Editorial Policies

Governance

The journal is owned and published jointly by the John Zizioulas Foundation, St. Sebastian Orthodox Press, and the Volos Academy for Theological Studies.

The Editor-in-Chief is appointed by the publishers and is responsible for all editorial decisions: whether a submission is sent for peer review, the selection of reviewers, and the final decision on each manuscript, except papers of which the Editor-in-Chief is an author (see Peer Review).

The Editorial Board advises the Editor-in-Chief on the journal’s direction and on matters within its members’ expertise. At the request of the Editor-in-Chief, its members may assess submissions in their field and suggest reviewers; editorial decisions remain with the Editor-in-Chief.

The Advisory Board advises the Editor-in-Chief on the journal’s general direction. Its members do not handle manuscripts and take no part in editorial decisions.

Sections

The journal publishes its contributions in sections; further sections may be introduced when new types of contributions require them. Each section is described here, together with the way its contributions are reviewed. The sections are currently:

Original Papers: research articles. Articles in this section undergo double-blind peer review by at least two independent reviewers, at least one of whom does not belong to the journal’s editorial team.

Preface: editorials. Items in this section are reviewed by the editors and are not subject to external peer review.

Theological Heritage: texts by Metropolitan John Zizioulas. Items in this section are reviewed by the editors and are not subject to external peer review.

Commentaries: commentaries on texts published in the journal or elsewhere, including responses to articles. Items in this section are reviewed by the editors, who may also send an item for external peer review.

Reviews: book reviews, review essays, and conference reviews. Items in this section are reviewed by the editors, who may also send an item for external peer review.

Documents: archival documents and photographs relating to Metropolitan John Zizioulas, with editorial comments. Items in this section are prepared by the editors and are not subject to external peer review.

Special Issues

Special issues are devoted to a well-defined theme within the journal’s aims and scope and are approved by the Editor-in-Chief, who remains responsible for their content and makes the final decision on each article, except articles of which the Editor-in-Chief is an author (see Peer Review). A special issue may be one of the two issues of a year, a thematic section within an issue, or an additional issue within the volume of its year; it may extend over more than one issue, and it is clearly identified as such. Contributions may be invited or received in response to a call for papers; an invitation does not guarantee publication, and a paper accepted after a special issue has closed may appear in a later issue. The Editor-in-Chief may edit a special issue or appoint guest editors, whose credentials the Editor-in-Chief verifies and whose work the Editor-in-Chief oversees; the names and affiliations of guest editors are shown with the issue. Guest editors do not act as reviewers of papers in the issue they edit. Papers submitted by guest editors are handled independently of them and make up no more than a quarter of the issue. The introduction to a special issue states its origin, such as the event at which its papers were presented.

Papers from Conferences

The journal may publish selected papers presented at conferences, workshops, and other scholarly events within its aims and scope, as a special issue or in any other issue. Presentation at an event does not guarantee publication: each paper is submitted through the journal’s online system as a full article in accordance with the Author Guidelines, including the rule on first authorship, and is reviewed as set out under Peer Review. Each published paper states, in a note on its first page, where it was presented.

Fees

OmegAlpha is a diamond open access journal: it charges no fees to readers and no fees to authors, including submission, processing, or publication fees (APCs).

Funding and Advertising

The journal, including any special issues, is funded by its publishers and by the sale of print copies; it does not carry advertising. A special issue may also receive support from the organizers of an event or from other sponsors; such support is stated in the issue. Funding and any such support have no influence on editorial decisions.

Print Edition

The journal is also published in print. Print copies can be ordered from St. Sebastian Orthodox Press at https://sebastianpress.org. Authors receive a printed copy of the issue free of charge. Copies of the print edition are deposited with the Library of Congress.

Corrections and Retractions

Errors in published articles are corrected by a published correction linked to the original article. Minor typographical errors that do not affect the content, findings, or attribution of an article, such as punctuation or an evident mistake in a page range of a reference, may be corrected in the online version without a separate correction notice. In cases of serious error or misconduct, articles are retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines (https://doi.org/10.24318/cope.2019.1.4); retracted articles remain available and are clearly marked as retracted. Where serious concerns about a published article have not yet been resolved, the editors may publish an expression of concern linked to the article.

Post-Publication Discussion

Comments on published articles may be sent to omegalpha@zizioulas.org. Responses to articles are considered for publication in the same way as other submissions.

Complaints and Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision by writing to the Editor-in-Chief and stating the grounds for the appeal. Complaints about the journal’s procedures may be sent to omegalpha@zizioulas.org.

Plagiarism

During the initial assessment, the editors check each submission for similarity with existing work using Crossref Similarity Check (iThenticate) and by searching published literature and online sources for passages of the manuscript. Manuscripts found to contain plagiarism are rejected; if plagiarism is discovered after publication, the article is corrected or retracted in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.

Archiving

The journal’s content is preserved in the PKP Preservation Network.

Accessibility

The journal aims to make its website and published content accessible to all readers, including people with disabilities. Articles are published as PDF files with selectable and searchable text. Readers who encounter barriers in accessing any content may write to journal@zizioulas.org, and the editors will provide the content in an accessible format on request.

Platform

The journal is published on Open Journal Systems (OJS), developed by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), with customizations by the John Zizioulas Foundation.