CONTENTS
1. Focus and Scope
2. Copyrights and Limitations of Use
3. Open Access Policy
4. Peer Review Process
5. Reviewer Guidelines
6. Section Policies
7. Journal History
1. Focus and Scope
ICO – Iconographisk Post. Nordisk tidskrift för bildtolkning – Nordic Review of Iconography is a Nordic review for iconographic research that aims to generate, discuss and disseminate new knowledge primarily regarding the visual cultural heritage of the Nordic region. Iconographical research is conducted by all disciplines concerned with interpretation and analysis of visual material, i.e. mainly in the humanities, theology, archaeological and some of the social sciences. It is ICO’s ambition to function as an interdisciplinary and inter Nordic forum for iconographical research in a broad sense. Besides scholarly articles and reviews, it contains short presentations of new literature and a forum for discussion of iconographical questions.
Iconography is primarily the study of the content and meaning of images and is used by different disciplines such as art history, semiotics, history, church history, archaeology, visual culture and media studies. Iconography is of central importance for the understanding and interpretation of visual images of all ages, as well as for how symbols, personifications and attributes change over time. As an analytical instrument, it is applicable to images of all cultures, from Sumerian cylinder seals to modern ads.
The journal is indexed by DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals.
2. Copyrights and Limitations of Use
Content on this website is protected by Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It permits users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the published articles. Using and sharing the content is permitted as long as original materials are appropriately credited. Reusers are allowed to copy and distribute the articles in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for non-commercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator(s). Images and other external material (as well as material added by this journal) are subject to any requirements of third-party copyright owners. The ability to copy, download, forward or otherwise distribute any materials is always subject to copyright notices displayed. Authors of articles published in ICO Iconographisk Post retain copyright on their articles, except for any third-party images and other materials added by ICO, which are subject to copyright of their respective owners. Authors are therefore free to disseminate and re-publish their articles, subject to any requirements of third-party copyright owners and subject to the original publication being fully cited.
3. Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. No subscription is needed to access the articles and no download fees are charged.
Authors are not charged for publications in this journal (Author Processing Charges, APCs), neither submission fee nor article processing fee.
4. Peer Review Process
Articles submitted to the journal will undergo a peer-reviewing process. First, the editor undertakes a general assessment of the article’s eligibility and compliance with the author guidelines. If passed, it is sent to two external peer-reviewer for scholarly evaluation (double-blind review process). The writer will then be informed about the outcome of the review and given opportunity to carry out modifications according to the reviewers’ specified recommendations. The final decision on publication is based on the reviewers’ report. The guidelines for peer-reviewers are as follows:
5. Reviewer Guidelines
Peer review is conducted anonymously, i.e. the author will not learn the identity of the peer reviewers, and vice versa (i.e. double-blind). The editor(s) will read the reviews and then communicate its outcome and recommendations to the author.
The reviewer’ task is to evaluate if the article is written according to good academic standards in terms of structural coherence, clarity and lucidity etc. The text should be accessible for a wider audience; it is important that the language is clear and lucid and that unfamiliar (in most cases technical) terms are explained.
The reviews should be concise and to the point. Reviewers may consider the following aspects in particular:
1) Is the title sufficiently informative and does it correspond to the content of the article?
2) Are the problems considered in the article and its goals defined clearly?
3) Are the concepts, methods and theories (in relevant cases) clearly defined in relation to the research problems?
4) Are conclusions presented logically and do they answer the questions posed in the article?
5) Does the article present new and significant information on the subject dealt with?
6) Does the article indicate sufficient command of the main sources/research literature regarding the subject and research problems? – If not, what sources/works of research literature should still be consulted by the contributor?
7) Is the text well written, fluent in style and grammatically correct?
8) Are the illustrations adequate and do they support the content of the article? Are they too few, or too many?
9) Do the captions give correct and sufficient information?
Peer reviewers are asked to state clearly whether the submitted text is:
a) acceptable as such for publication,
b) acceptable with changes – indicate with reference to the above criteria which changes should be made, and if re-examination is required,
c) unacceptable for publication (give the main reasons why).
6. Section Policies
1. Articles
Articles and other texts (see the headings below) may be submitted in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English or German. All articles are to be provided with an abstract (summary) in English, and those written in a Scandinavian language or German are to be supplemented with captions in English. For further information, see Submissions > Author Guidelines.
2. Reviews
The journal welcomes reviews on newly published books and articles on iconography and related fields. The file requirements are the same as for articles (see Author Guidelines). The review may be accompanied by an image of the book cover or an appropriate illustration, but it is the author’s responsibility to procure all copyright permissions. It is also possible to submit information on new publications (or internet sites), providing full bibliographical data, and a short description of the content.
Scholars who wish to submit reviews may either contact the editor directly, or register with the journal and log in as an author.
3. I’m looking for......
This is the heading under which short articles are published in which scholars may present iconographical problems and pose questions on specific topics to the research community. For the file requirements, see Submissions > Author Guidelines.
4. I’ve found......
This heading is used for short articles in which scholars may present new findings in the iconographical field. For the file requirements, see Submissions > Author Guidelines.
5. Commentaries
We publish comments on recent articles in ICO under the heading “Kommentarer”.
7. Journal History
ICO Iconographisk Post. Nordisk tidskrift för bildtolkning – Nordic Review of Iconography is published by the Department of Art History, Åbo Akademi University, Finland, starting in 2014 with four issues per year. It is an independent, internet based continuation of Iconographisk Post, published in printed form 1970-2001.
During the first nine years of the journal’s existence (1970-1978), its editorial team was placed at the Department of Church History, University of Copenhagen, and its name was ICO – Den iconographiske Post. Et nordisk blad om billeder. When the editorial task was taken over by the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet, Stockholm) in 1979, the name was changed to Iconographisk Post. Nordisk tidskrift för ikonografi. Nordic Review of Iconography (ISSN 0106-1348). In 1985, the Swedish title was changed to Nordisk tidskrift för bildtolkning. Between 1997 and 2001 the journal was again published at the University of Copenhagen, by the Centre for Christianity and the Arts.
