Submissions

Author Guidelines

Byzantina Nova - Journal of Byzantine History, Culture, Philosophy and Medicine is an international, double-blind peer-reviewed, open-access academic journal committed to the rigorous, interdisciplinary investigation of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Spanning the era from Late Antiquity—marked by the refoundation of Constantinople in 330 CE—through the fall of the imperial city in 1453 CE, the journal also extends its purview to the post-Byzantine legacy and its enduring impact across Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the Caucasus.

The overarching mission of Byzantina Nova is to serve as a bridge between foundational classical scholarship and cutting-edge contemporary methodologies. By providing a platform for critical inquiry, primary source editions, and cross-disciplinary dialogue, the journal fosters a holistic understanding of Byzantium not merely as a political entity, but as a dynamic, complex civilization characterized by vibrant intellectual, artistic, scientific, and socio-economic traditions.

Scope & Comprehensive Thematic Areas

The journal invites submissions across the full spectrum of Byzantine studies. Detailed thematic descriptions are provided in the full Scope document. In summary, the journal welcomes research in:

1. Byzantine History, Governance, and Social Dynamics – including imperial ideology, political theory, ceremonial, legal history, administrative structures, socio-economic history, agrarian systems, taxation, diplomacy, military history, and geopolitics.

2. Material Culture, Visual Arts, and Auxiliary Sciences – including art history, architectural traditions, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, sigillography, liturgical practice, and daily life.

3. Philosophy, Intellectual History, and Literary Culture – including philosophical traditions, classical reception, theology, dogma, patristic literature, rhetoric, historiography, and literary culture.

4. History of Medicine, Pharmacology, and Natural Sciences – including medical practice, institutional care, hospitals (xenones), pharmacology, botany, public health, natural philosophy, and exact sciences.

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Byzantina Nova is a fully Open Access journal. All published articles are freely available online without subscription or pay-per-view fees.

To support the costs of maintaining the publication infrastructure, managing the journal, and overseeing the peer-review and editorial processes, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is charged upon acceptance of a manuscript. These fees are typically covered by the author's institution or research funding.

• No submission fees are charged.

• Book reviews, commentaries, and invited articles are fully exempt from APCs.

• Articles authored by members of the editorial board are exempt from APCs.

• Discounted APC rates are available for authors from low- and middle-income countries.

1. Submission of Manuscripts – Preparation of Articles

Authors are strongly encouraged to carefully follow the guidelines outlined in this document when preparing their manuscripts.

A well-structured introduction should clearly establish the research context, identify a specific gap in the literature, and explicitly state the contribution of the study. Adherence to these guidelines will enhance the clarity, coherence, and academic quality of submissions and is essential for maintaining the standards of the journal.

Mandatory Article Template
All articles submitted to Byzantina Nova must be prepared using the official template provided on the journal website. Articles not using this template will not be accepted for the review stage. Please upload your manuscript to the online submission system in the required template format.

Important Notes:

• All manuscripts must be prepared according to the official template.

• All sections—title, author information, abstract, keywords, headings, text, references, and all other sections—must strictly adhere to the formatting rules (font, point size, style, alignment, etc.) specified in the template.

• You must upload your manuscript to the online submission system formatted according to the required template.

Articles should be comprehensive, fully documented reports of original research. They should be concise but with complete results and conclusions. Authors are encouraged to take advantage of the Web features available (including 3D animations, video, and sound) where these enhance scholarly presentation.

Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methods/Approach, Results/Findings, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, Abbreviations list, and References.

2. Types of Articles

Byzantina Nova accepts several types of scholarly contributions. The structure and length of a manuscript should be appropriate to its article type.

Original Research Articles
Original Research Articles present novel empirical, archival, textual, archaeological, numismatic, art historical, or interdisciplinary research. They should contain a clearly defined research question or hypothesis, an appropriate methodology, results or findings, and a scientifically supported interpretation.

Theoretical and Conceptual Articles
These articles develop new theoretical models, conceptual frameworks, interpretations, or approaches to Byzantine history, culture, philosophy, or medicine. They may integrate concepts from multiple disciplines, challenge established assumptions, or propose new frameworks for understanding Byzantine civilization.

Hypothesis and Theory Articles
These manuscripts present scientifically grounded hypotheses, theoretical propositions, or explanatory models intended to stimulate further scholarly investigation. Authors should clearly distinguish established evidence from theoretical inference and, where appropriate, identify testable propositions.

Review Articles
Review Articles provide critical and coherent analyses of established or emerging areas of Byzantine studies. Systematic, scoping, narrative, integrative, and thematic reviews may be considered. Reviews should synthesize the literature, identify contradictions and limitations, and establish meaningful directions for future research rather than merely summarizing previous publications.

Source Editions and Textual Studies
These articles present critical editions, translations, or detailed textual analyses of unpublished or understudied primary sources—including chronicles, letters, legal documents, medical treatises, military manuals, hagiographical texts, and philosophical commentaries.

Archaeological and Material Culture Reports
These articles report on archaeological excavations, surveys, or material culture studies, including numismatic hoards, sigillographic finds, architectural analyses, and art historical investigations.

Perspectives
Perspective articles provide scientifically grounded and forward-looking discussions of important developments, unresolved questions, emerging concepts, or future directions in Byzantine studies.

Commentaries
Commentaries provide focused scholarly discussion of important scientific, theoretical, methodological, or conceptual issues, including discussion of articles previously published in the journal.

Short Communications
Short Communications report concise but significant empirical, textual, archaeological, methodological, or conceptual findings that warrant dissemination in a shorter format.

Letters to the Editor
Letters may address scientific, methodological, theoretical, or editorial issues relevant to the journal and may comment constructively on previously published work.

Book Reviews
Book Reviews offer critical assessments of recently published monographs and edited volumes of significance to Byzantine studies.

3. Article Preparation and Writing Style

All manuscripts must be prepared using the official Byzantina Nova Article Template.

Manuscripts should be written in clear, precise, concise, and professional academic English. Because Byzantina Nova addresses an interdisciplinary scholarly community, authors should write for readers who may not share the terminology or methodological conventions of their particular field.

Specialized terminology—particularly in fields such as theology, philosophy, sigillography, numismatics, or medical history—should be defined when necessary. Unnecessary jargon, excessive abbreviations, rhetorical language, and unnecessarily complex sentences should be avoided.

Authors should carefully distinguish between established evidence, empirical observation, interpretation, hypothesis, and speculation. This distinction is particularly important for manuscripts concerning Byzantine philosophy, theology, intellectual history, and medical theory.

Theoretical possibilities should not be presented as established facts. Claims concerning historical causality, philosophical influence, theological development, or medical efficacy should be supported by appropriate evidence or clearly identified as scholarly propositions.

Byzantina Nova encourages a writing style that is analytical rather than promotional, historically cautious rather than speculative, and conceptually ambitious without exceeding the available evidence.

4. General Structure of Articles

The structure of the manuscript should reflect its article type.

Original Research Articles will generally include:

Title → Author Information → Abstract → Keywords → Introduction → Literature Review → Methods/Approach → Results/Findings → Discussion → Limitations → Conclusion → Acknowledgments → Funding → Conflict of Interest → Data Availability → References

The structure may be adapted when required by the nature of the research. Textual, philosophical, archaeological, art historical, or mixed-methods studies may require different section arrangements.

Theoretical, conceptual, review, perspective, and hypothesis articles may use a more flexible structure, provided that the argument develops logically and the major sections are clearly identified.

5. Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately represent the central subject and contribution of the manuscript.

Authors should avoid unnecessarily long titles, unexplained abbreviations, vague terminology, and claims that exceed the evidence presented.

Because titles are used for indexing and information retrieval, important historical or scholarly concepts should be included where appropriate.

For manuscripts addressing hypothetical or emerging historical interpretations, the title should distinguish between demonstrated findings and theoretical possibilities.

6. Authors and Affiliations

All authors should be listed in the order agreed upon by the authors.

Each author's institutional affiliation should include the relevant department or research unit, institution, city, and country.

The corresponding author should be clearly identified and should provide a valid professional email address.

Authors are strongly encouraged to provide an ORCID iD.

Only individuals who satisfy accepted authorship criteria should be listed as authors. Other contributors may be acknowledged separately.

7. Abstract

Every manuscript must include an abstract.

For Original Research Articles, the abstract should generally include:

Background/Objective, Methods/Approach, Results/Findings, and Conclusion.

For theoretical, conceptual, review, hypothesis, perspective, and commentary articles, an unstructured abstract may be used.

The abstract should accurately represent the content and contribution of the manuscript and should be understandable independently of the main text.

References should generally not be included in the abstract. Unexplained abbreviations and unsupported claims should be avoided.

8. Keywords

Authors should provide 4–8 keywords following the abstract.

Keywords should represent the principal concepts, historical periods, regions, figures, or methods discussed in the manuscript and should use established scholarly terminology where possible.

Examples include:

Byzantine history, imperial ideology, Byzantine philosophy, Byzantine medicine, iconoclasm, Hesychasm, Byzantine art, Byzantine architecture, sigillography, numismatics, Byzantine diplomacy, military history, hagiography, Byzantine theology, classical reception, Byzantine economy, trade routes, Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Cappadocia, Byzantine Balkans, Byzantine-Anatolia, Late Antiquity, Middle Byzantine, Palaiologan.

9. Introduction

The Introduction should establish the historical, textual, or conceptual context of the manuscript and explain why the research problem is important.

It should identify the relevant knowledge gap or unresolved problem and clearly state the research question, hypothesis, objective, or theoretical proposition.

The Introduction should explain how the manuscript contributes to the broader scholarly discussion concerning Byzantine history, culture, philosophy, or medicine.

It should provide sufficient background to establish the rationale for the study without becoming an exhaustive review of the literature.

10. Literature Review and Background

The literature should be reviewed critically and in direct relation to the research question.

Authors should synthesize previous research rather than simply list publications. Important scholarly disagreements, methodological limitations, contradictory findings, and unresolved questions should be identified where relevant.

Because Byzantina Nova is interdisciplinary, authors are encouraged to integrate relevant literature across disciplines rather than treating history, art history, philosophy, theology, medicine, and archaeology as isolated domains.

When introducing specialized concepts—such as imperial ideology, Christological disputes, monastic reform, medical encyclopedism, or economic history—authors should clearly distinguish established evidence from scholarly interpretation.

11. Methods/Approach

The Methods section should provide sufficient information for the research to be evaluated and, where feasible, reproduced.

Depending on the study, this may include research design, archival sources, archaeological methods, textual criticism, paleography, codicology, digital humanities techniques, statistical analyses, iconographic analysis, or other methodological frameworks.

For textual, philological, and source-critical studies, authors should report relevant information concerning manuscript traditions, editions used, translation methods, and textual reconstruction.

For archaeological studies, authors should report excavation or survey methods, stratigraphy, dating methods, and material analysis.

For computational and digital humanities studies (e.g., GIS, network analysis, digital text corpora), authors should report datasets, preprocessing methods, software, algorithms, and analytical frameworks.

12. Results/Findings

The Results or Findings section should present the evidence clearly, objectively, and logically.

Tables, figures, maps, and plates should be used when they improve clarity and should complement rather than unnecessarily repeat the main text.

For textual, philological, or historical studies, the findings should present the evidence in a coherent narrative or analytical structure.

For archaeological and art historical research, appropriate visual documentation—including photographs, drawings, plans, and reconstructions—should be provided where relevant.

Interpretation of the broader meaning of the findings should generally be reserved for the Discussion.

13. Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings in relation to the research question, theoretical framework, and existing literature.

Authors should explain how their findings support, modify, challenge, or contradict previous scholarship.

The broader implications for Byzantine history, culture, philosophy, or medicine may be discussed where appropriate.

Authors should clearly distinguish conclusions directly supported by the findings from broader theoretical interpretations.

Where findings may have multiple explanations, alternative interpretations should be acknowledged.

14. Limitations

Authors should explicitly discuss the principal limitations of their research.

Limitations may involve source availability, methodological constraints, archaeological preservation, textual transmission, sample size, generalizability, theoretical assumptions, or other relevant factors.

Research concerning poorly documented periods, fragmentary sources, or contested interpretations may involve additional limitations. Acknowledging such limitations is an important component of rigorous scholarly reporting.

15. Conclusion

The Conclusion should summarize the principal contribution of the manuscript and explain its broader scholarly significance.

It should not simply repeat the Results or Findings.

Authors may identify unresolved questions and future research directions, particularly where the findings open new questions concerning Byzantine history, culture, philosophy, or medicine.

Byzantina Nova particularly encourages conclusions that recognize scholarly uncertainty rather than presenting premature certainty about complex historical phenomena.

16. Figures, Tables, and Plates

Figures, tables, and plates should be numbered consecutively and cited in the manuscript.

Each figure should have an informative caption, and each table should have a concise and descriptive title.

Figures should be submitted in an appropriate high-resolution format (minimum 300 dpi for photographs and plates). Tables should preferably remain editable and should not be submitted solely as images.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for copyrighted material reproduced from other sources.

17. Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials may include datasets, source transcriptions, extended analyses, additional figures, maps, archaeological documentation, or other resources supporting the manuscript.

Where appropriate, authors are strongly encouraged to make data and resources available through recognized repositories.

If supporting materials cannot be shared because of privacy, ethical, legal, or institutional restrictions, authors should clearly state the reason.

18. Research Transparency and Reproducibility

Byzantina Nova encourages transparent and reproducible research.

Authors should provide sufficient methodological information to enable independent scholarly evaluation.

For textual and philological studies, transparency concerning manuscript sources, editions, and methods of textual reconstruction is strongly encouraged.

For computational and digital humanities studies, transparency concerning datasets, software, algorithms, and analytical frameworks is strongly encouraged.

Where complete reproducibility is not possible, authors should clearly identify the relevant limitations.

19. Ethical Considerations

Research involving human participants, personal information, biological materials, or other sensitive data must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional requirements.

Where applicable, authors must report ethics committee or institutional review board approval and informed consent procedures.

Archaeological research must comply with relevant legal and ethical standards concerning excavation, artifact preservation, and cultural heritage.

20. Generative AI in Manuscript Preparation

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and scholarly content of their manuscripts.

Generative AI tools may be used for limited purposes such as language assistance, translation, formatting, coding support, or other editorial tasks, provided that authors retain full responsibility for the final manuscript.

AI systems must not be listed as authors.

Where generative AI has been used substantially in the generation or modification of text, figures, code, analyses, or other scholarly content, its use should be disclosed according to the journal's applicable policy.

Authors must carefully verify AI-assisted material for factual errors, fabricated references, inappropriate citations, bias, and other inaccuracies.

21. References and Citation Style

Byzantina Nova uses an author–date citation system (Chicago Manual of Style, author-date format).

In-text citations should generally follow the form:

(Smith, 2025)

For two authors:

(Smith & Jones, 2025)

For three or more authors:

(Smith et al., 2025)

Multiple references may be cited together:

(Brown, 2024; Smith et al., 2025; Williams & Lee, 2026)

Direct quotations should include page numbers where applicable.

The reference list should contain only works cited in the manuscript and should be arranged alphabetically according to the surname of the first author.

Authors should provide DOI information whenever available and should verify the accuracy and completeness of all references.

Primary Source Citations: For ancient, medieval, or Byzantine primary sources, authors should cite according to standard scholarly conventions (e.g., book, chapter, section), followed by the edition used. Modern translations may also be cited where relevant.

22. Authorship, Funding, and Conflict of Interest

All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the research and must approve the final manuscript.

Funding sources should be disclosed, including grant or award numbers where applicable.

Authors must disclose financial, institutional, professional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research.

If no relevant conflicts exist, an explicit statement should be provided.

23. Data Availability Statement

Manuscripts reporting empirical, archaeological, or computational research should include a Data Availability Statement where applicable.

Authors should indicate whether the supporting data are publicly available, available upon reasonable request, subject to restrictions, or unavailable.

Where possible, datasets, source transcriptions, computational resources, and other supporting materials should be deposited in appropriate repositories.

24. Originality and Prior Publication

Submitted manuscripts must be original.

The manuscript must not normally have been published previously in substantially the same form and should not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal.

All sources must be appropriately cited, and authors are responsible for identifying substantial overlap with previous publications.

Preprints may be considered where consistent with journal policy, provided their existence is disclosed during submission.

25. Peer Review

Byzantina Nova uses double-anonymized peer review for manuscripts selected for external evaluation.

All submissions first undergo editorial assessment for scope, originality, scholarly or conceptual quality, methodological adequacy, and compliance with journal policies.

Manuscripts considered appropriate for external review are evaluated by independent experts with relevant expertise. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of Byzantina Nova, manuscripts may be reviewed by experts from multiple disciplines when appropriate.

Following peer review, the editorial team may accept the manuscript, request revision, or reject it.

A request for revision does not guarantee acceptance.

26. Revised Manuscripts

When a manuscript is returned for revision, authors should submit a revised version together with a point-by-point response to the reviewers' comments.

The response should explain clearly how each substantive comment has been addressed. Where the authors disagree with a reviewer recommendation, they should provide a reasoned scholarly explanation.

Major revisions may be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation.

27. Final Note to Authors

Byzantina Nova welcomes research that does not necessarily fit within a single established disciplinary category.

The journal is particularly interested in work that identifies new questions, unexpected relationships, theoretical tensions, and previously unrecognized dimensions of Byzantine history, culture, philosophy, and medicine.

Authors are encouraged to approach Byzantine civilization as a dynamic, evolving, and interconnected phenomenon rather than as a static or isolated entity.

The journal therefore does not seek to determine in advance what conclusions scholars should reach.

Byzantina Nova seeks to provide a rigorous scholarly forum for investigating the full complexity of the Eastern Roman Empire—its history, its culture, its thought, its medicine, and its enduring legacy.

From Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.
From Constantinople to the Mediterranean.
From Manuscript to Interpretation.
From the Byzantine World to the Modern Imagination.