About the Journal
The Journal for Theater, Film, and Media Studies (TFMJ) is the peer-reviewed Diamond Open Access journal of the Department of Theater, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, which is published biannually as a double issue via the university's OJS-service since 2026.
The editorial work is financed exclusively by departmental funds, and the journal is operated on a non-profit basis.
Open Access
The journal offers immediate open access to all content based on the principle that free public access to research content supports the global exchange of knowledge. The journal's open access concept is based on the OA-policy of the University of Vienna. The rights to the articles remain with the respective authors (no APCs = article processing charges).
Licensing
Articles and reviews published in TFMJ are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Content may be freely distributed and adapted, provided that full reference is made to the authors, including a link to the license and notes regarding any changes.
Peer-Review
All contributions that appear in TFMJ, excluding book reviews, are subject to a double-blind peer review process. The peer reviewers are selected by the editors in consultation with the editorial board. Particular attention is paid to the relevant expertise of the reviewers and to the avoidance of conflicts of interest. The editors guarantee the confidential treatment of the authors' personal information and contributions.
Submitted contributions will only be forwarded to editors of other journals with the authors' explicit consent or in cases of suspected misconduct (see below). The editors will only provide authors with information about the status of a submission to the journal. In the event of an investigation into misconduct, it may be necessary to pass on material to third parties (e.g., an institutional investigation committee or other editors).
The editors may reject a contribution without prior peer review if it appears unsuitable for the journal's readers or is of poor quality. This decision will be made fairly and impartially, and the underlying criteria will be disclosed to the authors. The decision not to submit an article for peer review is based solely on the scientific content of the article and is not influenced by the author or the host institution.
The editorial board of TFMJ takes possible misconduct by peer reviewers seriously and pursues every allegation of breach of confidentiality, non-disclosure of conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage. Allegations of serious misconduct by peer reviewers, such as plagiarism, are pursued at the institutional level.
The editors make it transparent to authors that the role of peer reviewers is to make recommendations for acceptance or rejection. The editors generally correspond with the primary author, who is responsible for involving co-authors in all stages of the process. The editors communicate with all authors upon initial submission and upon final acceptance to ensure that all authors are aware of the submission and have agreed to publication. Normally, the editors forward comments from the peer reviewers in full.
If there are valid reasons for involving additional reviewers at a late stage of the process, this will be clearly communicated to the authors. The final editorial decision and the reasons for it will be clearly communicated to authors and reviewers. If an article is rejected, the editors welcome appeals from authors. However, the editors are not obliged to revise their decision.
[The guidelines of the journal are adapted from Sabine Kleinert and Elizabeth Wager, "Responsible Research Publication: International Standards for Editors," in Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment, eds. Tony Mayer and Nicholas Steneck (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2011), 317-328]
Book Reviews
The Journal of Theater, Film, and Media Studies (TFMJ) regularly publishes reviews of relevant new publications in the fields of theater, film, media, and cultural studies as part of the supplement rezens.tfm. Around 50 reviewers—research assistants, lecturers, and graduates of the Institute for Theater, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, as well as members of other institutes and independent researchers—continuously review publications for rezens.tfm.
To ensure institutional impartiality, only works by authors (in the case of monographs) and editors (in the case of anthologies) who were not employed by the Vienna Institute for Theater, Film, and Media Studies at the time of the work's creation and publication are reviewed.
Archiving
The journal is archived in the open access collection PHAIDRA, the repository for the permanent preservation of digital holdings at the University of Vienna.
Copyright Guidelines
The authors grant TFMJ the right to publish their work for the first time within one year of acceptance and to distribute it permanently and free of charge worldwide, including public reproduction via the journal's website. The authors reserve the right to create derivative works and to reproduce, distribute, perform, or publicly present their work at conferences, presentations, lectures, and other professional activities. Authors reserve the right to distribute their work (submitted, accepted, or published version) after publication in TFMJ without an embargo period as open access publications, via their personal website or via an institutional archive or other repository of their choice.
Article Processing and Submission Charges
There are no fees or charges, as the journal does not charge fees for submission or article processing (no APCs = article processing charges).
Plagiarism
Editors are obliged to act immediately in the event of proven or suspected errors and misconduct (such as plagiarism). This obligation applies to both published and unpublished contributions. In the event of errors in articles or in the publication process, fraudulent publication, or plagiarism, appropriate steps will be taken in accordance with COPE's recommendations and guidelines. Corrections will be made with due emphasis, including the publication of an erratum (errors in the publication process), a corrigendum (errors by the author(s)), or, in the most serious cases, the retraction of the work in question. Retracted works remain online and are clearly marked as retracted in all online versions, including the PDF version, for the benefit of future readers.
Statement on Artificial Intelligence
The Journal of Theater, Film, and Media Studies (TFMJ) recognizes the significance of innovations in the field of artificial intelligence and understands the challenges associated with it.
Authors who have used artificial intelligence tools in the editing of a manuscript, in the creation of images or graphic elements of the article, or in the collection and analysis of data must explicitly declare their use, specifying the AI tool, the area of application, the search queries used, and the date of use to ensure reproducibility and verification.
Authors remain responsible for the accuracy and correctness of all published content and guarantee compliance with the code of ethics and anti-plagiarism rules.
Authors who have used AI or AI-supported tools must include a paragraph at the end of their manuscript titled “Statement on generative AI and AI-supported technologies in the writing process” with the following content:
“In the creation of this work, the authors used [NAME OF TOOL/SERVICE] on [DD.MM.YYYY] with the search terms [SEARCH TERMS] to determine [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the authors reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.”
Editors may not upload submitted manuscripts to AI software in order to avoid compromising data protection and copyright laws.
Peer Reviewers are obliged not to use AI tools to evaluate manuscripts in order to ensure their critical and independent evaluation required for this work, as well as the data protection guidelines.
