About the Journal

Focus and Scope

I quaderni del m.æ.s – Journal of Mediæ Ætatis Sodalicium is an Italian annual journal that aims to be an instrument for discussion, in-depth study and dissemination of knowledge on the mediaeval period (5th-15th centuries). Through the Open Access and digital publishing formula, our journal is at the service of the scientific community, allowing not only the publication of articles, but also of repertories, transcriptions and editions, which increasingly rarely find space in printed journals.

The recognition of the Quaderni del m.ae.s. as a scientific journal in areas 10 (Antiquities, Philology, Literary Studies, Art History) and 11 (History, Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology) by the Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (ANVUR) testifies to our interest in the development of a transdisciplinary and, as far as possible, interdisciplinary reading of the Middle Ages, bringing together the methodological specificities of the individual fields of historical knowledge under the common goal of a thorough and timely knowledge of this period.

The publication, which began in 1998 under the leadership of Réginald Grégoire, was originally intended as a container for the research presented by the young scholars who animated the M.AE.S. - Mediae Aetatis Sodalicium study centre of the University of Bologna. Today, I quaderni del m.æ.s no longer constitute a platform for publication by a single group of scholars, but a journal capable of uniting different scientific professions in both the Italian and international space.

Following the path traced by the initial sodalicium, I Quaderni del m.æ.s aims to give space to research conducted by scholars in their respective national languages. It is indeed our pleasure to be able to welcome contributions in Italian, English, French and Spanish, so as to strengthen scientific collaboration between countries that share a long tradition of mediaeval studies.

All texts published by the Quaderni are reviewed according to the double blind peer review method by at least two specialists in the subject identified by the editorial and scientific committees. Their evaluations are then stored in the platform governing the submission of editorial proposals.

Sections

The following types of contribution can be submitted for consideration by the editorial board:

Essay

This is a research text presenting original features and advancing historical knowledge. It is subject to double blind peer review.

Essay in monographic section

This is a research text within a section composed of a set of scientific contributions that dialogue with each other on a specific theme. Essays in monographic sections are subject to double blind peer review, while any introductions and conclusions in the section may not be.

Reviews

These are critical contributions relating to new publications in the subject area and are guides for the reader; they are therefore not subject to double blind peer review, but only to the scrutiny of the editorial board.

Peer Review Process

When the I quaderni del m.æ.s – Journal of Mediæ Ætatis Sodalicium editorial team receives a new article, the double blind peer-review process will proceed as follows:

  1. The editorial team communicates to the author that the article has been received.

  2. The Editorial Board in the person of the editor assigned to the proposal makes an initial assessment of the article according to the following criteria: relevance of the topic; overall quality of the contribution with respect to the journal’s standard; compliance with editorial rules. It is possible to reject the article by communicating the decision to the author.

  3. After successful completion of the first evaluation, the article is sent to two anonymous reviewers who are specialists in the topic and/or methodological approach used in the contribution. The reviewers carry out the evaluation, which can have the following outcomes: article accepted, article accepted with a request for minor changes and/or additions, article accepted with a request for substantial changes and/or additions (the new version of the article will be submitted again to the refereeing process), article rejected. It is also the task of the reviewers to complete the evaluation form provided by the Editorial Board. It is to be noted that in the case of a legitimate suspicion on the originality of the submitted proposal the Editorial Board, autonomously or under impulse by the reviewer, can use the iThenticate software to detect plagiarism.

  4. In the event of significant discrepancies of opinion between the reviewers’ assessments, the Editorial Board reserves the right to involve a third reviewer for a further opinion on the proposal.

  5. Based on the evaluations of the anonymous reviewers, the editor shall notify the author within 15 days of the final decision to publish the article. If minor changes are requested, the author will have two weeks to edit the article according to the reviewers’ requests and provide the final version.

  6. Publication

The editorial board reserves the right to decide in which issue of I quaderni del m.æ.s – Journal of Mediæ Ætatis Sodalicium the article that passed all the evaluation stages will be published.

Publication Frequency

The journal publishes one issue per year on the 30th of November. Submissions deadline is on the 30th of June.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

By submitting an article to the journal the author implicitly accepts its publication under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This license allows anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy the contributions. The works must be properly attributed to its author(s). It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author(s) or journal board, although you are kindly requested to inform the journal for every reuse of the papers.

Authors who publish on this journal retain their copyrights.

The journal has neither article processing charges nor submission processing fees.

Ethics

I quaderni del m.æ.s adopts the AlmaDL Journals Code of Ethics.

The code is inspired by the guidelines from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), in particular to the COPE Core Practices and its Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

All parties involved in the editorial process, editorial staff members, authors, reviewers must know and apply the ethical principles of that document.

Data Policy

When relevant, authors are encouraged to follow Open Science and FAIR principles by publishing the research data associated to their articles in trusted data repositories, according to the international best practices and data management guidelines.

Detailed information is reported in the AlmaDL Journals Data Policy.

Authors who are affiliated to the University of Bologna can publish their data in AMSActa, the institutional research data repository.

Publication Fees

The journal has neither article processing charges nor submission processing fees.

Indexing and abstracting

The Journal is indexed in the following databases and search engines:

  • ACNP – Italian Catalogue of Serials
  • BASE – Bielefield Academic Search Engine
  • DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Google Scholar – Academic search engine
  • Regesta Imperii – Literature database for the Middle Ages
  • ROAD – Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
  • Scopus – The largest database of peer-reviewed literature
  • Ulrichsweb – Global Serials Directory
  • Worldcat – The world’s largest library catalog

Archiving Policy

The University of Bologna has an archival arrangement with the National Central Libraries of Florence and Rome within the national project Magazzini Digitali: http://www.depositolegale.it/editori-aderenti/

Journal History

Editor

  • 1998-2003: Réginald Grégoire

  • 2004-present: Rolando Dondarini

Publisher

  • 1998: Penne e papiri, Latina

  • 1999: Associazione m.æ.s, Bologna

  • 2000-2010: Edisai, Ferrara

  • 2011-2017: Minerva edizioni, Bologna

  • 2017: Dip. di Scienze dell’Educazione - Università di Bologna

Publisher

Dipartimento di Scienze Dell’Educazione «Giovanni Maria Bertin» – EDU
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna

Via Filippo Re 6
40126 - Bologna (Italy)