About the Journal

Aims and scope

Incontri. Rivista europea di studi italiani is a double-blind peer-reviewed international journal of Italian Studies dedicated to the study of Italian culture from its origins to the present day. Since its founding in 1985, the journal has published original research across a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, linguistics, philosophy, art history, music, cinema, and theatre. Incontri actively encourages interdisciplinary contributions that cross traditional boundaries within the Humanities. It also welcomes research that examines Italy within transnational and comparative contexts. In doing so, the journal seeks to foster critical debates on the interconnected and evolving nature of Italian culture in a European and global context.

Published as an Open Access journal, Incontri is the official publication of the Werkgroep Italië Studies (WIS), a scholarly network based in the Dutch and Flemish academic communities. Its editorial and advisory boards are composed of scholars recruited from the local and international field of Italian Studies, ensuring rigorous peer review and editorial supervision.

Incontri welcomes contributions in Italian, English, and Dutch, reflecting its inclusive linguistic policy and commitment to fostering cross-cultural academic exchange. While Incontri serves the WIS membership, its scope is explicitly international, aiming to support a dynamic and diverse scholarly community.

The journal appears termly, publishing two issues per year, with an annual volume of approximately 200–300 pages. Each issue features a range of scholarly articles, thematic features, critical reviews, and research notices. The journal is published in collaboration with WIS and Openjournals. The journal also welcomes proposals for guest-edited special issues. Interested scholars are encouraged to contact the editorial office at incontri.segreteria@gmail.com.

Peer-review procedure

Incontri ensures a transparent and rigorous editorial process, based on a double-blind peer-review system. Upon submission, each manuscript undergoes an initial screening by the editorial board, typically within one to two weeks, to determine its suitability for peer review. At this stage, the board may decide to accept, reject, or request revisions prior to external peer evaluation.

Submissions deemed appropriate for review are anonymised and assessed independently by two expert reviewers. The double-blind peer review process generally takes between four and six weeks. In the event of a significant discrepancy between reviewers, a third opinion might be sought. Reviewers are asked to provide a clear recommendation (acceptance, revision, or rejection), as well as constructive, formative feedback even in cases where the article is not recommended for publication.

All submissions are evaluated with reference to the following criteria:

Originality and structure of the argument: (a) clear structure; (b) logical coherence, (c) appropriate length; (d) persuasiveness of the argument; (e) use of adequate supporting evidence.
Engagement with existing research: (a) completeness, accuracy, and currency of references; (b) accurate representation of existing research.
Accessibility: (a) Suitability of academic register; (b) Potential accessibility to a wider public.
Additional comments.

The editors-in-chief collate the reviewers’ reports and communicate their feedback and decision to the author. The final decision is made by the editorial board. In cases where revisions are requested, publication is contingent upon satisfactory resubmission and, where necessary, further review.

The editorial board reserves the right to reject a submission at any stage of the editorial process, including after initial acceptance, particularly in cases where good scholarly practices, such as adherence to research ethics and academic integrity, are found to have been compromised.

The double-blind peer-review process applies to original research articles, while other submissions such as features, reviews, notes, translations and interviews are assessed directly by the editorial board without anonymisation.

Section policies

Articles

Open Submissions

Indexed

Peer Reviewed

Reviews

Open Submissions

Indexed

Translations

Open Submissions

Indexed

Notices

Open Submissions

Indexed

Open access policy

Incontri provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that freely available research supports a wider global exchange of knowledge.

Incontri does not levy article processing charges or submission fees. The journal’s editorial procedures and decisions are entirely independent of commercial considerations.

Journal and all the articles are published under a “Creative Commons - Attribution” (CC 4.0 BY NC ND).

With the license CC-BY-N-ND, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, distribute their contributions, under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Publication ethics

The publication of a research articles in a peer-reviewed journal is a central element of Incontri’s model. Clear standards of ethical conduct are required for all parties involved in the publishing process, including authors, editors, peer reviewers and the publisher.

Incontri’s ethic statements are based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Authors, Editors and referees are expected to know and share the following principles.

Duties

Duties of editors

Publication decisions

The Director, Editors-in-Chief and the Editorial Board of Incontri are responsible for determining which submitted articles are suitable for publication. Their decisions may be informed by the policies of the journal’s advisory board and by applicable legal requirements concerning libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

The Editorial Board serves on a voluntary basis. Their independence is preserved and their choices remain unrestricted provided that their work aligns with the scholarly aims of the journal.

Editors do not seek to influence the journal’s ranking by manipulating any metric. They ensure that submissions are assessed solely on scholarly merit and that authors are not encouraged to cite particular publications for non-scholarly reasons.

Fair play

The Director, the Editors-in-Chief and all editorial staff assess manuscripts exclusively on intellectual merit, without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship or political views.

Confidentiality

The Director, the Editors-in-Chief and all editorial staff must not disclose information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers and the publisher, when appropriate.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Unpublished material contained in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the author’s explicit written permission.

Duties of reviewers

Contribution to editorial decisions

Peer review supports the editors in reaching editorial decisions and, through communication with the author, can help improve the quality of the manuscript.

Promptness

Any referee who feels unqualified to assess the research in a manuscript or who cannot provide a timely review should inform the editor and withdraw from the process.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential. They must not be shared with or discussed with others unless authorised by the editors.

Standards of objectivity

Reviews should be conducted with objectivity. Personal criticism of the author is not acceptable. Referees should present their views clearly and support them with appropriate reasoning.

Acknowledgement of sources

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Claims that an observation, derivation or argument has appeared before must be supported by the appropriate citation. Reviewers should also alert the editors to any significant similarity or overlap between the manuscript and other published work known to them.

Disclosure and conflict of interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal benefit. Reviewers should not evaluate manuscripts in which they have a conflict of interest arising from competitive, collaborative or other relationships with the authors, companies or institutions associated with the submission.

Duties of authors

Reporting standards

Authors of original research should provide an accurate account of their work and an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data must be represented truthfully. Papers should include sufficient detail and references to allow others to replicate the study. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are unethical and unacceptable.

Data access and retention

Where applicable, authors should be prepared to provide raw data for editorial review, allow public access to such data, and retain it for a reasonable period after publication.

Originality and plagiarism

Authors must ensure their work is entirely original. Any use of others’ work or words must be appropriately cited or quoted.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication

Authors should not publish manuscripts describing substantially the same research in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is unethical.

Acknowledgement of sources

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others is required. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported research.

Authorship of the paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the study. All significant contributors should be listed as co-authors. Others who have contributed in specific ways should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author must ensure all appropriate co-authors are included, that all co-authors have approved the final version, and that they agree to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

Authors must disclose any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that could be seen to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support must also be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works

If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, they must promptly notify the journal editors or publisher and cooperate in retracting or correcting the paper.

Plagiarism policy

All articles submitted to Incontri will be checked for plagiarism, including through software such as Compilatio, Turnitin or iThenticate. A specific procedure is followed in cases of suspected plagiarism. Incontri adheres to the guidelines outlined in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowcharts.

In the case of suspected plagiarism in a published article:

The person who reported the issue to Incontri is informed of the process to be followed.
The contributions are compared to assess the extent of copying.
All editors of Incontri are notified and asked for their comments.
The author of the article in question is contacted, provided with documentary evidence, and asked to respond.

If the author is found guilty of plagiarism:

The editor of the journal or series in which the original plagiarised work appeared, as well as the authors of the plagiarised work, are informed.
Incontri publishes an official retraction of the paper.
The article is removed from the Incontri website.
Incontri will not accept any submissions from the author for a period of five years.

Management of post publication issues and possible correction/retraction of published articles

The Director, Editors-in-Chief and the Editorial Board are open to well-founded criticism of published work and do not preclude the publication of research that challenges previously published findings. They are also responsible for issuing corrections, clarifications and retractions when necessary. Authors must always be given the opportunity to respond to criticism, and the journal does not exclude studies reporting negative results.

Statement on the use of artificial intelligence

Incontri recognises the significance of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as well as the opportunities and challenges they present to academic research.

Authors who have used AI tools in preparing manuscripts, creating images or graphical elements, or during data collection and analysis must explicitly declare such use.

Journal editors are prohibited from using AI software on submitted manuscripts. Similarly, reviewers must not use AI tools during the evaluation process.

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the standard functions of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information necessary for communication during the editorial process, informs readers about authorship and editing of content, and allows for the collection of aggregated data on readership behaviour, as well as monitoring geopolitical and social aspects of scholarly communication.

The editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving the journal. Data that supports the development of the publishing platform may be shared with its developer, Public Knowledge Project (PKP), in anonymised and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. This data will not be sold by the journal or PKP, nor used for purposes other than those stated.

Authors are responsible for any human subject data included in the research they publish.

Those involved in editing the journal seek to comply with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provisions for data subject rights, which include: (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design.

The GDPR also recognises “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which is particularly relevant to maintaining the integrity of the public record of scholarly publishing.

Indexing services

Incontri is indexed by the following bibliographic and academic services: ITALINEMO, VABB-SHW, MLA Directory of Periodicals & MLA International Bibliography, ERIH PLUS, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine BASE search, DOAJ, Google scholar, JournalTOCs, OAister, Worldcat and MIAR. In addition, the journal is available for harvesting via OAI-PMH.

All published content is indexed with CrossRef and assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Researchers whose preferred indexing service does not include Incontri are encouraged to submit an indexing request via incontri.segreteria@gmail.com.

Sponsorship

The publication of Incontri is made possible thanks to the generous financial support of WIS, the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR), and the Netherlands Institute for Art History in Florence (NIKI). In 2021, the University of Amsterdam exceptionally provided financial support.

Board of Werkgroep Italië Studies

Philiep Bossier (president)
Cristiano Amendola (secretary)
Valentijn As (member)
Yoïn van Spijk (member)
Serena Ferente (member)
Marleen Termeer (member)
Ardie Van Berkel (treasurer)

E-mail: italiestudies@gmail.com
Website: www.italiestudies.nl

About the Journal

Aims and scope

Peer-review procedure