Journal Policies

Editorial Oversight

The two Editors of Medieval Sermon Studies (MSS) are invited to take up the role by the Board of the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society. Candidate editors undergo a thorough review and interview process before being appointed to the position. Editors must be established academics with a clear and internationally recognised expertise in the field of medieval sermon studies. Editorial assistants are invited to take up this role by the Editors. Guest editors are invited by the Editors or may also put themselves forward. An interview with the Editors determines whether a guest editor is appointed.

The two Editors are jointly responsible for publishing annually an issue of the journal according to the format and standards set by the Council. The Editors report to the Council through its President. The Book Review Editor is responsible for coordinating publication of the Book Review Section. The tasks of editorial assistants are determined together with the editors and consist, e.g., in helping with proofreading, selecting suitable peer reviewers, or other administrative tasks. Editors can continue in their position for four years, with the possibility of a second term of four years. The Editors discuss their current workload and ability to continue in their role yearly with the President of the Society. A term of appointment may be shortened if it is no longer compatible with the Editor’s workload.

Both editors make joint decisions on article acceptance following peer review and monitor together the decisions made by guest editors. In case of disagreement, the Book Review Editor breaks the tie.

The Advisory Board is tasked with maintaining and guaranteeing the quality and high standard of the journal. They are kept informed on the progress of the current issue and meet as part of the Business Meeting of the Society at the Symposium, which takes place every two years. Advisory Board members regularly take on peer reviewing tasks. The composition of the Advisory Board is reviewed every two years as part of the Business Meeting.

Current members of the Advisory Board may be found here.

This journal cultivates a broad and experienced Advisory Board that contains members from across different nations, academic institutions, genders and demographics. Potential board members are approached by the editorial team while keeping this diversity in mind.

Peer Review Process

Upon submission to the journal, an author's article is assessed by the editors to make sure that it fits the scope of the journal and that it is of sufficient academic quality to be sent out for peer review. Upon passing these checks, the editorial team will progress the article to peer review.

MSS uses the double-anonymous peer review process for all research articles. This means that the peer reviewer is not sent any identifying information about the author on the manuscript that they review. Similarly, the author cannot see any identifying information about the peer reviewer. All manuscripts are screened by the editors and any identifying information is removed prior to the manuscript being sent to peer review. Editors also ensure that any returned peer review reports do not contain any information that could identify the peer reviewer. If such information is present, the peer review reports may be modified as sparingly as possible to remove this information from the author’s view. The original peer review report remains in the journal’s submission and review system to protect the integrity of the peer review process.

All research articles must pass the peer review process with at least two double-anonymous peer review reports of ‘Accept Without Revisions’ or ‘Minor Revisions’, with all necessary revisions made. Articles with a decision of ‘Major Revisions’ must be sent for another round of peer review once revisions have been completed, and two further peer review reports must be returned before another editorial judgement can be made. The same peer reviewers from the first round of review may be approached and offered the opportunity to re-review the article to ensure that their concerns have been satisfactorily addressed.

Conference or meeting reports need not pass the peer review process but are subject to a review by the editors.

Desk rejection must be agreed upon by both editors and happens for one of two reasons: the article does not fit the scope or focus of MSS or the article is of insufficient quality to be considered in its current state. In the latter case, authors will be asked to address the quality issues before resubmitting their article.

MSS uses the double-anonymous peer review process because we believe it is the best guarantee of high-quality research. We are appreciative of the time and diligence expended by peer reviewers and acknowledge it as a valuable form of academic citizenship.

Peer reviewers are selected by the journal's editors. The journal maintains a database of members of the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society, along with their areas of expertise, who have indicated a willingness to act as peer reviewers for the journal. The editors recruit peer reviewers from this group but may also recruit reviewers that are external to the Society, depending on the topic and required expertise. Prior to a peer reviewer's acceptance to undertake review, the title of the research and a short summary is supplied if needed. According to its double-anonymous peer review policy, MSS does not publish peer review reports alongside articles, or the names of the peer reviewers who have undertaken review of the article. Anonymised peer review data is held securely and privately in the journal’s publishing platform for the author to access whenever they choose to.

The Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This journal follows the publisher's guidance on the use of generative AI for submissions and in the journal's publishing workflow.

Authors should read the publisher's AI policy in full and adhere to it before submitting their research to this journal, paying particular attention to acceptable and unacceptable uses of generative AI and advice on whether it is necessary for an 'AI Declaration Statement' to be made with their submission.

Conduct and Expected Behaviour

In addition to adhering to the publisher's guidance on the responsibilities of the different parties in the publishing process, MSS has its own Ethical Code that can be found here and must be followed.

Organization and Governance

Medieval Sermon Studies is owned and managed by the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society (IMSSS), a not-for-profit scholarly association established in 1977 and funded by membership subscriptions. The society promotes and fosters the study of medieval sermons and preaching in Latin and European vernacular languages within their social, literary, religious, intellectual, theological, catechetical, political and historical contexts. The Council of the Society is responsible for appointing the editorial team, managed by two Editors with a term of 4 years.

Business Practices

Advertising

This journal does not permit any advertising on the journal’s website and will never consider requests of any kind from other parties wishing to advertise in the journal or on its webpages.

Direct Marketing

This journal does not engage in any direct marketing practices.

The publisher, the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), employs a Community Engagement Manager who undertakes general marketing activities for the publisher including the promotion of its journals. The Community Engagement Manager does not, however, engage in direct marketing for any OLH journals and this does not affect the editorial decisions of OLH journals in any way.

Other Revenue

MSS is funded by OLH’s Library Membership Model. The journal also accepts Voluntary Author Contributions (VACs) for articles.

Additionally, subscriptions by members of the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society contribute in part to facilitating a limited print run of the journal's annual volume of articles. This revenue does not cover the complete printing cost, which is why print copies are offered at a small cost.

Preprint Policy

MSS does not publish preprints. The journal may consider articles based on work that has already been made openly available as a preprint, if the research is suitable to the scope of the journal. The article must successfully pass through the journal’s double-anonymous peer review process before being published, however. MSS’ remit is to publish original research that has not been previously published in another journal.

Thematic Sections

MSS welcomes special Thematic Sections edited by Guest Editors. These Thematic Sections go through the same double-anonymous peer review process as individual submissions. The Guest Editors normally provide an introduction or rationale for the Section that is reviewed only by the Editors.

Thematic Sections may be proposed to the journal on the initiative of the Guest Editors or the Editors may reach out to potential Guest Editors for a Thematic Section on a relevant topic. The Guest Editors are responsible for selecting and gathering the submissions, after which they are submitted to the journal for the regular peer review procedure.

The journal’s main editorial team oversees the editorial processes for Thematic Sections. Since all decisions and responsibilities lie with the Editors, submissions to Thematic Sections have the same quality guarantees in place as regular submissions.

If you are interested in proposing a Thematic Section, please contact the Editors.