Submitting an Article Online

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Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit manuscripts that fall within the focus of the journal. Please read the information on the Peer Review Process and follow the below guidelines.

Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript, and please ensure that your name is not recorded anywhere on the paper to ensure the viability of the double blind review system that this journal operates on. 

Article types

• Editorials that express the (guest) editors’ opinion on a topical issue.
• Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the field.
• Review papers that cover topics such as current controversies or the historical development of commons studies. Papers should critically engage with the relevant body of extant literature.
• Special issues can be proposed and developed, also. In case you have an idea for the development of a special issue (we call them special collections), do not hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to go over the possibilities with you.  

During the submission procedure, a list of sections to choose from will be offered by means of a drop down menu. In case you were not explicitly invited by the guest-editor of a special feature, we kindly ask you to select ‘research articles’ or ‘review articles’ when finalizing the submission of your manuscript. In case your paper does belong to a particular special feature, the guest-editor will have instructed you what section to select.

If a paper is accepted for publication, authors will be charged an publication fee (or, Article Processing Charge (APC)). For details, see below (under: 'Publication Fees' and 'Waiver Information.'

The Journal provides immediate open access to its content. Author(s) retain copyright of their articles. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY 4.0)

The submission should contain the following parts:

1. Title, abstract and keywords (to be entered during the submission procedure - not as a separate file)
2. Main text: (anonymous) body text and tables (WORD format or rich-text format), figures, photographs and equations (JPG, GIF, PNG formats are acceptable; figures and equations should also be images).
3. If applicable, appendices (most formats are accepted: text-only appendices must be in WORD or rich-text format). We strongly encourage the submission of a (copy-right free, rectangular-sized, 100x100 pixels) picture that represents your article, and that can be used as a thumbnail accompanying your paper on our website, in case of publication 

The main text should not exceed 8,000 words, including tables, graphs, footnotes, and references.

All papers must be in English. Use either British or US spellings – do so consistently. Write with precision, clarity, and economy: use the active voice and first person whenever appropriate. Separate paragraphs with a space. Refrain from using italics for emphasis. Do not underline text.

Footnotes should be used when appropriate and placed on the relevant page of your manuscript. They should not be used for references alone. Do not use endnotes.

Standard headings must appear on a single line by themselves, and be UPPER CASE. Lower order headings must appear on a line by themselves and should be left-justified, italicized, and lowercase except for the initial letter of the first word which should be uppercase.

Refer to a table, a figure or a picture in the paragraph preceding its location. Our template will automatically reproduce a table, figure or picture after the paragraph in which it is first mentioned. A table, figure or picture will not show up, if no reference to it is made in the text.

For citations, IJC follows APA. Check each citation in the text against the Literature Cited to ensure that they match exactly.

Figures and photographs must be supplied as graphic files (in GIF, JPG, or PNG formats) at 72 dpi and no wider than 700 pixels (unless given explicit permission by the managing editor). Please ensure that any text used in your figures is legible.

Insert the equation into the body text of your manuscript exactly where you would like the equation to appear. Please, send us picture format versions, of the equations that you use, as well (e.g. as an appendix).

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, in part or in whole, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. All third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission has been obtained from the copyright holder for all formats of the journal. Authors acknowledge their responsibility to gain all permissions prior to submission.
3. All authors qualify as authors, as defined in the authorship guidelines, and have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper.
4. Tables are all cited in the main text and are included within the text document.
5. Figures are all cited in the main text and are uploaded as supplementary files. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
6. All respondents included within case reports or other article types in which an individual or a group of individuals can be identified have signed informed consent forms, or had had their legal guardian do so, giving permission to publish the submitted content under a CC-BY licence.
7. The corresponding author is submitting an ORCID identifier in their author data and co-authors have been recommended to also provide an ORCID, as per the journal policy.
8. The author declares the absence of any conflict of interest.
9. The submission does not contain identifying information about the author, to ensure the viability of the double blind peer review

Copyright Notice

The International Journal of the Commons provides immediate open access to its content.

Authors retain copyright of their articles. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY 4.0).

Authors are explicitly encouraged to deposit their article in their institutional repository.

If you have any questions you can always directly contact the Editors.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party. The full privacy policy can be viewed here.

Publication Fees

Articles published in IJC can be accessed for free by anyone, from anywhere. To cover our costs we have to charge authors for editorial and production services and indexing support. There is no charge for manuscripts that are not accepted for publication and no submission charge.

Members of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) benefit from a significant discount. This discount applies in case one or several authors of the publication either is a member, or applied for membership before the article is made available online. Here, you can register for IASC membership.

The current rates for publishing in IJC are the following:

• IASC members: £615 (VAT excluded)
• Non-members: £740 (VAT excluded)

Of these fees, £440 goes to the publisher: £420 for publishing services, and £20 for administrative charges. The surcharges on top of the amount charged by our publisher are meant to finance waivers and the development of special issues and articles by invitation.

These rates assume a total word count of maximally 8,500 and not significantly more than 3 pages of figures/tables when typeset. In case of a deviation away from this, we will need to adjust the fee in order to cover additional costs.

 

Waiver Information

A limited number of full or partial waivers may be granted if all authors live and work in developing countries. Waivers may also be granted to students if they are the sole author on the paper. Waivers must be granted before submission. In case you think you are eligible for an exemption contact us before submitting your manuscript.