Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture / Literatura Ludowa is the quarterly double-blind peer reviewed Open Access academic journal published by the Polish Ethnological Society.

Aims and Scope

Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture / Literatura Ludowa is the quarterly Open Access academic journal published by The Polish Ethnological Society.

Intended to be both international in its scope and interdisciplinary in approach, the Journal provides a forum for wide-ranging, in-depth discussion on historical and contemporary forms of folklore as well as popular and vernacular culture.

The journal is open to scholars representing various disciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches; it publishes articles pertaining to a broad spectrum of subjects in the following fields:

• Folklore research (e.g. forms of historical and contemporary oral, musical, dance folklore; traditional beliefs and rituals and their contemporary transformations);
• Literature studies (e.g. connections between written literature and oral literature, genres and forms of popular literature, non-professional literature),
• Ethnology / Cultural anthropology (e.g. issues pertaining to identity, social structure, ethnic/national/religious conflicts, folk and non-professional art),
• Research on intangible cultural heritage (e.g. types of heritage and the problems with defining it, protecting and maintaining heritage, cultural tourism),
• Religion studies (e.g. mythology, forms of folk/vernacular religiosity, new religious movements, contemporary ethnic and pagan religions),
• Ethnolinguistics (e.g. genres of utterances and text patterns, elements of linguistic image of the world),
• Cultural studies (e.g. fan studies, game studies, sound studies),
• Performance studies and communication studies (e.g. analysing historical and contemporary performances, vernacular practices connected with digital media).

We welcome original and valuable texts written both by experienced authors affiliated by academic institutions and by independent and/or beginner scholars, including post-graduate and graduate students.

Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture. Literatura Ludowa welcomes contributions featuring theoretical analyses and case studies as well as articles addressing the ethnographical findings and fieldwork experience or academic reviews of new publications connected with the thematic scope of our journal (books, exhibition catalogues, records, multimedia materials).

Regardless of the planned and published monographic issues, we  constantly invite submissions of texts on topics related to the areas indicated above.

Peer Review Process

1. Articles published in the Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture. Literatura Ludowa are reviewed in the double-blind review mode (the reviewing procedure takes place in accordance with the principles of confidentiality and is mutually anonymous).
2. By submitting the article to the editorial board, the author consents to the reviewing process.
3. The preliminary assessment is made by the editors of the journal within 30 days from the date of submission.
4. The texts pre-approved by the editorial board are passed on to two independent external reviewers. Reviewers assess the text within 30 days.
5. After receiving the opinion of the reviewers, the editors inform the author within 14 days of the decision to:
   • accept the text for publication,
   • accept the text for publication (provided that necessary amendments suggested by the reviewers and/or the editors are introduced),
   • reject the text.
6. The editors set a deadline for the author to make amendments and submit the final version of the text. Exceeding the deadline results in postponing the publication of the text to the next issue of the journal or resignation from publication of the text.
7. If the author does not accept the comments of reviewers and/or editors or when the editors do not accept the author's amendments, the author may withdraw the text from publication, or the editors may reject the text.

Publishing Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The ethics statements for Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture / Literatura Ludowa are based on the Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors prepared by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All parties involved in the process of publishing (the journal editor(s), the author, the peer reviewer and the publisher) should follow the standards of ethical behaviour used in journals published by the Polish Ethnological Society.

1. Editorial Board

1.1. The editors are responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal should be published, and, moreover, are accountable for everything published in the journal. In making these decisions, the editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board as well as by legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers when making decisions concerning publication. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic standards, exclude practices that would compromise intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

1.2. The editor should evaluate manuscripts for intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the author(s). The editor will not disclose any information about a manuscript under consideration to anyone other than the author(s), reviewers and potential reviewers, and in some instances the editorial board members, as appropriate.

1.3. The editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial associates (e.g. translators, language copyeditors), and the publisher, as appropriate.

1.4. The editor should seek to ensure a fair and appropriate peer review process. Editors should refrain from considering manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or (possibly) institutions connected to the papers. In case a conflict of interests arises, they should ask another member of the editorial board to review and consider the text. Editors should require all contributors to disclose relevant competing interests and publish corrections if competing interests are revealed after publication. If needed, other appropriate actions should be taken, such as withdrawal of the work or publication of rectifications.

1.5. The editors provide the opportunity for  post-publication discussions and corrections concerning all materials published in the journal.

2. Authors

2.1. Authorship credit should be based on: offering substantial contributions to conception of the work or analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically, providing important intellectual content; and providing final approval of the version to be published. In case of a discovered misconduct on the author's part, such as plagiarism, falsifying data or duplicate publication of a previously published work or its part (so-called self-plagiarism), the journal Editorial Team will call for explanation and then undertake appropriate steps by following the COPE flowcharts. This may eventually include withdrawing the article in question, notifying the authorities at the author's institution, and excluding any further submissions by the same author from being processed by the journal.

2.2. The editorial board is particularly concerned with preventing the following infractions of publishing ethics:

• Ghostwriting – a case when a person who made substantial contributions to a publication is not credited as an author.
• Guest authorship – a case when a person appears in the publication as an author despite insignificant contribution or even absence from the writing process.

2.3. In case of more than one author contributing to the research and to the writing of the text, individual contributions of each author must be specified (not in terms of percentage, but specifics) in the manuscript (e.g. “ Contribution of particular authors: DF is responsible for the ideas in the research; BK collected the examples. Both authors participated in drafting the manuscript”; or: “The following declarations about the particular authors’ contributions to the research have been made: concept of the study: first author; data analyses: second author; writing the manuscript: first and second author”). This information will be published in the article.

2.4. In accordance with the COPE guidelines, any changes in information concerning authorship require written consent of all authors sent individually via direct email to the Editor-in-Chief. Each of the autors must issue a written statement concerning their acceptance of the proposed changes in the authorship of submitted manuscripts or published articles. The corresponding author takes responsibility for providing clear reason for the change(s) and should coordinate interaction between the authors and the Editor-in-Chief. If no satisfactory agreement can be reached among the authors, they must contact their parent institution(s) for a final decision. The editors take no responsibility to resolve such disagreements. If a change in authorship pertains to an already published paper, it will be executed by publishing a correction article.

3. Reviewers

3.1. The aim of review is to assist the editor in making editorial decisions and, through the editorial communication with the author, it should also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

3.2. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inacceptable. Reviewers should express their views clearly with appropriate supporting arguments.

3.3. Any invited reviewer who feels unqualified to review an article, or cannot do so on time should immediately notify the editor so that alternative reviewers can be contacted.

3.4. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except if authorized by the editor.

4. Competing interests

4.1. A conflict of interest arises when there exist workplace, economic or personal relationships between an author and a reviewer and/or an editor, or the institutions they represent (such as employment, receiving remuneration, kinship, marriage, academic or political competition, etc.), which may inappropriately influence their ability to assess the submitted article in an objective and substantive manner.

4.2. If any conflict of interest arises, it is obligatory for the given  author, reviewer and editor to declare it to the Editor-in-Chief.

5. Publisher’s declaration

The Polish Ethnological Society declares that it controls compliance with the principles of publishing ethics in the Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture and in cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question, which may include:

• publication of statements, explanations, rectifications,
• publication of an erratum (a modified version of the article),
• a complete withdrawal of the affected work.