Original Contributions

The fzg exclusively publishes original contributions that have not already appeared elsewhere in either the same or a similar form and which are not intended or expected to be published anywhere else. Should you have any doubt as to whether or not your proposed contribution fulfils these criteria, please get in touch with us as early as possible in the process of preparing your manuscript for submission.

The guiding principle is that the content of any contribution you submit to the fzg must be clearly and significantly different from any previously published work. Alterations in word order/rewriting are not sufficient to satisfy this requirement. Formulating new research questions, further consideration of the issues or a new emphasis/focus could, however, be a basis for publication in the fzg. In addition, the fzg requires that the proposed article is not submitted for consideration anywhere else or in any other form from the date of submission until the communication of the final decision by the editorial team.

We require the following signed forms to be submitted along with your manuscript:

Declaration for article publication | Originalitätsbestätigung (german version)

In order to help you determine ‘how original’ your article is, we have gathered together some potential borderline cases for guidance:

Dissertations
Summaries and synopses of dissertations and theses can be submitted for consideration by the fzg, as can articles adapted from or based on previous doctoral/graduate research, as long as they fulfil the following criteria:

• There is a sharpening and intensification of the thematic focus, as a rule significantly different from any already published version or any version intended for future publication.
• The further development of selected issues addressed in the dissertation into an article offers a genuinely new perspective on the topic, adopts modified research questions, or incorporates previously unused material or data

Translations
A straightforward translation does not by itself constitute an original contribution. The focus of the article submitted to the fzg must be substantially different from any previously published text. Articles can be submitted in either English or German.

Conference papers
We welcome submissions of conference papers that have been developed into articles. Please note, however, that such contributions cannot simultaneously be offered for consideration in a conference volume or other publication.

In general, please be aware that we can only guarantee publication of your text at a relatively late stage of the editorial process and dependent on the outcome of the peer review.