Policies

Open Access Policy

Cinéma & Cie 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.

The Journal’s Open Access Policy is based on rules of Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI): http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/.

Anyone is free to download, re-use, print, and share the published content.

CC License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Article Processing and Submission Charge

Authors can publish free of charge: no payments are required from the authors, as this Journal doesn’t have article submission charges or article processing charges (APCs).

Peer Review

Cinéma & Cie selects papers to be published through a double-blind peer review, so as to ensure and improve the quality of the contents published in the Journal. In accordance with international ethical guidelines, the Journal’s Boards will strive to ensure that the review process is fair, unbiased and timely. The decisions to accept or reject an essay will be made within 6 months since its reception and will solely be based on its importance, originality and scientific relevance. Reviewers will be requested from a number of scholars whose expertise and research interests may be a valuable source of improvement for the paper submitted. Their identity as well as that of the author(s) will remain anonymous. Editors strive to protect the confidentiality of authors’ material and remind reviewers to do so.

Editors will provide the highest standards of transparency in the management of the peer review process, by ensuring an appropriate course of action, preventing any misconduct and conflicts of interest.

Any manuscript received for review is treated as a confidential document. Reviewers will not be given access to the submission file until they have agreed to review it. Through the review form of the Journal, the comments should focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript, supporting every comment with specific evidence. Points to be considered in the review include: impact of the article on its research topic; usefulness of findings; relevance for the (relevant section of) the Journal; originality; research methodology; adequacy and accuracy of references to the existing literature on the topic; quality of argumentation; writing style.

Submitted papers are never shared with editors of other journals, unless with the authors’ agreement or in cases of alleged misconduct. Editors do not give any indication of a paper’s status with the Journal to anyone other than the authors. Cinéma & Cie web-based submission system prevents unauthorised access.

Copyright Policy

The Author allows Cinéma & Cie the right to publish for the first time or republish the work within 1 (one) year from the submission, and the perpetual right to distribute the work free of charge by any means and in any parts of the world, including in communication to the public through the Journal website.

The Author retains the right to create derivative works and to reproduce, distribute, execute or publicly display their work at conferences and presentations, lectures, and in case of any other professional activity.

The Author retains the right to disseminate their work in open access, through their website or through an institutional or disciplinary platform, in its published form in Cinéma & Cie.

The Author, according to the Publisher, renounces to any forms of compensation provided to authors and publishers for not-for-profit photocopying rights and library loans in accordance with the National law in force.

Plagiarism

Editors have the duty to act promptly in case of errors and misconduct, both proven and alleged. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. In case such as errors in articles or in the publication process, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, appropriate steps will be taken, following the recommendations, guidelines and flowcharts from COPE (https://publicationethics.org/files/cope-retraction-guidelines-v2.pdf). Corrections will happen with due prominence, including the publication of an erratum (errors from the publication process), corrigendum (errors from the Author(s)) or, in the most severe cases, the retraction of the affected work. Retracted papers will be retained online, and they will be prominently marked as a retraction in all online versions, including the PDF, for the benefit of future readers.

Archiving

The Journal has enabled the PKP PN (Preservation Network) plugin, in order to preserve digital contents through LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) project.

Privacy Statement

The names, email addresses and data entered in this Journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this Journal and will not be made available for any other purpose, or to any other party.

Data Availability Statement

Where applicable, data supporting research results are available upon request. Interested researchers may contact the Corresponding Author to obtain access. To ensure compliance with ethical standards, data will only be shared upon signature of a disclosure agreement specifying the conditions of use and prohibiting unauthorised dissemination.

Publication Ethics

1. Editorial Principles

1.1 Journal Focus and Scope

Cinéma & Cie has been published since 2001 in dialogue with the major European research network on film and media studies, and aims to promote exchange between international scholars on crucial topics in the academic community. Until 2021, it was printed and distributed by publishers Il Castoro (2001-2005), Carocci (2007-2013), Mimesis International (2017-2020, print & digital version), since Issue 36 the Journal has embraced an open access policy and is now published as an online Journal only through the Open Journal Systems (PKP) platform hosted by University of Milan.

Cinéma & Cie encourages maximum transparency and aims at ensuring the highest standards of publishing ethics. To this end, it aims at granting authors, readers, reviewers, and all other parties involved maximum transparency and complete and honest reporting about its work.

1.2 Editors’ Relationship to the Journal Publisher

The Journal’s website is hosted by University of Milan, a public institution which has a scientific research and teaching mission and does not interfere with Cinéma & Cie editors’ freedom of choice and activities, as long as their work is coherent with the scholarly mission of the Journal.

1.3 Advisory Board

Advisory Board members will serve a variety of functions, including:

Ensuring the Journal’s approaches and topics align with its academic mission and audience, offering expertise on emerging trends, technologies, or shifts in the humanities
Providing counsel on editorial decisions and policies
Acting as ambassadors for the Journal
Supporting and promoting the Journal
Establishing partnerships with institutions, associations, or other Journals to increase visibility and impact
Encouraging scholars to submit their work and promoting the Journal within the academic community
Contributing as reviewers to the peer review process
Attending and contributing to Scientific Editorial Board meetings, as well as actively participating in email exchanges to discuss editorial decisions and strategies.

The Advisory Board should meet regularly (at least once a year) to gauge/assess their opinions about the running of the Journal, define any changes to Journal policies, and identify future challenges.

1.4 Scientific Editorial Board

Scientific Editorial Board members are responsible for a range of functions, including:

Ensuring the Journal’s approaches and topics align with its academic mission and audience, actively contributing to decisions about special issues, thematic sections and new directions for the Journal
Recruiting guest editors or authors
Establishing guidelines for submission, peer review, and ethical standards
Reviewing submissions for adherence to the Journal’s scope and quality standards and offering editorial feedback to authors to improve the quality of submissions
Overseeing the selection of qualified reviewers, ensuring the rigor and fairness of the peer review process
Establishing partnerships with institutions, associations, or other Journals to increase visibility and impact
Contacting and coordinating with the publisher, ensuring adherence to publishing standards, including open access policies
Implementing the website
Proofreading the Journal’s issues
Periodically reviewing submission and publication metrics to identify areas for improvement.

The Scientific Editorial Board will meet regularly (at least twice a year) to gauge/assess their opinions about the running of the Journal, plan the Journal’s issues, define any changes to Journal policies, and identify future challenges.

1.5 Board Renewal Process

The Boards deliberate annually on their future composition.

2. Ethical Expectations

2.1 Accountability and Responsibility for Journal Content

Journal’s editors are committed to ensuring the integrity of the publication process by upholding the Code of Conduct of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE). Editors take responsibility for all works published in Cinéma & Cie. They strive to grant both scientific and editorial quality through double-blind peer review and careful editing. The Journal maintains the integrity of the published record and grants long time preservation of all published content by using the LOCKKS system.

3. Editors’ Responsibilities

3.1 Independence of Editorial Decisions from Commercial Interests

The Journal’s editorial processes, peer reviews and editors’ decisions are independent of any commercial interests and considerations. The editor should handle submissions for sponsored supplements or special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on scientific quality and without commercial influence. The editor should inform readers about who has funded research or other scholarly work and whether the funders had any role in the research and its publication and, if so, what this was.

The editors work on a volunteer basis. The editor of a peer-reviewed Journal takes full responsibility for deciding which of the articles submitted to the Journal should be published. The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always drive such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the Journal’s Scientific Editorial Board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.

3.2 Journal Metrics and Decision-Making

The editors do not attempt to influence the Journal’s ranking by artificially increasing any Journal metric. In particular, they strive to ensure that submitted papers are reviewed on purely scholarly grounds and that authors are not pressured to cite specific publications for non-scholarly reasons.

3.3 General Editorial Policies

The Scientific Editorial Board assesses the articles submitted for publication based solely on their content, without discrimination of the Authors’ language, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political orientation. The Journal employs unbiased language.

All editorial processes are made clear in the information for authors on the Journal’s webpage, where what is expected of authors is stated, which types of papers are published, and how papers are handled by the Journal. All editors are fully familiar with the Journal policies, vision, and scope. The final responsibility for all decisions rests with the managing editor.

The editor and any Scientific Editorial Board member should adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature. The editor should give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated, no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained.

3.4 Interaction with Authors

Cinéma & Cie editors make it clear to authors that the role of the peer reviewer is to provide recommendations on acceptance or rejection. Communication from editors is usually with the corresponding author, who has the responsibility to involve co-authors at all stages. The editors communicate with all authors at first submission and at final acceptance stage to ensure all authors are aware of the submission and have approved the publication. Normally, they pass on all peer reviewers’ comments in their entirety. However, in exceptional cases, it may be necessary to exclude parts of a review, if it, for example, contains libellous or offensive remarks.

Cinéma & Cie editors guarantee that such editorial discretion is not inappropriately used to suppress inconvenient comments. Should there be good reasons to involve additional reviewers at a late stage in the process, it is clearly communicated to authors. The final editorial decision and reasons for this are clearly communicated to authors and reviewers. If a paper is rejected, Cinéma & Cie editors welcome appeals from authors. Editors, however, are not obliged to overturn their decision.

3.5 Interaction with Peer Reviewers

Cinéma & Cie editors use appropriate peer reviewers for papers that are considered for publication by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest. Cinéma & Cie editors ensure that reviews are received in a timely manner. Peer reviewers are told what is expected of them and are informed about any changes in editorial policies. Peer reviewers are asked to assess research and publication ethics issues (i.e., whether they think the research was done and reported ethically, or if they have any suspicions of plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or redundant publication). Cinéma & Cie editors have a policy to request a formal conflict of interest declaration from peer reviewers and ask peer reviewers to inform them about any such conflict of interest at the earliest opportunity so that they can make a decision on whether an unbiased review is possible. Certain conflicts of interest may disqualify a peer reviewer. Cinéma & Cie editors stress the confidentiality of the material to peer reviewers.

3.6 Editorial Confidentiality

Any manuscript received for review is treated as a confidential document. Peer reviewers are chosen by editors, who strive to protect the confidentiality of authors’ material and remind reviewers to do so as well. Submitted papers are never shared with editors of other journals, unless with the authors’ agreement or in cases of alleged misconduct (see below). Editors do not give any indication of a paper’s status with the Journal to anyone other than the authors. Cinéma & Cie web-based submission system prevents unauthorised access. In the case of a misconduct investigation, it may be necessary to disclose material to third parties (e.g., an institutional investigation committee or other editors).

3.7 Editorial Conflicts of Interest

Cinéma & Cie editors are not involved in decisions about papers in which they have a conflict of interest, for example if they work or have worked in the same institution and collaborated with the authors, if they own stock in a particular company, or if they have a personal relationship with the authors. Articles authored by members of the Journal’s Boards shall undergo a review process in compliance with Publication Ethics, ensuring full transparency and the absence of any conflicts of interest. Any Author’s membership in the Journal’s Boards shall be explicitly disclosed in the full text or in the article metadata.

4. Reviewers’ Responsibilities

4.1 Decision Whether to Review

Cinéma & Cie editors may reject a paper submitted either for the Special Issue or the Beyond Cinema section without peer review (desk rejection) when it is deemed unsuitable for the Journal’s readers or is of poor quality. For the Special Issues, this decision will be made by the deadline indicated in the corresponding Call for Papers. For the Beyond Cinema section, authors will be first notified within two months of submission. If their article has been assessed for suitability by the section’s editors, it will be peer-reviewed by anonymous, expert referees. The outcomes of the peer-reviewing process will be notified to the author within six months. The decision not to send a paper for peer review is made in a fair and unbiased way and the criteria used to make this decision are made explicit to the authors. This decision is based only on the academic content of the paper, and it is not influenced by the nature of the authors or their host institution.

4.2 Ensuring a Fair and Appropriate Peer Review Process

Cinéma & Cie editors organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. The peer review processes are clearly explained in the information for authors’ page on the Journal’s website, which also indicates which parts of the Journal are peer reviewed.

The Journal selects papers to be published through double-blind peer review.

Therefore, reviewers’ identities are always protected, unless an alleged or suspected reviewer’s misconduct compels the Journal to disclose the reviewer’s name to a third party.

If an article received two opposing reviews, the editors will generally request a third expert’s opinion in order to preserve neutrality. Scientific Editorial Board members of Cinéma & Cie are not allowed to serve as reviewers. Advisory Board members, on the other hand, may assume the role of reviewers.

4.3 Review Policy

Peer review assists the editor in the decision-making process, and in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively, in a timely manner.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. The reviewer should maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author.

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. A reviewer should also alert the editor to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review.

Reviewers should be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript. This is also recommended in case the reviewer recognizes author’s identity in an anonymous essay from contextual elements.

4.4 Reviewer Misconduct

Cinéma & Cie editors take reviewer misconduct seriously and pursue any allegation of breach of confidentiality, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of serious reviewer misconduct, such as plagiarism, are taken to the institutional level.

5. Authors’ Responsibilities

5.1 Authorship

All signing authors of works published in Cinéma & Cie take responsibility for the conduct and validity of their research and for what is written in their submissions. Authors acknowledge that all contents are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

Should any authorship dispute arise, it will be resolved at the appropriate institutional level or through other appropriate independent bodies. Cinéma & Cie editors will then act on the findings, for example by correcting authorship in published works.

5.2 Authors’ Publishing Ethics

A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable. Review and professional publication articles should also be accurate and objective, and editorial ‘opinion’ works should be clearly identified as such.

Authors should provide original and unpublished articles, results of their study, research and originality. Cinéma & Cie editors discourage duplicate or redundant publication unless it is fully declared and acceptable to all (e.g., publication in a different language with cross-referencing). Authors should maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and supply or provide access to these data, on reasonable request.

An author should confirm/assert that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. Where portions of the content overlap with published or submitted content, they have to acknowledge and cite those sources.

Authors should confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources. They should obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.

Authors should submit papers which make a substantial new contribution to their field. The editors discourage ‘salami publications’ (i.e., the minimum publishable unit of wider research), and encourage authors to place their work in the context of previous work (i.e., to state why this work was necessary/done, what this work adds or why a replication of previous work was required, and what readers should take away from it).

5.3 Ensuring Integrity of the Published Record – Corrections

Authors should notify promptly the Journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. They have to cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.

5.4 Conflicts of Interest and Role of the Funding Source

Authors are required to declare any relevant financial or non-financial conflict of interest at the moment they submit their papers for publication in Cinéma & Cie (e.g. where the author has a competing interest – real or apparent – that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process). Declarations of conflicting interests are published alongside the paper so that readers are informed about them.

5.5. Copyright Policy

The Author allows Cinéma & Cie the right to publish for the first time or republish the work within 1 (one) year from the submission, and the perpetual right to distribute the work free of charge by any means and in any parts of the world, including the communication to the public through the Journal website.

The Author retains the right to disseminate their work in open access, through their website or through an institutional or disciplinary platform, from the publishing in Cinéma & Cie.

The Author, according to the Publisher, renounces any forms of compensation provided to authors and publishers for no profit photocopying rights and library loan in accordance with the National law in force.

6. Responding to Criticisms and Concerns

Cinéma & Cie welcomes and encourages criticism and debate.

When genuine errors in works published in Cinéma & Cie are pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, which do not render the work invalid, a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The paper will be corrected with a date of correction. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the paper will be retracted with an explanation as to the reason for retraction (i.e., honest error). Retracted papers will be retained online, and they will be prominently marked as a retraction in all online versions, including the PDF, for the benefit of future readers.

6.1. Ensuring the Integrity of the Published Record – Suspected Research or Publication Misconduct

If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of works published in Cinéma & Cie the editors of the Journal will initially contact the authors and allow them to respond to the concerns. If that response is unsatisfactory, editors will take the matter to the appropriate institutional level. The editors of Cinéma & Cie will also do their best to respond to findings from research integrity organisations that indicate misconduct relating to works published in Cinéma & Cie. Editors can themselves decide to retract a paper if they are convinced that serious misconduct has happened even if an investigation by an institution or national body does not recommend it. Editors will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, or other editors. In general, they acknowledge collective responsibility for the research record of the Journal and will act whenever they become aware of potential misconduct if at all possible.

6.2 Encourage Scholarly Debate

Cinéma & Cie welcomes readers’ criticism of works published by the Journal and will consider publishing them to foster scientific debate, as long as they are proposed in a timely manner. The authors of the original works will be given the opportunity to reply to further promote the debate. Any criticisms that raise the possibility of misconduct will be further investigated even if they are received a long time after publication.

7. General Procedures for Dealing with Unethical Behaviour

Misconduct and unethical behaviour may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor and publisher at any time, by anyone.

Whoever informs the editor or publisher of such conduct should provide sufficient information and evidence in order for an investigation to be initiated.

All allegations should be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached.

An initial decision is to be taken by the editor, who should consult with or seek advice from the Scientific Editorial Board and the publisher, if appropriate.

Evidence should be gathered, while avoiding spreading and allegations beyond those who need to know.

In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations.