About the Journal

Focus and Scope

medieval worlds provides a new forum for interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. It specifically encourages and links comparative research between different regions and fields and promotes methodological innovation in transdisciplinary studies. Focusing on the Middle Ages, i.e. the period between 400 and 1500 CE, to be extended whenever thematically fruitful or appropriate, medieval worlds takes a global approach to studying history in a comparative setting.

medieval worlds is open to regular submissions on comparative topics, but also offers the possibility to propose or advertise subjects that lend themselves to comparison. With a view to connecting people working on related topics in different academic environments, we publish calls for matching articles and for contributions on thematic issues.

Peer Review Process

medieval worlds adheres to a policy of double-blind peer review. In order to ensure appropriate review, author name(s) should appear only on the title page, references to any author's prior work should be masked and internal identifications in the text should be avoided.

Publication Frequency

medieval worlds is published semiannually on 1 July and 1 December. 

Deadlines for submissions are as follows:

July issue:

• Abstract: 1 October
• Full paper: 1 December

 December issue:

• Abstract: 1 February
• Full paper: 1 June

 

International Advisory Board

Glenn Bowman, University of Kent

Sabrina Corbellini, University of Groningen

Mayke de Jong, Utrecht University

Nicola di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Stefan Esders, Free University of Berlin

Patrick Geary, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

John Haldon, Princeton University

William C. Jordan, Princeton University

Osamu Kano, Nagoya University

Hugh Kennedy, SOAS, University of London

Gábor Klaniczay, Central European University

Eduardo Manzano, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CSIC)

Lars Boje Mortensen, University of Southern Denmark

Elisabeth Lambourn, De Montfort University Leicester

Marina Rustow, Princeton University

Dittmar Schorkowitz, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Teresa Shawcross, Princeton University

Naomi Standen, University of Birmingham

John Tolan, University of Nantes

Przemysław Urbańczyk, Polish Academy of Sciences

Luo Xin, Peking University

Archiving Policy

medieval worlds allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions.

Prior versions of the article published on non-commercial pre-print servers like arXiv.org can remain on these servers and/or can be updated with the author’s accepted version. For the final published version (in PDF format) we ask the author(s) to add a link to the published article on medieval worlds' website, by inserting the DOI number of the article in the following sentence: “The final publication is available at medieval worlds via http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI].

medieval worlds is preserved with Portico.

Publication Ethics

Medieval Worlds is an online open-access journal with a double-blind peer review system. The publication of a manuscript is expected to follow standards of ethical behaviour for all parties involved in the act of publishing: editors, authors and reviewers.

 

The editors, the boards and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the author and reviewers (including potential reviewers). The members of our international advisory board and of our editorial board help the editor in the search for and choice of external reviewers.

Editors should evaluate manuscripts solely for their intellectual content without any bias to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors. They should not consider reviewing manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.

Material from submitted, unpublished manuscripts should be kept confidential and must not be used by others without the express written consent of the author.

 

Authors are requested to warrant that their article is their own original work, which does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any other person or entity, and cannot be construed as plagiarising any other published work, including their own previously published work.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should appropriately cite or quote publications that have influenced the content of their work. The corresponding author ensures all named co-authors' consent to publication and to being named as a co-author. All persons who have made significant scientific or literary contributions to the work reported should be named as co-authors. Others who have participated to a lesser extent should be acknowledged or listed as contributors.

Authors must disclose all sources of funding for the research reported in the paper. They must declare any potential conflict of interest – be it professional or financial – which could be held to arise with respect to the article.

Authors who discover a major error in their own published work, are required to notify the publisher or editor and assist with withdrawal or correction of the manuscript.

Authors should not submit manuscripts with essentially the same content to more than one publication, except if expressly communicated and agreed.
By submitting an article to Medieval Worlds authors declare that the manuscript is complete and that the exploitation rights to the work have not been exercised elsewhere either fully or partially.

Authors have to confirm that they possess the copyright and/or right to use all parts of the work; this especially applies to images in the work.

 

Reviewers are asked to return their reviews within six weeks. They must not show or discuss the contents of the manuscript with others. The purpose of peer review is to assists editors in making editorial decisions and possibly also to assist the author in improving the paper through editorial communications.

Material from submitted, unpublished manuscripts should be kept confidential and must not be used by others without the express written consent of the author. Reviewers should not consider reviewing manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest.

Reviewers are expected to express their opinions objectively. They should avoid statements damaging to the author's reputation. Criticism should be directed against the work, not the author.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published work of which they have personal knowledge.

 

Medieval Worlds adheres to the COPE Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journals (http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct).

Sources of Support

Austrian Academy of Sciences Press

Dr. Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2

1010, Vienna, Austria

 

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Haus der Forschung

Sensengasse 1

1090 Vienna, Austria

• Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
• Der Wissenschaftsfonds (FWF)

Journal History

medieval worlds has been formed by the Institute for Medieval Research and the Institute for Social Anthropology, both at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, building upon their innovative collaboration with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary studies such as the SFB VISCOM (Visions of Community) or the ERC SCIRE (Social Cohesion, Identity and Religion in Europe, 400-1200).