About the Journal

Focus and Scope

CICERONIANA ON LINE (COL) is a biannual digital journal; its two issues each year are considered part of a single volume, but are given separate numeration (e.g. 2017.1 or 2017.2). It is edited jointly by SIAC (Société Internationale des Amis de Cicéron (www.tulliana.eu) and by the CSC (Centro di Studi Ciceroniani in Rome) and welcomes submissions on Cicero, as well as on topics that fall in the category of Roman Thought. 

Papers falling in the category of Roman Thought should concern texts that in their content or in the conditions of their production have a close or a distant link to Roman philosophy or its Forleben. Papers on Cicero may address his various guises, i.e. as a historical figure, author, philosopher, and human being, including his works, sources, and afterlife.  Papers from all disciplines and approaches are accepted; these include philology, linguistics, literary history, exegesis, rhetoric, source-criticism (Quellenforschung), philosophy, archaeology and art history, history, prosopography, religious studies, psychology, allusion and intertextuality, genre studies, gender studies, anthropology, reception, didactics, new media, digitalization etc. 

Since 2017 the new Director is Prof. Carlos Lévy; since 2018 Ermanno Malaspina has been Executive Director and the Bureau is made up of Prof. Garbarino(†) and Prof. Gamberale.

The Advisory Board evaluates on a case by case basis whether each article submitted fits in with the overall specifications of the journal. The scholarly board may decide to further increase or decrease its composition; the admission of new members to the board takes place every three years by cooptation.

The journal also publishes reviews and bibliographic records, under the direction of Andrea Balbo

COL has appointed an Editorial Committee, which is the point of contact with contributors to the journal and is responsible for matters of an editorial nature. Between 2014 and 2016, the Committee was formed by Alice Borgna, Linda Cermatori, Barbara Del Giovane, and Mélanie Lucciano (overseeing the preparation, scanning, uploading, OCR and formatting of the previous printed series of Ciceroniana, the last volume of which was issued in 2009); also Andrea Balbo (2017-2023), Elisa Della Calce (2017-2019), Nathan Gilbert (2017-2018)  and Hugh Wynne (2020-2021) have been members of the Editorial Committee.

The current Committee is formed by Francesca Piccioni, Orazio Cappello, Franck Colotte, Mélanie Lucciano, Alessandro Mandrino, Matilde Oliva and Fausto Pagnotta.

 

Peer Review Process

When an article is submitted for publication, the editorial staff will confirm that all required items have been included and that the document respects the guidelines outlined above (especially the absence of elements that might identify its author).  They will then forward the article to the executive Editor, who will consult with his office in selecting two candidates to conduct a blind review.  This process is to be completed - at a maximum - within two months; in the rare cases where this timeline cannot be maintained, the article’s author will be promptly notified of the delay. One of the two reviewers may be chosen from the members of the journal’s scholarly board. A list of reviewers and statistics on the percentage of submissions accepted and rejected will be published every two years.

Reviewers are required to inform the editorial board of their recommendation to reject or to accept a submission; for recommendations to reject or to accept with revisions, reviewers should give a clear account of their reasons and/or the changes they wish to see made. Should the reviewers disagree in their evaluation of a submission, the executive Editor will decide the matter by seeking one or more additional recommendations from the members of the scholarly board. When the executive Editor has approved a decision, the editorial staff will communicate the result of the assessment to the author. In cases where significant revisions are required of an author, the executive Editor will submit the revised article to the original reviewers for reconsideration. The editorial staff will provide the author with files of the first proofs for correction; the second proofs will be verified by the editorial staff alone. The secretary must preserve a written, confidential record of the entire review process for every article. Articles that are not accepted will not be returned to their authors, but the authors nevertheless retain full ownership of their work for intellectual property and copyright purposes.

 

Publication Frequency

The journal’s articles, rather than being released separately as they are completed, will be published together as part of a single volume containing a paginated index.  Each annual volume will be divided into two issues, which will be released in June (Issue 1) and December (Issue 2).

Once the article has been published online, no further corrections or changes to the text can be made.

 

Open Access Policy

Based on the conviction that making research freely available enhances the exchange of knowledge at a global level, this journal will offer Open Access to its contents.

Ciceroniana on Line is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. 

With the licence CC-BY-SA, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.

It is not necessary to ask further permissions both to author or journal board.

Archiving

Ciceroniana On Line believes that the long-term preservation of the published contents is an objective to pursue continuously for maintaining the integrity of the research record. For this reason we adhere to PKP Preservation Network.

Code of Ethics

Ciceroniana On Line is committed to the highest publication standards. The prevention of publication malpractice is one of the important responsibilities of the editorial board. The Code describes “Ciceroniana On Line”’s policies for ensuring the ethical treatment of all participants in the peer review and publication process. “Ciceroniana On Line” Editor, Executive Editor and Guest Editor(s), Reviewers and Authors are encouraged to study these guidelines and avb ddress any questions or concerns to the editorial team.

These guidelines apply to all manuscripts submitted to “Ciceroniana On Line”, and may be revised at any time by the Editor-in-Chief, the Executive Editor and the Board. The following duties outlined for editors, authors, and reviewers are based on the Core Practices.

Duties of Editor in Chief, Executive Editor and Guest Editor(s)

Editors/Guest Editor(s) are responsible for the content of the journal and for ensuring the integrity of all work that is published in it.
Publication Decisions: The Editors/Guest Editor(s) have the right to make the final decision on whether to accept or reject a manuscript with reference to the significance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript and its relevance to the journal.

  • Review of Manuscripts: “Ciceroniana On Line” follows a double-blind review process, whereby Authors do not know Reviewers and vice versa. The Editors/Guest Editor(s) are responsible for securing timely, independent and anonymous peer review from suitably qualified reviewers who have no disqualifying competing interests, of all manuscripts submitted to the journal. The Editors/Guest Editor(s) are responsible for ensuring that the journal has access to an adequate number of competent reviewers. The names of the reviewers will disclosed in the journal two years after the publication of the revised article. Reviewers’ list is public, on the journal website.
  • Fair Review: The Editors/Guest Editor(s) and their editorial staff must ensure that each manuscript received by “Ciceroniana On Line” is reviewed for its intellectual content without regard to sex, gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc. of the authors.
  • Confidentiality of submitted material: The Editors/Guest Editor(s) and the editorial staff will ensure that systems are in place to ensure the confidentiality and protection from misuse of material submitted to the journal while under review and the protection of authors’ and reviewers’ identities and will themselves take all reasonable steps to preserve the confidentiality of authors’ and reviewers’ identities.
  • Disclosure: The Editors/Guest Editor(s) should ensure that submitted manuscripts are processed in a confidential manner, and that no content of the manuscripts will be disclosed to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, as appropriate.
  • Conflicts of Interest: The Editors/Guest Editor(s) should excuse themselves from considering a manuscript in which they have a real or potential conflict of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, financial or other relationships or connections with any of the Authors, companies or institutions connected to the manuscript.
  • Authority: The Editors in Chief must have ultimate authority and responsibility for the Journal. The Editor-in-Chief should respect the Journal’s constituents (Readers, Authors, Reviewers, Guest Editors, Editorial Staff), and work to ensure the honesty and integrity of the Journal’s contents and continuous improvement in journal quality.

Duties of reviewers

  • Fair reviews: Reviewers should evaluate manuscripts objectively, fairly and professionally. Reviewers should avoid personal biases in their comments and judgments and they should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Reviewers must provide substantiated and fair reviews. These must avoid personal attack, and not include any material that is defamatory, inaccurate, libellous, misleading, obscene, scandalous, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable, or that infringes any other person’s copyright, right of privacy, or other rights.
  • Confidentiality: Information regarding manuscripts submitted by authors should be kept confidential and be treated as privileged information. Reviewers should not discuss the manuscript with anyone other than the Editor/Guest Editor(s), nor should they discuss any information from the manuscript without permission.
  • Acknowledgement of Sources: Manuscript reviewers must ensure that authors have acknowledged all sources of data used in the research. Any kind of similarity or overlap between the manuscripts under consideration or with any other published paper of which reviewer has personal knowledge must be immediately brought to the Editor/Guest Editor(s)’s notice.
  • Timeliness: In the event that a reviewer feels it is not possible for him/her to complete review of manuscript within stipulated time then this information must be communicated to the Editor/Guest Editor, so that the manuscript could be sent to another reviewer.
  • Right of refusal: Reviewers should refuse to review manuscripts: a) where they have provided written comments on the manuscript or an earlier version to the Author, b) in which they have any conflicts of interest resulting from collaborative, financial, institutional, personal, or other relationships or connections with any of the companies, institutions, or people connected to the papers.
    Complain: Any complaint relating to the journal should, in the first instance be directed towards the Editor-in-Chief of “Ciceroniana On Line”.

Duties of Authors

  • Originality: Authors must ensure that no part of their work is copied from any other work, either authored by themselves or others and that the work is original and has not previously been published in whole or substantial part. The author should not submit concurrent manuscripts (or manuscripts essentially describing the same subject matter) to multiple journals.
  • Authorship of the Paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to conception, design, execution or interpretation of the reported study. Others who have made significant contribution must be listed as co-authors. The author should ensure that all co-authors have affirmed the final version of the paper and have agreed on its final publication.
  • Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism: All work in the manuscript should be free of any plagiarism, falsification, fabrications, or omission of significant material. Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism constitute unethical publishing behaviour and are unacceptable. “Ciceroniana On Line” reserves the right to evaluate issues of plagiarism and redundancy on a case-by-case basis.
  • Acknowledgement of Sources and Conflict(s) of interests: The author should indicate explicitly all sources that have supported the research and also declare any conflict(s) of interest.
  • Data Access and Retention: The author should provide raw data related to their manuscript for editorial review and must retain such data.
  • Timeliness: Authors should be prompt with their manuscript revisions. If an Author cannot meet the deadline given, the Author should contact the “Ciceroniana On Line” Managing Editor as soon as possible to determine whether a longer time period or withdrawal from the review process should be chosen.
  • Fundamental Errors in Published Works: The author should promptly inform the Editor/Guest Editor(s) of any obvious error(s) in his or her published paper and cooperate earnestly with the Editor-in-Chief in retraction or correction of the paper. If the Editor-in-Chief is notified by any party other than the author that the published paper contains an obvious error, the author should write a retraction or make the correction based on the medium of publication.

This Code of Ethics draws heavily from the following on-line source, which is recommended reading on ethical guidelines:
COPE – Core practices, https://publicationethics.org/core-practices (accessed July 2020).

 

Statistics

Articles and submissions processing charges (APC)

Ciceroniana on Line does not ask for Articles processing charges (APC) or submissions charges.

 

Indexing and abstracting

With the publication of COL's first number, the journal has begun the process of admission to the world's scientific journal ranking agencies.
COL is indexed on the following platforms:

 

Journal History

COL, jointly created by the CSC (confirmed during the session held on 27th October 2012) and by SIAC (ratified by the plenary session on 15th January 2010), replaces and continues Ciceroniana, New series, which from 1973 to 2009 printed the proceedings of the first 13 international Colloquia of the CSC. 

SIAC and the CSC have established a ten member Board with equal representation for the triennium 2013-2015.

Representing the CSC:

 Representing the SIAC:

 In the online meeting on May 17, 2016 the following seven members have been coopted into the Board for the triennium 2016-2018:

  On the foundation of the journal until the end of 2016 the scholarly board appointed Professor Giovanna Garbarino(†) to serve as Editor. She has appointed Professor E. Malaspina as the Secretary of the scholarly board with responsibility for editing as well as the online edition; she has also established a committee composed of Professor C. Lévy and Professor L. Gamberale (representing the SIAC and CSC, respectively) to support her in overseeing the journal’s management. 

COL has two ISSN codes since June 2017: the first for the online version (ISSN 2532-5353) and the second for the digital version of Ciceroniana (ISSN 2532-5299), as for years 1959-2009.