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Author Guidelines

The journal Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture publishes findings of original research in the fields of cultural studies with the key aspects of philosophy, religion, arts, and cultural linguistics, focusing on intercultural communication issues. Research papers of the journal are organized into sections: Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, Intercultural Communication, Culture and Art. Great emphasis is placed on the study of cultural diversity and interculturality. Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture is particularly interested in regional and local studies of cases which determine the cultural potential of countries in the international arena. Welcoming interdisciplinary research, such as linguacultural studies and analysis of applied aspects of intercultural communication.

The journal publishes research and review articles and philosophical essays by both post-graduate and doctoral students, scholars and experts on cultural studies. Book reviews and other materials covering interesting events in the current life of scientific and academic communities as well as interviews with prominent figures in science and culture are also published in the sections “Book Reviews” and “Scientific Life”.

In order to be accepted by the editorial office, the article should be in full compliance with the formatting requirements. Plagiarism, self-plagiarism and self-repetition are not acceptable. Correctly formatted citation in the text of the manuscript should not exceed 20% of its volume.

Research and review articles and philosophical essays are published according to the decision of the editorial board and the editor-in-chief on the grounds of positive reviews. However, positive reviews in and of themselves are insufficient for the publication of an article. The final decision on its publication is made by the editor-in-chief. The decision to reject a manuscript is taken during an editorial board meeting in accordance with the recommendations of reviewers. An article that is not recommended for publication according to the editorial board's decision will not be accepted for reconsideration. Authors will be notified about the refusal via e-mail. The rejection rate is 90%.

In order to submit an article, one should create an account on concept.mgimo.ru and send the manuscript directly on the web page and submit the paper online. Articles submitted to the journal ought to meet the formatting requirements and provide significant, complete and not yet published results of scientific research. When submitting an article, the authors should confirm the following points; otherwise, the manuscript may be returned to the authors:

• The article has not been published before, nor has it been submitted for review and publication in another journal (alternatively, an explanation should be provided in comments for the editor).
• All co-authors agree to the publication of the article as is.
• The article should be submitted in Open Office, Microsoft Word, RTF or Word Perfect format.
• URLs for references should be provided if necessary.
• All authors are required to retract the article or submit correction of errors, if there are any.
• The reference list is to be provided by the authors and arranged in accordance with the requirements of the journal.
• Authors must provide information on financial support.
• Formatting must follow these prescribed styles:
• Line spacing – 1,5;
• Font – Times New Roman;
• Font size – 14;
• Italics should be used for highlighting instead of underlined text, except for URLs;
• All illustrations, charts, and tables should be accompanied by captions in both Russian and English and be located in the appropriate places in the text rather than at the end of the document itself.
• An ‘em dash’ (—) cannot be substituted with a hyphen or an ‘en dash’ ( - ) to set off sentence elements.

The journal Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture sets the following criteria for authorship:

• Considerable contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
• Drafting the article or revising it crucially for important intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• All authors on the authoring list of the article should meet the conditions mentioned above. Other contributors should be mentioned in the “Acknowledgements”.

Article structure and the sequence of its elements:

1) The type of article:

1. research article – a detailed presentation of the results of a completed scientific research;
2. review article – critical summary of understanding of a research topic;
3. philosophical essay – a free-form writing that provides an original articulation and coverage of the problem and presents a well-argued position of the author;
4. book review – a critical account of reading a newly published monograph.

2) UDC (can be assigned by the author and be changed by the editorial board if necessary), left alignment.

3) The title of the article in English. The title should be brief and reflect the essence of the research problem. The Formatting should be Font size – 16 and left alignment. Note: The title of a Book review can be a bibliographic record for the monograph under review.

4) The following Author information should be provided in English:

• Name, patronymic initial, surname (e.g., Ivan I. Ivanov). The surname should be spelled as in the international passport or as it was spelled in previous publications of the author. Otherwise, transliteration should be carried out matching BSI standard;
• Official English name of the organization the author is affiliated with;
• Address of the organization (city, country);
• Author’s e-mail.
• ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID – ORCID), if available.
• Photo of the author(s).

5) Abstract (summary in English, 350–400 words). Including a relevant description of scientific novelty, research methods and research results. The academic English used should be correct (active verb forms in the present tense are preferable). The abstract constitutes a summary of the article; it should state essential facts of the research paper and should not include any material that cannot be found in the main body of the article. It should give a clear and concise account of the article and its key results. Direct citation of the article fragments should be avoided. The abstract should be structured to reflect the research relevance, its subject, methodology, novelty, main theoretical results of the research (succinctly) and a summary of any conclusion from the results. The abstract should be substantial instead of descriptive. Oblique and emotive phrases like ‘in the article...’ ‘the author analyses...’ and ‘expresses conviction that…’ should be omitted. Suggested phrases include ‘the analysis of the acquired data shows…’, ‘the novelty of the research is…’, ‘it allowed me to conclude that…’ and the like. Vague wording and colloquial expressions (‘as we all know…’; ‘we must…’), obvious conclusions, opinions, method description without showing its results should be avoided. Newly coined terms, unfamiliar abbreviations and literature references should not be included in the abstract. It is common to refer to specific rather than solely general scientific methods (such as ‘analysis’, ‘deductive and inductive reasoning’, ‘synthesis’, and ‘system approach’), or unspecified methods of statistics, qualitative and quantitative methods. It is advisable not to substantiate the novelty of the research by referring to theoretical works of local and foreign authors.
6) Key words (7–10 words or word combinations in English) should be relevant to the topic, reflect the terminology of the subject area and be used in the main body of the article. Polysemic and abstract words and word combinations should be avoided. Key words need to be easily found via search engines. Key words are separated by commas. There is no full stop at the end.
7) Acknowledgements in English (optional): sources of research funding, foundations, grants as well as gratitude to those who inspired or assisted the author.
8) Type of article in Russian (Исследовательская статья / Обзорная статья / Философское эссе / Книжная рецензия).
9) The title of the article in Russian, Formatted with capitalized letters in semi-bold type, left alignment and font size – 16. The title should be in full correspondence with the title of the article in English and be grammatically correct.
10) Author information in Russian:
Name, patronymic initial, surname (e.g., Ivan I. Ivanov). The surname should be spelled as in the international passport or as it was spelled in previous publications of the author. Otherwise, transliteration should be carried out matching BSI standard;

• Official English name of the organization the author is affiliated with;
• Address of the organization (city, country);
• Author’s e-mail.
• ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID – ORCID), if available.
• Photo of the author(s).

11) Abstract of the article in Russian (200–250 words). NO ITALICS. The abstract should constitute a summary of the article (stating essential facts of the research paper) and should not include any material that cannot be found in the main body of the article. It should give a clear and concise account of the article and its key results. Direct citation of the article fragments should be avoided. The abstract should be structured to reflect the research relevance, its subject, methodology, novelty, main theoretical results of the research (succinctly). 
12) Key words (7–10 words or word combinations in Russian) should be relevant to the topic, reflect the terminology of the subject area and be used in the main body of the article. Polysemic and abstract words and word combinations should be avoided. Key words need to be easily found via search engines. Key words are separated by commas. There is no full atop at the end.
13) Acknowledgements in Russian (optional): sources of research funding, foundations, grants as well as gratitude to those who inspired or assisted the author.
14) The Main body of the work following the guidelines listed below for each article type:

Research article (4000-20000 words)

Introduction. (What was the purpose of the research?) Introduction should contain the purpose, problem/research question, justification of its significance, critical review of the literature on the problem (covering alternative answers of various researchers to the research question), the author's original hypothesis, methods applied to prove or reject the hypothesis and the work plan (the plan should include goals, or stages of achieving the determined results). If the abstract only names the methods used in the research, the subsection Methodology and methods of research gives a more detailed description of the methodology, justifies the choice of method(s) and proves their relevance to the determined scientific goals. The introduction should provide the background of the scientific question and reference information necessary to understand the article. It should include theoretical works that the author draws on (10–20 works, with 2/3 published in the previous 3–5 years, preferably in reputable knowledge bases).

When describing the essence of the problem, the author should ensure that the references made are:
a) Balanced. If the reference section contains works with findings that are contrary to the author’s ones, they need to be cited.
b) Up to date. Works published more than 10 years ago should not be referred to. The first work to mention the research question should be named regardless its publication date.
c) Relevant. It is of utmost importance to see that all references are relevant to the question under consideration.

Results (novelty) of the research. (What was found?) The section outlines the findings without interpreting them or analyzing their consequences. The results should be arranged logically, i.e., in the order of their significance regardless of the order they were mentioned in the text. Verbs should be used in the past tense to describe the findings, and in the present tense to describe numbers and tables. Figures and tables are desirable but not obligatory.

Discussion. (What does it all mean?) The findings should be discussed starting with the most significant ones. It is advisable to use headings for naming individual results. The findings need to be compared with the findings of other researchers to see if there are any contradictions and account for the possible reasons for it. All contradicting results should be listed and reasoned. Further research may be suggested. This section should include limitations of the research and acknowledgement of its possible drawbacks. It is important to note that limitations indicate deep understanding of the research question and an unbiased attitude of the author, rather than weakness of the research. Possible implications for studies in the same field or other disciplines, as well as for readers should be highlighted. What are their practical implications? What do the findings add to the existing knowledge on the subject? If the results are intermediate further research might be suggested.

Conclusion. This section repeats the key findings of the study related to the original thesis.

Review article (4000-20000 words)

Introduction. (What was the purpose of the research?) The introduction should state the purposes of the review, research question or hypothesis under consideration. Criteria for selecting scientific works should be named. All potentially useful works, both published and unpublished, should be mentioned. Methods that were used to analyze the selected works need to be described.

Research. (What was done?) Literature that was selected according to the criteria stated in the introduction should be analyzed by qualitative (e.g., comparison) or quantitative (e.g., scientometrics) methods. It is recommended to use headings.

Results. (What was found?) The results of the analysis should be presented clearly and convincingly through storytelling, or quantitative data analysis using tables, diagrams, etc.

Discussion. (What does it all mean?) Key findings of the review should be interpreted. They are expected to amplify understanding of the topic rather than merely repeat known facts. Implications of the results and their contribution to further research should be described and explained.

Conclusion. Conclusion emphasizes the key finding of the review and indicates limitations and perspectives of the approaches used in the research.

Philosophical essay (up to 10000 words)

Introduction. (What was the purpose of the research?) The introduction should articulate the main philosophical problem the essay is devoted to and its background.

Research. (What was done?) Reasoned disclosure of the problem based on the analyzed material.

Conclusion. An outline of the main conclusion of the study.

Book review (500-5000 words)

Introduction. (Why was this book chosen?) The book’s significance should be explained from the point of view of science, culture, international relations etc.

Description. (What is the book about?) Problems covered, main arguments, methods, theories used, types of data, style of writing, possible sources of bias, limitations, target audience.

Criticism. Inner criticism deals with finding self-contradictions in the book: contradictions between the research question and the plan of research, types of data, theory and methods. The author is to answer the following questions:

How reasoned are the arguments?
Is the theory used justified?
Are the explanations for the results obtained convincing, can there be alternative explanations?
Do the conclusions unambiguously follow from the presented arguments?
Are the comparisons relevant?
Is causality really present where the author of the book sees it?
Are there enough examples to support this conclusion?
Does the book contain any questionable assumptions?
Is the line of reasoning logical?

Contextual criticism aims to reflect any contradictions between the reviewed book and its context, formed by other studies on the same issue. An attempt should be made to assess the novelty and significance of the findings in comparison with existing knowledge.

Conclusion. Gives an outline of the main strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed work and its final evaluation. 

The editorial board adheres to its initial principle: structural elements of the article (introduction, main body and conclusion) must be included in the article, but they do not need to be graphically distinguished as separate sections of the article.

According to the adopted rules, the quoted text in the English part of the article (abstract, keywords) should be highlighted by italics, no quotation marks are used. Dates (year(s), century(s)) should be recorded in a brief form, for example: 2020, 1960s, 20th century, 19th–20th centuries. It is recommended to omit the word year in parentheses, for example: (1986), (1958–1986).

15) References. List of non-textual bibliographic references (20–30 sources) are formatted in accordance with the Harvard international citation style. The editorial staff of the journal uses the Mendeley Reference Manager. Detailed rules for formatting the bibliography are indicated in the article template.
This section should contain only scientific literature mentioned or cited in the main text of the article. The list includes up-to-date newest literature on the topic published in peer-reviewed scientific journals or monographs, at least a third of the publications from the list should be indexed in Scopus, WOS. The names of journals should not be arbitrarily abbreviated.
The literature reflects the research framework of the article. This framework should be consistent with the research question and at the same time should not be limited to it. The list of references should clearly show the branch of science to which the article belongs.
Bibliographic records in the list of text links are arranged in the alphabetical order of citing sources. If the source has a DOI, it should be indicated at the end of the bibliographic description in a hyperlink format.
References to dictionaries, archival records, press reports, textbooks, study guides, dissertations and extended abstracts thereof along with electronic resources (including digital media editions) should be provided exclusively as footnotes throughout the pages (consecutive numbering) and are not included in the reference list. Instead of dissertations and extended abstracts, it is advisable to cite published sources.
Any necessary explanations, clarifications, etc. should also be provided as footnotes. The latter may contain references. References to electronic resources should be distinguished from those to electronic publications in printed scientific journals. While the former are to be provided in the form of footnotes, the latter are included in the reference list as is the case with publications in printed scientific journals.
This list includes metadata of articles in English that can be found on the front page or at the end of the article: Surname, name and patronymic of the author (Latin alphabet), English title of the article (transliteration from Russian or Eastern languages given in square brackets, if there is no English name), name of the journal in English (or its transliteration from the ISSN portal portal.issn.org), imprint, for works that are not originally in roman alphabet there should be an indication of their language at the end of the reference: (In Russian), DOI in hyperlink format.
Transliteration should be carried out automatically with the help of translit.ru Make sure to select the transliteration mode LC (Library of Congress).
Attention!!! When transliterating, one should provide the authors' names in their original or English spelling (F. Nietzsche, E. Husserl, C. Levi-Strauss) and not in the transliterated version (F. Nitsshe, Je. Gusserl', K. Levi-Stross).
The title of the work needs to be translated (not solely transliterated). The name of the publishing house is only transliterated. For example:
Bely, A. (1999) Dusha samosoznaiushchaia [Self-Conscious Soul]. Moscow: Kanon+ Publ. (In Russian)
When referring to foreign literature in References, an original publication should be provided together with a transliterated Russian edition in brackets. For example:
Assmann, J. (1992) Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen. München: Beck. (Russ.ed.: (2004) Kul’turnaja pamjat’: Pys’mo y pamjat’ o proshlom y polytycheskaja ydentychnost’ v vyysokyh kul’turah drevnosty. Moscow: Jazyyky slavjanskoj kul’turyy).

16) Список литературы (Reference list in Russian style)
List of non-textual bibliographic references, drawn up in accordance with GOST R 7.0.5. Bibliographic records in this list are given alphabetically in Russian; in foreign languages (for European languages in the Latin alphabet), a list of literature in oriental languages should be given in the original language along with a translation of the bibliographic description into Russian in square brackets. Detailed rules for formatting the bibliography are listed in the article template.

17) Information about the authors. Detailed rules are listed in the article template. Additional information about the author(s): name, patronymic initial, full surname, academic credentials, academic title, job title, name of the organization. Address: House number + Street name, Town/City, County, Postcode. Information about membership and rewards; author’s IDs (excluding ORCID) etc.

18) Information on conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are a situation in which the concerns of aims of two different parties are incompatible so that it may influence the decision of the editorial board. Conflicts of interest may be potential, intentional and real. Personal, political, financial, scientific and religious considerations may affect objectivity. The author ought to inform the editor of the conflict of interest and include this information in the relevant section of the article. If there is no conflict of interest, there should be a statement about, e.g. The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Article Template

Update date: 20.10.2023

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The manuscript has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

2. The materials should be prepared in an accepted format: OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or World Perfect.

3. Internet links are provided as a complete URL. 

4. Text should be typed with an interval of one and a half line spacing, font Times New Roman, 14 pt. To highlight the accents it is recommended to use italics rather than underlining (except Internet links). All illustrations, graphs and tables are accompanied by captions in Russian and English and are located in appropriate places in the text (not at the end of the document).

5. Please, remove the authors' names from the title of the article and other parts of the document to ensure the anonymity of reviewing.

Copyright Notice

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

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of the first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

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