Om tidsskriftet

Serendipities publishes three kinds of texts:

Articles reporting research results, developing theoretical arguments, or – at best – offering a combination of both. An article has to be concerned with the sociology and history of the social sciences and should demonstrate how it adds to our knowledge. This is best achieved when it is positioned in relation to the relevant literature from the field.

Book reviews presenting and assessing new publications relevant to the subject matter of the journal. There is no restriction with regard to the language of the reviewed publication. Moreover, it is the explicit aim of the editors that this section will function both as a forum for critical evaluation of new books and as a platform for those who are not able to read them in their original language.

A third kind of text are various forms of research materials. These may be archival materials, i.e., items from the past that are deemed valuable enough to be made visible to the scientific community (e.g. letters, unpublished manuscripts, administrative documents etc.). These should be presented with short commentaries on the significance of the documents. Alternatively, using some of the functionalities offered by digitalisation, such materials might be contemporary reconstructions of past situations (e.g., visualizations), data sets, or similar.

Furthermore, Serendipities makes use of some of the more adventurous features of the Web by encouraging discussions online.

We are open to a wide range of methods and genres, including:

-     empirical case studies and broader historical analysis

-     theoretical and conceptual reflections

-     comparative, transnational, and transregional investigations

-     prosopographic and sociometric approaches

-     interviews with scholars

-     translations of overlooked texts

-     debates on timely issues

We are also open to a wide range of topics, including:

-     the circulation of social science ideas, concepts, practices, projects, and practitioners across national, disciplinary, and epistemological boundaries

-     the evolution and transformation of research methods, theories, frameworks, paradigms, and techniques

-     the relationship between knowledge and power

-     the role of funding agencies and policy in shaping knowledge and its social uses

-     boundary work between and within the social science disciplines, and boundary work between the social sciences and other broad spheres of knowledge making including the natural sciences and the humanities

-     interdisciplinary developments within the social sciences and that link them to other knowledge making spheres

-     the relationship between the social sciences and different publics, clients, social movements, and political entities at various levels

 

In addition, we welcome bulk reviews of two or more books. These could be organized around the methodologies used, disciplines, periods, countries, or scholars, etc. If you would like to review books, please contact our book editor.

Serendipities welcomes submissions from established scholars, independent scholars, and early-career researchers from all world regions.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist 

Please visit our site on submissions for further information: https://tidsskrift.dk/Serendipities/about/submissions. We kindly ask authors to sign in to submit an article.

Authors with questions about the suitability of papers, or their length, are encouraged to write to the managing editor Fran Collyer (fran@francollyer.com).

 

^{AI Policy}

Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage has become common practice among many researchers and authors. Serendipities acknowledges the benefits of AI in ensuring high standards of writing, particularly for authors publishing in English who have English as a second language,. Nevertheless, AI has many dangers, including the possibility of 'hallucinations', which are false or incorrect instances of information, and the use of other people's work without acknowledgement. All authors submitting to Serendipities need to be aware of their responsibility to ensure the accuracy, integrity and originality of their work. The use of AI without taking full responsibility for their work, and using AI without regard to the source of its output, can otherwise contravene our policy against plagiarism.

Serendipities allows authors to use AI to assist in expressing their ideas, or find suitable literature to read and cite. It does not permit AI to be used in a manner which replaces the author's human capacity to produce a publishable piece of work. Nor does it permit data to be generated by an AI tool, or AI to be used to assist in the completion or correction of a data set.

If using AI tools, Serendipities asks authors to: 

• use these tools in an ethical manner, ensuring usage does not replace human expertise and ingenuity;
• rigorously review, seek independent support for, and revise as needed, all output from the AI tool. This includes checking any AI-suggested literature in reputed academic databases;
• check the terms and conditions of all AI tools used at any stage of their research or writing of the manuscript to ensure the tool and its owners observe high standards of privacy and confidentiality in the use of data inputs;
• carefully review and check the accuracy, veracity and comprehensiveness of the manuscript, including all sources/references, ensuring all ideas and quotes are adequately and transparently cited, and the privacy, intellectual property and authorship rights of others have been fully observed;
• provide a statement under the heading of 'Acknowledgement(s)' at the end of their manuscript, and before the references or bibliography, which makes it clear whether AI has been used at any stage in the research or production of the manuscript. 

- If AI has not been used, a statement should be made to the effect of 'This manuscript has been conceived and produced without the benefit of AI. It is a fully human creation. Note: the use of an internet browser to check spelling, grammar, punctuation or the meaning of common words is generally not considered to be AI usage. However, modern browsers and word processes often have generative AI integrated directly into the spellcheckers. This means caution must also be exercised when using these tools; 

- If AI has been used, an additional statement must be made about what tools have been used; the purpose of usage; and how these have been used. Examples of tools may include, but are not limited to NovelAI, Jasper AI, DALL-E, Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT;

• where AI has been used explicitly in the empirical research process, it should also be documented in the methods section of the paper.

 

^{Open Access Policy}

The editors are keen to try new ways of publishing. Many of the established scholarly journals are associated with large enterprises making money from the distribution of ideas funded mostly by taxpayers. Subscription fees have became prohibitive in some branches of scholarship and even in the social sciences, and as a consequence, the free floating of ideas is hindered by the rising prices of subscription.

Serendipities is a fully open access online journal. All articles and contributions are published under an CC BY-NC-ND license that allow to access all content free of charge.

For more information on the Creative Commons licenses, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en

Serendipities does not charge article processing charges (APC) or any other publication fees.