Polemos publishes original scientific, review and other theoretical, research and methodological papers from the fields of sociology, military science, political science, philosophy, history and psychology regarding all the questions dealing with the effects of war on society and people, relationship between armed forces and society, security and defense studies, Croatian Homeland war and military history, as well as reviews of domestic and foreign books and magazines which deal with those and related topics. Polemos also publishes other contributions in those topics areas (statements, translations, reviews, notifications etc.). Only papers which have not been previously published elsewhere are considered. Every paper submitted for consideration undergoes a double-blind peer-review process. The results of review process are conveyed to authors in six weeks from the date of article submission at the longest. When choosing reviewers the Editorial Board requires that reviewers have no conflict of interest. Members of the Armed Forces, other security organizations and institutions, and Croatian state administration publish papers in accordance with the law and special regulations. Editorial Board considers that submission of papers and the copyrights are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Publication ethics

Polemos is a peer-reviewed international scientific journal committed to promote the highest ethical publishing practises and preserve the integrity of the scientific record.

In the publication process, the editors are guided by internationally accepted ethical standards that apply to all involved in the publication process (authors, editors, reviewers and publishers) defined in: Committee on Publication Ethics’s (COPE) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors and The Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK).

Authors submitting articles to Polemos guarantee that the content of the manuscript is the result of their own original work, for which they accept scientific and ethical responsibility. Acknowledgments can be used to identify contributions to the work that do not meet the criteria of authorship (support, mentoring, help with data collection, etc.).

Additional information can be found in the Document on Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement.

Submission of papers

Papers should be submitted by e-mail to the address: polemos@ffzg.hr or to the e-mail address of the Editor-in-Chief. Written contributions should be made in Word (*.doc). In case the written contribution is not originally processed in Word, before submitting it to the Editorial Board, it should be saved in the Rich Text format (*.rtf).

The Editorial Board accepts unpublished articles in the Croatian or English language.  Papers should be accompanied by summaries in Croatian or English and one other foreign language of up to 200 words, and by the list of not more than seven key words (in Croatian and the second language of the summary). Papers, including summary, literature and graphic contributions, should not exceed 8000 words altogether. In exceptional cases, with an editorial decision, it is possible to publish a previously published article with a clear argumentation by the author and a mandatory note that the article was published earlier.

The Journal accepts reviews of both Croatian and foreign books, not older than three years. The desirable length of review is between 6000 and 10000 characters. Book reviews have to have name and last name of the author whose publication is being reviewed, complete title, place and year of publication, publisher’s name, number of pages as well as other relevant information (ex. first and last name of the translator). At the end of the text, author of the review should sign his/her first and last name.The Journal also accepts student articles that should not exceed 6000 words altogether.

First page of the manuscript should indicate scientific degree, first and last name of the author, profession, name, postal address, phone and fax number of the affiliation or home address and e-mail address. On the same page the author should state the organization, institution or company where he/she works, his/hers position and the most recent published works (books or articles).

Graphic attachments should be submitted as separate files. Simple graphic contributions, such as charts and diagrams, may be made in Word or taken from Excel. More complex graphic contributions (pictures, drawings, sketches, maps etc.) should be submitted in standard formats (*.jpg, *.tiff, etc). In preparation of graphics should be taken in consideration that the journal is not printed in color. Only maps, schemes, plans and sketches (for example schedule or activities of military units) can be made in color, if it is necessary for reasons of visibility. Inside the text it is necessary to clearly indicate the positioning of each graphic contribution. For all graphic contributions, their origin and copyrights should be clearly stated.

You can find detailed information on the link Instructions for authors.

Specifying sources and references

References to other authors’ publications should be included within the text, not in the footnotes. If other authors’ ideas, information, results, hypotheses are paraphrased, the source has to be mentioned in brackets with the author’s last name; if literature list contains more than one author of the same last name, name initials are added, ex. (M. Ogorec, 1994), that is (T. N. Dupuy, 1994). If a publication has two authors, both last names are indicated, ex. (Bešker and Kugler, 1992). If there are three or more authors, after the name of the first author abbreviation “et al.” has to be placed, meaning that in this case other authors are not indicated in the brackets, ex. (Tetlock et al., 1991). If the literature list has more publications of the same author that were published in the same year, they are differentiated with letters (a,b,c etc.) placed behind the year (Giddens, 1989b). If the publications of other authors are being cited, behind the year of the publication, a colon and page number have to be inserted, ex. (Clausewitz, 1989:722). If anonymous publications are mentioned, characteristic words from the title should be used, usually the first or the first two (in italics) as well as the publication year, ex. (Službovnik, 1992:6) or (Pravilo brigada, 1984). Alternatively, instead of author’s name, three stars may be put, followed by the first or first two words from the title and the year, ex. (*** Obrednik, 1992) or (*** “Food Shortage”, 1994). 

References and quotations from daily, weekly and similar printed media, intended for general audience, can be stated in two ways. If news, published documents or information are being cited, that is, the articles in which the author is unknown, the title of the newspaper and day of publication should be in italics, ex. (Vjesnik, 1995) or (New York Times, 1991). If the publications and theses from known authors are used (ex. comments, columns etc.), information regarding the source should be cited in the literature, in the same way as other articles, ex. (Višnar, 1993). References from webpages are being cited in the same way as publication from printed media. 

Footnotes containing further explanation, comments or digressions, are being marked in the text by Arabic numerals, and should be placed under the bottom page line (notes under the line, footnotes). 

Bibliography consists of all publications cited in the text, based on the last names of authors in alphabetic order (that is, according to their names if there are more authors with the same last name). Publications of the same author should be arranged chronologically. If there are more publications from the same author published in the same year, they should be differentiated with letters behind the year of publication (Weber 1918a, Weber 1918b etc.). Book, journal or periodic newspaper titles are written in italics, and article titles in periodicals have to be in quotation marks. Materials from the Internet should be listed in the bibliography in the same way as written publications (author, year, title), but at the end the web page (available at URL http://…), and if possible, the date of access, should be indicated.

Bibliography should be written in the following form:

a) Journal article:

Kaysen, Carl (1990) “Is War Obsolete?” International Security 14 (4): 42-64.(The first number after the title indicates the year, the number in parentheses the number within the volume and numbers after the colon the page.)

(b) Chapter in edited book:

Fanuko, Nenad (1992) “Dedifferentiation and war.” In: Čaldarović, Ognjen – Milan Mesić – Alexander Štulhofer (edit.): Sociology and war. Zagreb: Croatian Sociological Association. Page 51-62.

(c) Book:

Bauer, Ernest (1991) Shine and tragic of croatian weapons. Zagreb: Publishing Institute of Matice Hrvatske.

(d) Anonymous publications (they are being stated in the bibliography based on the first word in the title, or, if they are marked with three stars instead of the author’s name, on the top of the list):

Rule handheld rocket launcher 90 mm M79. Zagreb: Command Operative Zone Zagreb. 1992; Or:

*** (1994) “Status of Public Health in Bosnia and Herzegovina, August – September 1993” JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 271 (12): 100-103.

(e) Websites:

Fernandez, Lilia (1999) “The Rights of Refugees: One in every 50 is Uprooted People!” New World Outlook, September-October. Available at URL http://gbgm-umc.org/nwo/99so/refugees.html (also URL http://gbgm-umc.org/nwo/).

Categorization of articles

Original scientific paper is comprised of original theoretical and practical results.

Preliminary report is comprised of one or more new pieces of scientific information, but not enough to enable verification as with original scientific papers. Preliminary reports can provide the results of experimental research, that is, excerpts from current research whose results, due to their actuality, deserve rapid publication.

Scientific review paper contains a comprehensive overview of the state and tendencies of the development of a certain theory, technology or application. Publications from this category have the character of a critical review including assessment. Stated literature has to be sufficiently comprehensive to enable thorough insight and inclusion in the demonstrated area.

Other category includes all other works (reviews, news) which cannot be categorized.

Peer Review Process

Each paper is first checked editorially and, if necessary, sent back for technical revision before it is submitted to the peer review process. Every paper submitted for consideration undergoes a double-blind peer-review process by two anonymous reviewers. The Editorial Board will inform the authors on the results of the reviewers’ and editors’ work on the text in due time. When choosing reviewers the Editorial Board requires that reviewers have no conflict of interest. The Editors reserve the right to make necessary adjustments to the text according to the propositions and standards of the Croatian, English or any other language.

Publication Frequency

From 1998 to 2022 Polemos was published in two issues a year, and from 2023 it was published in one issue. In 2022 Journal started publishing articles as online first.

Depending on the inflow of articles, it may have several editions a year, or special (thematic) issues.

Open Access Policy

Polemos provides open access to its complete content.

Indexing and Abstracting

Polemos is abstracted/indexed in Sociological Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts), SocINDEX EBSCO (Ipswich, USA), ProQuest Political Science and ProQuest Sociology (Ann Arbor, USA).

Pricing and Subscriptions

Annual subscription rates: 13 € or the equivalent in other convertible currency. Postage is not included in price, and will be charged in addition to the price.

Journal Archiving

The complete texts of the articles are available on the website of Hrčak – Portal of Croatian scientific and professional journals.

Copyright Notice

Copyright for articles published in Polemos is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the Journal (print and electronic issue). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with correct citation, in educational and other non-commercial settings (in accordance with CC-BY-NC Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

There is no article processing fee for article submission, processing, or publication. All processing and publishing related expenses are covered by the publisher.

* Note: The extended version of the Instructions for authors with submission guidance, publication ethics and malpractice statements is available in Croatian in verified document: The Statute of Work and Organization of Journal Polemos. The document is committed to upholding the integrity of academic record and fully complies with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).