Focus and Scope

TCB: Technical Services in Religion & Theology, an open access publication of Atla, is a resource for technical services librarians with a focus on the fields of religion and theology. In the Perspectives & Practices section, TCB showcases projects, processes, trends, and learning experiences submitted by readers. TCB also includes reviews that describe implementation and use of software, library management systems, and other technical services tools. Additionally, editors report on new and changed Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Library of Congress Classification numbers LCC), new publications, professional development opportunities, and other news from the field.

Conflicts of Interest

Atla Open Press requires that all parties involved in a publication—including authors, peer reviewers, volume editors, guest editors and editorial board members—declare any potential conflicts of interest to ensure that all parties are appropriately informed of any relevant considerations while they work on a submission. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include prior publication and personal relationship with guest editors, volume editors, editorial board members or Atla staff.

Members of Atla’s Board of Directors are permitted to author submissions to publications of Atla Open Press or to serve as a specially appointed editor for a special forum or contributed volume but will not receive any honorarium or other compensation for this service.

Digital Accessibility

Atla Open Press is committed to ensuring that all of our users have a fully accessible experience of our publications. We endeavor to conduct regular automated and manual audits to evaluate and measure accessibility of our site and publications. 

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and the PDF/UA guidelines to achieve this. The WCAG guidelines have three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA.

As of February 2023 Atla Open Press serials publications are level AA compliant and are PDF/UA compliant. Varying levels of accessibility are available in publications prior to February 2023. 

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of Atla Open Press. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers on Atla Open Press. We try to respond to feedback within 2 business days.

Atla Open Press website

The website for Atla Open Press publications is not yet WCAG compliant.

Open Access Policy and Copyright Notice

TCB is an open access journal published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC-BY-NC 4.0 International). Content that is produced by the Library of Congress and reprinted in TCB is in the public domain as a work of the federal government. Authors submitting content to Perspectives & Practices and to Reviews retain copyright to their work and grant to Atla the exclusive first publication, display, and distribution rights in the Work. All other content is copyright Atla subject to the Creative Commons license.

Plagiarism and Misconduct

Atla Open Press does not tolerate plagiarism, copyright infringement, inaccurate attributions, failure to disclose conflicts of interest, or libel. All manuscripts submitted to Atla Open Press are checked by iThenticate prior to being accepted for publication.

Concerns regarding observed plagiarism or misconduct in any Atla Open Press publication should be directed to connect@atla.com.

Use of AI Generated Content

Atla Open Press recognizes the challenges and opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), like ChatGPT, present for scholarly communication. The Press aims to provide a policy to guide contributors and their submissions to Atla Open Press publications. Atla Open Press prioritizes transparency from contributors regarding AI usage in their submissions, recognizing that there are and will be contexts where AI usage does not impact authorial integrity but rather is an effective and important part of the authorial process. Press editors will assess submissions with this in mind, considering all AI usage and its impact on the integrity of the submission.

We recommend the following values be articulated to potential authors at the point of submission and advertised on each publication’s website:

• Any use of AI must be declared prior to submission and clearly explained in the submission to any Atla Open Press publications. Where appropriate, this acknowledgment and explanation may be included in the published version of the submission.
• AI will not be considered an author for Atla Open Press publications. AI tools may not be listed as an author on any scholarly work published by Atla.
• All authors are accountable for their submissions’ accuracy, integrity, and originality, clearly accounting for any use of AI.
• Any use of AI must not breach the Atla Open Press policy on plagiarism. Scholarly works must be the author's own and not present others' ideas, data, words, or other material without adequate citation and transparent referencing.

Authorial Name Change Policy

Atla Open Press recognizes the importance of author identity and attribution, especially as it relates to names and pronouns. Name changes and pronoun changes for authors are available upon request by contacting Atla. These requests will be approved without documentation. Name and pronoun corrections will be made in confidence and as soon as possible.

Name and pronoun changes may be requested by authors for various reasons, including but not limited to name changes due to marriage or divorce, non-Western naming or spelling structures, or gender identity. Transgender and gender diverse authors who would like to request a change are especially encouraged to contact the Press.

Any request for a name and/or pronoun change will result in the following:

• Removal of the earlier name/pronouns from any and all publications produced by the Press, including books and journals, within the power of the Press to change.
• Removal of the earlier name/pronouns from any and all metadata related to the publications produced by the Press, including books and journals, within the power of the Press to change. Revised metadata will be sent to our indexing partners
• Removal of the earlier name/pronouns from the PDF version of publications produced by the Press, including books and journals, within the power of the Press to change.
• Name changes WILL NOT be announced, nor will any notices be published that draw attention to the changes.
• Citations of publications produced by the Press and included in future submissions will be assessed to verify that the earlier name is not included in any newly published materials.

Preservation Policy

This journal’s content is archived by Portico as part of a partnership between Atla Open Press and Portico. Portico is a leading digital preservation service worldwide. The content is preserved as an archival version and is not publicly accessible via Portico, but is provided when required under specific conditions, such as discontinuation of the collection or catastrophic failure of the website.

Privacy Policy

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed academic or scholarly serial publications.  It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.

This publication’s editorial team and Atla staff use this data to guide their work in publishing and improving this publication. Data that will assist in developing the OJS publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this publication, Atla, or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here.

Those involved in editing, publishing and hosting this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design.