About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Journal presents the articles, scientific reviews and empirical results, which are devoted to the analysis of actual problems of socio-political development and political transformation processes in an international context. It is intended for researchers, scholars, teachers and students of higher education.

Peer Review Process

Guideline for reviewing articles submitted to the Editorial board of

journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics».

General provisions

1. This Guideline standardizes procedure for peer reviewing the articles submitted to the Editorial Board of the journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics»”.
2. In this Guideline the terms mentioned below are used in such meaning:

Author – person or group of persons (team of authors) who prepared a scholarly article based on previously undertaken study and submitted it to the Editorial Board of the Journal.

Editor-in-chief – person who heads the Editorial Board and makes the final decision on Journal publication.

Science editor – person who ensures quality of scholarly articles which are published in the Journal, and contributes to promotion of the Journal impact-factor.

Responsible editor/secretary – person who is responsible for planning and preparing well-timed and high quality content for publication.

Editorial Board – Journal managerial body that provides package of measures on content preparing and Journal publication. Editorial Board guaranties academic coherence and maintains the Journal status, and provides high quality independent reviewing. 

Members of the Editorial Board should be no less than seven scientists who have scientific degree in one of the specialities that correspond to the scientific specialization of edition in accordance with paragraph 5 of “The Procedure for Forming Catalogue of Scientific Specialized Publications” dated 15.01.2018, № 148/31600. Each of these experts including Editor-in-chief should have no less than three publications for the last five years or no less than seven publications (articles, monographs, chapters of monographs that correspond to the scientific specialization of edition) for the last fifteen years including no less than one for the last three years published at least in two different editions which are included in Web of Science Core Collection and/or  Scopus, or should have monographs or chapters of monographs edited by international publishers which belong to the categories A, B or C after the Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE) classification.

Within the Editorial Board there must be no less than three scientists whose primary employment is any Ukrainian academic institution or higher education institute, and there must be at least one expert whose primary employment is any foreign academic institution or higher education institute. In order to become a member of Editorial Board an expert has to express his written consent.

An expert can be a member of no more than three editorial boards of editions from the Catalogue.

Journal Editorial Board members are presented on the Journal website at the following URL: http://heraldiss.onu.edu.ua/about/editorialPolicies#custom-1

Referee (or peer reviewer) is an expert who acts on behalf of the Journal and carries out scientific expertise for the articles submitted to the Journal in order to decide whether the articles are suitable for publication in Journal. Referee can be a person who holds the scientific degree of Philosophy Doctor or Doctor Habilitated and conducts researches after his or her speciality, and has for the last three years no less than one publication in editions included in the Catalogue, or in foreign editions included in Web of Science Core Collection and/or Scopus, or has monographs or chapters of monographs edited by international publishers which belong to the categories A, B or C after the Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE) classification.

Working party – group of persons from among the members of the Editorial Board consisting of no less than four people, who approve the decision to recommend an article for publication. Group members are appointed by Editor-in-chief before the work on the next issue begins.

       3.All the articles submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal shall be reviewed.

The articles of the Editorial Board members, of the scientists who have significant scientific groundwork in relevant field, as well as the articles written on request of the Journal, go through standard peer reviewing. Under such circumstances the decision about publication of an article is taken by the working party, by a majority of votes (Editor-in-chief has the casting vote).

4. While reviewing the referees shall follow requirements of the Journal Code of Conduct specified and recommended by the Committee of Scientific Publication Ethics. Referees shall be objective and non-biased.

II

1. The author submits to the Editorial Board of the Journal an article which complies with all the requirements of the Journal. Any article which does not comply with the requirements mentioned above shall not be registered and allowed for publication. The author will be informed on that.
2. Before the reviewing the Managing editor/secretary of the Journal:

2.1.       Examines the manuscript for compliance with the remit of the Journal with general requirements for speciality publications.

2.2.       Determines the level of originality of author’s text with the help of the program (freeware eTXTAntiplagiat - URL: https://www.etxt.ru/antiplagiat/). If the original text works out less than 70 per cent the article will not be admitted for further reviewing and will be returned to the author.

2.3.       Encodes the article (assigns registration number and impersonalizes data about the author of the article).

1. Encoded article via email is sent to referees who were chosen by the Managing editor of the Journal.
2. The article is examined by one of the members of the Editorial Board (single-blind review – a reviewer knows an author but an author does not know a reviewer).  
3. After that the article is sent for examination to an independent expert in relevant field of knowledge. This is so called double-blind review when neither author nor reviewer knows each other. In such case the peer reviewing procedure is anonymous both for author and referee.
4. Within 5 consecutive days starting from the day when the article was received the referees shall estimate the possibility of peer reviewing taking into consideration their own qualification, the announced topic and absence of the conflict of interests. Upon the existence of any private (material or non-material) interest which can potentially influence referee’s unprejudiced decision, a reviewer should inform Managing editor, and if there is any conflict of interests or other noes for reviewing the Managing editor shall decide to appoint another referee. Referee should give reasons for refusal to review an article.
5. Within 20 consecutive days starting from the day when the article was received referee should present a conclusion whether the article can be published in the Journal. If it is necessary the deadline may be extended to 25 days. Referee should inform Managing editor on that.
6. Based on the results of reviewing the referee fills out a standard form (hereinafter – form of article review – Appendix1 inthis Guideline) where he or she draws one of the following conclusions:

• to recommend article for publication
• to send article back to the author for correcting and finalizing
• not to recommend the article for publication.

1. Completed form of article review is sent to the Managing secretary of the Journal. Reviews signed by a referee with an ordinary or digital signature should be stored in editorial office for at least three years.
2. The Managing editor/secretary informs the author on the results of peer review via email.
3. If a referee draws a conclusion on correcting and finalizing the article the Managing editor/secretary with the approval of Editor-in-Chief sends article to the author with the list of referee’s critical remarks, questions, and comments. The term of finalizing is determined by the Editor-in-chief and should not exceed 5 consecutive days beginning from the day when the author receives the article.
4. The updated article is sent by the author with a covering letter in which he or she replies to all the referee’s critical remarks and questions, and explains the correctives made throughout the contents of the article.
5. The updated article is sent again to the referee for the conclusion. Within 5 days referee should draw one of the following conclusions:

• to recommend article for publication
• not to recommend article for publication.

1. If the article receives one positive and one negative conclusion from the referees, the final decision on publication is made by Science editor.
2. If the author disagrees with referee’s opinion he or she has a right to present well-grounded statement to the Editorial Board of the Journal. Under such circumstances the article is investigated by the working party which examines in depth the referee’s and author’s opinion. The working party may send an article for additional review to another expert. The working party reserves the right to decline the article if the author is not able or willing to accept comments of the referee(s).  The author is informed on any resolution.
3. The final decision on publication is made by Editor-in-Chief or by working party if situation so requires. The Managing editor/secretary informs the author on the decision.
4. The article to be published is given to the Managing editor. Insignificant stylistic corrections which do not affect contents of the article can be made by the editor without author’s prior consent. The article layout with the corrections is sent to the author provided that he or she applies for that. If there are quite a lot of stylistic corrections which may affect the contents of the article, the updated text should be approved by the author.
5. Successfully refereed articles would be elaborated by the Managing editor and form the next issue of the Journal. It is signed by Editor-in-Chief and recommended for publication by the decision of the Academic Board.

APPENDIX 1

FORM OF ARTICLE REVIEW

    (THE SHEET OF REVIEW OF A PAPER)

Suggested corrections

CONCLUSION (please circle the applicable one)

• The paper is worth publishing and is recommended for publication in the periodical journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics»
• The paper is worth publishing in the periodical journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics» after corrections suggested by the reviewer are made.
• The paper is not recommended for publication in the periodical journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics» as it does not meet the criteria.

The author submits to the Editorial Board of the Journal an article which complies with all the requirements of the Journal. Any article which does not comply with the requirements mentioned above shall not be registered and allowed for publication. The author will be informed on that.

Before the reviewing the Managing editor/secretary of the Journal:

• Examines the manuscript for compliance with the remit of the Journal with general requirements for speciality publications.
• Determines the level of originality of author’s text with the help of the program (freeware eTXTAntiplagiat - URL: https://www.etxt.ru/antiplagiat/). If the original text works out less than 70 per cent the article will not be admitted for further reviewing and will be returned to the author.

Encodes the article (assigns registration number and impersonalizes data about the author of the article).

Encoded article via email is sent to referees who were chosen by the Managing editor of the Journal.

                   The article is examined by one of the members of the Editorial Board (single-blind review – a reviewer knows an author but an author does not know a reviewer). After that the article is sent for examination to an independent expert in relevant field of knowledge. This is so called double-blind review when neither author nor reviewer knows each other. In such case the peer reviewing procedure is anonymous both for author and referee.

All the articles submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal shall be reviewed.

The articles of the Editorial Board members, of the scientists who have significant scientific groundwork in relevant field, as well as the articles written on request of the Journal, go through standard peer reviewing. Under such circumstances the decision about publication of an article is taken by the working party, by a majority of votes (Editor-in-chief has the casting vote).

While reviewing the referees shall follow requirements of the Journal Code of Conduct specified and recommended by the Committee of Scientific Publication Ethics. Referees shall be objective and non-biased.

Publication Frequency

Frequency of updates: Biannual

Open Access Policy

The Journal supports open access policy based on the principle of free distribution of scientific information and global knowledge exchange for common social progress.

  The journal used Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Languages

Language: Ukrainian, Russian and English

Editorial (Expert's) Board of the journal

 The composition of the Editorial and Review Boards was approved by the Decision of the Academic Council of the Faculty of International Relations, Political Science and Sociology of July 3, 2018. Changes to the composition were made on the basis of the Decision of the Academic Council of the faculty of July 2, 2019.

                                 Editorial (Eхpert’s) Board of the journal:

Editorial (Eхpert’s) Board of the journal:

Оlga Brusylovska, Рrof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences) (Editor-in-Chief);Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Іgor Koval, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences) (Science Editor); Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Polina Sinovets, PhD (Politісal Sciences) (Deputy Scienсе Editor); Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Yullia Uzun, PhD (Politісal Sciences) (Responsible Editor); Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine.

Miruna Andreea Balosin, Prof. Dr (Politісal Sciences); Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca,Romania;

Roman Bäcker,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); University MikołajKopernik inTorun,Poland;

Łukasz Donaj, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences);AdamMickiewiczUniversity in Poznań,Poland;

Volodymyr Dubovyk, PhD (Politісal Sciences); Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Sergii Glebov, PhD (Politісal Sciences); Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Stefano Guzzini, Рrof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, Denmark, and Uppsala University, Sweden;

Daniela Irrera, PhD (Politісal Sciences); University ofCatania,Italy;

Taras Кuzio, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); Johns Hopkins University, USA;

Iryna Maksymenko, PhD (Politісal Sciences); Odessa I.I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine;

Juraj Marusiak,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); Slovak Academy of Sciences,BratislavaSlovakia;

Yuriy Matsiyevsky, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); National University of Ostroh Academy, Ukraine;

Nicolai Petro, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); University of Rhode Island, USA;

Vsevolod Samokhvalov, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); University of Liege, Belgium, and University of Cambridge, UK;

Andrzej Szeptycki,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); University of Warsaw,Poland:

Alena Vysotskaya Gudez-Vieira, PhD (Politісal Sciences); University of Minho, Braga,Portugal;

Stefan Wolff, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences);University ofBirmingham,UK;

Review’s Board of the journal:

Georgiana Ciceo-Waldtraudt, PhD (History); Babeș-Bolyai University,Cluj-Napoca,Romania;

Břetislav Dančák,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); MasarykUniversity,Brno,Czech Republic;

Tracey German,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); King’sCollege,London,UK;

Regina Heller, PhD (Politісal Sciences); Hamburg University, Germany;

Jan Holzer, Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences); Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic;

Jarosław Jańczak,Prof. Dr. (Politісal Sciences),AdamMickiewicz University inPoznań,Poland;

Angela Kachuyevski, PhD (Politісal Sciences),ArcadiaUniversity,Glenside,USA;

Svetlana L’nyavskiy-Ekelund, MA (Politісal Sciences),LundUniversity,Sweden;

Ivanka Mavrodieva-Georgieva,Prof. Dr. (Philosophy), Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”,Bulgaria;

Andrey Makarychev, Prof. Dr. (History),University ofTartu,Estonia;

Mitchell A. Orenstein, PhD (Politісal Sciences),University ofPennsylvania,USA;

Sergey Yakubovsky, Prof. Dr. (Economy);Odessa I. I. MechnikovNationalUniversity,Ukraine.

Databases of Abstracting and Indexing

The scientific journal «Odesa National University Herald. Sociology and Politics» is abstracting and indexing in the scientific databases:

• National Library of Ukraine Vernadsky - the largest library of Ukraine, the main scientific information center of the state, scientific research institute of department of history, philosophy and law of NAS of Ukraine. All electronic versions of periodical printed scientific editions are posted on the official web-site of National Library of Ukraine named after V.I. Vernadsky according to decree of of Ukraine and NAS of Ukraine on 07.07.2008 N 436/311.
• “Ukrainika scientific” - Ukrainian nation-wide database of abstracts in scientific, technical, social, humanitarian and medical sciences. It is founded by National Library of Ukraine Vernadsky and Institute for Information Recording NAS of Ukraine. The printed version of the database is Ukrainian abstract journal “Source”.
• Institutional Repository at Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University – is electronic archive which provide a long storage, accumulation, long-term and reliable open access to results of scientific researches of Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University.
• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory – catalog of American Publishers Bowker. It is the largest database that describes the global flow of periodicals in all thematic areas.
• Index Copernicus (Poland) – is the international database which is indexing, ranking, abstracting journals and articles. It was established for promotion of chievements of science and for supporting of national and international collaboration between scientists, publishers of scientific journals and scientific organizations. It is administered by the Index Copernicus International.
• Google Scholar – is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text of scientific publication of all publishing formats and disciplines.
• ResearchBib - is open access with high standard indexing database for researchers and publishers.
• Our journal uses the Creative Commons CC BY-NC license.

Code of Ethics for International and Political Relations

                               Code of Ethics
                  "International and political research"

Preparing for publication a scientific peer-reviewed journal, the editorial staff seeks to minimize the possibility of abuse of readers' trust, to guarantee the academic and scientific nature of the publication.
In this regard, we strongly recommend that all authors comply with the ethical standards of academic publications.
Based on recommendations from the Publishing Ethics Committee (http://publicationethics.org/), Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/editors/perk/what-is-elseviers-position-on-publishing-ethics) and Scopus ( http://www.info.sciverse.com/scopus/scopus-in-detail/content-selection), The Editorial Board approved the following principles for the work of editors, reviewers and authors of the journal.

Responsibilities of the Editor and Editorial Board
1.1. The editor is responsible for deciding which of the submitted articles will be published. In his decisions, the editor is guided by these rules, as well as laws regarding defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The decision of the editor should be made in the interests of the journal and take into account the opinions of other editors and reviewers.
1.2. The editor checks the materials submitted for publication for compliance with the topics of the journal series and for compliance with the general professional requirements for scientific publications, which are determined by the Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine,
1.3. The editor decides on the appointment of reviewers from the editorial board, taking into account their overall workload and consent;
1.4. The editor and editors evaluate the submitted manuscripts according to their content, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political preferences of their authors.
1.5. The editor and editors should not disclose information about the text of the article to anyone other than the authors themselves, reviewers, and other editors.
1.6. The ideas and data of the submitted manuscripts cannot be used in the editorial and / or editorial staff's own research without the written consent of the author.
1.7. Additional tips on the ethical aspects of the work of editors and editorial staff are found in the COPE Code of Editorial Ethics and Best Practices for Editorial Work [http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf]

 Reviewer Responsibilities

2.1. An expert assessment of the submitted manuscripts allows the editor to make the right decisions on publishing the best articles in the journal. In some cases, the reviewer can help the author to improve the work through the mediation of the publisher.
2.2. The reviewer may refuse to evaluate the submitted materials if he / she 1) does not feel qualified enough to evaluate the submitted study, or 2) that he / she is not able to evaluate the manuscript within a reasonable time. 2.3. Each manuscript submitted for review is a confidential document. Manuscripts can only be discussed with those who belong to the journal.
2.4. Manuscript reviews should strive for objectivity. Reviewers should reason about their assessments and avoid personal criticism.
2.5. It is expected that the reviewer will point out important publications that were not indicated by the author in the material. In addition, it is expected that the reviewer will point out to him / her significant similarities or coincidences of parts of the manuscript and already published texts.
2.6. Information and ideas obtained during the review should be confidential and cannot be used in the interests of reviewers. Reviewers are expected to refuse to evaluate manuscripts for which they have a conflict of interest (as a result of competition, cooperation, or other interested relationships with any of the authors or their institutions).
2.7. Further advice on the ethical aspects of the reviewers' work is contained in the COPE Code of Ethics for Reviewers [http://publicationethics.org/files/Ethical_guidelines_for_peer_reviewers_0.pdf].

Responsibilities of the authors

3.1. The authors prepare manuscripts of articles that are submitted to the editors in accordance with the requirements of the Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine for professional publications and, in accordance with the profile of the journal. According to the requirements of the Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine, the original article in a professional publication should consist of the following sections:
 statement of the problem;
 relevance of the study;
 connection of copyright developments with important scientific and practical tasks;
 analysis of recent studies and publications;
 allocation of previously unresolved parts of the general problem to which the article is devoted;
 novelty;
 methodological or general scientific value;
 presentation of the main material;
 main findings;
 prospects for using research results
3.2. The basic data provided in the articles must be accurate and verified. Inaccurate and unverified statements in articles contradict the requirements of scientific ethics and are unacceptable.
3.3. When using scientific results, ideas, publications and other materials of other authors, the text must contain links to publications of these authors. Fragments of published (published) texts of other authors (citations) may be included in publications solely with reference to the source (except for fragments that do not carry an independent semantic load).
3.4. When writing an article, academic citation rules should apply. In addition, authors should indicate publications that were decisive for their research.
3.5. Authors submit texts that have not previously been published.
3.6. The authorship of the articles refers to those who have made a significant contribution to the preparation of the study report. All who contributed to the preparation of the text of the article should be indicated as co-authors.

Sources of Support

• Одеський національний університет імені І.І. Мечникова

Journal History

The peer-reviewed scientific journal "International and Political Studies" has been published since 2019. Certificate of state re-registration of 02.12. 2019. (Series KB No. 24235-14075 PR).
The program goal is to present the results of scientific research in the field of political science.
The journal is published annually. Articles are accepted in three languages (English, Ukrainian, Russian).

Until 2019, the journal was published under the name “Nerald ONU. Sociology and Political Science ”(had the certificate of the KB series No 11464-337Р of 07.07.2006.)
The Higher Attestation Commission of Ukraine recognized the magazine as a specialized publication in sociology and political science. Decisions of the Presidium of the Higher Certification Commission of Ukraine No. 1-05 / 6 dated June 14, 2007 and No. 1-05 / 1 dated February 10, 2010. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine recognized the magazine as a specialized publication in sociology and political science. Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine No. 820 of July 11, 2016