Authors guidelines

About the Publication

The Art Readings – New Art conference proceedings series are result of an International Scientific Conference traditionally held every year. It is subject to indexing in the global scientific database Web of Science (WoS) and complies with the strict requirements of the scient metric platform for publishing conference proceedings with a citation index – social sciences and humanities (CPCI-SSH).

The editor-in-chief for the respective year (on a rotational basis) of the Art Readings, in cooperation with the Organising Committee and the International Advisory Board, selects and evaluates the submitted texts in accordance with the ethical, technical, and thematic requirements of the editorial board.

Texts in Bulgarian or English must be deposited in two versions – full and anonymous.

Articles approved for publication are subject to double-blind peer review.

They must be accompanied by a Declaration for Copyright Statement:

The full set for publication consideration (full and anonymous versions of the article, list of illustrations, illustrations, and declaration) must be sent to the editorial email: info.artplatform@gmail.com,

as well as to the email of the respective editor-in-chief by sector, as follows:

• Screen Arts: dstatulov@abv.bg
• Visual Arts: miteva_maria_ias@abv.bg
• Music Arts: vdimov.fjmc@gmail.com
• Theatre Arts: kamelian@hotmail.com

Name the files with the title of the article (or a shortened version of it), adding anonym to the second file without writing your name in the file title!

The deadline for depositing texts is determined by the Organising Committee and is communicated to all participants in the Art Readings – New Art conference.

Ethical standards in publishing are necessary to ensure the high quality of scientific publications, maintain public trust in scientific research, and recognize original contributions within the scientific community.

The publication of the Institute of Art Studies, BAS, fulfils its duties to protect all stages of publishing activity with the utmost care and applies high ethical standards and good practices. It is guided by and fully complies with international standards and guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), published on the website https://publicationethics.org

Principles of Editorial Ethics

Editors organize the publishing process by:

• holding the exclusive right and responsibility for making decisions regarding the publication or rejection of submitted manuscripts;
• being obliged to act with the awareness that the publication of the respective works constitutes a legal act of significant importance to scientists and their readers;
• basing decisions to publish or reject texts on reviewers’ evaluations, compliance with the journal’s publishing policy, and adherence to legal requirements regarding copyright and plagiarism; maintaining confidentiality of personal data;
• ensuring communication between process participants while preserving their personal dignity and guaranteeing respectful treatment for everyone;
• guaranteeing the evaluation of the intellectual content of manuscripts regardless of the race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, origin, citizenship, or political affiliations of the authors;
• monitoring compliance with high academic standards and objectivity in evaluations;
• being obliged not to disclose information regarding submitted manuscripts, in accordance with the conditions of the adopted peer-review procedure;
• refraining from using unpublished materials and scientific theses contained in submitted manuscripts for their own research work without the explicit consent of the authors; members of the editorial board must not participate in the discussion of manuscripts if they are in a conflict of interest arising from competition, collaboration, or other relationships with the authors or institutions associated with the manuscript;
• being obliged to take response measures in the event of complaints, claims, or disagreements regarding a submitted manuscript or publication; measures include contacting the authors of the manuscript or published article and responding to the respective complaint; if necessary, consultations with competent institutions and research teams may be conducted; the editorial board takes a stance by rejecting or agreeing with the received complaint, publishing a correction note for the respective text, etc.; any established act of unethical behaviour regarding publishing activities must be treated with due attention and seriousness, even if discovered long after the publication has been released;
• monitoring the progressive implementation of all stages of the editorial, review, and publishing process.

Reviewing articles helps the editorial team make decisions regarding their publication and helps authors improve their manuscripts. In this sense, peer review is an essential component of scientific communication and guarantees the scholarly nature of published texts.

Every manuscript is submitted to two external reviewers whose research activity is closest to the topic of the manuscript. They receive an anonymous copy of the manuscript, which they evaluate according to the criteria in the reviewer form.

Any selected reviewer who does not feel sufficiently qualified to assess the scientific value of the manuscript provided to them or is unable to complete the assigned review on time, is obliged to inform the editorial board promptly and decline the review.

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents and as copyrighted documents.

Reviewers:

• return reviewer forms containing reasoned and objective evaluations of the manuscripts;
• agree to review only manuscripts for which they possess the subject knowledge necessary to perform an expert evaluation and which they can assess in a timely manner;
• maintain confidentiality and do not disclose any details about the manuscript or the review during or after the verification process, except for details already published by the journal;
• do not use information obtained during the peer-review process for their own benefit or for the benefit of another person/organization, or to disadvantage other persons/organizations;
• are objective and constructive in their reviews, refraining from subjective bias, hostility, or instigation, and from defamatory or derogatory personal comments;
• recognize that peer review is largely a reciprocal effort and commit to carrying out their share of reviewing in a timely manner;
• provide the publication with personal and professional information that accurately and truthfully represents their expertise;
• recognize that impersonation during the review process is considered a serious violation;
• must determine whether authors correctly reference the sources used; they are obliged to notify the editorial team of any instance of omitted citation, as well as any similarity or overlap between the manuscript and other publications known to them;

must not use unpublished materials and scientific theses contained in the manuscripts provided to them for their own research work; they are obliged to maintain confidentiality regarding sensitive information or ideas acquired during the review process and not use them for personal gain; they must not evaluate manuscripts if they are in a conflict of interest arising from competition, collaboration, or other relationships with any of the authors or institutions associated with the manuscript.

Authors declare that they offer completely original texts for publication, which have not been published in other editions, and assign their copyright for publication for a period of 5 years. Author texts must accurately present the research work carried out on the topic; its relevance and scientific significance must be stated and objectively discussed. The baseline data underlying the publications must be presented correctly. Articles must contain sufficient details and references to used literature to allow for commentary and replication of the work. It is unethical and unacceptable for articles to state and support claims that are not based on scientific arguments and evidence. Authors ensure compliance with the principles of social responsibility when conducting sociological and humanitarian research by applying the EC guidelines for Ethics in Social Sciences and Humanities.

They guarantee the protection of the personal data of study participants, complying with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Bulgarian Personal Data Protection Act.

It is ethical and correct for authors to express appreciation to all external data sources used in the research, as well as to indicate publications by other authors that have had a significant influence on their research work. If the proposed text is the result of team efforts, then the author submitting the article must ensure that all co-authors who contributed to the concept, design, execution, and interpretation of the study are included in the article, that they have seen and approved its final version, and have agreed to submit it for publication. Information obtained privately (conversations, correspondence, etc.) should be used only after the explicit consent of the source.

To potential editorial verification, authors must be prepared to provide access to the data on which the text is based.

Authors are required to declare in the manuscript any financial or other conflict of interest that could be interpreted as influencing the conclusions and interpretations in the text. Sources of funding that supported the preparation of the text, if any exist, must be openly declared.

If authors identify significant errors or inaccuracies in the submitted manuscript, they must inform the editorial board about them and work jointly with it to make the necessary corrections. If such errors are identified by third parties, it is the authors’ obligation to withdraw the manuscript or make the necessary corrections, assuring the editorial board of the correctness of the text.

When collecting data, authors are guided by the following principles:

• truthfulness – the truthfulness of the data provided is monitored, and manipulated data collection from real or imaginary respondents is not offered;
• data minimization – only the most necessary data for the purposes of the study is requested;
• anonymization – personal data must be removed as quickly as possible;
• informed consent – notifying participants who is conducting the research and for what purpose; informing participants that they have the right to refuse participation without consequences; preventing potential psychological discomfort for participants; providing written consent for participation.

The following unfair practices must be avoided:

• fabrication and falsification of data (fabrication of data means that the researcher, without performing any research, has invented the data; falsification of data is the alteration of data obtained during experiments);
• violation of data collection principles and personal information protection when conducting research;
• plagiarism in scientific texts (plagiarism means using other people’s ideas and works, copying texts or fragments thereof without indicating the source, violating citation rules);
• simultaneous submission of the same material to several publications; in the event of re-publishing the same text in another edition, the consent of both the author and the publisher who first published the text is required; duplicate publication without approval damages the reputation of the scientist and the publications;
• non-compliance with the copyrights of their co-authors – supervisors or colleagues (all contributors to the research must be indicated, including students and laboratory assistants);
• fictitious multiple authorship (if the article is co-authored, then each author must be connected to the process of preparing the article and have scientific interests in this field);
• in case of violation of author ethics, the article may be rejected at any stage of its preparation for publication; if a violation is established after publication, articles are withdrawn unilaterally by decision of the editorial board.

The full version of the articles contains:

• text in English or Bulgarian;

N.B. When the article is in English, the entire content (titles, abstract, keywords, main text, summary) is in English only.

• titles (main and under illustrations) – when the article is in Bulgarian, titles are in both languages;
• first name, last name, and institution of the author in both languages for an article in Bulgarian, accompanied by a first footnote that includes a brief profile of their academic profile in English only, plus an email and ORCID number.

Example of an academic profile, which should include the author’s institution/employer without abbreviations, areas of research interest, scholarly works, and memberships in scientific organisations:
DSc. Kamelia Nikolova is a Professor at the Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, head of the Theatre Studies Programme and Professor of History of European Theatre at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, as well as a visiting lecturer at the National Academy of Fine Arts, New Bulgarian University and abroad. Her publications include ten books such as: The Other Name of Modern Theatre. Stage Director (1995); Expressionist Theatre and the Body Language (2000); Theatre on the Border of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries (2007); History of Bulgarian Theatre (2011, in co-authorship); Bulgarian Theatre after 1989 and New British Drama (2013, 2018); Theatre at the Turn of the 21^st Century (2015), European Theatre Directors (2021), several international collective volumes as A Lexicon of the CentralEastern European Interwar Theatre Avant-garde (2023) and The Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance (2023), as well as a number of studies and articles published in over ten languages. Editor-in-chief of SCENArt, member of the editorial board of Homo Ludens magazine, member of the Honorary Advisory Board of Concept and deputy editor-in-chief of the Yearbook of NATFA and Art Studies Quarterly.

• abstract, accompanied by keywords (maximum 7 elements that do not repeat the title, in both languages for Bulgarian text);

N. B. Note that the abstract is a clear and concise presentation (not less than 400 and not more than 600 characters /incl. spaces/) of the main topic that the author is about to examine in the article.
Example of the full formatting of title, name, institution, abstract, keywords, and summary in English:
Theatre and Archives: In the Footsteps of a Performance
 

 
Abstract: The paper discusses the all-important issue of using theatre archives in theatre studies research and for compiling theatre histories both in a single country or region, and on a European and global scale. Different aspects of the subject are touched upon: problems arising in the processes of locating, researching and analysing archival documents; credibility and objectivity of the reconstruction of a performance or an entire theatrical context based on archival materials; implications for the extension of existing archival holdings and new opportunities and challenges faced by the practice of preservation of contemporary theatre artefacts. A special focus is the analysis of the situation of Bulgarian theatre archives and ideas for its improvement and actualisation.
Keywords: Bulgarian theatre archives, traditional theatre archives, digital theatre archives, theatre performance reconstruction, theatre archives and new technologies
 
Summary
The paper discusses the all-important issue of using theatre archives in theatre studies research and for compiling theatre histories both in a single country or region, and on a European and global scale. Different aspects of the subject are touched upon: problems arising in the processes of locating, researching and analysing archival documents; credibility and objectivity of the reconstruction of a performance or an entire theatrical context based on archival materials; implications for the extension of existing archival holdings and new opportunities and challenges faced by the practice of preservation of contemporary theatre artefacts. The nexus of the article is the process of reconstructing a performance based on existing archival documents, found and analysed by the researcher. These are: photographs, video recordings, working copies of the play/ theatre text/post-dramatic verbal material, the director’s and scenographer’s notes and sketches, press reviews. Theoretical study is supplemented by the presentation of specific “cases” of research and reconstruction of particularly significant performances for the history of the Bulgarian stage. A special focus is the analysis of the actual situation of Bulgarian theatre archives and ideas for its improvement and modernization.

• the main text (English or Bulgarian) of the article must be formatted according to the author guidelines specified below;
• the summary is in English only and is positioned at the end of the article after the Bibliography.

N. B. Note that the summary is a text distinct from the abstract, with a length of no less than 600 and no more than 1000 characters.

General Guidelines

• Length: not more than 18,000 characters (including spaces), incl. the abstract, summary, keywords, footnotes, references, filmography (if any), addenda;
• The document should be produced in Microsoft Word (doc/docx);
• Font: (including tables and figure legends and captions): 12-point Times New Roman;
• Illustrations/Figures: not more than 10, in the jpg or tiff format (the minimum resolution of 300-600 dpi). Figures should be submitted as separate files (1 file per figure) and not included in the manuscript text. The information about the figures/tables shall be given in Bulgarian and English and entered in a separate list, including their provenance: book, journal, online (link), personal or public archives, etc. Figures/tables may be numbered in the order of their appearance in the text in brackets (Ill./Fig. 1), (Ills. 2, 3).

The provided list of figure legends shall contain a description of each figure as follows:

Michail Katz. Worker, granite, Stockholm, Sweden, placed in a garden before being installed on a pedestal on Industry Square (CSA, f. 945, inv. no, 1, a.u. 103)

No full stop is put after the captions.
Illustrations/Figures captions to articles in English shall be in English.

Style guide

• All articles should be written in clear idiomatic English, using British spelling. Where British spelling allows the use of ‘s’ or ‘z’ (e.g. ‘recognise’/‘recognize’), the ‘s’ spelling should be used.
• Possessives for one-syllable names should be in the form, for example, ’Rawls’s’ or ‘Zeus’s’.
•  Spell out whole-number words for one to ten: spell out words for ‘first’, ‘second’ and so on. Use figures for numbers above ten: 1,000/1,000,000/1,000,000,000. If a number starts a sentence, it should be expressed in words, not numerals: e.g. ‘Sixteen sherds…’ Approximate numbers should be expressed in words: e.g. ‘around fifty sherds’.
•  Titles of books, journals, plays, films, musical works etc., should be given in italics if they are a complete published work, e.g. A Tale of Two Cities has perhaps the most famous opening sentence in English literature.
•  Dates:

– Always put the date before the month. Don’t use ‘^th’, etc., with dates: e.g. Easter this year is on 13 April;
– Dates in the text should be written out in words (fifth century BC, sixteenth century BC, etc.). In footnotes and captions they should be written as numerals (5^th century, 16^th  century, etc.). Approximate dates should be indicated by ‘c.’, with the date immediately following (no space) – e.g. ‘c.450 BC’. Days of the month should be styled as (e.g.) ‘15 June’, not ‘15^th June’.

• Use ‘per cent’ in the main text, ‘%’ in footnotes and captions.
• Compass points: in the main text these should be spelled out in full, with compounds hyphenated (e.g. ‘south-east’, ‘north-north-west’); in footnotes, and captions they should be abbreviated to ‘SE’, ‘NNW’, etc.
• Don’t use full stops after any abbreviations DPhil, am, pm, and contractions: Mr Dr St (Saint) St (Street).
• Ellipsis:

Use an ellipsis to show that some text is missing, usually from a quotation; do not surround it with spaces, e.g. …we shall fight on the beaches…we shall never surrender… There is no need to add square brackets around an ellipsis.

• Brackets: round, but square for brackets within brackets, e.g.

‘( ….[…])’.

• Use single quotation marks for direct speech or a quote, and double quotation marks for direct speech or a quote within that.

‘I have never been to Norway,’ he said, ‘but I have heard it described as “the Wales of the North”.’

•  Comments and explanations within quotations should be encloses within square brackets [ ].
• Highlighting/emphasising text:

Bold: Use bold sparingly to emphasise the part of your text you wish to stand out.
Punctuation which follows bold text should not itself be bold (unless the whole sentence is in bold type).
 

• Dashes and hyphens:

n-dash (–):
– Use in a pair in place of round brackets or commas, surrounded by spaces, e.g. It was – as far as I could tell – the only example of its kind;
– Use singly and surrounded by spaces to link two parts of a sentence, in place of a colon, e.g. The bus was late today – we nearly missed the lecture;
– Use to link concepts or ranges of numbers, with no spaces either side, e.g. German–Polish non-aggression pact; The salary for the post is £25,000–£30,000;
– Use between names of joint authors/creators/performers, etc., to distinguish from hyphenated names of a single person, e.g. Lennon–McCartney compositions.
Hyphen (-):
– In an adjectival phrase before a noun, e.g. the up-to-date list; mid-nineteenth-century narrative;
–With prefixes before a proper name, number or date, e.g. pre-2000 politics; the mid thirteenth century;
– In numbers which are spelt out, e.g. Twenty-seven;
– In compass points (unless used geographically rather than as directions), e.g. They are heading south-east.
 

• Full stop, exclamation mark and question mark:

– Use one – but only one – of these at the end of every sentence;
– Use a full stop, not a question mark, at the end of a reported question;
– Use a question mark for a direct question (whether in quotation marks or not).
  

• Footnotes: Indicate footnotes with superscript Arabic numerals which should appear after the relevant punctuation in the text (if any). Put the footnote marker at the end of a sentence, unless for the sake of clarity it is necessary to put it directly after the word or phrase to which it relates. If the word or phrase to which the footnote marker relates is in brackets, put the marker before the closing bracket. A quotation need not be footnoted separately from the name of the source from which it is derived if the two appear in the same sentence. Otherwise, separate notes should be used. Close footnotes with a full stop (or question or exclamation mark). Where more than one citation is given in a single footnote reference, separate them with semi-colons. Do not use endnotes!

References

• In-text citations give the author’s surname followed by the date of publication plus colon and page(s) in round brackets (Popov 1993: 287).
• Multiple authors: the editor’s surname followed by ed./eds and the date of publication plus colon and page(s) in round brackets: (Dimitrova, ed. 1998: 56).
• With no author: the title (Romanised when in Cyrillic): (Tehnicheski narachnik 1998: 56).
• Archival units are cited in a footnote:

⁴⁵ CSA, f. 945, inv. no. 1, a.u. 7.
 
The full information is given in the Bibliography/Resources:
 
Central State Archives, fond 945 – Mihail Yakovlevich Katz.

• No in-text/footnote citations of online resources are allowed. In-text citations of online resources give the author’s surname followed by the date of publication plus colon and page(s) (if any) in round brackets (Strause 2018: 5)

The links are given at the end in the Bibliography/Online resources.

Bibliography

• All cited authors and works should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the paper.

 
Resources, literature and online resources should be entered in separate lists.

• The names in Cyrillic should be Romanised. The name(s) of the author(s) should be written out in English alone. A cited title in Cyrillic should be written out in the original and then Romanised and enclosed within square brackets [ ]:

 
Bratanova (2015): Bratanova, Bogralina. Приложна графика и символизъм в България [Prilozhna grafika i simvorizam v Balgariya]. Sofia.
For Romanising Bulgarian and Russian, see:          
http://2cyr.com/?7

• When a work published in a language other than the original is referred to, the name of the author and the title shall be in the original language and the title of the translation shall not be Romanised:

 
Wajda (2010): Wajda, Andrzej. Киното и останалия свят [Kino i reszta świata]. Sofia.
 
The bibliography shall be divided in resources, literature and online resources.

• Resources

The used interviews, private and/or public archival material, records, albums, catalogues, etc., that have been footnoted in-text, shall be listed here. The abbreviations shall be deciphered, Romanised and enclosed within square brackets [ ], If certain institutions have websites in English, the official name of the institution shall be written out in English and its link shall be provided:
 
NLKM, BHA, f. 129: Национална библиотека „Св. св. Кирил и Методий“, Български исторически архив, фонд 129 – Тефтер на Бончо Димитров [National Library “SS. Cyril and Methodius”, Bulgarian Historical Archive, fond 129 – Tefter na Boncho Dimitrov]. 

• Literature

Here the cited monographs, books and collections are listed in alphabetical order according to the surnames of the authors.
 
Books in Latin letters:
Parkinson (1996): Parkinson, David. History of Film. New York.
 
In-text: (Parkinson 1996: 44).
 
A book in Cyrillic (with Romanisation):
 
Dafinov (2006): Dafinov, Zdravko. Приятелства и съперничества между българските поети, писатели и критици. Документална хроника 1845–1945 [Priyatelstva i sapernichestva mezhdu balgarskite poeti, pisateli i krititsi. Dokumentalna hronika 1845–1945]. Sofia.
 
In-text: (Dafinov 2006: 65).
 
Multiple authors:
 
Cleland, Davies, Llewellyn-Jones (2007): Cleland, Liza; Glenys Davies; Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z. London, New York.
 
In-text: (Cleland, Davies, Llewellyn-Jones 2007: 253-254).
 
The author has many publications in a given year:
 
Grimm (1946a): Grimm, Jacob; Wilhelm. Седемте козлета. Преразказана от Елисавета Консулова Вазова [Sedemte kozleta. Prerazkazana ot Elisaveta Konsulova-Vazova]. Sofia.
 
Grimm (1946b): Grimm, Jacob; Wilhelm. Спящата принцеса. Преразказана от Ценко Цветанов [Spyashtata printsesa. Prerazkazana ot Tsenko Tsvetanov]. Sofia.
 
In-text: (Grimm 1946а: 6) and (Grimm 1946b: 12)
 
Collections:

Slavova (2015): Slavova, Liubka. Кой се страхува от котарака? [Koy se strahuva ot kotaraka?] – In: Годишник на департамент „Романистика и германистика“. Юбилейно изднаие в част на доц. д-р Ани Леви. Съст. Мария Спасова. [Godishnik na departament „Romanistika i germanistika“. Yubileyno izdnaie v chast na dots. d-r Ani Levi. Sast. Maria Spasova.], Sofia, 399-407.
 
In-text: (Slavova 2015: 399-407 or the respective page).
 
Newspapers/journals:
 
The names of the periodicals are not italicised and are preceded by an n-dash (–).
Penev (1907): Penev, Boyan. Литературата около „Българан“ [Literaturata okolo „Balgaran“]. – Мисъл [Misal], 1, 58-72.
 
In-text: (Penev 1907: 58-72).

• Online resources

When citing an online resource give the author(s), title, publication date (if any) and a link plus the date on which the online resource was accessed. If the website or webpage does not have an author, substitute the title of the page for the author in the in-text citation and reference list entry:
 
Strause (2018): Strause, Jackie. ‘Black Mirror’ Interactive Film: Inside the 2-Year Journey of ‘Bandersnatch’. – The Hollywood Reporter, December 28, 2018. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/black-mirror-bandersnatch-netflixs-interactive-film-explained-1171486 [Accessed 22 July 2021]
 
In-text: (Strause 2018: and the p./pp. if any).
Ruseva (2017): Ruseva, Maria. Модернизъм и постмодернизъм. Мистика и мистификация. – Култура, 21 април 2017 [Modernizam i postmodernizam. Mistika i mistifikatsiya – Kultura, 21 April 2017]. Available at: http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/25978 [Accessed 24 April 2021]

In-text: (Ruseva 2017: and the p./pp. if any).

The anonymised version shall be submitted in a separate, and fully anonymised file, containing the main text, but without the author’s name or affiliations so that the identity of the author is not disclosed to the peer reviewers. Please, make sure that:

• You have removed your name under the title;
• Use an impersonal construction to refer to work/works you have previously undertaken, e.g. ‘… as it has been shown before’, followed by (Anonymous 2009);
• Your figures and captions do not contain any affiliation-related identifiers;
• You have removed references to funding sources;
• You have not included any acknowledgments;
• You have removed any identifying information from file names, and make sure that the document properties are also made anonymous.