6. Editorial workflow

1 Preliminary check

The Scientific Direction establishes the conclusion of the peer review process and indicates to ECF editorial staff which manuscripts are ready to be published.

The editorial staff takes the text of the manuscript from the peer review platform and proceeds with a preliminary check of the adherence to the editorial guidelines. The first step of verification in this phase concerns the bibliography and the references in the text to the bibliographic sources, which must comply with our standards, making the nature of the cited sources evident in the bibliography (if articles in journals, if essays in miscellany, if monographs, if other documents); besides, all references to the cited sources must be clear and complete. In addition to this main element, the presence and completeness of the following elements will also be checked:

  • title, subtitle
  • main author and affiliation, as well as correct identification of any co-authors
  • abstract, keywords

If there are obvious gaps in the text and in the bibliographic apparatus, the manuscript is sent back to the author with a request to make adjustments. The publishing house reserves the right to block or postpone the publication if the author does not comply with these necessary steps.

In this preliminary phase, other elements are also evaluated, such as: tables, graphs, diagrams, trees, interlinear glosses, images (illustrations, drawings, photographs, works of art, etc.). The editorial staff reserves the right to ask the author for all changes, additions, replacements necessary for a correct and timely course of editing. In relation to the images, checks will be made regarding the correct and complete drafting of the captions, which must contain a clear description of the source of the images and of the person or institution who owns the rights.

2 Proofing procedure

First draft: at the end of this editing activity, the pdf of the article is sent to the author, containing in the comments all the corrections and warnings brought to their attention. Together with the pdf are sent instructions on how to operate in the draft. The author must return the pdf, reporting exclusively within it in the form of a comment all the responses to the reports submitted or requests for additions or any corrections he directly decided on.

The editorial staff examines the responses to the first draft and reports what is necessary in the document, updating it. If the editorial team believes that the draft was not sufficient to resolve all the issues that emerged, it will send the author a second draft, following the same procedures as the first.

The first draft must be returned within 10 days of sending, the second draft within 3.

3 Publishing agreement

Together with the first draft, a publication contract is sent to the author containing the following salient points:

  • the author is asked for authorisation to publish online
  • it is made clear that the copyright on the text remains with the author himself, who can dispose of it from the moment of publication, according to open access practices
  • the author is asked to confirm the attribution of the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license or to indicate more restrictive degrees of CC license based on the needs of the document
  • authorisation is requested for the dissemination of metadata aimed at a wider dissemination, visibility and citation of the article

The contract is submitted in pdf for signature and is accepted only if returned as a signed pdf, according to the instructions provided at the time of sending.

4 Online publication

Once the document has reached a satisfactory level of editorial care and is in line with ECF editorial standards, it is sent to the Scientific Direction in order to receive the final approval for online publication.

ECF allows the publication in progress of articles as part of a more general publication of a journal issue. Therefore, it is possible that those articles that conclude peer review and editing early, may be published online before the completion of the publication of the entire dossier, and therefore in advance of the formal publication date of the dossier itself.