Editorial policy

Social Transformation group = STGroup studies the conflicts, radicals and extremist movements to understand the social transformations both global and local level, their associated threats and risks, and to develop methods and tools for assessing these threats.

Conflicts are based on objective and subjective factors. They cannot disappear in a magical way, but can be transformed into forms that are relatively constructive and safe for their participants. Our task is to find the optimal ways of this transformation, based on scientific methods.

Radical and extremist movements are active forces in every known violent conflict. Radicalism is a transformed manifestation of ideas and practices that emerge in society under normal conditions. Extremism is a denial of a norm that manifests itself as a violation of international law, creating threats to human security. Our next task is to investigate radicalization against the background of normal social behavior, and to differentiate between radicalism and extremism on the basis of the presence or absence of unlawful acts. The local social norm might be too favorable for the formation of particular forms of extremism, and at the same time too restrictive of other, radical forms.

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The materials of the STGroup site are created and disseminated in accordance with the principle of freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine, national and international legislation. We separate facts and evaluative judgments, and assume only the functions appropriate for scientists. That is the systematic collection of data, their ordering and interpretation. What we claim is directly based on facts, or is derived from facts using analytical methods.
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It is proper for each person to formulate his or her own attitude to the facts and make subjective judgments. The post-truth in our picture of the world is disgusting; this is a subjective judgment. And it is harmful; the harm can be proved in scientific way. But it's also worth considering the prevalence of post-truth in the media. If we just close our eyes to a certain phenomenon, it is unlikely to disappear. Post-truth best cure is fact-based information.
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The main categories of the STGroup publications are news, analytics and popular science. Some of the news are republished indicating their origin. The rest of the news is created by the authors based on proven facts; this ratio may vary. We have our own reliable filters that allow you to verify the reliability of the news. We publish the analytics created by the authors for the site, as well as the author's best works of past years, which we consider especially important for understanding the situation. Analytics are targeted at the groups of professionals who are accustomed to reading complex texts. Popular science is targeted at a wider audience; in this case the material is presented in a simpler language, but the simplifications should be correct. Conspiracy theory or conspirology (tm) is an ancillary section of a site dedicated to the non-news of manipulative narrative. Conspirology (tm) is given an appropriate mark so that readers do not accidentally confuse material with the actual news. This section is needed to understand the ideologies of the groups under study.
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Closed and open materials. Some of the material is open, the rest is only available to subscribers. Closed analytics takes considerable effort to create it. These are the time and effort of authors with high qualifications and unique experience. The field research also requires additional costs. In addition, the closed section contains materials that are subject to certain restrictions, such as primary research data, publications of extremist and radical groups, appeals from their leaders, and propaganda materials that they can use to promote. These data are disseminated solely for research purposes and within the community of researchers. If you want to read / watch this content, please support STGroup.
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We welcome the expansion of the Stgroup pool of authors in three main areas: news, analytics and popular science, as well as ancillary, conspiratorial. More or less desirable topics are regularly updated by the editorial board. The author or author who writes for us should be a specialist in a range of issues with a profile education and / or work experience. First of all we adhere to the principle of professionalism. If you write well but not very beautifully stylistically, the style can be corrected by editor. If you write beautifully, but without sufficient knowledge of the relevant subject, we are sorry... The text should not be overloaded with special terminology or professional slang. The meaning of terms and other specific words required for the proper presentation of the material should be explained. The main format of analytics and popular science is long read, from 5000 to 20000 symbols. The text should be accompanied by its short form, up to 500 characters long, and illustrations sufficient for placement on the site. If the basic essence of the expression does not fit within 500 characters, is there any essence at all? We do not tolerate pseudoscience. Moreover, we consider it one of the serious information threats to human and national security. Consumption of pseudoscience products makes people vulnerable to the ordinary fraud and the great well-organized fraud, including the political one. The distinction between science and pseudoscience will be entrusted to our profile experts. If the issue is interesting for us, but we lack the appropriate specialist, we will search and eventually find one.
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Materials representing the consolidated opinion of the editorial board shall be designated as editorial. If, however, the views of the author contradict with ours, the material is placed with the appropriate mark. These are the personal views of the author for whom the editorial board is not responsible. We can print this because, in addition to freedom of expression, we also respect diversity. However, the right is not equal to the obligation. The editorial board does not place material whose content violates the laws of Ukraine (item 1), and (or) contradicts to other sections of the editorial policy of the STGroup site.