1. Submission

- First-time users will be required to register on Tektonika’s website, using an active email address. Your login details (username and password) will give you access to the author and reviewer portals. Please note that all submissions, reviews, revisions, proofs, and communications, are handled electronically.

- All Tektonika publications are peer reviewed, with decisions subsequently made by the Tektonika editors. Please ensure that you have read Tektonika’s ethical guidelines for publication.

- Initial Submissions will be checked by the Tektonika editors, to ensure that the article meets the journal scope and language criteria, before assignment of reviewers.

• Tektonika is published primarily in English. British or American spellings can be used, provided usage is consistent throughout the paper, with the option to provide additional languages for abstracts. Authors are encouraged to provide a full native-language translation for accepted papers.
• Submissions that do not meet English language requirements are encouraged to seek editorial assistance through peers, or through a scientific editing service.
• After submission, you may be sent an optional form to complete where you will be asked to provide information related to improving equality, diversity and inclusion practices in Tektonika. Completing this form is optional and anonymous - the data will not be associated with you or your publication. 

2. Review

[A detailed breakdown of Tektonika's peer-review mode can be accessed here and Tektonika's review form can be downloaded here]

- The editor will seek reviews from at least 2 experts in their fields (at any stage in their career), which may include topic-specific Tektonika editors.

- Authors are encouraged to provide a list of 3 to 5 potential reviewers, who must be free from conflicts of interest. Authors may also oppose reviewers, with a brief justification.

- Reviews are requested within 4 weeks of the reviewer accepting the review. Please note that this timeframe is a guide only and independent of other factors that may prolong the review process, which commonly include initial quality check, seeking reviewers, reviewer availability and processing of reviews by associate and executive editors.

2.1 Review Decisions

- Editorial decisions are based on the scientific merit, originality, clarity, and validity of a manuscript's content, as well as its relevance to the journal's scope. Decisions are made on the basis of the reviewer's comments (including Tektonika's review form), as well as the editor’s own judgement. Decisions may fall within one of three potential categories: accept, revise, or reject.

• Accept. An accepted manuscript will move to the typesetting stage as is.
• Revise. Manuscripts will be returned to authors to address the comments made by the reviewers and the editor. We do not impose a time limit on revisions. Authors should provide answers to reviewers’ comments as well as a full account of the changes made based on reviewers’ comments. The category “Revise” includes any state of the  manuscript that is not Accept or Reject, and will be further qualified with simple and explicit statements detailing requested actions, as  "Revise minor edits before acceptance for publication" or "Revise accounting reviewer comments before a second round of reviews".
• Reject. In some cases the editor may be required to reject a submitted paper. The decision will be based on reviewers’ comments and the editor assessment. The decision to reject will be discussed by the Tektonika editorial team. 

3. Typesetting

- Tektonika is a volunteer-led journal, staffed by non-salaried editors. Typesetting is time-consuming, and conducted by the Tektonika’s typesetting team, as a workload to fit around their other duties. The process can be expedited by using the provided templates for submission (Word or LaTeX). Upon acceptance we request that the authors make sure to include all of the relevant DOI labels for references. Incomplete submissions will be returned to the authors in the first instance, which can delay the processing of the article.

- If separate high resolution figures were not uploaded during initial submissions, we request authors to upload these after acceptance.

- Fully formatted manuscripts will be returned to authors for final checks after typesetting. This should include checking for errors in the entire manuscript, the sizing and position of figures, and the quality of the paper. This process will take place as many times as needed until authors are satisfied with the final form of the publication, but no changes to the science will be accepted at this stage.

- We offer authors the opportunity to publish their preferred pronouns in the author list. Please discuss this with the typesetting team if you would like to opt in to this service.

4. Publication

- In agreement with the authors, the journal will publish the final typeset version of the paper.

- The paper will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and will be uploaded to [CLOCKSS / LOCKSS] for long term archiving.

- Authors are encouraged to update any preprint versions that are publicly accessible into a postprint format and to advertise their work. Tektonika will share links to the scientific publication via social media sites, and authors are encouraged to provide handles for tagging them in social media posts.

5. Copyright

Submission of an original manuscript to Tektonika will be taken to mean that it represents original work that has not been published previously, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Please see Tektonika’s Code of Conduct for further details.

Authors have the responsibility to secure permission to include any reproduced material subject to copyright.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant Tektonika the right of first publication with the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship, and initial publication in Tektonika.
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in Tektonika (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Tektonika.
• Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after acceptance, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
• Authors that change their names for whatever reason (marital or religious status or lack thereof, gender identity, and others…), may want to update their publication record accordingly. Tektonika respects authors rights to change their name or identity and is devising manners to secure this change is reflected in Tektonika publications retroactively.

Statement to be included in all published manuscripts:

“This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided appropriate credit to the original author(s) and source, as well as link to the Creative Commons license, and indication of changes that were made.”

Tektonika is a free to publish, free to read, peer-reviewed journal. We want your science, not your money.