Information For Authors

Manuscript Submission and the Editorial Process

Manuscripts can be submitted through the journal's website in accordance with the requirements set out in the Author Guidelines. To submit an article, source publication, or book review, please register on the journal's website. Once your registration has been completed successfully, you will be able to log in. From your dashboard, you can enter the manuscript's metadata and upload your article, source publication, or book review prepared in accordance with the author guidelines.

If you encounter any technical difficulties during the submission process, please send your manuscript in Microsoft Word format to acta.historica@kme.org.ua.

The Editorial Board of the journal will notify the author of the receipt of the manuscript within three to five business days.

Preliminary Assessment

The Editorial Board conducts an initial internal assessment of each manuscript to determine whether it falls within the journal's scope and meets its editorial standards (editorial review). The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the journal's requirements or fall outside its scope. If a manuscript is rejected at this stage, the Editorial Board will provide the author with a reasoned explanation for its decision.

Reviewer Selection and Validation

If the manuscript successfully passes the initial assessment, the Editorial Board will send it to two independent experts for anonymous peer review. In all cases, at least one of the reviewers will be either affiliated with a foreign institution or employed by a higher education institution other than that of the author. The Editorial Board evaluates the reviewers' reports when making its editorial decision.

Peer Review

The journal operates a double-anonymous peer review system (also known as double-blind peer review), meaning that neither the reviewers nor the authors know each other's identities. Upon completion of the review process, the reviewers submit their review reports to the Editorial Board.

If neither of the independent reviewers recommends the manuscript for publication, the author will be notified that the manuscript has been rejected. If only one reviewer recommends rejection, the Editorial Board will submit the manuscript to a third independent reviewer for an additional evaluation. If the third independent reviewer also recommends that the manuscript not be published, the Editorial Board will notify the author of the rejection and provide the reviewers' reports together with the reasons for the decision.

Revisions and Review of Revised Manuscripts

If the peer reviewers recommend minor or major revisions, the Editorial Board will communicate its decision to the author(s). Authors are normally given five days to complete minor revisions and ten days to complete major revisions. The revised manuscript should be resubmitted to the Editorial Office within the specified timeframe.

Final Editorial Decision

The decision to accept or reject a manuscript rests solely with the Editorial Board. In reaching its decision, the Editorial Board takes the following factors into consideration:

  • the extent to which the authors have adequately addressed the reviewers' comments; and
  • the overall scholarly quality of the manuscript.

Research and Publication Ethics

Once the author has resubmitted the revised manuscript in accordance with the reviewers' recommendations, the manuscript is screened for plagiarism using the StrikePlagiarism software. Following a successful plagiarism check, the author(s) will receive an email confirming that the manuscript has been accepted for publication. If the screening detects plagiarism, the author(s) will be notified that the manuscript has been rejected.

Plagiarism includes the use of text, ideas, images, or data from another source—including the authors' own previously published work—without proper acknowledgement of the original source.

Text reproduced from another source must be enclosed in quotation marks and accompanied by an appropriate citation to the original source. If the design of a study, the structure of a manuscript, or its wording has been influenced by previously published work, the relevant source(s) must be explicitly acknowledged and cited

Anonymization

Authors must ensure that their manuscripts are fully anonymized before submission by removing all information that could reveal their identity, including author names, institutional affiliations, and self-identifying references. Before forwarding a manuscript for peer review, the Editorial Board will verify that the manuscript has been properly anonymized.

Please submit the authors' information in a separate file in three languages (Hungarian, Ukrainian, and English):

  • Full name, academic degree, and academic title.
  • Institutional affiliation and position.
  • ORCID ID and e-mail address.

Confidentiality

All manuscripts submitted to the journal, together with any correspondence relating to them, must be treated as strictly confidential by the editors and reviewers. Information concerning a manuscript may be shared only with the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board, and only when necessary for the editorial and peer review process.

The journal also guarantees that the identity of reviewers will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to the authors. Any personal data obtained during the editorial process will be processed in accordance with applicable data protection regulations and used exclusively for editorial and publishing purposes.

Manuscript Length

The scientific journal Acta Historica Universitatis Rákoczianae publishes original (previously unpublished) research in the fields of history and archaeology. Manuscripts intended for publication must be submitted electronically in both .doc or .docx and .pdf formats via the journal's online submission system or by email to the Editorial Office at acta.historica@kme.org.ua.

Our journal publishes articles, original source publications, and book reviews in Ukrainian, Hungarian, and English.

Manuscripts submitted to the Articles section should be between 30 000 and 50 000 characters, including spaces, footnotes, abstracts, and references. Each manuscript must be accompanied by abstracts in Hungarian, Ukrainian, and English, as well as 5–8 keywords. Each abstract should be at least 1 800–1 900 characters in length (excluding spaces).

Manuscripts submitted to the Source Publications section should be between 15 000 and 40 000 characters, including spaces, footnotes, abstracts, and references.

Contributions submitted to the Book Reviews section should be between 10 000 and 20 000 characters, including spaces.

Font and Font Size

  • Manuscript title: 16 pt, bold.
  • Subtitle: 12 pt, bold.
  • Section headings: 12 pt, bold.
  • Subsection headings: 11 pt, bold italic.
  • Main text: 11 pt, regular.
  • Footnotes: 9 pt, regular.
  • Titles of tables, figures, and images: 11 pt, regular.
  • Sources for tables, figures, and images: 9 pt, italic.
  • Abstracts: 10 pt, regular.
  • Keywords: 10 pt, italic.

The default font for all manuscripts is Sitka Display. If a manuscript contains special characters that require a font other than Sitka Display, please include the corresponding font file when submitting the manuscript.

The running header, as well as the DOI and UDC identifiers, will be prepared by the Editorial Board.

A manuscript submitted for publication must include the following essential elements:

  • Statement of the research problem.
  • Review of recent research and publications on which the author builds, including studies addressing the research problem and approaches to its solution.
  • Identification of unresolved aspects of the problem that are addressed in the article.
  • Statement of the aim and objectives of the study.
  • Presentation of the research findings.
  • Conclusions and prospects for further research.

Please use italics to highlight linguistic or other data. We recommend applying the appropriate text style before adding any highlighting or formatting, as styles applied later may override previously assigned formatting.

Citations

Quoted text should be presented in regular (non-italic) type, enclosed in quotation marks and accompanied by an appropriate reference. Quotations within quotations should be indicated using chevrons (« »). If the quoted passage is in a foreign language, the translation should appear in the main text in the language of the manuscript, while the original-language quotation should be provided in a footnote.

Quoted passages should be reproduced faithfully in terms of their wording, but not necessarily their original typography or orthography. Spelling, punctuation, and typographical errors may be corrected, while any additions made by the author should be enclosed in square brackets, unless attention is intentionally being drawn to such features, in which case this should be explicitly indicated. Passages containing errors, ambiguities, or wording that is unclear or difficult to interpret should be marked with [sic!].

References

The journal uses a shortened footnote citation style, while requiring a complete bibliography at the end of the manuscript.

Footnote Citation Format

References in the text must be inserted using the automatic footnote function of Microsoft Word. Footnotes should be numbered automatically, with the reference number appearing as a superscript. For direct quotations, the footnote number should be placed immediately after the closing quotation mark. When referring to a statement or line of argument rather than a direct quotation, the footnote number should be placed immediately after the relevant passage.2

The full source corresponding to each numbered reference must be provided in a footnote at the bottom of the page, using the same reference number as in the text. Each footnote must include the specific page number(s) from which the quotation is taken or to which the reference relates, whether the citation is a direct quotation or a paraphrase.

Footnotes should NOT contain full bibliographic details. Instead, a shortened citation format must be used throughout, consisting of the author's surname, year of publication, and page number(s) (Author Year, page number[s]). For consecutive references to exactly the same work, the second footnote should use Ibid. followed by the relevant page number(s), where applicable.

In the References section at the end of the manuscript, under the heading Literature, full bibliographic details for each cited work must be provided in the format shown in the table below. The word Publisher should generally be omitted from publisher names, unless it forms an integral part of the official name and its omission would make the name unclear or misleading.

If the cited work has a DOI (Digital Object Identifier / unique document identifier), it must always be included in the full bibliographic entry at the end of the manuscript, placed at the very end of the reference details (see the table below).

Format of references:

DOCUMENT TYPE

IN FOOTNOTES

AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE

book

Romsics 2010, 152–155.

vagy

Cseh–Kalmár–Pór 1999, 205.

Romsics Ignác 2010: Magyarország története a XX. században. Budapest, Osiris.

Cseh Gergő Bendegúz – Kalmár Melinda – Pór Edit (szerk.) 1999: Zárt, bizalmas, számozott. Tájékoztatáspolitika és cenzúra, 1956–1963. Budapest, Osiris.

book chapter / article in an edited volume

Braun 2025, 142.

Braun László 2025: A modernizáció kezdetén: a város a dualizmus korában. in Szamborovszkyné Nagy Ibolya – Molnár D. Erzsébet (szerk.): Beregszász város monográfiája, 2. javított kiadás, Beregszász, RIK-U Kft. 139–176. https://doi.org/10.58423/978-617-8143183/139-177

journals, weekly and daily newspapers

Váradi 2019, 110.

vagy

Riskó 1974, 4.

Váradi Natália 2019: Etnikai tisztogatások, egyházüldözés Kárpátalján, 1944–1946. Betekintő, 13(2019/4). 102–116. https://doi.org/10.25834/BET.2019.4.6

Riskó Mikola 1974: A berehovói lányok két aranyérme, Vörös Zászló, 30(1974/84), 1974. júl. 18.

E-book

Szinnyei 1882, 34.

Szinnyei József 1882: Az ezer tó országa. Budapest, Franklin Társulat, http://mek.oszk.hu/13200/13273/13273.pdf (2014.09.22.)

E-journal

Szamborovszky-Nagy – Radvánszky 2025, 5. bek.

Szamborovszky-Nagy, Ibolya – Radvánszky, Ferenc 2025: On the Margins of an Unrealized Church Schism: On the Two Interpretations of the Concept of Church Among the Reformed in Transcarpathia After the Change of Power in 1944. Religions, 16(9):1130. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091130 (2026.05.15)

online document

Самборовскі-Нодь, 7. bek.

Самборовскі-Нодь, Ібоя: Чому не відбулося злиття закарпатських реформатів із баптистською церквою радянського союзу в 1947 році? Карпатський Об'єктив. Paper: http://istoria.ko.net.ua/?p=3159 (2026.06.25)

Hungarian archival source in a Hungarian-language text

MNL OL, K 27, 1914. aug. 18., 4. f.

MNL OL (Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára), K 27 (Minisztertanácsi jegyzőkönyvek), 1914. augusztus 18.

Slavic/Cyrillic archival source in a Slavic/Cyrillic-language text

ДАЗО, Ф.410. oп. 1. oд.зб. 1. арк. 16.

Державний архів Закарпатської області (ДАЗО), Фонд 410. (Документи Берегіиської торгової школи) oп. 1. oд.зб. 1.

Slavic/Cyrillic archival source in a Hungarian-language text

DAZO, Fond P-14, op. 1, od. zb. 212, ark. 9–11.

Derzhavnij arhіv Zakarpats'koї oblasti (DAZO), Fond P-14, op. 1., od. zb. 212.

Slavic/Cyrillic archival source in an English-language text

SATO, Fond P-14, op. 1., od. zb. 212. ark. 9–11.

State Archive of the Trasncarpathian Oblast (SATO), Fond P-14, op. 1., od. zb. 212.

internet links

URL1:


URL2:

URL1: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. http://www.ksh.hu/?lang=hu (2026.05.10)

URL2: Закон України «Про забезпечення функціонування української мови як державної». https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2704-19 (10.05.2026).

Laws and normative documents

Конституція України 2016, 45.

Конституція України: станом на 1 верес. 2016 р.: відповідає офіц. тексту. Харків, Право, 2016.

Oral history interview

Minta János (szül.: Beregszász, 1940)

Minta János (szül.: Beregszász, 1940) visszaemlékezése. Az interjú készítésének ideje: 2026.05.12.

Tables and Figures

Tables, figures, and images included in the text must be provided with a title/caption. In the manuscript, all references to tables and figures must be made by their respective numbers.

Photographs must be submitted in high quality (minimum 300 dpi), in .jpg or .png format, numbered, and sent as separate files. Figures should be provided in an editable format, with data attached in an Excel file.

The source of all tables, figures, and images must always be indicated. If they are original author’s work, this should also be stated. The titles of tables, figures, and images must be placed above them, while their sources must be provided in footnotes.

Policy regarding use of artificial intelligence (AI)

Our journal is committed to the purity of scientific research and authentic source criticism. The journal authorizes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies during the preparation of manuscripts exclusively for ethical purposes. AI tools cannot be recognized as authors or co-authors, as they are unable to take responsibility for the scientific claims, legal, and ethical integrity of the submitted work. In every case, only the authors bear full responsibility for the content and accuracy of the manuscript.

Strict restrictions and prohibitions: In defense of scientific and academic integrity, the following activities are strictly forbidden:

  • Content generation: usage of generative AI (e.g., large language models, ChatGPT) to produce substantive textual content, historical narrative, or scientific argumentation is strictly forbidden.
  • Data falsification and manipulation: usage of AI tools to prepare, change, or falsify historical data, statistics, transcriptions of archival sources, or archaeological measurement results is forbidden.
  • Replacing author contribution: replacing the author’s own intellectual work, conclusions, source analysis, or critical vision with AI is forbidden.

Permitted (ethical) use: AI tools can be used exclusively for technical assistance, provided they do not modify the substantive part of the research:

  • Improving the linguistic style of the written text, spell-checking, and grammatical refinement (especially in case of non-native authors).
  • Formal editing, standardizing of references (bibliography).
  • Sorting of large quantity of structured data or technical visualization (preparing statistical diagrams), provided it does not distort the original data.

Mandatory disclosure requirements: Authors are obliged to declare the fact of using AI tools at manuscript submission. If any AI-based software was applied in the process of research or writing, it must be indicated at the end of the article (before acknowledgment or in a separate "Artificial Intelligence Declaration"), detailing:

  • Exact name and version number of the applied AI tool.
  • Exact purpose and manner of usage within the text.

Artificial intelligence declaration: During the preparation of this work, the author(s) used the [DESIGNATION OF TOOL / SERVICE] tool for the purpose of [DESCRIPTION]. After usage of the tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as necessary, and bear full responsibility for the content of the published publication.

The declaration does not apply to the usage of fundamental tools such as tools used for checking grammar, spelling, and references. Authors who have not used generative artificial intelligence and/or technologies supported by artificial intelligence during the writing of the publication do not have to make a declaration.