Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the journal. Before submitting you should read over the guidelines here, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account). 

Documenta publishes thematic issues only, and therefore does not accept open submissions.

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Focus and Scope

Documenta (ISSN 0771-8640) is an important forum for the study of theater in the Low Countries. It is a journal that accommodates in-depth, scholarly contributions on all aspects of theater, as well as essays and critical reflections. Although the main proportion of articles in Documenta focuses on theater and performance, contributions relating to music, film and New Media are also considered, as far as they relate to the performing arts.

The journal was founded in 1983 by Jozef De Vos in the bosom of the Ghent Documentation Center for Dramatic Art. Since 2015, Documenta has been published by S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media) of the Department of Theater Studies at Ghent University. The editorial board is composed of theater scholars from various universities and colleges. Chief editors are Christel Stalpaert and Bram Van Oostveldt.

Peer Review

Documenta is a peer-reviewed journal that has A1.2 status. It has a B rating on the European Reference Index and is listed on the VABB list. After an initial round of review by the managing editors, the articles submitted to Documenta undergo a double-blind peer review process. The articles are accepted for peer review only if they adhere to content and submission guidelines. The reviewers make use of a template to assess the article. Criteria include originality, scientific relevance, clarity of the question, scientifically sound research method and argumentation, structure and coherence of the article, adequate bibliography. The journal does not guarantee publication after review round(s). The review process can take between six weeks and three months and consists of obtaining advices from experts in the fields who have no conflict of interest with the publication of the manuscripts under revision. The reviewed articles are treated confidentially prior to their publication.

 

Submission Checklist

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 11-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points. You will also be asked to upload the original files separately.
  • The referencing system used is Chicago (Author-Date system). The guidelines can be found here. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The author(s) will not be asked to pay APC (Article Publishing Charge) to publish with this journal.

Authorship

All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed have each made a significant contribution to the paper, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. They share responsibility and accountability for the results of the published research.

Based on the ICMJE guidelines on authorship, authors are expected to fulfil 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/or 
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and/or
  • Final approval of the version to be published; and 
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. 

Documenta encourages transparency by publishing authorship statements that specify the contribution of every author.

Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests

Documenta is committed to avoid conflicts of interest that could compromise the integrity of our journal. Conflicts of interest or competing interests can be financial and non-financial in nature, and are roughly defined as anything potentially undermining the objectivity, integrity, or perceived value of the manuscript. They occur when an author has a financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationship with other organisations or with people who could influence the research. According to guidelines devised by the Committee On Publication Ethics, this includes:

  • Employment, i.e., past, current, or anticipated within an organisation that profits of the publication
  • Sources of funding, i.e., support by an organisation that profits of the publication
  • Personal financial interests
  • Membership of relevant organisations
  • Having a personal relationship with any of the authors (if you are an editor) or an editor (if you are an author)

To ensure transparency, all authors, peer-reviewers, and editors must declare any conflicting or competing interests relating to a manuscript. Authors should disclose all relevant interests that may have influenced the development of their research in a competing interests section in the submitted manuscript. Likewise, peer-reviewers are asked to declare their competing interests when returning their report on a paper. If an editor has a competing or conflicting interest that prevents them from making an unbiased decision on a manuscript, then the editorial team will send the manuscript to an alternative editor for assessment.

Plagiarism

Authors must certify that they have written the manuscript in its entirety and that it contains only original and accurate information. We do not tolerate plagiarism in any of our publications. According to Oxford University, plagiarism is defined as ‘presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.’ It can occur in respect to all types of sources and media, including text; illustrations; material downloaded from websites or drawn from manuscripts or other media; published and unpublished material, including lectures, presentations, and grey literature. All submissions are screened by the iThenticate system from Crossref. Submissions containing suspected plagiarism, in whole or part, will be rejected. 

Misconduct

Documenta considers all forms of misconduct gravely and is committed to take all necessary steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers that involve such misconduct. In no case does Documenta knowingly allow such conduct, which includes but is not limited to:

  • Citation manipulation
  • Data falsification/fabrication
  • Ethics dumping
  • Plagiarism
  • Undisclosed conflicts of interest
  • Unethical research

If Documenta receives any allegations regarding research misconduct pertaining to a published article in our journal, we will take appropriate measures, in accordance with guidelines of the Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE), to safeguard the integrity of the scholarly record. Any breach of our editorial policy will result in disciplinary action, up to and including rejection of the manuscript or formal retraction or withdrawal of a publication from the journal.

Post-Publication Corrections

In the event that errors or inaccuracies are discovered in our publications, we will promptly correct them and update the content as necessary. We will also provide a transparent explanation of the correction and the reason for the error.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish in this journal agree with the following terms:

• Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication of the work under a Creative Commons Attribution License that enables others to share the work, indicating authorship of the work and its first publication in this journal.

• Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published by the journal (e.g. placement in an institutional repository or publication in a book), always acknowledging the first publication in this journal.

• Authors have the right and are encouraged to make their work available online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during submission, as this may lead to productive discussions, faster and more citations of the published work.


Licences

The following licences are allowed:


  • None
  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Cycle

The journal is published twice a year.