Academic Periodical

Our Recommendations on Article Contents

When preparing materials for publication, we recommend that you keep the following criteria in mind, as they will be used to evaluate your material: 

1. Materials should correspond with the announced topic;
2. Should contain broad and detailed argumentation on the topic’s relevance, proceeding from prior research;
3. The author’s point of view should correlate in some way with those of other prominent researchers in such a way as to be “within the tradition” of research into the question at hand. Any polemic and/or disagreement should be rigorously argued, yet handled delicately and with grace;
4. Statements and results of research laid out in the article should be true to fact and reliable (the article should not contain a priori statements not based on fact or experience). Terms, theses and ideas used should be referenced either to the research tradition or to empirical evidence, as appropriate;
5. Articles should contain innovative statements and research results, deductions and analysis of compiled materials. Review-style compilations of previous research are not acceptable;
6. Research results and conclusions should be well-reasoned and justifiable, relying upon theory and methodology appropriate to the given field of academic knowledge and research;
7. Statements and results should have academic significance;
8. Materials in the article should be properly presented and formatted, obtaining to the appropriate academic standard.

Rules for Formatting Articles

Articles for submission to the SFI Journal should accord with the rules for formatting set out below. If articles do not accord with the rules, they will be returned to the author for modification.

General Formatting Rules

1. Average article length is 30–40 thousand characters, minimum 20 thousand, maximum 60 thousand.
2. The article should be accompanied by the following information about the author: Surname, given names, email address, information about degrees/education, professional information including place of work and position.
3. If the text contains foreign words and phrases, letters with accents (diacritic marks), etc., the author must submit a printed copy or a pdf version of the article.
4. Articles should be submitted in electronic form, as .doc or .rft documents, Times New Roman font, 14 or 12-point size. Texts which contain ancient languages or languages which use special symbols should be submitted using Unicode fonts. Under particular circumstances the use of other fonts will be allowed, but this must be agreed with the editorial office. Italics are used to draw particular attention to the sense of a word (rather than underlining or bold.)
5. All headings and subheadings of equivalent level should be formatted in uniform style throughout the document (same typeface, font, and font size). Different levels of heading should differ from each other.
6. «French quotation marks» should be used, rather than "straight quotes". In such case as quotation marks are found within quotation marks, then “double quotes” are used.
7. There should not be any double spaces in the text (they can be removed with the help of find-replace).
8. Paragraph breaks and indents within the text must be made using paragraph formatting tools, without using the “tab” button on the keyboard, and without using multiple spaces.

Abstract and Keywords

1. The article must be accompanied by an abstract, in Russian and English, of between 200 and 250 words, and by a list of keywords (7 to 10 words or phrases characterizing the article) in Russian and English, the author’s translation of the article’s title into English, and the author’s full name in English.
2. The abstract, or author’s summary, should provide a statement of the article’s main topic, the issue(s) being discussed, the goals of the research, a description of the basic research method, and the main conclusions of the study. The abstract should contain a statement of the article’s contributions to the field and what distinguishes it from other articles in the same field. The abstract should be informative (should not contain generalizations), descriptive (reflecting the content of the article and the results of the research) and structured (following the logic of the results described in the article). Both the English and Russian versions of the abstract should be written in good quality language (no “Google Translate” or literal, word-for-word translations, please). The abstract should not contain references to the full version of the text, or abbreviations and short forms which are only laid out in full in the main text. Abbreviations and short forms used in the abstract must be deciphered within the abstract itself.
3. The Keywords provided should be a list of the main concepts and themes used to describe the issue being researched. These words will be used by search engines which aid prospective readers in finding material that is of interest to them in large databases. For this reason, the keywords should reflect the article’s field of research, topic of research, goal and specific tasks.

Formatting Quotations and the Bibliography

1. A list of materials used in the research is presented in alphabetical order at the end of the article. If the article uses a large number of sources, these can be presented in a separate list. Foreign language materials follow research language sources in the list (Russian language sources first if the paper is in Russian, English language sources first if the paper is in English). For example:
   
   Bibliography
   Зеньковский  = Зеньковский В. В. Апологетика. М.: Грааль, 2001. 248 с.
   Herburt = Herburt J. De ieiunio et abstinentia in Ecclesia Byzantina : Ab initiis usque ad saec. XI. Romae : Pontificia Universita lateranense, 1968. xii, 131 p. (Corona Lateranensis; 12).
    
2. The bibliography should be formatted according to Russian federal standard ГОСТ Р 7.05-2008. Please note that for each work in the bibliography, the total number of pages should be shown (the page range for articles in larger collections or in periodicals), the place of publication (city) and the name of the publishing house. Each title should be accompanied by an assigned short form (please see point 6 of this check-list for details on how this is done). Foreign literature should be handled in the same way.
3. To make reference to works listed in the bibliography in the text of the article, the short form is used, enclosed in square brackets. Inside the square brackets should be the title followed by a comma and then the page number(s) for the reference. The first words of the listing in the bibliography are used as the short form description for the work. Most often, this is the name of the author. In such case as the title of a given work is the first information to appear in the bibliography listing, then either the first word or the main keyword from the name of the work is used. For instance: 
   [Карташев, 48];
   [Введение, 60–62].
   
   In such case as the bibliography contains more than one work by a single author, to the author’s surname the year of publication is added. If publication years coincide, than an index letter (a, b, c etc.) is appended to the year of publication, in the following manner:
   
   Зеньковский 2001а = ЗеньковскийВ. В. Апологетика. М. : Грааль, 2001. 248 с.
   Зеньковский 2001б = Зеньковский В. В. Христианское учение о познании. М. : Грааль, 2001. 137 с.
   
   As a rule, the method explained above is used in the case of a given article’s primary sources and other sources listed in the bibliography. Other sources can be listed in footnotes (at the bottom of the page) and are not generally included in the list of source literature. In this case, the footnote should contain full bibliographical details for the work cited (please see point 5).
    
4. All quotations and references to source literature should be double-checked by the author.
5. If unusual abbreviations appears in the text, the author should provide a list of such abbreviations, along with clarification.
6. Within quotations it is permissible for the author to make the following parenthetical remarks, followed by his/her initials: (italics mine — И.Ф.), (highlighted by the author — И.Ф.).
7. It is permissible to structurally delineate large (many line) quotations and poetry, beginning on the line following the main text of the article. In such cases, quotation marks are not used, but the quotation is set apart by its formatting as a separate paragraph, the text of which should be 2 point smaller than that of the main article text (e.g., 10-point Times New Roman, if the main article text is 12-point Times New Roman).
8. Articles should be submitted in electronic form, as .doc or .rft documents, Times New Roman font, 14 or 12-point size. Texts which contain ancient languages or languages which use special symbols should be submitted using Unicode fonts. Under particular circumstances, the use of other fonts will be allowed, but this must be agreed with the editorial office. Italics are used to draw particular attention to the sense of a word (rather than underlining or bold.)
9. All headings and subheadings of equivalent level should be formatted in uniform style throughout the document (same typeface, font, and font size). Different levels of heading should differ from each other.
10. In Russian language text «French quotation marks» should be used, rather than "straight quotes". In such case as quotation marks are found within quotation marks, then “double quotes” are used.
11. Inside Russian abbreviations such as «т. д.», «т. е.», «т. п.» a nonbreaking space should be used (you can find and insert a nonbreaking space in the Word Menu at: Insert →Symbol→Special Characters→Nonbreaking Space, or by pressing Ctrl, Shift and Space at the same time. The Russian expression «так как» should not be abbreviated.
12. There should not be any double spaces in the text (they can be removed with the help of find-replace).
13. Paragraph breaks and indents within the text must be made using paragraph formatting tools, without using the “tab” button on the keyboard, and without using multiple spaces.

Transliteration of Scholarly Materials for your Bibliography (References)

1. At the end of the article, after the foreign language abstract (Russian if the article is in English, English if the article is in Russian), a transliterated list of bibliographical sources appears (References). This list is drawn up according to the standards set out in international bibliographic guidelines (Web of Science, Scopus). All words used in the article’s list of References should appear in correct, internationally agreed transliteration into the Latin alphabet. A translation into English of transliterated text is needed in the cases specified below. When transliterating, it is acceptable to use any computer program in which it is possible to transliterate in accordance with the recommendations of the Library of Congress (see, for instance, here).
2. Every bibliographic reference which does not originally appear in the Latin alphabet should be transliterated, and the title information for the work (article, study, conference) should be translated and listed in square brackets immediately after the transliterated portion of the bibliographical reference. The place of publication, as well as the words “издательство”, “страницы”, and “номер", are also translated. After the close of the square brackets the original language of publication is noted with the words, “in Russian”, “in Arabic”, “in Chinese”, etc. If the reference is to an article which was read in translation, then the original name and bibliographical information in the Latin alphabet is given, and after the close of the square brackets the language in which the materials were used is cited, for example, “Russian translation”.
3. Any names of academic journals given in transliteration must coincide with the way in which the journals themselves transliterate their own names when they appear in international databases.
4. Surnames and names of authors which are not originally in the Latin alphabet must coincide with specified transliteration rules. An exception to this rule is made in cases in which the author has international publications, and his or her name is generally transliterated in a way which does not accord with specified transliteration rules. In such cases, it is logical to preserve the previously existing transliteration, so as not to give rise to confusion. 
   
   Examples: 
   
   Monographs/Studies 
   Asmolov A.G. (1990). Psikhologiya lichnosti [Personality Psychology]. Moscow: Publ. MGU (in Russian). 
   Gadamer H.-G. (1988). Wahrheit und Methode. Moscow: Progress (Russian translation). 
   Daniélou J. (1961). Message évangélique et culture hellénistique. Tournai: Desclée 
   
   Journal articles 
   Karpov A.V. (2013). “Eksperiment v issledovaniiakh protsessov priniatiia resheniia: problemy i perspektivy” [“The experiment in the study of decision making process: problems and prospects”]. Eksperimental’naia psikhologiia, 2013, vol. 2, pp. 5–18 (in Russian). 
   Hadot P. (1979). “Les divisions des parties de la philosophie dans l’Antiquite”. Museum Helveticum, 1979, vol. 36, pp. 201–223. 
   Smirnov S. (2013). “Dinamika promyshlennogo proizvodstva v SSSR i Rossii: Chast’ I. Opyt rekonstruktsii, 1861–2012” [“Industrial Output in the USSR and Russia, 1861–2012. Part I. Reconstruction of Basic Time-series”]. Voprosy ekonomiki, 2013, no. 6, pp. 59–83 (in Russian). 
   
   Articles from collections or single chapters from broader studies/monographs 
   Martin D. (1994). “Religion, Secularization and Postmodernity: Lessons from the Latin American Case”, in P. Repstadt (ed.). Religion and Modernity: Models of Coexistence. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, pp. 35–43. 
   
   Collections edited by a single author  
   Repstadt P. (ed.) (1994). Religion and Modernity: Models of Coexistence. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press 
   
   References to Sources in the Internet 
   Mozgov K.A. Propoved’ oglashaemym o Hriste v nachal’nyi period katehizatsii (I–V vek) [The sermon read out about Christ in the initial period of catechesis (I – V century)], available at: https://sfi.ru/science/nauchno-praktichieskiie-konfierientsii/traditsiia-sviatootiechieskoi-katiekhizatsii-kierighmatichieskaia-propovied-o-khristie-dlia-slushaiushchikh-i-prosvieshchaiemykh-2016/izbrannyie-doklady/osobiennosti-sovriemiennoi-pravoslavnoi-propoviedi-o-khristie-na-urovnie-kierighmy-2.html (in Russian).