Editorial Policy of the Journal

The journal’s history dates back to 1946. It has been published under different names for more than seventy years by Saint Petersburg University, Russia’s oldest university, which is currently one of the leading universities in the country.

Since its foundation, the journal’s editorial policy has been to highlight the achievements of Russian and foreign scholars in various fields of linguistics, literary studies and interdisciplinary research. The journal serves, therefore, as a platform for academic discussions by representatives of the leading philological centres of Russia and the world. “Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature” seeks to present the academic community with new humanitarian knowledge and modern methodology on a broad thematic spectrum of philological sciences.

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg State University. Language and Literature is based on the rich traditions of the St Petersburg (Leningrad) philological school, the distinctive features of which are functionalism, psychology and anthropocentrism in interpreting various phenomena in language and literature. These general theoretical foundations have been laid at different times by well-known professors of the university: in linguistics by Baudouin de Courtenay and L.V. Scherba; and in literary criticism by V.V. Vinogradov, V. Propp and D.S. Likhachev. Traditions of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) philological school find their continuation in the contemporary linguistic and literary studies approaches developed by St Petersburg University scholars. They include: pragmatic analysis of spontaneous Russian speech; phonosemantics; the theory of cognitive linguistics; the verb aspectology in the Russian and Slavic languages; and the theory of artistic narrative. Thus, the journal seeks to combine traditions and innovation on its pages.

A quarterly publication, Vestnik publishes research articles and critical reviews in Russian and English. They are designed to reflect research developments in linguistics, literary studies and interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, and also to present a diversity of approaches and pluralism of opinion. Particular attention is paid to works that continue the traditions of Russian, Saint Petersburg and Saint Petersburg University scholarship.

A combination of all these priorities in publishing activity makes Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature unique among other philological journals in the Russian and international research domains.

The articles published in the journal are subject to rigorous, multi-stage selection. The members of the editorial board, who supervise the relevant area in linguistics or literary criticism, carry out preliminary anonymous examination of all incoming material and compile the list of reviewers. Then the articles are double anonymous reviewed by leading domestic and foreign specialists whose scientific specialization is as close as possible to the topic of the article being reviewed. Based on the results of the examination and review, the editorial board selects materials for publication in the next issue. In its activities, the editorial board is guided by the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Peer Review Guidelines.

All published material is made in accordance with international standards and supplied with annotations, key words and lists of literature in Russian and English. Since 2016, all articles are assigned to the DOI.

Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Language and Literature is covered by the following databases: EBSCO, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, ERIH PLUS, eLIBRARY.ru, EastView, CyberLeninka, ICI Journals Master List, Brill Linguistic Bibliography (Online), Russian Science Citation index (included in multidisciplinary resources of Web of Science), Web of Science Core Collection (Emerging Sources Citation Index).

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 sciences in philological sciences).