Focus and Scope

Theoria et Historia Scientiarum (THS) is an international academic journal, published annually by the Nicolaus Copernicus University since 1991. Its first editor in chief, Tomasz Komendziński, was sharing this function with Sławomir Wacewicz and Przemysław Żywiczyński. Since 2022 the journal is edited by Michał Głuszkowski. The journal’s editorial board includes some of the world’s leading scholars in Cognitive Science, language evolution and other social sciences as well as humanities.

In the years 2012-20, the journal has been co-edited by the Center for Language Evolution Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, and language evolution – field of interdisciplinary research into the evolutionary origins of the human language faculty – has been a domain of particular interest, and its thematic scope was Cognitive Science, broadly construed.

More recently, the journal's thematic profile includes the theory of humanities and social sciences, cognitive science, sociology of culture and linguistics.

THS is an international journal, with a great majority of authors representing research centres located in the US and Western Europe. We have had many contributions from authors affiliated with Polish institutions, as well as some from other countries, such as Japan, Romania, Russia or Thailand.

Peer Review Process

All submitted manuscripts have to fall within the aims and thematic scope of the journal, i.e. theory of humanities and social sciences, cognitive science, sociology of culture and linguistics, broadly construed, and meet the requirements described in the guidelines section. Note that if a manuscript does not meet the above criteria or contains glaring language or content errors, it will not be considered for peer review.

Manuscripts are accepted in English and Russian. All non-latin sources and references have to be transliterated according to BGN/PCGN standard (https://transliteration.pro/bgn-pcgn).

THS uses double-blind peer review: the reviewers are not aware of the identity of the authors, and the authors are unaware of the identity of reviewers. Manuscripts are reviewed by scholars who are independent specialists within the particular scientific fields. There are at least three or more reviewers for the total number of articles in each issue.

Normal standards of academic quality apply, including originality/novelty, cogency of the argument, accuracy of the review, or methodological correctness. Based on the opinions of the reviewers, the editors take the final decision to reject the paper, accept with minor or major revisions, or accept as is. The author is notified of the decision via the OJS system.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice

ETHICS STATEMENT

The journal Theoria et Historia Scientarium requires its editors, authors and reviewers to maintain high standards of scholarly integrity. An example of good practices can be found here

EDITORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

• to act objectively and respect equality for all authors and manuscripts without any discrimination with regard to race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin
• to ensure confidentiality of information provided
• to identify and declare any possible conflicts of interest

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

• to submit manuscripts which have not been published or accepted for publication in a different journal
• to confirm originality of a submitted manuscript (the editorial board of the journal implements a strict plagiarism detection policy, all relevant institutions will be informed if plagiarism is detected)
• to give proper attribution (references) to other authors’ work which is cited in a submitted manuscript
• to obtain permission to reproduce any copyrighted material
• to present valid and reliable results (fabrication and falsification of data are very grave offenses against scholarly integrity)
• to provide access to data collected in research after publication (upon the request of the editorial board)

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

• to review submitted manuscripts in an unbiased and objective manner
• to identify and disclose any possible conflicts of interest
• to notify of any resemblance to previously published work
• to maintain confidentiality of information concerning manuscripts and the reviewing process

UNETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

The editorial board of the journal Theoria et Historia Scientiarum implements anti-ghostwriting and plagiarism detection procedures (CrossCheck powered by iThenticate). All the detected cases of plagiarism, ghostwriting and “guest authorship”  will be exposed, including notification of relevant institutions. The definitions of “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship” by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education are available at the web-site of the Ministry.

Journal History

"Theoria et Historia Scientiarum" is an international academic journal, published by the Nicolaus Copernicus University since 1991. 

Its first editor in chief, Tomasz Komendziński, was sharing this function with Sławomir Wacewicz and Przemysław Żywiczyński. The journal’s editorial board includes some of the world’s leading scholars in Cognitive Science, language evolution and other social sciences as well as humanities.