Author Guidelines
Authors are invited to submit manuscripts that fall within the focus of the journal. Please follow the below guidelines, and contact the Managing Editor if you have any questions.
JCMS is a rapid publication journal - once your article has passed peer review it will be published immediately, unlike traditional publishing models which can mean a wait of months or even years before publication.
Deadlines
JCMS publishes one issue per year, with rapid publication as soon as articles are ready. Submissions can be sent throughout the year, however editorial deadlines are:
Format
Please supply all files as Open Office, Microsoft Word or RTF files.
Length
- Research articles: ca. 5000-9000 words
- Short reports: ca. 1000-3000 words
- Reviews: ca. 1000-1500 words
Capitalisation of titles
- Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although).
- Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.
Examples:
- Saving Eighteenth-Century New Smyrnea: Public Archaeology in Action
- Front Yard, Back Yard: Lessons in Neighborhood Archaeology in an Urban Environment
Book reviews:
- If you are submitting a book review, the title should read: 'Review of xxx (Name of book)'.
- Then, as a subtitle, please the following information: name of author, publisher, extent, publication year, ISBN (13-digit). Additional information (if applicable): name of editor/photographer/translator, no. of b&w and colour illustrations.
NOTE: Tier 1 subheads should follow the same rule as the titles. For lower-level subheads, only capitalise first letter (plus proper nouns).
Language
Articles must be submitted in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings and grammar as long as they are used consistently. Some of the key differences between English and American English include the following:
- Programme (UK) vs. Program (US)
- Labour (UK) vs. Labor (US)
- Centre (UK) vs. Center (US)
- Demobilise (UK) vs. Demobilize (US)
- 13 January 2011 (UK) vs. January 13, 2011 (US)
Please note that when referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, you should always use the official, original spelling. For instance, it is World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation.
Grammar
As with language, American or English spelling and grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently. For instance, you may use a serial comma (red, white, and blue) or not (red, white and blue).
Numbers
We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent within an article. For numbers between zero and twelve we would recommend using words rather than figures, except for when it is a part of a dataset or presented in a table.
When referring to a percentage, please use the words ‘per cent’ rather than the symbol %, again except for when it is a part of a dataset or presented in a table.
Currencies
- Use £ for British Pound Sterling, € for Euro, e.g. £50, €100.
- Use US$, C$, NZ$, A$ to distinguish between the different dollar currencies.
Quotation marks
Please use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.
Acronyms and abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references. You do not need to spell out abbreviations for US, UK, EU, UN and DC, as in Washington, DC.
Images and figures
Figures that accompany the text of a submission are encouraged, as long as they are relevant to the subject and that the inclusion of the image enhances the argument or readability of the final publication. images may ultimately be removed from your piece at the editors’ discretion, however figures, including graphs and diagrams, are acceptable if they are professionally and clearly presented.
NOTE: Please supply all figures separately, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi preferred), and each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS.
Tables
The same principles which apply to figures apply to tables. They should be necessary and should not repeat significant pieces of information already included in the text.
Use of footnotes/endnotes
Please use endnotes rather than footnotes (which we will refer to as ‘Notes’ at the end of the article, before ‘References’). All notes should be kept to the bare minimum and only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed. Avoid using endnotes for purposes of referencing; use in-text citations instead.
In-text citations
Authors are strongly encouraged to use parenthetical citations according to the Chicago style (Adam 1984: 120ff.) For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name. For instance, do NOT do the following (International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2000); instead, you should write (ICRC 2000). Also, please do not include URLs (web addresses) in parenthetical citations.
References
References containing works cited within an article will be listed at the end of the article, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames). All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – even works which may not have been cited within an article but which the author wishes to share with the reader (for these, the author should provide additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work).
This journal uses the Harvard (author-date) system – see below for examples of how to format:
Books:
Adam, D J 1984 Stakeholder analysis. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silverman, D F and Propp, K K (eds.) 1990 The active interview. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Achebe, C 1995 Colonialist Criticism. In: Ashcroft, B et al The Post Colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge. pp. 57–61.
NOTE: If multiple works by the same author are being listed, please re-type the author’s name out for each entry, rather than using a long dash.
Journal articles:
Martin, L 2010 Bombs, bodies and biopolitics: Securitizing the subject at airport security. Social and Cultural Geography, 11(1): 17-34. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649360903414585.
NOTE: Please include DOIs for journal articles where possible.
Newspaper articles:
Tate, P 2007 Illicit organ trade increasing. The Jordan Times, 6 June, p. 3.
Conference papers:
Lynch, M 2003 Dialogue in an age of terror. In: The Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA on 18 August 2003, pp. 4-7.
Organisational publications/Grey literature:
World Health Organization 2010 The world health report – Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.
Theses and dissertations:
Yudis, A 2004 Failed responsibility of the media in the war on Iraq. Unpublished thesis (PhD), University of Manchester.
Webpages / PDFs:
Pascual, A C 2005 Stabilization and Reconstruction: Building peace in a hostile environment. Prepared statement to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 16 June 2005. Available at http://2001-2009.state.gov/s/crs/rls/rm/48644.htm [Last accessed 14 August 2012].
Author contact details
Whilst there will not be a space for full author biographies in the article itself, it is our practice to insert the affiliations and contact details in the space (2-3 lines per author) on the bottom left hand corner of the first page of each article. Please include full postal and email addresses.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.