EDITORIAL POLICY OF THE JOURNAL

Founded in 1956, "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History" is the oldest journal of historical scholarship in Saint Petersburg.

The Journal was established by the first and one of the most prominent universities of Russia, and it keeps the academic traditions developed by the world-famous Saint Petersburg school of historical research.
The hallmark of this school (and consequently, of the Journal) is the harmonious combination of the wide-scope research and comprehensive study of primary sources, as well as the mission of revealing new areas of historical knowledge to the readership, and fostering the highest historiographical standards of research.

Since its foundation, Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History has been focusing on disseminating the significant results achieved in all fields and branches of historical research, including Russian history, history of the Western World, historiography, the studies in primary sources, archaeology, ethnography and anthropology.
Such a wide range of topics constitutes the main objective of the Journal – to present the main trends and most recent achievements in historical scholarship to the academic community.

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History publishes the finest materials submitted by representatives of the world leading research centres of historical scholarship. The Journal encourages scholarly discussions between Russian and foreign historians. This is why research prepared in compliance with the traditional positivist paradigm is presented in the Journal side by side with the works following contemporary trends of historical studies – oral history, history of ideas, gender history, historical memory studies, etc. The Journal publishes manuscripts both in Russian and in English. The combination of these features makes the Journal an unparalleled academic periodical of its kind, at least within the Russian Federation.

The Journal rigorously selects submitted manuscripts.
Members of the Editorial Board specializing in the respective fields of history anonymously evaluate all submissions distributed to them by the Editor and offer a list of appropriate peer reviewers. After this stage, the manuscripts are subjected to the international double-blind peer review. Following the results of this reviewing process, the Editorial Board decides on the manuscripts to be included in the next issue of the Journal. The Journal involves the scholars from the leading Russian and foreign universities and academic institutions in the peer-reviewing process. In its policy, the Editorial Board follows the recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Peer Review Guidelines.

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History is published quarterly and it comprises a wide variety of research materials, such as academic articles, book reviews, and previously unpublished primary sources. All manuscripts are formatted in compliance with the world standards and are furnished with abstracts, keywords and references.

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History is covered by the following databases: EBSCO, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, eLIBRARY.ru, EastView, CyberLeninka, Russian Science Citation Index (included in multidisciplinary resources of Web of Science). Since 2016, DOI names have been assigned to all the articles published in the Journal.

The Journal is included in the list of the leading refereed academic journals and periodicals recommended by the Higher Attestation Committee at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, assigned for publication of the key results of doctoral dissertations (including the both Russian doctoral degrees: the PhD and the Doctor of History).