VESTNIK: Call for Papers, Editorial Board, Policies, and Processes

Vestnik showcases student work on any topic related to the broad geographic area shown in the map above. This includes but is not limited to: politics, security, economics, diplomacy, identity, culture, history, demographics, language, religion, literature, and the arts. Research may focus on any majority or minority group that currently occupies or has historically occupied space within this geographic region.

Submissions must have been written while the author was still enrolled in a higher education program. The author may be no more than two years out of higher education and must be under the age of 35 at the time of submission. Authors of all nationalities and from all institutions of higher education globally are eligible, but the submission must be written in English.

• Author documnentation: Submitted papers should include, at the top of the first page, the applicant’s name, major, class standing, a brief description of his/her future plans, and indication that the student is in agreement with all Vestnik policies and procedures. The webpage you are currently reading contains all policies and procedures.
• Previous Use: Submissions may have been previously submitted for a class. Submissions should not have been previously published elsewhere.
• Citations style: Any standard citation format (MLA, APA, Chicago) will be accepted, as we are dealing with diverse subjects.
• Length: Submissions must be longer than 1500 words. There is no upper limit.
• Medium: Submissions may be submitted via email in Word or via Google docs, by sharing the document (with editing and sharing rights) with jwilson@sras.org. PDF submissions will not be accepted.
• Translations. If your submission is a translation, unless the original document (the item translated) is in the public domain, translators must have permission from the original author in order to be published in Vestnik.

All submissions should be emailed to Josh Wilson, Editor-in-Chief, at jwilson@sras.org.

For every issue of Vestnik, one $200 Jury Award is presented. After publication, the editorial board will select what we consider to be the most interesting, original, well-written, and well-argued submission. The recipient will be sent an official letter of congratulations along with a $200 check. This process will take into account as well how receptive the author was to improving the paper before publication under the guidance of our editorial board.

Papers are published across the SRAS Family of Sites, with a central page for each issue posted on GeoHistory.

All contributors retain ownership of their contributions. Owners of the texts may present them at conferences, republish them for commercial or non-commercial purposes, or use them for any other purpose they see fit. Vestnik retains rights to the copy published in our journal. Once a paper is published in Vestnik, it cannot be "unpublished." It will remain in HTML and/or PDF and openly available on our site.

The information contained within papers published in Vestnik may be quoted or photocopied for academic and/or non-commercial purposes, but credit must be given to the author and Vestnik.

Any questions about our policies may be directed to the editor-in-chief.

Once an author has been accepted to the editing process and confirmed their acceptance to the editing process via email, the editing process, up to and including publication, may proceed at the discretion of the editor-in-chief. This includes cases where communication with the author, for whatever reason, is lost.

Vestnik is an academic publication meant not only to showcase exceptional student work, but to act as a tool to help students improve their research and writing skills. To this end, the Vestnik editorial process is nontraditional and seeks to actively involve the contributor in a multi-step editing process.

1. Initial Review - The Vestnik Editorial Board is responsible for approving or rejecting submissions.
2. One-on-One Editing - One member of the board will work directly with the student on improving the submission's organization, argumentation, clarity, and conciseness. This is handled mostly by making comments to the paper using the comments function, general commentary delivered via email, and by tracked edits made directly to the submission.
3. Board Revisions - Once these major edits have been made, the wider editorial board reviews and comments on the resultant product. The student will be briefed on these comments and any additional edits that might be made or need to be made to the submission. The student should approve this second version.
4. Peer Review - The authors of included submissions for each issue constitute a peer review board for that issue. Anonymized commentary will be shared with all students so that all may learn from each other. Students will be given a chance to make final edits based on this commentary. Students who give especially insightful commentary or who prove particularly adept at finding additional edits that should be made are sometimes invited to become student members of the board.
5. Final Check - Once the paper has been finalized, the html and pdf versions of the journal are created and presented to all students for review. Students must review at least their own submissions for formatting issues and any final edits. Students are encouraged to additionally check each others' work again for any outstanding issues or edits.

Note: Of course, the process is often not as complicated as it may sound. Some submissions require very little content editing. Subsequent edits after the One-on-One Editing Round are often relatively minor. However, we believe that this basic system provides students with much insight to their research and gives an excellent opportunity to students to learn and to publish the best paper possible.

Joshua H. Wilson, M.A., Editor-in-Chief, Assistant Director of the School of Russian and Asian Studies
Renee Stillings, B.S., Director, SRAS.org
Gina Peirce, M.A., Assistant Director, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Gwen S. Myers, M.A., Retired History Teacher
Eleanor Nurmi, Seeking M.A. at University of Chicago (Student Editor)
Sophia Rehm, B.A. from University of Chicago (Student Editor)
Margaret Godwin-Jones, Seeking her second B.A. at Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University (Student Editor)
The Peer Review Board is composed of other contributing authors

Vestnik invites interest in joining the Vestnik Editorial Board from any instructor currently teaching in higher education. Students may apply to join after having research published in Vestnik.

Editorial Procedures

1. Editors are encouraged to spread awareness of Vestnik by posting information or encouraging specific students or classes to submit work.
2. Incoming submissions are screened by the Editor-in-Chief and/or a Managing Editor. Individual board members may be asked for input on accepting a submission based on that member's expertise.
3. Authors are notified of their acceptance or non-acceptance by the Editor-in-Chief or a Managing Editor.
4. One-on-one editorial responsibilities (the first phase of the editing process, detailed above) may be offered to any individual board member, although expertise will be taken into account. The board member may accept or decline for any reason.
5. Board revisions responsibilities are broadly dispersed by sending all submissions, as they complete the one-on-one editing phase, to all board members. Each board member may participate or not for any reason.
6. All board members will also be invited to participate in the final check.
7. Any board member may withdraw their membership at any time.
8. Procedures are kept flexible to allow members to pursue other interests and responsibilities. The board is meant to function as a community, crowdsharing their resources of time, energy, and expertise toward the goal of supporting student scholarship.