Submissions

Author Guidelines

MEFISTO has three sections: Essays, Focus, and Book Reviews. Please choose the appropriate section in the drop-down menu when submitting your work.

Essays articles must be submitted in an anonymous form. They must not exceed 50.000 characters in length (spaces and footnotes included) and include an abstract in English (150 words) and 3 to 5 keywords. In a separate sheet, the author(s) must provide (his/her/their) affiliation and a short biographical sketch in English. Submitted contributions for this section are first evaluated by the advisory board, and then eventually sent to at least two qualified external reviewers for a double-blind peer-review. Submission timeline (for this section): in order to publish in the first issue of the year (June), authors have to submit no later than October of the previous year; to publish in the second issue of the year (December), essays have to be submitted by April.

The 'Focus' section is a monographic section based on a call for papers. It usually has one or more guest editors. All contributions are double-blindly peer-reviewed. Each paper must not exceed 40.000 characters in length (spaces and footnotes included). Submissions have to include: an English title, an abstract in English (150 words), and 3 to 5 keywords. Authors should also provide, in a separate file, their affiliation and a short biographical sketch in English. With regard to submission deadlines, see each call for papers. The mean response time after the deadline is 16 weeks. If you are interested in proposing a topic for this monographic section, please address an email to section editor dr. Marica Setaro at rivistamefisto@gmail.com

Book reviews must not exceed 6,000 characters long (with no footnotes) and must contain an evaluation of the book under consideration. Book reviews are subject to the evaluation of the Editorial Staff. For further information please address an email to section editor Pier Davide Accendere at rivistamefisto@gmail.com

Accepted languages for contributions are Italian, English, French. In submitting their paper, authors are required to conform entirely to the journal style sheet.

Authors are requested to adapt their accepted work to the journal’s formatting standards. Read the Stylesheet for further details.

Artcile Processing Charges and Article Submission Charges (APC)

This journal does not charge Article Processing Charges (APC) and Article Submission Charges (ASC). Should any charge be requested to you, please immediately alert the Publisher.

Deposit and Self-archiving policies

– Authors are allowed to upload the submitted version of their accepted papers immediately after publication on limited-access institutional repositories or archives. Authors ought to include publication references (journal title, volume, issue, and pages, article DOI when available, URL to journal website, or journal issue).

– Six months after publication, authors are allowed to upload their submitted manuscripts in pre-print version – but not the published version – on openly accessible archives or repositories (including personal websites and institutional personal pages and personal profiles on academic social media, etc...). It is highly recommended to include a reference to the published version.

– Five years after publication, the article is released under a CC BY SA 4.0 license and kept on the journal website. All rights revert to the author.

– Authors may purchase early open access and immediately release their published paper (200 EUR fee).

2.5 How the review process works

The journal relies on a double-blind peer review process. Papers proposed by authors are received by the Editors, who decide whether to reject the proposal ex officio (in the case of obvious misconduct, or if the proposal’s topic is incompatible with the journal's scientific objectives) or to initiate the review process. In the latter case, the editors are assisted by the members of the Executive Board in managing the anonymous review process, which involves the following steps: identifying the two reviewers, mediating between the reviewers and the authors while protecting their identities, and taking a final decision on the publication of the proposal. In the event of a strong disagreement between the two reviewers, the Editors and the Editorial Board may reserve the right to request a new opinion and initiate a second round of review.

The Open Journal System platform, which the journal relies on for the editorial production process and the issue’s publication, guarantees the protection of the identities of those involved in the blind review process. Reviewers are required to justify their judgment by completing the review form on the journal's OJS platform.

Upon request, members of the Editorial Board may disclose the identity of reviewers and authors only at the end of the review process and for the sole purpose of establishing direct contact.

Authors and reviewers should contact the Editorial Board and Editors in case of disputes or reports.