Open access policy

Theofilos is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

The journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Theofilos follows the guidelines provided by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Theofilos permits the published articles to be deposited and made openly available in an institutional repository without embargo.

Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restriction.

Theofilos was transformed into a fully open access journal in 2020, with immediate effect from 2020/1. All previous issues of the journal are available in the open access online archive. Reuse rights of this online archive material from 2009-2019 are regulated by the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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Authorization, indexing, and partnerships

Theofilos is authorized as a publication channel on level 1 in Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers.

The journal is covered by the following indexing & discovery services and databases:

All content in Theofilos is exported to Portico, a preservation archive that safeguards perpetual access to e-journals, e-books, and digital collections.

The journal receives grants from the Swedish foundation Samfundet Pro Fide et Christianismo, förvaltare av kyrkoherde Nils Henrikssons Stiftelse.

This website is established and operated by Damaris Norge, an externally based activity (“randsonevirksomhet”) serving NLA University College.

Registration (DOI) is facilitated by The NLA University College Library. Förlaget Boken is responsible for layout / production, whereas print is handled by Synkron Media AS.

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Publication ethics and research ethics

The Theofilos editorial team is committed (i) to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and (ii) to supporting and promoting responsible ethical research practices.

The journal is guided by the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOAJ and COPE) and the Guidelines for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences, Humanities, Law and Theology (The Norwegian National Research Ethics Committees).

This includes the following practical guidelines from COPE: What to do if you suspect an ethical problem  with a submitted manuscript. 

Authorship and contributorship

Theofilos uses the definition of authorship set out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). An author (or co-author) of a manuscript should meet all four of the following criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND 
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND 
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND 
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. 

Where contributors do not fully meet these criteria, their contribution should instead be credited in an acknowledgement.

AI-policy

  1. Theofilos does not accept manuscripts that use chatbots as co-authors. Nor do we accept chatbots as sources, as content generated by language models is not reproducible or traceable and often contains third-party material without identifying it as such.
  2. Theofilos accepts manuscripts that use chatbots as tools supporting the research and writing processes, such as proofreading, feedback on structure and style, general brainstorming, translations, data analyses, and data visualization. Authors who use generative technologies in this manner need to acknowledge this at relevant locations in their manuscripts.
    • Using language models for data analysis and coding purposes constitutes a significant methodological intervention. In such cases, please add a part to the methods section of your manuscript where you explain how you proceeded, including the type of language model you employed and the prompt(s) you used.
    • When using chatbots for data analysis, please keep in mind that most generative language models that are freely available do not adhere to accepted standards for the handling of personal or sensitive data. Make sure you only use models that have been approved by your research institution or other reliable bodies. 

Conflicts of interest

When submitting a manuscript to Theofilos, authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may prejudice or compromise their work.

In line with COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, reviewers must declare all potential competing interests that might prevent them from providing a fair and unbiased review. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts where they realize they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors.

Data sharing and reproducibility

As long as privacy concerns are upheld, Theofilos encourages sharing of qualitative data.  

Ethical oversight

As stated above, authors are expected to follow relevant institutional and national guidelines on research ethics, such as the Norwegian guidelines (NESH). Participation in research projects must be based on freely given informed consent from the participants.

Both plagiarism and self-plagiarism are inadmissible. The work of others and previous works by the author must be appropriately cited or quoted.

The editorial team at Theofilos understands plagiarism in line with the following widely used definition: “(i) to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source; (ii) : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (plagiarize, Merriam-Webster).

The editors are guided by COPE’s guidelines on Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity cases.

Intellectual property

When submitting a manuscript to Theofilos, authors must confirm that their work is original and has not been published or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. As stated above, authors of articles published in Theofilos retain copyright to their work and can distribute their work under a Creative Commons licence.

Post-publication discussions and corrections

Once an article has been published, errors that affect the meaning of content or that relate to data or citations can be corrected. A correction notice including a list of changes, the publication date of the original article and the date of the correction, and where to obtain the original article will be added.

In rare circumstances, serious errors may invalidate an article’s results or conclusions. In such cases, we will follow COPE’s Retraction Guidelines and publish a retraction notice that states which parts of the article are erroneous, as well as the grounds for retraction.

Complaints and appeals

Complaints to Theofilos should be submitted by email to red@theofilos.no. Complainants should describe the subject and nature of their complaint and provide supporting documentation. Complaints are handled by the editorial team.

Allegations of misconduct

In cases of suspected misconduct, the Chief Editor will conduct the investigation based on the COPE flowcharts and, if necessary, consult with the Editorial Board. If the paper incriminated has not yet been published, publication will be delayed until the problem is resolved. The manuscript may be rejected if there is any evidence that the author has not respected the present code of conduct. If the paper incriminated has already been published, the editor will consider retracting a publication if there is clear evidence of misconduct (e.g. plagiarism).

 

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Journal practices: The peer review process

  • The editors evaluate manuscripts and decide whether the manuscript merits peer review.
  • The editor(s) ensure that appropriate reviewers are selected, that the review is a fair and unbiased double-blind peer review, and that all information related to them is kept confidential.
  • Two reviewers assess the manuscripts. Theofilos provides review guidelines. The reviewers conclude by giving a recommendation to accept, accept given minor/major revisions, resubmit or decline the manuscript.
  • In cases where there is a considerable divergence between the reviewer’s recommendations, the manuscript is sent to a third reviewer.
  • After a process of peer review, it is the editors who are responsible for the decision of accepting or rejecting a submitted manuscript.