About the Journal

Scope

Eventum aims to reposition the arts and rituals of various medieval traditions and to provide an international and congenial forum for the presentation and discussion of research on:

all medieval arts in and as rituals; and
the initiators, participants, spaces, forms, structures, and artistic dimensions of all medieval rituals.

Furthermore, Eventum provides a platform for the examination of the relationship between medieval, later, and contemporary arts and rituals, bringing to the fore the rich cultural heritage of the Middle Ages for a better understanding of both the past and the present.

For Eventum’s purposes, the term "medieval" is used in its broader sense, covering Byzantine, Western European, Coptic, Syriac, Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, and Slavic cultures from the 4^th to the 15^th centuries.

Eventum is a diamond open-access journal. Open Access is not an infringement on copyright. Authors (or their institutions) own the original copyright to their research.

Peer Review Process

Each submitted manuscript that passes the preliminary review by the Editors and the Editorial Board is generally reviewed by at least two external reviewers under a double-blind peer review process where both the reviewers and the authors are kept anonymous.

Peer Reviewers are asked to evaluate the manuscript based on its originality, scholarly relevance, soundness of methodology, solidity of argumentation, and appropriateness to the journal’s aims and areas of interest. Peer Reviewers are also asked to assess research and publication ethics issues and inform the Editors of any conflict of interest that might be perceived as relevant.

The review process usually takes between 4 and 10 weeks.

Publication Frequency

Eventum is published once a year.

Open Access Policy

Eventum provides immediate open access to its content on the principles that publicly funded research must be freely accessible to the public and that making research freely available supports a greater global exchange of knowledge and fosters progress.

Eventum does not charge either submission or publication fees nor article-processing expenses.

Publisher copyright policies and self-archiving:

Authors retain the copyright of their works
Authors can archive post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing)
Authors can archive publisher's version/pdf

SHERPA/RoMEO classification: Green = Authors can archive pre-print and post-print or publisher's version/pdf.

Creative Commons Licence

Except where otherwise noted, the content of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). This license allows others to download Eventum's articles and share them as long as they credit their authors.

Privacy

Authors' name and email address will be used only for communication purposes regarding their article submission. Their name or email address will not be disclosed to a third party.

Archiving

The University of Milan has an archival arrangement with the National Central Libraries of Florence and Rome within the national project Magazzini Digitali.

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.

Plagiarism

Editors have a duty to act promptly in case of errors and misconducts, both proven and alleged. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. In case of such errors in articles or in the publication process, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, appropriate steps will be taken, following the recommendations, guidelines and flowcharts from di COPE. Furthermore, Eventum performs a Similarity Check on the submissions received, through iThenticate software.

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.

iThenticate

The journal performs a Similarity Check on the submissions received, through iThenticate software.

Declaration on Artificial Intelligence

Corrections will happen Eventum acknowledges the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovations understanding the challenges and opportunities they entail.

Authors who have used AI tools in the editing of a manuscript, in the production of images or graphical elements of their article, or in the collection and analysis of data, are invited to explicitly declare their use, mentioning the AI tool, the field of application, the search queries uses and the date of use, in order to allow reproducibility and verification.

Authors who have used AI or AI-assisted tools are required to include a paragraph at the end of their manuscript with the title: "Declaration on Generative AI and AI-Assisted Technologies in the Writing Process", with the following information: "During the preparation of this article the author(s) used [TOOL/SERVICE NAME] on [DD/MM/YYYY] using the search terms: [SEARCH TERMS] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) have reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the publication."

Editors are not allowed to upload received manuscripts into AI software, in order not to risk compromising privacy and copyright.

Reviewers are not supposed to use AI tools to evaluate manuscripts in order to guarantee the application of critical thinking and original assessment, as required for reviewing.

Publication Ethics

The present document is based on: Kleinert, Sabine, and Elizabeth Wager. "Responsible research publication: international standards for editors. A position statement developed at the 2^nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22-24, 2010." Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Edited by Tony Mayer and Nicholas Steneck. Singapore: World Scientific, 2011. 317–28. Ch. 51. It is also informed by the "Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors" published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editorial Principles

1. Accountability and Responsibility for Journal Content

The Editors of Eventum take responsibility for everything they publish. They strive to grant both scientific and editorial quality by 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.

2. Editorial Independence and Integrity

2.1 Independence of Editorial Decisions from Commercial Interests

The Editors of Eventum make their decisions about proposals submitted to the Journal on academic merit alone and take full responsibility for their decisions. Eventum embraces an open access policy and has no commercial interest, so the journal’s editorial processes and Editors’ decisions are independent of any commercial consideration.

2.2 Editors’ Relationship to the Journal Publisher

The Editors of Eventum work on a volunteer basis. The journal’s website is hosted by the Università degli Studi di Milano, a public institution which has a scientific research and teaching mission and does not interfere with the editors’ freedom of choice and activities, as long as their work is coherent with the scholarly mission of the journal.

2.3 Journal Metrics and Decision-Making

The editors of Eventum 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. Editorial Confidentiality

3.1 Authors’ Material

Eventum selects papers to be published through double-blind peer review. 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. Eventum’ 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).

3.2 Reviewers

Eventum 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.

General Editorial Policies

4. Encourage Maximum Transparency and Good Publishing Ethics

Eventum aims at granting Authors, Readers, Reviewers, and all other Parties involved maximum transparency and complete and honest reporting about its work.

4.1 Authorship and Responsibility

All signing Authors of works published on Eventum take responsibility for the conduct and validity of their research and for what is written in their contributions. They also share ownership of Authors’ rights (all contents are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International). Should any authorship dispute arise, it will be resolved at the appropriate institutional level or through other appropriate independent bodies. The Editors of Eventum will then act on the findings, for example by correcting authorship in published works.

4.2 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 on Eventum. Declarations of conflicting interests are published alongside the paper so that readers are informed about them.

4.3 Authors’ Publishing Ethics

The Editors of Eventum work to ensure that all published papers make a substantial new contribution to their field. They discourage "salami publications" (i.e., publication of the minimum publishable unit of research), avoid duplicate or redundant publication unless it is fully declared and acceptable to all (e.g., publication in a different language with cross-referencing), and encourage Authors to place their work in the context of previous work.

5. Responding to Criticisms and Concerns

Eventum welcomes and encourages criticism and debate.

5.1 Ensuring Integrity of the Published Record – Corrections

When genuine errors in works published on Eventum, which do not render the work invalid, are pointed out by Readers, Authors, or Editors a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The article will be corrected with a date of correction. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the article 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.

5.2 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 on Eventum, 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 Eventum will also do their best to respond to findings from research integrity organisations that indicate misconduct relating to works published in Eventum. Editors can themselves decide to retract an article 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.

5.3 Encourage Scholarly Debate

Eventum welcomes Readers’ criticisms to 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.

Editorial Processes

6. Ensuring a Fair and Appropriate Peer Review Process

The Editors of Eventum organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. The peer review process is clearly explained in the Peer Review Process section on the journal’s website.

6.1 Decision whether to Review

The Editors of Eventum may reject a paper without peer review when it is deemed unsuitable for the journal’s readers or is of poor quality. This decision is made in a fair and unbiased way and the criteria used to make this decision are made explicit to the Author. The decision not to send a paper for peer review is only based on its academic content , and it is not influenced by the nature of the authors or their host institution.

6.2 Interaction with Peer Reviewers

The Editors of Eventum use appropriate Peer Reviewers for articles that are considered for publication by selecting people with sufficient expertise and avoiding those with conflicts of interest. The Editors of Eventum 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). The Editors of Eventum 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. The Editors of Eventum stress confidentiality of the material to Peer Reviewers.

6.3 Reviewer misconduct

The Editors of Eventum 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.

6.4 Interaction with Authors

The Editors of Eventum make it clear to Authors that the role of the Peer Reviewer is to provide recommendations on acceptance or rejection. Correspondence from Editors is usually with the Corresponding Author, who has the responsibility to involve Co-Authors at all stages. The Editors of Eventum 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, the Editors of Eventum 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. The Editors of Eventum 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, the Editors of Eventum welcome appeals from authors. Editors, however, are not obliged to overturn their decision.

7. Editorial Decision-Making

The Editors of Eventum guarantee that decisions on publications are as fair and unbiased as possible. All editorial processes are made clear in the Profile and Submissions sections on the Journal’s webpage, where it is stated what is expected of Authors, which types of articles are published, and how articles 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 Editors.

Eventum Homepage image

Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania:
Elder of Apocalypse Window, c. 1240-45. Made in France. Pot Metal Glass, that is on loan from Glencairn Museum, 03.SG.208