Rules for Authors on Preparing Scientific Articles and publication requirements

Supplemented and adopted at the meeting of the editorial board of the journal "Theological Collection of the Tambov Theological Seminary" dated February 19, 2026

The academic journal "Theological Collection of Tambov Theological Seminary" accepts submissions that correspond to its main sections and contain theoretical and applied research conducted within the framework of Orthodox theological thought.

The goals of the journal

The objectives of the journal

The main sections of the journal

The language of the articles and the mandatory requirement

Authors, as well as for master's and bachelor's students

Priorities

I. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE AUTHOR BEFORE SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE

II. HOW TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE FOR REVIEW

III. INTERACTION BETWEEN THE JOURNAL AND THE AUTHOR

IV. PROCEDURE FOR REVIEWING THE EDITOR'S / REVIEWER'S DECISIONS

V. EDITORIAL ACTION IN CASE OF PLAGIARISM, FRAUDULENT FACTORING OR FRAUDULENT DATA

VI. CORRECTION OF ERRORS AND REVIEW OF THE ARTICLE

The journal's goals are to publish the results of scholarly, methodological, and pedagogical achievements of teams of authors and individual researchers, representatives of religious and secular educational institutions; to provide extensive coverage of new directions in the development of theological science; and to promote the integration of Russian theological scholarship into the Russian and international academic space.

The journal's objectives include:

The development of theological research and the promotion of interdisciplinary studies in related humanities fields (philosophy, history, pedagogy, philology, etc.).

The formation of a theoretical and methodological foundation for all levels of the contemporary Orthodox theological education system.

The creation of a platform for the discussion and presentation of research results by doctoral candidates, postgraduates, master's students, and undergraduates in theology and related fields.

Main sections of the journal:

Theology and Religious Philosophy — corresponds to the scientific specialties 5.11.1 Theoretical Theology and 5.11.2 Historical Theology (in the "Orthodoxy" field). The section includes research on dogmatic, moral, comparative, and patristic theology, as well as on the works of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church; on religious philosophy, religious studies, Christian anthropology, and apologetics; and articles devoted to the theological reflection on the current state of the natural, social, and human sciences.

Historical Theology and National History — corresponds to the scientific specialties 5.11.2 Historical Theology (in the "Orthodoxy" field) and 5.6.1 National History. This section publishes articles on national history, biblical studies, biblical history, hagiography, patrology; works devoted to the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and other Local Orthodox churches, issues of methodology in church-historical knowledge, as well as the history of the formation and development of the Tambov Diocese and the Tambov Metropolitanate.

Church-Practical Sciences — corresponds to the scientific specialty 5.11.3 Practical theology (in the "Orthodoxy" field). This section includes research on liturgics, patristic traditions and contemporary trends in pastoral theology; canon law; the history, theory and methodology of Christian education, church art; works related to practical issues of catechesis and missionary activity, the social ministry of the Church, and interfaith and church-state relations.

Spiritual literature — corresponds to the following scientific specialties:

5.11.2 Historical Theology (in the "Orthodoxy" field) — articles on hermeneutics and textual criticism, hagiology, hagiography.

5.11.3 Practical theology (in the "Orthodoxy" field) — research on homiletics, hymnography, as well as studies devoted to the theolinguistic analysis of the works of the Holy Fathers of the Early Church, the Russian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox Churches, and liturgical texts; studies of the linguistic and stylistic features of contemporary religious discourse.

5.9.1 Russian Literature and Literatures of the Peoples of the Russian Federation — linguostylistic, rhetorical, and literary analysis of works of spiritual and secular literature within the context of the Orthodox tradition and culture.

Publication languages: Russian or English.

Mandatory requirement: metadata in English for all articles.

Authors: scholars from Russian (secular and religious) and international academic and educational institutions.

For master's and bachelor's students: publication is only possible in co-authorship with the academic supervisor.

Priority is given to:

  • articles presenting findings in theoretical and applied research within the journal's scope;
  • studies combining patristic tradition with modern scholarly approaches;
  • interdisciplinary works (theology + pedagogy, theology + history, theology + philology, etc.).

Return to the beginning

The journal also publishes scholarly translations.

The number of authors per article must not exceed three. A single author may submit no more than two articles for consideration in the same journal section within a year.

I. GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS BEFORE SUBMISSION

Submitting an article to the journal requires compliance with the following conditions:

  • the article has not been previously published in other journals;
  • the article is not under consideration in other journals;
  • all authors listed in the submitted material have consented to be identified as authors;
  • all co-authors have consented to the publication of the current version of the article;
  • consent (explicit or implicit) has been obtained from the organization under whose auspices the research was conducted;
  • the authors have obtained permission to publish any elements included in the material, such as photographs, documents, and datasets, from the copyright holders of that information;
  • if research is conducted outside of Russia, approval has been obtained from the relevant ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the country where the research is conducted;
  • the author's consent to the processing of personal data.

Manuscripts are accepted in Microsoft Word format (.doc, .docx). The length of the text, including references and translations of required fragments, should be between 20,000 and 40,000 characters (including spaces). Font: Times New Roman; line spacing: 1; margins: right — 1.5 cm, left — 3 cm, top and bottom — 2 cm; text alignment: justified; automatic hyphenation; paragraph indentation: 1.25 cm.

  1. On the title page of the article, in the upper left corner, the UDC (Universal Decimal Classification) number must be indicated in both Russian and English. The UDC is determined by the author independently using the appropriate classifier (e.g., "UDC Reference" ). On the next line, the specialty code according to the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) nomenclature of scientific specialties must be specified.
  2. Article title

The title should be left-aligned, with a tab stop at 5, written in uppercase letters, bold, font size 14.

The title in Russian must accurately reflect the content and subject of the research.

The English version of the title must:

  • be grammatically correct according to the norms of the English language;
  • fully correspond in meaning to the Russian version (preserving key terms and the overall semantic content).
  1. Author name(s)

Two lines below the title, left-aligned with a tab stop at 7, author information is provided (the list of authors should include only those who actually participated in the creation of the article. Others who provided support should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgements" section):

  • Full name — font size 12, bold; other information without bold: academic degree, academic title, honorary titles (if any), position;
  • place of work (study) (full official name, including institutional affiliation);
  • postal address; email address, other permanent author identifiers: RSCI: SPIN-код; AuthorID (mandatory registration in eLibrary if this is not the author's first work), ORCID (if available; recommended for all scholars and degree candidates). To register and obtain an individual ORCID code, follow the link: ORCID (orcid.org), Web of Science, Scopus and others.
  • . Complete data is important for author identification in international citation systems and abstract databases, as well as for linking their articles in international databases.

Author format:

Russian: last name, full first name, patronymic (Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich).

English: first name, patronymic initial, last name (Ivan I. Ivanov).

Spelling of the last name in English:

  • as in the international passport, or
  • as in previous publications, or
  • according to the BSI standard (if no passport or publications exist).

How to properly indicate affiliation:

Data composition:

  • name of the organization — full official name;
  • address — full postal address (postal code, city, country).

Number of institutions: indicate all places of work associated with the conduct of the research.

English language: for the English-language block, provide the official English name of the institution.

Example of affiliation:

Иванов И. И.

  • Московский государственный университет, 119991, Москва, Ленинские горы, д. 1
  • Институт проблем экологии и эволюции РАН имени А. Н. Северцова, 119071, Москва, Ленинский проспект, д. 33

Ivan I. Ivanov

  • Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, Moscow 119991, Russia
  • Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Moscow 119071, Russia
  1. Abstract

Two lines below the author information, immediately preceding the article text, an abstract (200–250 words, font size 12) is placed. It should contain a description of the topic, relevance, research objective, degree of novelty, methods (at least three) used in the study, and its main results. (see Abstract samples).

Do not include terms that are introduced for the first time and are not explained in the main body of the article; avoid using abbreviations (except for commonly known ones); do not add references to literature or other works.

The style and structure of the abstract should be concise and clear, without extraneous information or general statements. The text must be coherent, logically consistent, and self-contained. The abstract should not contain numbered or bulleted lists or bibliographic references.

  1. Keywords

One line below the abstract, keywords (5–6 words and phrases) are provided — font size 12.

Keywords should reflect the specifics of the topic, the subject, and the research findings, supplementing the abstract and the title of the article, and assist in searching for relevant information. The use of abbreviations and enclosing words in quotation marks is not recommended.

  1. Acknowledgements

This section contains acknowledgements to organizations and individuals who contributed to the work on the article, but are not its authors.

Contributions include:

  • recommendations for improving the study;
  • provision of space and materials for the research;
  • data collection;
  • critical analysis of the data;
  • technical or scientific editing of the text;
  • proofreading.
  1. Funding

Information is provided on grants and funding used to conduct the research, as well as for the preparation and publication of the article. If the study received no external funding, the "Funding Information" section should state: "This research received no external funding."

  1. Author Contributions

To describe each author’s contribution, the CRediT taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) must be used.

All members of the authorship team must meet the four criteria of authorship:

    • substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
    • critical review and validation of the intellectual content of the manuscript;
    • final approval of the manuscript for publication;
    • agreement to be responsible for all aspects of the work.

Examples of the "Author Contributions" Section

For one author
Author contribution: Ivanov I. I. — conceptualization of the article, search and analysis of scholarly literature, processing of factual material, writing the draft manuscript, editing the manuscript.

For two authors
Author contributions:

      • Petrov P. P. — conceptualization of the article, development of research methodology, outlining the manuscript, preparing the manuscript according to journal guidelines.

      • Sidorov S. S. — writing the theoretical part, analysis of factual material, work with Church Slavonic sources, editing the manuscript text.

For three authors
Author contributions:

    • Ivanov I. I. — development of the article concept, analysis of sources, final editing of the manuscript text.

    • Petrov P. P. — selection of illustrations, collection and systematization of material, preparing the manuscript according to journal guidelines.

    • Sidorov S. S. — search for theological literature, exegetical analysis of the material, translation of sources, writing the draft manuscript.

  1. Conflict of Interests

A conflict of interests refers to situations where individuals have competing or conflicting interests that could influence editorial decision-making (including financial relationships, professional duties, political, personal, or religious factors, etc.). The author is obliged to notify the editor of any real or potential conflict of interest upon submission of the manuscript.

The corresponding author provides a statement on behalf of all co-authors, using one of the following options:

  • "The authors declare the following conflicts of interest: ...";
  • "The authors declare no conflict of interest";
  • "The authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that do prevent them from disclosing their conflict of interest in this work."
  1. Article text

The article text is placed two lines below the keywords, justified (font size 14).

The article must be structured, with each section having a title.

Materials are accepted in Microsoft Word format (doc, docx). The length of the text, including references and translations of required fragments, should be between 20,000 and 40,000 characters (including spaces).

Structure of a Scientific Article

Introduction 

This section should present:

  • a statement of the problem in general terms and its connection to current research in the field;
  • a brief analysis of recent publications* on which the author relies (at least 10–15 relevant works with mandatory references to the literature used), followed by identification of previously unaddressed aspects of the problem that the article focuses on (the extent to which the topic has been developed);
  • the relevance of the work (justification, new methodological or theoretical approaches, or new facts, or synthesis/critique of existing viewpoints and already published results, or the proposal of new hypotheses or methodological techniques);
  • the aim and objectives of the research;
  • the scientific novelty of the research;
  • the methodology (methods of scientific research);
  • the theoretical and empirical basis of the research;
  • the working hypothesis (if any);
  • the practical significance (if any).

*All citations in the text must be properly formatted according to established academic standards.

Main part

The main part of the article contains the discussion and results of the research. This is the most extensive section of the article.

In this section:

  • the core research material is presented, along with justification for the obtained scientific results;
  • the main part may be divided into subsections with their own headings;
  • tables, figures, and other illustrative materials may be included (they should be integrated into the text and accompanied by explanations).

Conclusion

This section should include: a conclusion regarding the resolution of the stated scientific problem; an indication of the theoretical or practical significance of the results obtained; and prospects for further research in this area.

The article text must demonstrate conceptual rigor, logical coherence of approaches, explanations, and conclusions, as well as clarity and conciseness of presentation. The principles of academic style should be adhered to: it is recommended to avoid polysemy and ambiguity of statements, the use of excessively long phrases, repetitions, allegories, elements of lowered style (colloquialisms, jargon, etc.), and to maintain precision and consistency in terminology. The text of the article must be edited and conform to the norms of the modern Russian literary language.

NOTE. Manuscripts wholly or partially generated by neural networks, as well as those containing references to non-existent sources or literature (fabricated by AI), will not be considered or accepted for publication (for more details, see the section on AI (Neural Network) Use Policy for Manuscript Preparation).

  1. Figures

Requirements for drawing design

Technical requirements:

  1. Figures should be created in CorelDraw or any MS Office application (in grouped format).
  2. Graphs, drawings, and photographs are inserted into the text after their first mention — as an object or as a metafile.
  3. Resolution — at least 300 dpi (suitable for printing).
  4. All figures are published in black and white (full-color versions are available only in the electronic version of the article).

Numbering and references:

  1. Figures are numbered with Arabic numerals in the order of appearance in the text.
  2. References to figures should be formatted as follows: "Fig. 1 shows that..." or "It is shown that... (Fig. 1)".

Captions:

  1. Each illustration must be accompanied by a caption in Russian and English.
  2. The caption should not be grouped with the figure.
  3. Caption format: figure number and its title, centered alignment ("Fig. 1. Title of the figure").
  4. No period is placed after the caption.

Responsibility: the author is responsible for the formatting of graphic materials. Figuress are not edited during journal layout.

  1. Tables

Requirements for table formatting:

Placement in the text. Tables are placed after their first mention in the main text.

 Quality and format. Tables must be of high quality and suitable for printing. The following are not accepted: scanned tables; tables submitted as images.

Headings. Each table must have a heading in Russian and English. Formatting requirements: the heading in Russian is given first, followed by its English translation; no period is placed at the end of the heading; the heading is centered and includes the table number and its title (e.g., "Table 2. Lexical categorization of epithets").

Numbering and references in the text: tables are numbered with Arabic numerals in the order of appearance in the text; references to tables in the text should be formatted as follows: "Table 3 shows that..." or "It is indicated that... (Table 3)"; formulations such as "the table above/below" or "on page 2" are prohibited, as the position and page number may change during layout.

Table content formatting: words in cells should be written in full, following hyphenation rules; empty cells are not allowed; no period is placed at the end of a sentence within a table cell.

  1. Photos, Screenshots, and Non-Drawn Illustrations

Requirements for photos, screenshots, and non-drawn illustrations:

Submission stage. At the initial submission stage, photos, screenshots, and other non-drawn illustrations may be included directly in the manuscript text.

Requirements upon acceptance. In the event of a positive publication decision, the author must provide images with the following parameters: resolution — at least 300 dpi; format — *.jpeg, *.bmp, *.gif; for images with additional markings — *.doc or *.docx.

File naming. Each image file should be named according to the figure number in the text (e.g., Figure_3.jpeg).

Captions. The file description should include the caption, which must fully correspond to the title of the image as it appears in the article text.

Borrowed materials. When using borrowed images, the source must be clearly indicated.

  1. References and Footnotes

References to academic literature (works with a specific author or authors: monographs, dissertations, scholarly articles, etc.) are provided within the text in square brackets, indicating the author's surname, year of publication, and page number: for example, [Smirnov, 2023, p. 478], [Kholmogorov, Soldatov, 2002, p. 18], [Smirnov, 2023, p. 478; Kholmogorov, Soldatov, 2002, p. 18].

If a publication has no author, the first word or two or three initial words of the title are given. For example: [Holy Council..., 2022], [The Work of Great Church Construction..., 2009, p. 183].

 If there are references to two or more works by the same author published in the same year, they are cited with a lettered marker (in Latin script) next to the year. For example: [Tsypin, 2001a], [Tsypin, 2001b] — in the corresponding order.

References to works by monastic authors should be formatted as follows: [Feodosy (Vasnev), 2022, p. 128] or [Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky), 2017, p. 36]. Holy orders are indicated only in the bibliographic description in the reference lists.

References to sources without specific authors (legislative and other regulatory documents, archival sources, encyclopedias and dictionaries, statistical sources, narrative materials, websites and blogs, audio and video materials) are formatted in parentheses. For example: (Journal of the Holy Synod, 2022, No. 18), (SARF, file 28, fol. 5), (Theophan the Recluse, 2023, p. 28), (Ignatius (Brianchaninov), 1862, p. 30), etc.

Footnotes are numbered with Arabic numerals and placed at the bottom of the page. Footnotes contain the author's comments, references to online sources, educational literature, abstracts, and dissertations (if it is not possible to cite articles published based on the dissertation research). When formatting references, authors should follow GOST R 7.0.5-2008 Bibliographic Reference and GOST R 7.0.108-2022 Bibliographic References for Electronic Documents Available on Information and Telecommunication Networks.

  1. List of Sources and Literature

Two lines below the article text, the research materials (sources) are provided in the form of a numbered list in alphabetical order, placed before the references (see Formatting the List of Sources (font size 12).

Below the research materials (sources) a numbered list of literature is provided (see. Formatting the List of References), arranged in alphabetical order (font size 12). The numbering in the list of sources and references is continuous. The reference list should contain at least 10 bibliographic entries (recent theoretical works by scholars must be included: monographs, scholarly articles published within the last 5 years — at least 50% of the total entries in the list). All scholarly works listed in the references must be cited in the text of the article.

If the source has a DOI, EDN, or other identifiers, they must be included.

For example: Pashkov S. M. Sacrality as a Factor of Text Formation in Religious Communication // Bulletin of the Moscow State Regional University. Series: Linguistics. 2023. No. 1. Pp. 90-99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18384/2310-712X-2023-1-90-99

Or: Zenkin S. Ambivalence of the Sacred and Verbal Culture (Bakhtin and Durkheim) // New Literary Review. 2015. No. 2 (132). Pp. 58-71. EDN: https://elibrary.ru/vjpgfn

NOTE. Authors are not required to provide an English translation (transliteration) of the reference list. This task is handled by the editor/translator.

II. HOW TO SUBMIT AN ARTICLE FOR REVIEW

Articles may be submitted for review to the journal in two ways:

By email to the journal's address: tdsnauka@yandex.ru

By submitting materials via the electronic editorial system (the "Submit Article" option) of the journal "Theological Collection of Tambov Theological Seminary," after registering on the journal's website.

All submitted materials must meet the following requirements.

  • The material complies with the requirements outlined in the Guidelines for Authors on the preparation of scientific articles.
  • The material has not been previously published and is not under consideration by another journal.
  • All references have been verified for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures are numbered and captioned.
  • Permission has been obtained from copyright holders for the publication of all photographs, datasets, and other materials submitted together with this manuscript.
  • I consent to the processing of personal data

Manuscripts with an originality score of no less than 75%, according to the Antiplagiat.VUZ system, are accepted for review. The editorial board does not engage in discussion with authors regarding discrepancies with the verification results provided by other systems.

NOTE. The journal does not accept urgent publications.

III. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE JOURNAL AND THE AUTHOR

  1. Correspondence with the editorial office. The editorial office corresponds with the responsible (contact) author to address issues related to revisions in the content and format of the article.
  2. Preliminary screening. All submitted articles are checked by the editorial office for compliance with the journal's formal requirements. At this stage, the following decisions are possible: return of the article to the author(s) for revision — to correct errors or supplement missing data. At this stage, the article may be rejected for the following reasons:
  • non-compliance with the journal's aims and scope;
  • lack of originality;
  • insufficient scientific value;
  • a significant number of spelling, punctuation, and/or grammatical errors.
  1. Submission for review. After checking the formatting and completeness of the submitted documents, the manuscript is forwarded by the editorial board for peer review to members of the editorial council in accordance with the scientific field and subject of the article. Manuscripts are reviewed in accordance with the "Procedure for Reviewing Articles Submitted for Publication in the Scientific Journal 'Theological Collection of Tambov Theological Seminary'."
  2. Acceptance for publication. Upon a positive review, the article is forwarded to the editor for preparation for publication.
  3. Editing of materials. The editorial board reserves the right to:
  • shorten and edit the manuscript text;
  • carry out scholarly editing;
  • make corrections;
  • modify the design of graphs, figures, and tables to conform to the journal’s style (without altering the meaning of the information presented).
  1. Revision of the article. If revisions are necessary, the reviewer's comments and remarks are forwarded to the author. A manuscript sent to the author for revision must be returned to the editorial office with the appropriate corrections within the timeframe recommended by the editor. Otherwise, publication may be postponed to the next issue.

Systematic disregard of recommended corrections by the author may constitute grounds for rejection of the article.

  1. Rejection of publication. In the event of article rejection, the author receives a corresponding notification from the editorial office. If a manuscript is rejected by decision of the editorial board, the submitted material will not be reconsidered.

Receiving a positive review from an expert does not guarantee that the article will be accepted for publication. The editorial board's decision to accept or reject the article may differ from the reviewer's assessment. The final decision on the possibility and timing of publication rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief. The editorial office does not engage in correspondence with authors regarding rejected articles and does not comment on the reviewer's report or the Editor-in-Chief's decision.

The review period for a manuscript is between 2 and 4 months. Articles are published in the general order of submission and as the journal sections are filled.

The average volume of a single journal issue is 18–19 conventional printer's sheets (approx. 290–300 pages), with each section containing between 2 and 4 articles.

IV. PROCEDURE FOR RECONSIDERATION OF EDITOR/REVIEWER DECISIONS

The journal provides authors with the opportunity to appeal a reviewer's and/or editor's decision if they disagree with it. This fosters constructive dialogue and enhances the quality of published materials.

Appeal Procedure

To initiate the appeal procedure, the author must complete two mandatory actions:

  1. Revision of the manuscript. The author makes all corrections deemed justified, in accordance with the reviewers' and editors' comments. This demonstrates readiness to work constructively on the article.
  2. Substantiation of position. Regarding disputed issues, the author formulates clear objections or explanations. The response must:
  • specify the particular reviewer/editor comments with which the author disagrees;
  • provide evidence supporting their viewpoint (e.g., references to authoritative sources, results of additional calculations, logical reasoning);
  • propose alternative solutions to the problem, where possible.

Decision-Making Process

The received response is analyzed by the Editor-in-Chief, who:

  • compares the arguments of the author and the reviewer;
  • evaluates the scholarly validity of both positions;
  • issues the final decision.

Important: the decision made by the Editor-in-Chief is final and not subject to further discussion or review.

Recommendation upon appeal rejection

If the appeal is rejected, the editorial office does not engage in further correspondence with the author.

V. EDITORIAL BOARD'S ACTIONS IN CASES OF PLAGIARISM, DATA FABRICATION, OR FALSIFICATION

In the event of unethical behavior by an author, plagiarism, data fabrication, or falsification, the journal's editorial office follows the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.

By "unethical behavior" the journal means any actions by a scholar that:

  • involve improper handling of research subjects;
  • entail deliberate manipulation of scientific information, as a result of which it ceases to reflect the actual results of the research;
  • fail to conform to accepted ethical and scholarly standards.

The journal does not consider the following to be "unethical behavior":

  • honest errors made during the research or publication process;
  • honest differences of opinion regarding the design, conduct, interpretation, or evaluation of research methods or results;
  • instances of misconduct not related to the scientific process.

Upon discovery of plagiarism or self-plagiarism (defined as an author's attempt to republish, in whole or in part, previously published material), the article will not be accepted for review.

VI. CORRECTION OF ERRORS AND ARTICLE RETRACTION

If errors are found in the article text that affect its comprehension but do not distort the presented research results, they may be corrected as follows:

  • the PDF file of the article is replaced;
  • a note about the correction is made in the article file itself;
  • relevant information about the corrections made is posted on the article's page on the journal's website.

An article may be retracted in the following cases:

  • detection of plagiarism;
  • discovery of errors that distort the research results;
  • establishment of unethical behavior by the author(s) involving falsification and/or fabrication of data.

The retraction of an article may be initiated by:

  • the editorial board of the journal;
  • the author(s) of the article;
  • the organization affiliated with the research;
  • an individual.

Upon retraction of an article, the following actions are taken: