Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe (OPREE) is a multidisciplinary, multi-religious journal. We publish a range of articles, including peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles, explorations, reports, and book reviews. For the majority of submissions, which are not peer reviewed, the editors make the decision with regard to acceptance. We accept submissions on any aspect of the religious history, life and situation of the former socialist countries of eastern and central Europe and Eurasia (former Soviet Union).

Materials intended for publication must be uploaded through Digital Commons, using the link “Submit Article” on the journal homepage. Authors must choose whether to request external peer review or not. If there are any questions about this process, please contact the editor-in-chief, Paul Mojzes, or one of the two co-editors, Beth Admiraal and David Baer.

Submissions should follow these guidelines:

File Type

Submissions should be uploaded in .doc or .docx format (Microsoft Word) through Digital Commons.

Quality and Length

Submissions of any length will be considered, though the standard is between four and thirty pages (1,000 to 10,000 words).

Authors must ensure the accuracy of citations, quotations, diagrams, tables, and maps.

Formatting

Submissions should follow the Chicago Manual of Style for citations (also known as the “Classical Style”) using footnotes instead of endnotes or in-text references.

1. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the relevant page in 10-point font and should contain the first and last name of author, the italicized title of the publication, and then (in parenthesis, the place of publication: publisher, date), the page number(s).
2. For repeated footnotes, use either the abbreviation Ibid. or the last name of the author (with or without op.cit.) and page number.
   
   A few sample footnotes are as follows:
   
   Nancy Petrovski, History of Romania (London: Bloomsbury Academic Publishers, 2001), 31-34.
   
   Petrovski, op.cit., 86.
   
   Ibid., 88.
   
   In the bibliography, the listing of sources should be alphabetical and should not be numbered.
   
   Petrovski, Nancy. History of Romania. London: Bloomsbury Academic Publishers, 2001 (no page numbers are needed as they were used in the footnote.)
   
   Karl Mannheim, “The Problem of Generations,” in P. Kecskemeti (ed.), Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press, 1952), 276–320.
   
   Людмила Петрашко. “Про практику і етику медичних рішень під час пандемії COVID-19.” [On the Practice and Ethics of Medical Solutions During the COVID-19 Pandemic]. ZN, UA. https://zn.ua/ukr/HEALTH/skladni-rishennja.html. Accessed 01.17.2021.


3. Submissions should be sent in 12-point Times Roman font, with 1-inch justified margins, and 1.5 spaced lines. Indent paragraphs by 5 spaces.


4. Subheadings, if used, should be in bold (starting at the left margin), with a single line of white space before but no space after the subheading.


5. Although submissions must be written in English, titles must appear in the original language with an English translation immediately following in brackets.

Additional Notes

On the first page of your article submission, submit a brief biographical note (3-5 sentences), which should be placed directly after the title and author’s name upon publication. There should be information about your present position, educational experience, and any relevant publications or experiences. The author’s email address and ORCID is optional. Below the biographical note, include an abstract that briefly summarizes the contents of the article. The abstract should be included on the first page of the article as well as in the separate box on the submission form in Digital Commons.

Regular articles will be processed speedily. There are no hard and fast deadlines for submission. Publication is sporadic but consistent. A new issue is released with the acquisition and editing of every three or four articles.

When you select your document type on the submission form, you can choose from Peer-Reviewed Article (externally reviewed); Article, Exploration, or Report (reviewed by the editors); or Book Review.

For peer reviewed articles (should the author request it), we cannot guarantee a quick turnaround time, seeking at a minimum two peer responses to articles. After the peer-review process, authors will be contacted with the decision to publish as submitted (minor issues of grammatical or formal editing will be made without consulting author); revise-and-resubmit; or not suitable for publication at this time in this journal.

Book Review Guidelines

Book reviews in OPREE will allow readers of the journal to become familiar with the landscape of publications on religion in Eastern Europe and hear an informative and critical voice on texts in the field.

OPREE is an international, interreligious, and multidisciplinary journal. Therefore, it is helpful if the review acknowledges the intended audience for the text, background information about the author, and helpful contextual details. The book review should not merely summarize the content but critically address the main ideas and primary objectives of the book and give insight into whether the objectives are met, offering constructive comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the text. If helpful, the book reviewer can compare the text with other texts on the subject.

The header of your review should include the following:


1. Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s), including a middle name or initial if used by the author (indicating if it is an edited book)
2. Book title (Italicized)
3. If relevant, translator (Trans. from [language] by [translator])
4. Place of publication, publisher, and date
5. Number of pages
6. Price if available (indicate if paperback or hard cover)
7. ISBN

Below the header, please include this phrase:

Reviewed by: Your first and last name and institution affiliation

OPREE is committed to providing reviewers with creative license to write reviews of any length. A suggestion, though not a requirement, is to write reviews in the range of 900-1200 words.

All reviews will be published with American English spelling. Non-English words that are necessary for the review should be [translated in brackets.] All references should be made in-text, rather than as footnotes or endnotes.

Book reviews should be sent to the book review editor via email (paul.crego@ijpoole.net), unless other arrangements are made.

If the book review editor decides that significant changes are needed, the review will be sent for approval to the reviewer. The book review editor will seek out clarifications if necessary.

* * *

This publication is entirely a labor of love. OPREE neither receives nor pays out financial compensation for contribution or involvement. The intellectual fulfillment of contributing is its own reward.

For previous issues see http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/.