Journal Policy

AAAV (Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis) is an open access journal. All of its content is freely available online without charge to users or their institutions. The journal does not charge fees for article processing or submission. Printed issues may be acquired from the Vilnius Academy of Arts Press. The authors of published articles are entitled to one free copy of the printed issue per article, yet the publisher retains the right to suspend or discontinue this tradition due to insufficient funds or other unfavorable circumstances.   

Articles published in the journal are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles published in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the authors. The CC BY 4.0 license is applied to the research articles and any other texts only, or other material created as part of the research in question and /or specifically for the submission. It does not apply to illustrations or reproductions of artworks, which were not produced as part of the published research and were obtained from parties other than the article’s authors themselves. In relation to distribution or other use of illustrations published within AAAV, one must contact their owners, copyright holders, license administrators or other legal representatives.

 

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

AAAV follows guidance from the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) in pursuit to support the ethical publishing principles. The guidelines are applied to the journal editors (here: the Editorial Board members and an appointed Editor of an issue), authors, and peer-reviewers. The journal will follow the COPE flowcharts regarding any potential acts of misconduct.

 

Editors

The Editorial Board and the Project Leader are responsible for the production and quality of the AAAV journal and coordinate its publishing. Every AAAV issue has a specified subject, so the compiling of each specific issue is the responsibility of an editor or group of editors. The Editor may be a member of the Editorial Board, may be invited by the Editorial Board, or may approach the Editorial Board with a proposal for an issue.

The Editor must follow AAAV editing guidelines and coordinate the process, from the call for papers to the publication of the issue, in a proper and timely manner and adhering to publication ethics. In accepting or proposing to edit an issue of the AAAV, the Editor undertakes to communicate with the Project Leader and the Editorial Board via given contacts, to keep them regularly informed of the progress, and to contact them immediately in case of any questions or problems and to resolve them promptly. All communication with all parties must be conducted in a timely, informative and respectful manner.

Confidentiality

Editors of the journal are obliged to maintain the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and of communications with authors and reviewers. Except in cases where the reviewers themselves wish to reveal their names, editors must not in any way reveal the identity of the reviewers to the authors of the submissions or to third parties.

To prevent dissemination of unpublished manuscripts, the Editor may not disclose more than the title of a manuscript and its abstract or summary before the reviewer has agreed to review the submission.

Editors of the journal cannot use the unpublished manuscript for the advancement of their own research.

Conflict of Interest

It is the responsibility of the Editor to avoid any possible conflict of interest when making editorial decisions or choosing peer reviewers for submissions. If a conflict of interest occurs whether from the authors’ or reviewers’ side, the Editor must assess the situation, evaluate whether the conflict of interest in question could have a detrimental effect on the quality and objectivity of the publication or reviews and make an informed decision.

Editors are allowed to submit manuscripts authored by themselves to the journal, yet it is the duty of the publisher to ensure that research articles by current Editorial Board members make a very minor part of published articles. Editors of the journal must recuse themselves from any discussion or review of their own submissions or those of researchers with whom they have collaborated closely or co-authored in the recent past or are currently working on a joint research project. Being the Editor, Project Leader or part of the Editorial Board, or otherwise related to the production process in no way guarantees the acceptance of submission to the journal.

 

Authors

AAAV publishes only original texts (academic articles, expositions of artistic research, translations of sources and scholarly commentaries, reviews of academic publications, interviews on academic topics, transcripts of academic debates) that have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Exceptions are granted only for new works which expand previous publications. However, authors are required to provide information on the reuse of the material and reference to the previous publication(s), and to justify how the new publication differs from the previous one and why the expansion is substantial. Unethical publishing behavior extends to the cases when a single study is deliberately split up into several parts with the objective to increase the number of published works.

Research Ethics

Authors must gain all types of necessary consent from the human participants, as well as obtain all necessary permissions for the publication of texts, images, data and other material prior to submitting the manuscript.

Non-public and personal data and other sensitive information has to be appropriately anonymized, or written consent has to be obtained for the publication of personal and non-public data about individuals who may identify themselves (or be identified by others) in the material contained in the article (e.g. case studies, interviews, photographs obtained from personal archives).

The journal expects authors to implement transparency of any data and any other related materials associated with the submitted paper, as well as to present an accurate account of the performed work. Research results should be interpreted correctly so as to avoid damage to the trust in the journal. Authors are responsible for ensuring that data, results, citations, images and/or other materials in the manuscript are cited and referenced accordingly, and not fabricated or manipulated. Proper acknowledgement of the work(s) of others must always be given.

The journal follows COPE’s position on the use of artificial intelligence tools. AAAV authors who use AI tools in the writing of a manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in how and which tool was used. The authors must ensure that the use of other authors’ material, including those sourced using AI, does not infringe copyright. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, including parts produced by AI tools.

The authors of the submission must ensure, that the article has been written by the authors whose names appear on the manuscript, the article identifies all researchers or specialists who have made a significant contribution to the study and/or the preparation of the article, and all authors of the research or submitted manuscript have been informed of the submission and are familiar with its contents. Authors share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.  After acceptance of a manuscript, changes of authorship or the order of the authors are no longer possible.

Information about financial support for the research or paper or any other significant collaboration with other institutions or legal entities shall be provided at the end of the paper under “Acknowledgments”.

Conflict of Interest

When issues outside the research could affect the objectivity of the submitted paper or its evaluation, conflicts of interest occur. We ask our authors to declare possible conflict(s) of interest along with the submitted paper so that we could decide whether or not these conflicts may have exerted any influence and could consequently make informed decisions.

Conflicts include affiliations (being related in any kind of affiliation with the organization interested in the particular outcome of the work); financial (benefits or services received or expected to be received by authors in connection with the object of the work or by an organization interested in the result of the work); personal relationship (close personal ties) and similar. On our behalf, we assure that, in most cases, honest and timely declaration of interests will not stop work from being forwarded to review and published in case of acceptance. If a conflict of interest is revealed during the peer-review stage or after publication, the journal may initiate rejection or withdrawal.

Confidentiality and Courtesy

Any critique of the research done by others must be constructive, and unjustified generalizations avoided. Only published research and data can be commented upon or criticized. Disclosure of unpublished information about research areas, topics, details, data or process related to work of researchers other than the authors of the manuscript is considered unethical.

We expect authors to use inclusive and respectful language. The content of the paper should not contain anything that could show that some people are superior to others on the grounds of any aspects of culture, race, gender, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, age and/or ethnicity. Writing should avoid any forms of bias, as well as ad hominem critique.

The editors maintain the right to request for revisions of the manuscript if they find its language or content disrespectful or derogatory, or to reject the submission altogether if the authors refuse to do so.

Copyright Notice

By submitting the manuscript of a research paper or other appropriate text to AAAV, the corresponding authors inherently certifies that they have been fully and explicitly authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements and they guarantee and warrant, on behalf of themselves and all of their co-authors that:

  1. They have the full power to enter into this agreement and to make the grants contained herein. They are the sole authors of the paper and have full authority to enter into this agreement and to grant the appropriate rights to Vilnius Academy of Arts without breach of any other obligation.
  2. The paper is original and does not infringe any copyright, nor does it violate any other rights of any third parties.
  3. The paper contains nothing that is unlawful, libelous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or confidence or commitment given to secrecy.
  4. The authors agree to the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) agreement under which the paper in the journal is licensed, and grant Vilnius Academy of Arts their permission to publish the manuscript with its all mandatory and supplementary parts and the subsequent errata (if necessary) in the Journal under CC BY 4.0. The authors keeps the copyright.
  5. All necessary permissions have been obtained for the publication of texts, images, data and other material which were not created as part of this particular research. Acquisition of publishing permission or license for illustrations or reproductions of artworks is under the responsibility of the authors.
  6. Anyone is free to share (copy and redistribute the material published in the paper in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material published in the paper) for any purposes, even commercially. This does not apply to illustrations or reproductions of artworks, which were not produced as part of the published research and were obtained from parties other than the article’s authors themselves.
  7. Further distribution, adaptation or any other use of this work must maintain attribution to the authors and the published paper’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Preprint Posting

The journal accepts the submission of manuscripts that have previously been posted on a non-profit preprint server. The authors should notify the journal of any preprint related to manuscript submission. A preprint archive is not seen as an overlap between publications when the version of the record is recognizable.

Once your article is published, we ask that you update the preprint as follows: “This is an original manuscript of an article published by Vilnius Academy of Arts in AAAV, [issue number], available online: https://doi.org/[Article DOI].”

Publishing Malpractice

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism, the publisher will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the paper in question. It includes the prompt publication of an erratum or, in most severe cases, complete retraction of the affected work. Any related actions will be carried out in line with the COPE’s Retraction Guidelines. As it is not possible to withdraw an article from the printed version of the journal, information on the decision of retraction will be provided in the nearest printed issue of the journal.

Appeal

Authors have the right to appeal the editors’ decision or reviewers’ recommendation to reject the manuscript. The claim can be made to the Editor of the issue or directly to the Editorial Board members. Editors will duly consider any complaint or appeal by an author regarding a review or decision not to accept a submitted paper, however strong evidence or justification in response to the Editor’s and reviewers’ comments is a prerequisite.

 

Peer reviewers

Each manuscript must be evaluated by at least two reviewers. The Editor of the issue and the authors of other manuscripts submitted to the same issue are not eligible to serve as reviewers. No more than two manuscripts submitted for the same issue may be reviewed by the same reviewer.

In the event of conflicting reviews (one reviewer recommends to reject the manuscript and the other recommends to accept, to accept after minor revisions, or to reconsider after major revisions), the Editor should seek a third reviewer or ask the Editorial Board to have the manuscript read and evaluated by one of its members. If two of the three reviewers, or one reviewer and the responsible member of the Editorial Board, recommend that the manuscript be rejected, it must be rejected.

The peer-review of manuscripts submitted to the AAAV is single-blind peer review, i.e. the identity of the authors is known to the reviewers, but the identity of the reviewers is not disclosed to the authors, unless otherwise requested by the reviewers themselves. It is the responsibility of the Editor of the issue and the reviewers to ensure that the identity of the reviewers is not disclosed in any form to the authors of the manuscripts or to any third party.

Conflict of interest

Upon receiving a request to review a manuscript reviewer has to reveal any possible conflicts of interest (e.g. affiliations with the same departments, previous or current significant collaborations with the authors, any financial or intellectual interests, etc.). Conflict of interest is not always easy to define, therefore it is advisable to communicate any doubt to the journal’s editorial staff at the first instance. It is the responsibility of the editors to decide whether a declared conflict of interest is likely to significantly affect the assessment of a particular article.

The Editor has to look for possible indicators of conflict of interest or any breach of publishing ethics in reviews before sending them to authors. For example, a reviewer might suggest the authors cite articles authored by the reviewer in their manuscript. A request like this to improve one’s own citation statistics may be seen as an ethics violation.

Confidentiality

By agreeing to review a manuscript, the reviewer undertakes to maintain confidentiality and to make any comments to the author of the manuscript only anonymously and only via the Editor of the issue. The reviewer is also not allowed to disclose or imply the fact of the review to the author or to any third party. Until the manuscript is published, its content should not be disclosed, discussed, shared or commented upon neither in public nor in private conversations. The reviewer cannot use or refer to the information, data, insights or conclusions of the unpublished manuscript in their own research and publications.

Constructive Criticism and Courtesy

Reviewers are asked to share their unbiased, honest critiques on the strengths and weaknesses of the work with the aim to improve the quality of the publication. Intentionally rejecting the work of a competitor by supplying unfair negative comments or requesting unjustified additional data or explanations to harm the outcome of the review process, is considered unethical. If the work has major weaknesses, reviewers should provide helpful suggestions and make it clear how the authors can improve their manuscript.

The reviewer is expected to comment on the manuscript in question, not on authors’ earlier work or their career in general. However, if a reviewer suspects ethical violation, such as self-plagiarism, deliberate splitting of the same study into several publications or submission of the same manuscript to several publications, it must be immediately reported to editors of AAAV.

Reviewers should not include ad hominem or unprofessional comments in their assessment, and it is their duty to use inclusive and respectful language. The editors reserve the right to edit such comments out or ask the reviewer to rewrite their review if they find it disrespectful in content or style.

 

Archiving

Our preservation policy includes the following measures:

  1. All AAAV electronic content from 2020 onwards is stored on the OJS server at https://aaav.vda.lt/. Articles published in 2009–2019 are available on the publisher’s website at https://leidykla.vda.lt/leidiniai/acta-academiae-artium-vilnensis.
  2. The electronic versions of all articles are also stored at Lituanistika database available at https://www.lituanistika.lt/.
  3. After an issue has been published, all editing process related material, including published papers, is stored in the electronic archives of the publisher (Vilnius Academy of Arts Press).
  4. Authors may archive all versions of their manuscript (submitted, accepted, and final published version) in personal, institutional, or other repositories without embargo. Authors must specify which version of the article is being archived.