial procedure in cases of suspected misconduct

Where misconduct is suspected, the editorial office will document and examine the matter as part of a preliminary inquiry. The author or other relevant party will be informed of the concerns raised and given an opportunity to respond, unless there are compelling reasons for departing from this in order to preserve the integrity of the inquiry.

The editors may request clarification, further information, or additional documentation, and may consult the Editorial Board or independent experts. In cases involving research integrity or serious publication misconduct, the journal may, in accordance with relevant COPE guidance, contact the competent institution or another authority with appropriate jurisdiction.

Depending on the seriousness of the case, the journal may reject the manuscript, request correction or clarification, publish a correction, issue an expression of concern, retract the article, suspend the right to make future submissions for a defined period, or notify the relevant institution or another appropriate authority.

Corrections, Retractions, and Expressions of Concern

If a published article contains a minor but significant error that does not invalidate the results or the central argument, the journal may publish a correction.

If a published article is found to contain serious errors, significant ethical breaches, unreliable findings, plagiarism, fabricated or falsified material, or any other defect that substantially undermines the reliability or integrity of the publication, the journal may retract the article.

If a serious concern arises but the available evidence is inconclusive, or if an investigation is still ongoing, the journal may publish an expression of concern.

Every correction, retraction, or expression of concern must clearly state the reason for the editorial measure and must be unambiguously linked to the original publication.

Corrections, retractions, and expressions of concern form a permanent part of the scholarly record, remain freely accessible, and, where appropriate, are reflected in the article’s metadata and in the information supplied to relevant indexing and abstracting services.

Post-Publication Scholarly Discussion

The journal welcomes meaningful scholarly dialogue concerning published articles. Readers who wish to raise a substantial scholarly concern, propose a correction, or contribute to post-publication scholarly discussion may contact the editorial office at office@stthtr.com. At the editors’ discretion, such communication may lead to editorial correspondence, a published response, a correction, an expression of concern, or another appropriate editorial measure.

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Tools

Publication Fees, Open Access, and Archiving

The journal does not charge submission fees, article processing charges, publication fees, or any other author-side fees.

All articles are published on an open-access basis and are freely available from the moment of publication.

⮕ Further information on open access is available here.

The publisher is committed to the long-term preservation and accessibility of published content and supports its archiving in institutional and disciplinary repositories as well as in digital preservation services.

⮕ Further information on archiving is available here.

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Last updated: 11 May 2026