Guidelines for Reviewers

Journal’s profile and categorization of articles

Journal of the Institute of Art History is a refereed scholarly journal publishing previously unpublished scholarly articles (unpublished research results, new art-historical interpretations supported by adequate data), overviews (original and critical surveys of a broader topic or a particular subject, provided that the author has participated actively in its research), and in exceptional cases professional papers (articles that represent a relevant contribution to the profession, although they are not necessarily results of original research), provided they deal with an important and interesting subject. The Journal focuses on the themes from the history and theory of art and visual culture in Croatia and their broader context, which comprises relevant topics in Central-European and, generally, European art history as well. Weakly structured articles, articles with inadequately elaborated hypotheses, and articles on meaningless topics will be considered inadequate and rejected.

Article evaluation

The reviewer should assess the scholarly originality of the article, the structure of the text and its readability, the author’s correctness regarding the norms of citation and comments on the work of other scholars from the same field. The review should be critical, objective, and benevolent, based on solid knowledge of the subject; it should indicate possible deficiencies and propose additions or modifications that will enhance the quality of the text. The reviewer should make suggestions as to the quality of the article according to the binding categorization of MZOŠ (original scholarly article, brief statement, preliminary statement, conference paper, and overview). Editorial Board will make the final decision about the category on the basis of two, occasionally three reviews.

Elements of evaluation – suggested guidelines

The written review, preferably exceeding 1800 characters (including spaces) should include answers to the following questions:

• Does the article bring new insights about the material in question?  (Originality and scholarly contribution.)
• Does the author refer correctly to all previous research related to the topic and does he/she list all relevant literature? Are the scholarly literature and the sources referred to correctly in the notes?
• Is the subject presented in clear language and style? Is the article structured adequately? (Or is it obscure, too long, and filled with irrelevant data?)
• Does the summary (to be published in Croatian) contain all the data necessary to understand the content of the article? (The summary should include a general overview of the subject, the results, and the conclusion.)
• Is the ratio between the text and the illustrations adequate? (Or are there too many / too few illustrations?)
• Does the author need to modify the article in any way (correct some data, add something, or shorten a section)?
• Do you recommend the article for publication in the Journal of the Institute of Art History, and what type of journal article does it belong to, according to your opinion (original research paper, short report, review article, case  study)?

Note

Names of the author and the reviewers are omitted in the reviewing process.

Names of the reviewers of accepted articles are published in the following issue of the journal.

Reviews should be submitted by e-mail, preferably within three weeks, to the following address: radovi-ipu@ipu.hr. A signed copy is to be sent to the Editorial Board by regular mail.

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Here you can download the Guidelines for Reviewers and a Review sample.