Studies and Sources of Medieval History

 

A short history

The journal Studies and Materials in Medieval History was founded in 1956, with the aim, from its very first issue, of publishing both studies on the Romanian and universal Middle Ages, as well as unpublished documents from Romanian and foreign archives. Published under the auspices of the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy, the journal was aimed from the very beginning at medievalists throughout the country, and over the years its pages have featured prominent names in Romanian historiography such as Mihai Berza, Damian Bogdan, Paul Cernovodeanu, Alexandru Elian, Maria Holban, Francisc Pall, P.P. Panaitescu, Şerban Papacostea, Dan Simonescu, and Emil Vârtosu. After 1990, the journal opened its doors to researchers from abroad and accepted articles for publication in internationally used languages (French, English, German). Throughout its existence, the journal has also served as a veritable school for new generations of medievalists, with numerous researchers at the beginning of their careers making their debut in the pages of the journal. 

The founder of the journal and editor-in-chief of the first three issues was the controversial sociologist-turned-historian Barbu Câmpina, a representative of the “new historiography” of the 1950s. After his untimely death, Andrei Oţetea, then director of the N. Iorga Institute, took over the coordination of the next two volumes (1960, 1962). Starting with the sixth issue (1973), the journal was managed by an editorial board consisting of Florin Constantiniu, Ludovic Demeny, Damaschin Mioc, Şerban Papacostea, and Ştefan Ştefănescu. After 1990, they were joined as editorial secretaries by Eugen Denize (1992–1994) and then Adrian Tertecel (1995–1997). With the twelfth volume (1994), the journal returned to the model of a single editor-in-chief, with the editorial board coordinated by Paul Cernovodeanu (until 2005) and then by Ştefan Andreescu. For more than twenty years (since 1998), the editorial secretary of SMIM has been Gheorghe Lazăr.  

Between 1956 and 1989, the journal was published irregularly, and since 1994 it has been published annually. The journal publishes individual studies grouped by theme and devotes special attention to the sections Documenta (source editing), Restitutions (the publication of texts by established historians that, due to the vicissitudes of the times, remained unpublished), Addenda et Corrigenda (aimed at fostering an environment for academic debate), and Reviews and Bibliographic Notes (intended to highlight and review the most recent publications in Romanian and foreign medieval studies).

The journal is currently distributed to over 120 university libraries and research centers within and outside the EU. It is indexed by the European Reference Index for Humanities – ERIH PLUS, the Central and Eastern European Online Library, Regesta Imperii, and the International Medieval Bibliography. According to the latest national evaluation of scientific journals conducted by the National Council for Scientific Research, Studies and Materials of Medieval History is a  Category B journal in the field of history and cultural studies.

Online Acces: The journal Studies and Materials of Medieval History is printed, but its content is also available online in digital format. Issues older than 10 years can be viewed here. The last ten issues are available in full, for a fee, through the database Central and Eastern European Online Library. 

The lattest issue is available  here.

 

Editorial Board

Ștefan Andreescu (editor-in-chief, Institutul de Istorie „N. Iorga”, Bucureşti), Laura Balletto (Università degli Studi di Genova), Ivan Biliarsky (Institut za istoriia, Bălgarska Akademiâ na Naukite, Sofia), Matei Cazacu (CRNS, Paris), Ionel Cândea (Academia Română, Bucureşti), Marian Coman (Institutul de Istorie „N. Iorga”, Bucureşti), Maria Crăciun (Universitatea Babes-Bolyai, Cluj), Ovidiu Cristea (Institutul de Istorie „N. Iorga”, Bucureşti), Ioan Drăgan (Arhivele Naţionale ale României, Cluj), Andronikos Falangas (University of North Carolina of Asheville), Ştefan Gorovei (Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi), Konrad Gündisch (Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas, Oldenburg), Benoît Joudiou (Université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès, Toulouse), Gheorghe Lazăr ( editorial secretary Institutul de Istorie „N. Iorga”, Bucureşti), Petronel Zahariuc (Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iaşi)

Guidelines

General Information

  • Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Office in both electronic and printed formats, in their final form, adhering to the following technical specifications: MS Word, Times New Roman font, 12-point font size, 1.5 line spacing for the main text, and 10-point font size with 1 line spacing for footnotes;

  • The notes in the critical apparatus will continue to be numbered;

  • The use of quotation marks is mandatory when reproducing both quotations from studies by other authors (with a mandatory reference in the notes to the bibliographic details from which they were taken) and passages from historical documents;

  • Papers must be accompanied by an abstract in Romanian and its translation into a foreign language (English, French, German) of approximately 250 words, five keywords, a brief CV of the author (institutional affiliation, professional background, list of published works), and an email address;

  • If the study includes illustrations, the authors are responsible for obtaining the publication rights for those images. Illustrations, which must be numbered and accompanied by captions, should be submitted to the Editorial Board in JPG format, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Authors are asked to specify whether they wish the illustrations to be inserted within the article or grouped at the end of it; however, the final decision will be made by the Editorial Board;

  • Authors are asked to adhere to the schedule—which will be posted on the journal’s website—set by the Editorial Board regarding the deadline for submitting manuscripts;

  • Papers or materials that have been submitted for publication to other journals will not be accepted; otherwise, the Editorial Board reserves the right to refuse to accept for publication any papers from authors who have not complied with this requirement;

  • The authors bear full responsibility for the scientific content of the published texts; 

  • Manuscripts that have not been accepted for publication by the SMIM Editorial Board will not be returned to the authors;

Guidelines for compiling the critical apparatus of scholarly works

Abbreviations

Ethics Guidelines

Studies and Materials of Medieval History is the leading Romanian journal of medieval history and strives to meet the highest ethical standards in publishing. The journal’s editorial ethics guidelines were developed based on the guide to best practices in academic journal publishing prepared by The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The editorial process

Since its founding, the journal Studies and Materials of Medieval History has been published by the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy.

The editorial board enjoys full editorial independence and strives to prevent any bias that might result from conflicts of interest or financial and political interference. The journal does not discriminate against authors, editors, or reviewers on the basis of religion, race, or gender.

Editorial decisions regarding articles submitted for publication are based on the recommendations of the reviewers (see the Article Evaluation section). The entire evaluation and selection process is coordinated by the editorial board, whose members are recognized specialists (see the Editorial Board section).

Publishers obligations

Non-discrimination and equal opportunity. The editors’ decision to accept a manuscript for publication or, conversely, to reject it will be based solely on the scientific merit, originality, and clarity of the submission, as well as its relevance to the journal’s general scope. Articles submitted for publication are evaluated solely on the basis of their content, without any discrimination based on the authors’ religious or political beliefs, ethnic origins, race, or gender.

Confidentiality. The editors will treat all materials submitted for publication as confidential and will not disclose any information regarding them to any third party, with the exception of potential reviewers.

Authors obligations 

Originality. Studies and Materials of Medieval History promotes exclusively original scientific research and has a zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism. Authors must assume scientific responsibility for the material submitted for publication and, at the same time, ensure that they properly cite the works they have used. Authors are required to participate in the peer review process.

Multiple or redundant publication. Authors should not publish multiple articles with similar content in different journals. Simultaneously submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is considered unethical. Republishing a study in another language is acceptable, provided that the authors specify, when submitting the material for publication, that it has already appeared in another language, indicating where and when exactly.

Fees and costs. Studies and Materials of Medieval History does not charge any fees for the review process or for the publication of materials in the journal.

Evaluators obligations

Confidentiality. Any manuscript received for review must be treated as confidential.

Conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is any factor that could interfere with an objective evaluation. Any reviewer who finds themselves in such a conflict of interest—whether personal, financial, intellectual, or professional—must immediately notify the editors.

Anti-plagiarism policy

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism and reserves the right to review any manuscript submitted for publication. Articles or reviews suspected of plagiarism will be rejected. We expect readers, reviewers, and editors to report any suspected cases of plagiarism by sending us a message at smim_office@yahoo.com or at georgelaz2001@yahoo.fr

Post-publication corrections and additions

Studies and Materials of Medieval History includes a regular section titled "Addenda et Corrigenda," in which authors are encouraged to publish clarifications, corrections, or additions to articles that have already been published.

Reporting an ethical issue

The editorial board will take the necessary measures should any ethical issues be reported. Anyone who believes that an article or review published in Studies and Materials of Medieval History violates professional ethics in any way is asked to report this to the editorial board by sending a message to smim_office@yahoo.com or to georgelaz2001@yahoo.fr

Article evaluation

Submission for publication

Submitting a manuscript to the SMIM Editorial Board does not automatically guarantee that it will be accepted and published. All submissions undergo a review process, and the Editorial Board will notify authors whether their manuscript has been accepted or rejected. We ask authors to keep in mind that the review process may take some time. 

Correspondence, manuscripts, and publications should be sent to the “N. Iorga” Institute of History, for the attention of the Editorial Board, or to the following email addresses: smim_office@yahoo.com, georgelaz2001@yahoo.fr

The evaluation process

Each article submitted for publication will be reviewed by two reviewers selected by the journal’s editorial board. The selection criteria are strictly scientific, taking into account the article’s subject matter and the reviewers’ areas of expertise. The editorial board will not disclose the author’s name to the reviewers, nor will the reviewers know the authors’ names; however, to ensure transparency throughout the process, the list of reviewers who have kindly (and pro bono) offered their energy, time, and expertise in recent years is available here. Naturally, this list remains open and will be continuously expanded with new contributors, and it will be updated annually on the website. Based on the reviews received, the Editorial Board reserves the right to suggest to authors (when and where appropriate) certain modifications or changes in order for the article to be accepted for publication.

Copyright

The authors retain the copyright to the texts they have written, granting the journal permission to publish the original scientific papers containing the results of their research. The material is published under the terms of the license  Creative Commons Attribution License International CC-BY, which allows others to distribute the article with the author’s permission and a reference to the original publication in this journal.

If the article is accepted for publication, the author is required to sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement. The original agreement or an electronic copy of it (scan or photograph) must be sent to the editorial board.

By this agreement, the author certifies that the submitted material does not infringe upon the copyrights of other individuals or organizations and has not been submitted for publication to other journals. The author grants the journal’s editorial board the rights to publish the article and the right to distribute its printed and electronic copies (placement on the journal’s official website, in electronic databases, in online repositories, etc.).

The author reserves the right, without requiring the editorial board’s approval, to use the article in whole or in part for educational purposes, for conference presentations, or for various oral presentations. Three years after publication, the author has the right to post electronic copies of the article on personal and institutional websites or on non-commercial websites with public access.

Subscribe to the magazine

The Journal Studies and Materials of Medieval History appears once a year. 

The journal can be ordered from the “N. Iorga” Institute of History, B-dul Aviatorilor nr. 1, Sect. 1, Bucureşti, 011851, tel. 021/212 53 37; fax 021/311 03 71, România. Orders for older models will be fulfilled only while supplies are available.

Submissions should be sent to the “N. Iorga” Institute of History, for the attention of the Editorial Board, or to the email address: georgelaz2001@yahoo.fr