About the Journal

Aims and Scope

"Current Issues of Mass Communication" is a professional scientific publication of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Journalism, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The journal publishes original, completed contributions in the field of mass communication, reflecting current trends in this domain in Ukraine and the world, patterns, processes, structures, and forms of mass communication relations. Priority is given to the studies of mass communication trends in technological development, media, journalism, publishing, advertising, public relations, social informatics, document science, library science, etc., which is relevant for the Ukrainian and world audience.

Our journal has the following sections:

  1. Discussions (contains scholarly and journalistic columns or comments of the editorial board, editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board regarding results of research that have not been reviewed but are of interest. These publications are not scientific articles).
  2. Review articles (scientific literature reviews on a particular issue. Reviews are a kind of scientific article. Our journal publishes reviews that use the method of meta-analysis).
  3. Research articles (with results of scientific research that correspond to the journal's profile, have been reviewed and approved for publication as scientific articles). Such article should have empirical data at its core.
  4. Interdisciplinary research (peer-reviewed scientific articles that present original research results but go beyond the narrow profile of the journal, and their authors are scholars from other fields. However, such research articles should be at least partially related to mass communication). 
  5. Reviews (reviews on various scientific publications in the field of mass communication, including reviews on books, scientific articles, reviews of opponents on the dissertation).

The journal's audience includes scientists, teachers, students, professionals in media and communications, and a wide range of readers interested in current trends in the development of the communication space.

The journal is included in the "List of scientific professional publications of Ukraine, which may publish the results of dissertations for the degree of Doctor of Sciences, Candidate of Sciences and Doctor of Philosophy". Category "B".

Languages ​​of publication: Ukrainian, English.

 

A guide for editors and reviewers

A guide for editors

International standards for editors developed and adopted at the 2nd International Conference on Research Integrity in Research (Singapore, July 22-24, 2010) were used to develop the editors' rules of procedure.

General rules for editors:

- Editors are responsible for everything they publish.

- Editors must make objective and impartial decisions, regardless of commercial considerations, and ensure a fair and appropriate review process.

- Editors should adopt an editorial policy that encourages maximum transparency and full, honest reporting.

- Editors should protect the integrity of published content by announcing corrections and rebuttals when necessary and should monitor for possible violations in research and publications.

- Editors should monitor the proper work of the reviewer.

- Editors should critically evaluate compliance with human and animal research ethics.

- Editors should inform reviewers and authors of what is expected of them.

- Editors must be able to respond appropriately to editorial conflicts of interest.

In more detail.

 

If you want to become the editor of our journal, please, fill out this form.

Editor Application Form

  A guide for reviewers

The reviewer must read the review policy and process in this journal.

 

Editorial ethics

The journal's editorial board formulates the Guidelines for selecting and accepting articles submitted to the editorial office. In drafting those Guidelines, the editorial board was guided by the Order №32 of 15.01.2018 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine "ABOUT APPROVAL OF THE PROCEDURE FOR FORMATION OF THE LIST OF SCIENTIFIC PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS OF UKRAINE", and Ukrainian scientific communities, organizations, editorial offices. 

Ethical obligations of the journal's editorial office

  1. All manuscripts submitted for publication are carefully selected and reviewed. The editorial board reserves the right to reject the article or return it to the author for revision before reviewing. The author is obliged to refine the article following reviewers' or editorial board’s comments.
  2. A member of the editorial board shall without prejudice examine all manuscripts submitted for publication, evaluating each one duly, regardless of race, religion, nationality, political affiliation, position or place of work of the author (s), etc. However, a member of the editorial board may consider the similarities of the manuscript currently under consideration with other works previously submitted by the same authors.
  3. A member of the editorial board must review the manuscripts submitted for publication as soon as possible.
  4. All responsibility for accepting or rejecting the manuscript lies with the editor-in-chief or his deputy, or the journal's editor. Those responsible for reviewing the manuscript rely on the reviewer's authority and his (her) diligent work related to the preparation of the review. However, manuscripts may be rejected without review if a member of the editorial board considers that they do not meet the topic of the journal, the guidelines for design, and the presentation of content.
  5. Members of the editorial board shall not provide other persons with any information related to the manuscript's content under consideration, except for persons involved in the professional evaluation of this manuscript. After a positive decision of an editorial board member, the article is published in the journal and published on relevant electronic resources.
  6. This journal pursues a policy of immediate open access to published content, upholding the principles of free dissemination of scientific information and global exchange of knowledge for general social progress.
  7. The responsibility and rights of an editorial board member of the journal concerning any submitted manuscript authored by him(her)self shall be delegated to any other qualified person.
  8. If an editorial board member is provided with convincing evidence that the main content or conclusions of the work published in the journal are incorrect, this editorial board member should facilitate the publication of a notice indicating this error. 
  9. The author may request that an editorial board member not involve some reviewers when reviewing the manuscript. However, an editorial board member may decide to use one or more of these reviewers if he or she believes that their views are essential for the impartial consideration of the manuscript. Such a decision may be made, for example, if there are severe inconsistencies between this manuscript and the previous work of a potential reviewer.

Ethical obligations of the authors

  1. Authors of articles are fully responsible for the manuscript content and their publication. The journal's editors are not liable to the authors and/or third parties and organizations for possible damage caused by the article's publication. The editors have the right to withdraw an already published article if it turns out that in the process of publishing the article, someone's rights or the generally accepted norms of scientific ethics have been violated. The editorial board informs the author who submitted the article and the organization where the study was performed about the article's withdrawal.
  2. The study results should be complete and contain the necessary references to available sources of information so that experts in this field can repeat this work. If necessary, the author should provide other researchers with materials that cannot be obtained in any other way; the relevant agreements on the transfer of materials and their non-dissemination are concluded without the permission of the author or authors.
  3. The author should quote those publications that have been used and those that can quickly acquaint the reader with previous research that is important for understanding the submitted article. Except for reviews, citations of papers that are not directly relevant to the article's topic should be minimized.
  4. In preparing the manuscript for publication, the author shall inform the editor-in-chief of the related manuscripts submitted or accepted for publication. 
  5. The аuthor shall not submit manuscripts describing essentially the same results to more than one journal in the form of an original study unless it is a re-submission of a manuscript rejected by the journal or withdrawn by the author.
  6. The author must clearly indicate all quoted or submitted information sources, except for well-known information. Information obtained in private conversation, correspondence, or discussions with third parties should not be used or communicated in the author's work without the researcher's permission from whom this information was obtained.
  7. Co-authors of the article should be those who have made a significant scientific contribution to the presented work and share responsibility for the results obtained. Other contributions should be noted in the notes or the "Acknowledgments" section. Authors who have died should be included as authors with a date of their death indicated in the footnote. In an article written by several authors, the author who submits contact information, documents, and correspondence with members of the editorial board assumes that all the other co-authors consent to publish the article in our journal.
  8. Authors should notify the editor-in-chief of any potential conflict of interest. Authors should also include a statement of potential conflict of interest in the text of the article. This statement can be made in conjunction with acknowledgments and details about the sponsor. In the absence of this information, we will publish the following statement: "The authors did not report a potential conflict of interest."

 Ethical obligations of reviewers

  1. If the selected reviewer is not sure that his / her qualifications correspond to the level of research presented in the manuscript, he/she should immediately inform the editor and refuse to review.
  2. The reviewer should consider the possibility of a conflict of interest if the manuscript is closely related to the reviewer's current or published work. If in doubt, the reviewer should immediately return the manuscript without review, indicating a conflict of interest.
  3. The reviewer should not evaluate a manuscript if its author or co-author has personal or professional ties with the reviewer.
  4. The reviewer should treat the manuscript as a confidential document. He should not show the manuscript to others or discuss it with other colleagues, except in exceptional cases when the reviewer needs someone's particular advice.
  5. Reviewers should explain and justify their judgments so that the editorial board members and authors can understand what their comments are based on. Any statement that the peer-reviewed results of the study have been previously published should be accompanied by a relevant reference.
  6. The reviewer should note any cases of insufficient citation by the author (s) of the other studies directly related to the peer-reviewed work; it should be borne in mind that remarks on insufficient citation of the reviewer's research may seem biased. In addition, the reviewer should draw the editor-in-chief's attention to any significant similarities between this manuscript and any published article or any manuscript submitted to another journal at the same time.
  7. The reviewer must timely provide a filled out reviewer’s form.

 

Conflict of interest

The conflict of interest policy was developed based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommendations.

For authors

The author must fully disclose the conflict of interest while preparing and submitting the manuscript to the journal. The journal editor will first use this information for his decisions regarding the article for publication. The editor may also decide not to publish your article based on any declared conflict. You can declare a conflict of interest in your cover letter or manuscript submission form in the online journal system.

The author should also include a statement of possible conflicts of interest in the text of the article. This statement can be made in conjunction with any acknowledgments and details about the sponsor. In the absence of this information, we will publish the following statement: "The authors did not report a potential conflict of interest."

For reviewers

If the reviewer doubts the potential conflict of interest declared by the author, which may hinder the review in his (her) opinion. In that case, it is necessary to inform the editor and refuse to review. Conflicts of interest can be personal, financial, intellectual, professional, political, or religious. If the reviewer currently works at the same institution as any of the authors or has been a recent (for the last 3 years) supervisor, dependent, close associate, or co-owner of grants. In that case, he or she should not agree to the review. In addition, a reviewer should not agree to review a manuscript just to look through it without intending to make a peer review and should not agree to review a manuscript that is very similar to the one this reviewer is preparing for publication or is currently reviewing in another journal.

Scientific dishonesty

The policy on detecting scientific dishonesty has been developed under the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) recommendations.

Plagiarism

The editors recommend that you check your article for originality and plagiarism before submitting it. More information is available on the Plagiarism Policy page.

 Author's contribution

The article's author should be the person who has made the most significant contribution to writing the manuscript. All those who participated in creating the work must be listed as co-authors. If others have been involved in preparing the same study, they should be listed and admitted as partners and may be listed in the Acknowledgments section.

Re-submit the article

The author must submit a manuscript that has not previously been submitted to any other journal.

 

Plagiarism policy

The plagiarism policy is based on the "Regulations on the detection and prevention system of academic plagiarism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv".

The journal publishes articles that contain only the results of original research. Therefore, the text of the article should not contain previously published original scientific results; there may be only references to published results.

All manuscripts will be checked for originality/uniqueness using Unicheck software before submission for external review. The authors agree to any necessary originality verification by submitting the manuscript to the journal.

Plagiarism involves using another author's work without permission or appropriate citation. The editor will reject manuscripts with less than 80% originality before reviewing.

Typical examples of academic plagiarism are: 

- pretending the work performed by another author is his (her) own without making significant changes to it (including with intentional textual distortions to conceal borrowing); 

- use of information (facts, ideas, formulas, numerical values, etc.) from a source without reference to this source; 

- literal copying of fragments of the text or its literal translation into Ukrainian from a foreign language (from a phrase to a set of sentences) without proper citation; 

- making minor corrections to the copied material (paraphrasing sentences, changing the order of words in them, numbering formulas, graphs, figures, replacing symbols in the text, etc.) and without proper citation; 

- compilation - creating an extensive array of text without self-study of the problem by copying the text from various sources without making changes, with reference to the authors and "masking" by writing transitional sentences between the copied parts of the text;

- paraphrasing the source text in a form close to the original text, or summarizing ideas, interpretations, or conclusions from a particular source without reference to this source;

- reproduction in the text of quotations from other sources cited in another source without indicating which direct source is the citation; 

- reproduction in the text of published works of art without indicating the authorship of these works of art; 

- submission as author’s works (dissertations, monographs, textbooks, articles, abstracts, reports, tests, calculations, course, diploma and master's theses, essays, abstracts, etc.), made by others.

History of the Journal

The journal was founded in 2000 as the initiative of its editor-in-chief, professor Volodymyr RIZUN, director of the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Since then, the journal has always had the status of a professional periodical in the field of journalism, social communications, which was approved by the decisions of the High Attestation Commission of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

We are grateful to Maksym KHYLKO, who at one time made many efforts to moderate our journal, to develop its website, to start indexing in the Index Copernicus. The re-registration of the journal took place in 2013, the editorial board, design, and layout were changed. Requirements for the quality of articles have increased, and double-blind peer review has been introduced. The journal has an updated editorial board; it is in category "B" of professional publications in Ukraine. From 2022, the editorial and publishing process has been transferred to the OJS / PKP platform.

WEB page of the journal since 2000

Founder

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv