This international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to transdisciplinary thinking and research on translation was founded in 2012. Its first issues (all consultable on this platform) were published in paper form. In 2021 the journal decided to go online and open access. We consider this policy an important achievement towards a more democratic and accessible journal.

The journal's editorial team works towards the democratic principle of sharing and making knowledge and research accessible to all.

 

Frequency of publication:

The journal is published biannually, but issues will be "open" for comments and debate as well as "extra submissions".

 

Editorial Principles

1. Accountability and responsibility for journal content

The journal's editors take responsibility for all works published in translation. a transdisciplinary journal. They strive to guarantee both scientific and editorial quality through double-blind peer reviewing and careful editing. The journal maintains the integrity of the published record and provides long-term preservation of all published content by using the LOCKKS system.

 

2. Editorial independence and integrity

• 2.1 Independence of editorial decisions from commercial interests

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors make their decision regarding proposals submitted to the journal and published works on academic merit alone and take full responsibility for their decisions.

translation. a transdisciplinary journal 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 with the journal publisher

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors work on a volunteer basis. The journal’s website is hosted by the Università degli Studi di Milano, a public institution with its own scientific research and teaching mission and that does not interfere with translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors’ freedom of choice and activities, provided their work is coherent with the scholarly mission of the journal.

• 2.3 Journal metrics and decision-making

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors do not attempt to influence the journal’s ranking by artificially increasing any journal metrics. 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 nonscholarly reasons.

• 2.4 Journal antiplagiarism stance

translation. a transdisciplinary journal automatically analyzes all submissions via the plagiarism detection tool  iThenticate, and any submission deemed to fall foul of antiplagiarism norms will be dealt with appropriately.

 

3. Editorial confidentiality

• 3.1 Authors’ material

translation. a transdisciplinary journal selects papers for publication through a double-blind peer review process. Peer reviewers are chosen by the 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, except with the authors’ prior 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.

translation. a transdisciplinary journal's 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

translation. a transdisciplinary journal selects papers for publication through a double-blind peer review process.

Reviewers’ identities are therefore 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

translation. a transdisciplinary journal 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 signatory authors of works published in translation. a transdisciplinary journal take responsibility for the conduct and validity of their research and the contents of their contributions. Authors acknowledge that all contents are published under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 international – CC-BY-SA licence.

Should any authorship dispute arise, it will be resolved at the appropriate institutional level or through other appropriate independent bodies. translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors 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 nonfinancial conflict of interest when they submit their papers for publication in translation. a transdisciplinary journal. Declarations of conflicting interests are published alongside the paper so that readers are appropriately informed.

• 4.3 Authors’ publishing ethics

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors 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), discourage 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 (i.e., authors are encouraged to state why their work is necessary and why it was undertaken, what their work brings to the field or why the replication of previous work is deemed necessary and what readers should take away from it).

 

5. Responding to criticisms and concerns

translation. a transdisciplinary journal welcomes and encourages criticism and debate.

• 5.1 Ensuring integrity of the published record - corrections and retractions

When genuine errors in works published in translation. a transdisciplinary journal are pointed out by readers, authors, or editors, and when these errors do not invalidate the work, a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The paper will be corrected and will display the date of correction. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the paper will be retracted according to the retraction guidelines set out by COPE, 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 version, for the benefit of future readers.

iThenticate

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

• 5.2 Ensuring the integrity of the published record – suspected research or publication misconduct

If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, editors, or others regarding the conduct, validity, or citation of works published in translation. a transdisciplinary journal, the editors of the journal will initially contact the authors and allow them to respond to the concerns. If the response is deemed unsatisfactory, editors will take the matter to the appropriate institutional level. The editors of translation. a transdisciplinary journal will also do their best to respond to findings from research integrity organizations that indicate misconduct relating to works published in translation. a transdisciplinary journal. Editors can themselves decide to retract a paper if they are convinced that serious misconduct has occurred even if an investigation by an institution or national body does not explicitly recommend it. Editors will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, editors, or others. 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

translation. a transdisciplinary journal welcomes readers’ critiques of works published by the journal and will consider publishing them to foster scientific debate, provided 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, regardless of how long after publication they are received.

 

6. Ensuring a fair and appropriate peer review process

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors organize and use peer review fairly and wisely. The peer review processes is clearly explained in the information for authors' page on the journal's website, where it is also indicated which parts of the journal are peer reviewed.

• 6.1 Decision whether to review

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors 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 the academic content of the paper, and it is not influenced by the nature of the authors or their host institution.

• 6.2 Interaction with peer reviewers

translation. a transdisciplinary journal 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. translation. a transdisciplinary journal 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).

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editorial policy is to request a formal conflict of interest declaration from peer reviewers and ask peer reviewers to inform the journal's editors 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.

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors stress confidentiality of the material to peer reviewers.

• 6.3 Reviewer misconduct

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors take reviewer misconduct seriously and thouroughly investigate any allegation of breach of confidentiality, nondeclaration of conflicts of interest (financial or nonfinancial), 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

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors 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/s, who have the responsibility of involving coauthors at all stages. translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors communicate with all authors at first submission and final acceptance stages to ensure all authors are aware of the submission and have approved the publication. Normally, translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors pass on all peer reviewers’ comments in their entirety. However, in exceptional cases, it may be necessary to exclude parts of a review, if, for example, it contains libellous or offensive remarks.

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors guarantee that such editorial discretion is not inappropriately used to suppress inconvenient comments. Should there be good reason to involve additional reviewers at a late stage in the process, this 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, translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors welcome appeals from authors. Editors, however, are not obliged to overturn their decision.

 

7. Editorial decision-making

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors guarantee that decisions regarding publication are as fair and unbiased as possible.

• 7.1 Editorial and journal processes

All editorial processes are made clear in the information for authors on the journal's webpage, where it is stated what is expected of authors, what 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.

• 7.2 Editorial conflicts of interest

translation. a transdisciplinary journal editors are not involved in decisions regarding papers in which they may 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 author/s. translation. a transdisciplinary journal has a process in place to handle papers submitted by editors or editorial board members to ensure unbiased and independent handling of such papers. This process is stated in the information for authors.

 

8. Article Processing and Subission Charge

translation. a transdisciplinary journal applies no charges for the submission or processing of articles or reviews.