Rules for
Submitting (Sending), Reviewing and Publishing Manuscripts
(Including Scientific Ones)
in the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal
(version of December 21, 2013)

I

  1. The Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal publishes mainly scientific articles, overviews, reviews and opinions (the «Work» or «Manuscript»).
  2. The author shall send (at his/her own expense) two print-out copies and a digital copy of his/her Work to the Editorial Office, indicating his/her full name, institution, job title, academic degree and (or) title, return postal address, email and (or) contact telephone number.

A Manuscript may be pre-emailed to the Editorial Office subject to compulsory notice to the Editor-in-Chief or Deputy Editor-in-Chief to be given by telephone or email.

The author may also personally submit his/her Manuscript to the Editorial Office of the Journal.

The Work shall be accompanied by the author’s written address stating as follows: «I hereby seek you to publish my scientific article (review, etc.) in the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal. I have read, and undertake to comply with, the Rules (signature)».

II

  1. The author shall have the right:

1) to enjoy, in compliance with laws in effect, personal non-property rights to the Manuscript and its published version (authors’ rights, the right to his/her own name, the right to publish the Manuscript, the right to authors’ protection, etc.) as well as property rights to the extent such rights have not been transferred to the Journal’s publisher. This shall be confirmed by including the copyright symbol followed by the author’s surname and initials and the year submitted to the Editorial Office in the published Manuscript;

2) to receive remuneration in the form of three copies of the magazine containing the author’s materials (regardless of their number and length). The author’s copies shall be provided in accordance with the rules of clause 6(2) hereof.

  1. The author shall undertake:

1) to have personally created the Work;

2) not to transfer the Manuscript submitted to the Editorial Office to third parties for publishing, until the Editorial Office makes its decision regarding the Manuscript; if the Work has ever been published, the Manuscript shall contain a note to that effect and the publication details of the Work;

3) to finalize the Manuscript sent to him/her for that purpose by the Editorial Office and return one copy of the Manuscript, amended and corrected as recommended, to the Editorial Office within the time set thereby, with its digital copy enclosed.

  1. The author shall be liable for the contents of the Manuscript and for compliance with the procedure set by the laws of the Russian Federation when submitting the same for publication.

III

  1. The Editorial Office shall undertake:

1) to publish the reviewed Work that meets all of these Rules normally within the time necessary to prepare and release three issues of the Journal as scheduled;

2) to provide the author with three copies of the Journal containing his Work (the author’s copies shall be provided personally at the Editorial Office, no mailing; the author’s copies shall be stored at the Editorial Office until three months after the release);

3) to provide the author of the submitted material a copy of the review or a motivated refusal to publish the Manuscript.

  1. The Editorial Office shall have the right:

1) to edit and proofread the submitted Manuscript;

2) to send the Manuscript to the author for finalization, to set a time limit for the author to return the Manuscript to the Editorial Office and to recommend amendments and/or corrections to be made for the Manuscript to be published (see subclause 6 hereof);

3) to split the Manuscripts and publish it in two or more issues of the Journal without seeking the approval of the author;

4) to advertise and/or publish the published (parts of the) Manuscript without the author’s right to set forth any additional conditions;

5) to post the published Manuscript in the Internet, the Russian Scientific Citation Index (RSCI), the eLIBRARY.RU Scientific Electronic Library, other legal databases, etc. without obtaining the approval of or paying remuneration to the author;

6) to refuse to publish the Manuscript as not falling with the remit of the Journal (clause 4.1 of the General Information about the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal); unpublishable for reasons associated with the need to protect a state or trade secret or any other secret protected by law; unpublishable for reasons associated with the merits of the Work, including noncompliance with the Manuscript requirements set out herein.

IV

  1. All materials, including scientific articles submitted to the Editorial Office of the Journal, whether pre-reviewed or not, shall undergo primary expert examination.

Primary expert examination shall be performed by the Editor-in-Chief (Deputy Editor-in-Chief) to ensure that the Manuscript fits the remit of the Journal and meets the requirements of these Rules.

If the Manuscript fits the remit of the Journal and meets these Rules, it shall be accepted by the Editorial Office and sent for review.

If the Manuscript does not fit the remit of the Journal or does not meet these Rules, it shall be rejected without further review. If the Editorial Office does not accept the Manuscript, the author shall be given a motivated refusal specifying on what reasons the Manuscript has been rejected.

  1. All articles accepted by the Editorial Office shall be reviewed. Reviewers are usually members of the Editorial Board of the Journal with expertise in the relevant field of scientific research. In some cases, external reviewers may be engaged from among well-known experts in the field to which the article pertains.

Reviewers shall be appointed by the Editor-in-Chief.

9.1. The purpose of a review shall be to evaluate the timeliness of the article, its scientific novelty (degree, comparison with known scientific results, etc.), credibility and/or practical significance. In addition, a review shall contain comments on main problems (if any) in the article.

9.2. The reviewer shall make a conclusion on the possibility of publishing the article: the article may be accepted (including subject to minor corrections), accepted subject to finalization or rejected.

9.3. All reviews shall be confidential.

9.4. The time limit for reviewing an article shall be four weeks.

  1. If the reviewer’s conclusion is favorable, the Editor-in-Chief shall include the article in the publication schedule.

If the reviewer concludes that the article should be «accepted subject to finalization», the author shall be returned the article to correct the problems. The finalized article shall be forwarded to the same reviewer. If the reviewer’s conclusion is favorable, the release of the article shall be brought up at the Editorial Board meeting.

If the reviewer’s conclusion is unfavorable, the article shall be further sent to another reviewer. After two unfavorable reviews, the author shall be given a motivated refusal signed by the Editor-in-Chief or the Deputy Editor-in-Chief.

If the second review is favorable, the release of the article shall be brought up at the Editorial Board meeting.

If a formal request is made, the Editorial Office shall provide the author of the article with the review(s) in digital or written form without specifying the surname of the expert who reviewed the article.

V

  1. By submitting his/her Manuscript to the Editorial Office, the author acknowledges and undertakes to comply with these Rules, while the Editorial Office, by receiving the author’s submission, acknowledges and undertakes to respect the author’s copyright to the submitted Manuscript. No additional agreement needs to be entered.

To discuss the possibility of developing additional terms and conditions, the author shall contact the Editorial Office of the Journal.

Should the author breach all or any of these Rules, the Editorial Office shall be relieved of any of its obligations.

Any full or partial reproduction (publication) of a Manuscript published in the Journal shall be subject to written permission of the Editorial Office.

The Editorial Office shall not return any physical media carrying Manuscripts.

  1. The publication fee shall be RUB 350 per one thousand (1000) printed characters (including spaces).

Works by research degree students shall be published free of charge.

VI

  1. A scientific work sent to the Editorial Office shall comply with the requirements for journal publications included in the List of Peer-reviewed Scientific Publications for compulsory publishing of key scientific results of dissertations.

In particular, a scientific manuscript shall be of theoretical and (or) practical significance and shall contain a per-page reference (bibliographic) list of at least three references to scientific works by other specialists.

A scientific article shall contain a summary and a list of keywords, both also translated in the English language, along with the author’s details and the title of the article.

A manuscript of a book review shall be sent to the Editorial Office along with the book reviewed. Otherwise, the review shall not be published.

  1. Manuscripts submitted to the Journal shall be in the Standard Russian language.

In particular, the term «operative search» and its derivatives should be written in Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation with an «a» letter in the wordrazysknoy as required by the official rules (see, e.g., Bukchina B.Z. Orfografichesky slovar russkogo yazyka. 5-е izdanie / B.Z. Bukchina, I.K. Sazonova, L.K. Cheltsova. М.: AST-PRESS KNIGA, 2009. P. 637).

  1. Format requirements for Manuscripts sent for publishing in the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal:

1) a scientific article (overview) shall be provided in duplicate (a review and other materials, in one copy) accompanied by a digital copy;

2) text format: Times New Roman font; 1,5 line spacing; text font size – 14 points, footnote font size – 12 points. Page margins: top margin – 2 cm, bottom – 2 cm, left – 3 cm, right – 1 cm;

3) page numbering should be included;

4) per-page footnote numbering should be used;

5) a scientific article should normally not exceed 0,5 of a signature (20 000 printed characters); a scientific overview, 0,7; a review, 0,3;

6) the author’s full name and the Manuscript title shall be transliterated into English at the beginning of the text and shall be followed by a summary and a list of keywords (single-spaced, 12 font size) in the Russian and English languages;

7) the first copy of the Manuscript shall contain the author’s handwritten note stating that he/she has copyread and checked the text (citations, numbers, footnotes).

VII

  1. These Rules (in the version of December 21, 2013) shall take effect upon their posting on the official website of the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal.

            If you have any questions regarding publication of materials in the Field Investigator (Sleuth) Journal, please contact the Editorial Office by email at oper-ord@mail.ru or by telephone 8-495-368-3567.