Editorial policies

Nordicom applies several editorial policies that all editors, reviewers, and authors are expected to adhere to. Nordicom’s editorial team refers to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and recommendations throughout the publication process. In instances where the below policies are breached, COPE guidelines will be followed.

The following policies apply to all of Nordicom’s academic publications. 

 

Accessibility

As a publicly funded institution, Nordicom is required to meet the EU’s Web Accessibility Directive (EUR-Lex, 2016), but we also recognise that this initiative is in line with our own mission: imparting science-based knowledge about media and communication to decision-makers, professional groups, and citizens in the Nordic countries and internationally.

Therefore, we ensure that all chapters and articles are published in an accessible format for readers with visual impairments or other disabilities that affect reading or understanding.

 

Allegations of misconduct

Nordicom, in close collaboration with the editors, commits to taking all appropriate measures to address alleged or proven research misconduct, including amending the publication in question, publishing an erratum, or retracting the work in the most extreme case.

In cases of complaints against the publisher, its staff, or editorial board, independent and external assistance will be sought, in accordance with COPE’s recommendations.

 

Authorship and contributorship

All persons who have made a significant contribution to the work should be named in the publication as co-authors. AI-based tools and technologies for article content generation, for example, large language models (LLMs), generative AI, and chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT), may not be attributed with authorship. 

All authors are accountable for the integrity and validity of the submission’s content. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all co-authors have reviewed the final version of the submission and agree to its publication. 

Others who have contributed in lesser ways to the research may be named in an Acknowledgements section.

Conflicts of interest

Any financial, legal, professional, or otherwise potential relationship between the author (or their employer, family, sponsor, etc.) with an organisation or individual that could influence – or be perceived as influencing – the research or interpretation of results should be disclosed to the editorial team upon submission. Any relevant funding information should be provided in a separate document or cover letter upon submission.

Nordicom’s editorial team also commits to transparency regarding any potential conflicts of interests, for example, in the peer-review process. In cases of potential conflict of interests, the scientific quality of Nordicom’s academic publications is secured with the assistance of the respective editorial boards, consisting of external scholars who are experts in their fields.

Copyright and permission

Nordicom’s publications are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which allows for non-commercial, non-derivative types of reuse and sharing with proper attribution.

The respective authors retain copyright.

Funding model

Nordicom is a unit within the University of Gothenburg, which provides our basic funding. Our academic publishing is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers through a strategic partnership. Nordicom operates on a non-profit basis. Our publications are distributed with digital Open Access, and retail prices for print copies are set on a cost-covering basis. We do not offer royalties or other forms of financial compensation to participating editors and authors.

Individual book publication projects may be co-financed by external contributors, such as research projects or programmes.

External contributors and research funders have no involvement in Nordicom’s editorial decisions.

Peer review

Nordicom follows a double-blind peer review process for all journal research articles and books published in English. A double-blind process means all submitted manuscripts are made anonymous and judged by at least two independent and external anonymous scholars appropriate for the subject. If a preprint has been uploaded prior to submission at Nordicom, we cannot guarantee anonymity; please see our policy on preprints and prior postings below.

Reviewers are asked to provide comprehensive comments for the authors. Additionally, reviewers are encouraged to provide comments that are for editors only, including a recommendation about whether the article, chapter, or book should be published, concerns about misconduct, or problems adequately assessing all parts of the manuscript. Reviewers are requested to disclose any potential conflict of interest. The comments provided by the reviewers inform the decision of Nordicom’s editorial team to publish or refuse the submission.

Each issue of Nordic Journal of Media Studies (NJMS) is edited by different members of the NJMS editorial team (independent of Nordicom), which may include invited external guest editors. The peer review process for NJMS is handled by the issue’s editors. The comments provided by the reviewers inform the decision of the issue’s editors to publish or refuse the article.

Non-research articles, such as introductions and book reviews, do not undergo peer review.

Plagiarism and text-recycling

All use of material, either direct or indirect, should be properly acknowledged, including material previously published by the author, which should be rewritten or summarised to avoid text-recycling or self-plagiarism and accompanied by an appropriate in-text citation and reference.

Nordicom publishes original research only; duplicate submissions or publications are not accepted. If a preprint has been uploaded prior to submission at Nordicom, please see our policy on preprints and prior postings below, and contact the editorial team if there is any uncertainty. 

All of Nordicom’s academic publications are submitted to Similarity Check – a Crossref service utilising iThenticate text comparison software.

Preprints and prior postings

Prior posting or distribution of any part of the manuscript must be disclosed upon submission. Uploading of an Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) to preprint servers while the manuscript is under consideration by Nordicom (i.e., after submission) is not allowed. If there is any uncertainty, please contact our editorial team prior to submission.

If accepted and upon eventual publication, the preprint version must either 1) be replaced with the version of record published by Nordicom, or 2) be updated with the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) assigned by Nordicom and a clear attribution to Nordicom as the publisher of the version of record. 

Nordicom adheres to a double-blind peer review process. If you have posted the AOM on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed. See our peer review policy above.

Preservation of published material

The content of Nordicom Review and Nordic Journal of Media Studies are archived in Portico – digital long-term preservation of journals.

Publication fees

All of Nordicom’s publications are published free of charge, without publication fees or article processing charges (APC).

All works are published Open Access and are available to read free of charge and without requirement for registration.

Research ethics, transparency, and consent

It is the author’s responsibility to determine the ethical obligations of informing and obtaining consent of their research subjects. If consent is deemed necessary, it should be obtained for all material including text or images pertaining to the research subjects. 

Especially if anonymity is required, authors should be prepared to share raw data and collected empirical material with the responsible journal or book editors, if questions arise.

Third-party material

As part of the publication agreement authors sign, it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright owner for use of any third-party material. Any such material should be clearly identified and credited within the content of the submission. Alternatively, the author should acknowledge that the use of third-party material is allowed because the material is in the public domain or the author has performed a fair-use analysis and reasonably believes use to be permitted. Such material should still receive full credit.

 

Resources

 


Page last updated January 2024