1. Basic Information
    • Acta Ludologica is a double-blind peer reviewed academic journal published biannually (summer and winter) by the Faculty of Mass Media Communication at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (FMK UCM). The journal is dedicated to publishing scholarly texts which deal with professional scientific reflections and academic discourses in the field of digital games and games studies; specifically game theory, research, history, philosophy, psychology, marketing, design, technological interconnections and innovations, gamers, gaming communities, gaming culture, gaming industry as well as using digital games for educational and other purposes. The professional public is offered an interdisciplinary, focused, targeted discussion in these pages.
    • Acta Ludologica accepts various kinds of academic writings – theoretical articles, theoretical articles combined with presentations of research results or research results including their implementation into practice as well as reviews of monographs or other publications, shorter news articles, essays and interviews with renowned game theorists, scholars and professionals. The editors accept only texts, which are genuine and have not been published previously. Neither the suggested texts nor their parts may be submitted simultaneously to other scientific journals, scholarly or commercial publications.
    • The scientific committee of the journal and members of the editorial board actively participate in domestic and foreign scholarly discourse and academic research projects in order to contribute to scientific and research progress and expansion of the existing set of knowledge related to the fields of digital games, game studies and directly related fields.
    • The publication is registered in accordance with international standards. Acta Ludologica’s ISSN is 2585-8599. It is published by the Faculty of Mass Media Communication at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, the Slovak Republic. The University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius is an educational institution financed from public sources.
  2. Authors’ Rights and Responsibilities
    • Published texts are written and submitted exclusively in English; all of them are selected and submitted to double-blind peer reviews by the journal’s reviewers. The list of Acta Ludologica’s reviewers is available on the journal’s website (see Reviewers). The editors of Acta Ludologica fully respect the scholarly principles of ensuring relevance of formal and content aspects of the published texts via the set criteria. Submitted texts offer thorough theoretical outlines of the given issues based on the citation of appropriate information sources and use of corresponding theoretical and methodological approaches. All texts should express originality and innovation in relation to the elaborated themes and scientific problems.
    • The authors and co-authors publishing their work in Acta Ludologica are, as a general rule, academics, scholars, researchers and gaming sector professionals.
    • The author(s) of the texts – yet unpublished but already approved and prepared for publication in Acta Ludologica – have the right to present their findings or other related research outcomes by attending domestic, foreign and international scientific conferences and workshops as well as within their pedagogical or artistic activities.
    • The editorial board expects authors to submit the final to-be-published texts with regard to the set formal criteria, i.e. consistent and correct spelling, grammar, stylistics and formalities in accordance with guidelines for authors and citation rules. It is necessary to use the template available on the journal’s website (see Guidelines).
    • Any fundamental changes to authorship of already submitted final texts (e.g. amendment of co-authors, change in the order of authors, copyright interests in the text) are liable to the prior consent of the editorial board. The author(s) or co-author(s) must ask for a change in the copyright data or modification of their order on the basis of a formal, written request sent to the following e-mail address: actaludologica@fmk.sk.
    • The editorial board retains the right to authorise or deny such changes in authorship or postpones the text’s publishing until the matter is resolved to the complete satisfaction of both the editorial board and the author. The final decision depends on the reasons stated in the submitted request and considers specific circumstances surrounding its administration.
    • Authors are obliged to include acknowledgments – such as information on co-authors and research participants as well as additional information on financing or grant(s) dispensation via specific research projects – in the texts as submitted.
    • By sending the final versions of the texts meant to be published in Acta Ludologica, the authors and co-authors simultaneously express their consent to publishing the texts in the open-access electronic archive which is available on the journal’s website (see Archive) and with registration of the text in electronic databases that currently process and index data related to the journal.
    • The authors, whose texts have been published in the journal, are entitled to receive two print copies of the journal free of charge. Print edition will be sent to them by regular mail. An electronic version of the journal is available via open access on the journal’s website (see Archive).
    • Authors submit their manuscripts electronically, via the e-mail address stated above.
    • Publishing in Acta Ludologica is not liable to any form of payment or voluntary financial gift.
  3. Peer Review Process
    • The first (informal) evaluation of all submitted texts is performed by the editorial board. Formal requirements are evaluated in the context of the journal’s guidelines for authors and its focus, whereas it is possible to reject the texts or to demand their re-elaboration, amendment or revision (e.g. formal, factual, lingual, etc.) before sending them to the reviewers. The author of the manuscript declares that the submitted text is original, yet unpublished, and has been formatted in accordance with the author’s guidelines (see Guidelines and Citation Rules).
    • All texts which are to be published in the journal have to undergo a double-blind peer review process in accordance with the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewing guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) – among other things, the prevention of ghost-writing practices, guest authorship, and any conflict of interest during the double-blind review process. The reviewers do not have any information on the authors’ identities; equally the authors do not know the names of the reviewers. Versions of the texts sent to two independent external reviewers undergo an anonymization process, so do not include any data or indications about their authors. The review process is confidential.
    • Reviewers should assess the qualities of the texts objectively. In order to ensure the highest level of the peer-reviewing process relevance, the criteria of specific reviewers’ selection include their professional orientation, research specialization, experience in relation to the thematic focus of the reviewed text, and corresponding foreign language skills – all reviewers have to be able to use academic English proficiently. Reviewers are not affiliated with the same institution as the author of the reviewed text.
    • Reviews are written and descriptive, include a structured assessment of the reviewed text quality – content (originality, authenticity, the appropriateness of methodology, the relevance of conclusions, and applicability, etc.) and formal arrangement evaluation – and open field for an overall assessment, suggestions, and remarks for the author expressed in own words. The review concludes with an unequivocal recommendation of the reviewer to accept, accept after revisions, or reject the reviewed text. In order for a paper to be allowed to be printed, it is necessary to obtain two positive reviews. Two positive reviews are required to accept a manuscript for publishing, and the editorial office reserves the right to appoint a third reviewer if necessary.
    • A list of the reviewers is continuously updated and accessible via the journal’s website (see Reviewers).
    • In case any potential conflict of interest is identified (e.g., financial, collaborative), the reviewer is obliged to inform the editorial board – the editors will assess the situation and, as a result, may appoint a new reviewer. Reviewers should inform the editors in case they identify a possible violation of the ethical principles or any significant deficiencies of the reviewed text.
    • Non-reviewed materials accepted by the editorial office for publishing belong to the sections News, Reviews, Interview, and Add-ons (see Guidelines for section specifications).
  4. Editorial Responsibilities
    • The editorial board consists of foreign and domestic game and media theorists, researchers and scholars. All members of the editorial board are affiliated with domestic and foreign universities, research centres, academic or professional organisations.
    • The editorial board grants academics, researchers and professionals interested in publishing in Acta Ludologica an opportunity to submit their original, so-far-unpublished articles, researches, essays, interviews and other scholarly texts related to the focus of the journal which have not been published publicly yet.
    • The editors approve the final form and content of the journal. On the basis of the overall quality of submitted articles and reviews, the editorial board selects contributions to be published.
    • The members of the editorial board supervise the scientific and professional levels of the contents published in Acta Ludologica. Before approving the final form and content of the journal, the editorial board is obliged to acquaint itself with the content and quality of all texts as submitted. The editorial board is thus responsible for the scientific and scholarly qualities of the journal’s issues.
    • The texts which are to be published in Acta Ludologica are selected objectively, on the basis of the quality of their form and content. The editorial board does not consider the authors’ domestic or foreign scholarly affiliations and/or commercial activities and strictly rejects any discrimination related to gender, ethnicity, geographical origin, political beliefs or religion.
  5. Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
    • All types of data published in Acta Ludologica must be known in public, freely accessible and legally published; they must not be the subjects of state, banking or other confidence according to the legislation of the Slovak Republic, mainly according to the Act No. 211/2000 Coll. on Free Access to Information.
    • Authors should use their information sources, premium academic databases, other scholarly sources and research grants in manners that exclude the possibilities of property, patent or financial conflicts of interests related to the texts as submitted or their research focus.
    • By submitting their texts, the authors also confirm that the manuscripts as submitted have not been published elsewhere and are not being considered for publication or being reviewed by other publisher(s).
    • Acta Ludologica has a zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If a published text (or manuscript intended for publication) violates the ethical principles or, eventually, if the entire texts or their parts are proven to be plagiarisms or consist of texts already published in the past or simultaneously in several other specialised publications, the authors and co-authors take full responsibility. However, the authors are given the opportunity to react to such allegations.
    • The author, whose contribution is selected for publishing, takes responsibility over the fact that the text does not breach existing legislation, especially in the field of copyright. By submitting their manuscripts, the authors approve that at the moment of offering their work to be published in Acta Ludologica they had legal access to the data used and provide the complete list of co-authors, used grants, or other binding forms of financial and material support associated with their scientific and research activities.
    • In case of a reasonable suspicion suggesting a violation of the ethical principles, the editors retain the right to further consider the text in question and may suspend or completely cancel its planned publication. If similar inadequacies directly result from the editorial processes or improper handling of the provided information, responsibility lies on the side of the editors. In this case, the editors are obliged to make corrections in an appropriate way (e.g. by publishing corrections, apologies to the authors, and properly edited electronic versions of the journal in PDF format freely available for download online).
    • The editors consistently consider the need for avoiding similar situations and process the data as received carefully, without making unauthorised copies or using the considered manuscripts in any inappropriate way. Acceptation of final versions of manuscripts is preceded by a detailed overview of the level and extent to which the author(s) express both the willingness and ability to respect the ethical principles associated with academic writing and publishing.
    • The editorial board accepts and further processes (evaluates, appoints to the reviewers, publishes) only scholarly texts which respect the ethics related to academic and scholarly writings and use bibliography and information sources (citing, paraphrasing, referring to other authors) properly, in accordance with citation rules suggested and approved by the editorial board. The citation rules are available on the journal’s website (see Citation Rules).
    • If necessary, before accepting the text, the editorial board may demand a written statement signed by the author(s) confirming that the text has not been published yet and has not been simultaneously submitted to another publication, either print or electronic, regardless of the language in which it was originally elaborated.

Editorial Policy
Acta Ludologica
Faculty of Mass Media Communication
University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava
Slovakia

Last updated on January 11, 2021