Policies and Guidelines
IJMM is governed by the following policies and guidelines:
- Copyright and Open Access
- Research Ethics and Research Integrity
- Peer Review and Quality Assurance
Copyright and Open Access
IJMM is an open-access publication, providing free of charge access to its articles for users. The journal consistently releases articles under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
By submitting their work to IJMM, authors grant mdwPress (the academic publisher of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) a non-exclusive, transferable, and irreversible license to use their submitted work under the CC BY license. This license remains unlimited in terms of location and time, specifically encompassing the rights related to reproduction, distribution, and public accessibility. The right of first publication in all electronic formats is also included. Beyond this, authors’ rights are not affected. Specifically, authors retain the freedom to engage in distinct, supplementary agreements with third parties for the non-exclusive use of their work in any version (such as in institutional or subject repositories), provided that proper recognition of its publication by mdwPress is acknowledged.
Any use of the article by mdwPress or any other party outside the limitations outlined in the CC BY license must be negotiated with the authors, unless the circumstances fall under relevant copyright laws.
Research Ethics and Research Integrity
As a journal publishing research involving groups and individuals oftentimes in vulnerable positions, IJMM is specifically committed to avoiding voluntary or involuntary harm to these groups and individuals during the research or publication process. IJMM advocates a broad and reflexive concept of research ethics that also encompasses a decolonial and anti-discriminatory stance on research. In this regard, IJMM expressly endorses the Declaration of Ethical Principles and Professional Integrity and the Statement and Activities in View of Decolonization of Music and Dance Studies published by the International Council for Traditional Music, and asks its authors to comply with these guidelines of scholarly conduct.
IJMM is equally committed to the welfare of the scholarly community as well as of society in general, and discourages any breach of professional integrity, such as plagiarism, fabricating data, sabotaging other researchers’ work, mistreating students, or misappropriating/fraudulently acquiring research funds. IJMM refers its authors to the Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice published by the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity as providing guidance on the scope of relevant issues and established standards of conduct.
IJMM refuses to publish manuscripts that raise unresolvable doubts about the ethical acceptability of the underlying research or that, if published, are likely to cause harm to the groups or individuals discussed in the manuscript. Likewise, the journal will not publish manuscripts that are flawed by breaches of professional integrity. Contributions to IJMM may be withdrawn if breaches of research ethics or professional integrity come to light after publication. Authors publishing in IJMM are therefore expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards in all aspects of research and professional conduct.
Quality Assurance
Research Articles
1. Editorial Review
After the submission deadline, the editorial team accepts or rejects an article within 4 weeks and, if relevant, informs the author about the applicable peer review process.
2. Peer Review
The peer review of the article is carried out within 6 to 8 weeks of its receipt. There are three possible outcomes: 1) acceptance of the article as it stands; 2) acceptance of the article with minor corrections; 3) acceptance of the article if major corrections are made. Both reviews are anonymous (author and reviewer). The editorial coordinator informs the authors about the evaluation by sending them a summary of the review, together with the reviewers' comments, suggestions, and requests for corrections.
For more information on the review process, see: workflow.
Practice reflections, portraits, interviews, conference reports, and book reviews
The text is reviewed by the editorial team within 8 to 10 weeks following the submission deadline. The editorial team then sends the authors a summary of the review, together with any comments, suggestions, and requests for corrections. There are four possible outcomes: 1) acceptance of the text as it stands; 2) acceptance of the text with minor corrections; 3) acceptance of the text if major corrections are made; 4) rejection of the text.
For more information on the review process, see: workflow.
Review Criteria
The following criteria are applied when assessing the texts:
- Contribution to research: Are the hypotheses presented in the article sufficiently developed to be taken into consideration by specialists in the field? Is the article redundant in relation to other publications?
- Relevance: Would this article, once published, be one of the works that specialists in the field should take into account?
- Clarity/quality of writing: Does the writing in the article meet academic standards, or does it have major flaws?
- Balance of structure: Is the argument of the article clearly structured and easy to follow?
- Relevance/accessibility to readership: Are language and style appropriate to the subject of the article, bearing in mind that authors might not be native speakers of English?
- Knowledge of the literature: Does the article demonstrate sufficient knowledge of recent publications in its field? Which could be added?
- Relevance of methodology: Is the methodology described transparently and is a reflective research attitude recognizable? Does the chosen method seem appropriate for answering the research question?
- Research ethics and research integrity: Does the research presented in the article raise ethical issues and are these properly addressed? Does the article pose any copyright problems (excessive number of direct quotations or paraphrases, excessive length of quotations, unauthorized use of musical examples, song lyrics, or illustrations protected by law)? Does the author mention having received the necessary permissions from the affiliated institutions regarding studies conducted with or on human beings?
Criteria for the selection of reviewers
The selection of reviewers follows these principles:
- Proven expertise in the field of the manuscript: The editorial team aims to form pairs of reviewers with complementary expertise (theoretical/methodical approach). If necessary, a third reviewer can be assigned to the article.
- No conflicts of interest: In addition to pre-screening by the editorial team, experts approached as reviewers are asked to disclose any potential conflicts of interest (in case they believe to know who the author is) or other likely reasons for not being an appropriate referee. The editorial team decides in consultation with the referees whether a fair review process can still be guaranteed in such cases. The editorial team may in turn decide to select a different referee.
- Anonymity: Reviewers should in all cases remain anonymous. All interactions be-tween referees and authors are mediated by the journal’s editorial team. Reviews are not published and are owned by the reviewer.
Reviewers will receive guidelines/templates for preparing their report to the Editorial Team (not made available to the authors). They will be invited to add comments to the manu-scripts submitted to them so that the document can be sent to the author. Referees are asked to observe the Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers issued by the Committee on Pub-lication Ethics (COPE) in addition to IJMM’s own policies on research ethics and research integrity.
