Summary of important information
- No article processing charge (APC) or other fees
- Length: Standard papers (5001-10,000 words) and short papers (3000-5000 words), including title, abstract, references, and contents of any tables
- Maximum of four figures/tables, though see exceptions below
- No footnotes or endnotes
- Submit as Microssoft Word (.docx) file
- Initial submissions can be in any standardised reference style; final submissions must be formatted in APA 7 style
- Double-blind peer review
- The journal is committed to expanding accessibility and provides free language editing following acceptance, but initial submissions must be in easily comprehensible English that is suitable for peer review.
Authors should read the below detailed guidelines carefully as manuscripts that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be published.
Length
Island Studies Journal publishes standard papers (5001-10,000 words), short papers (3000-5000 words), and ‘Debates in island studies’ papers. The short paper format is best suited for groundbreaking conceptual or theoretical papers that seek to make a strong impact on the field but do not require lengthy descriptions of study methods or results; the short paper format is not suited for case studies or reporting of empirical research. The ‘Debates in island studies’ paper type is described separately below.
Papers must meet the word length requirements (3000-10,000 words), including references, the contents of any tables, title, and abstract.
These length guidelines also apply to resubmissions and revisions of existing submissions: Papers that exceed the maximum word count at any stage in the editorial process will be returned to authors for shortening.
See the note on figures/tables below.
Figures and tables
Ordinarily, manuscripts can have a maximum of four figures/tables. This is due to production costs. In the event that more figures/tables are necessary for your paper, these can be included at a cost of US$50 per figure/table in excess of four. That is, if your accepted manuscript has six figures/tables, it will be necessary pay the journal US$100 prior to publication.
Submit photographs as JPEG files with a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi). Submit other images as PNG files. Please both submit all photographs, tables, and other figures as separate file attachments and include these in the appropriate places in the manuscript to assist in the review process.
Please make sure that it is possible for your figures and tables to fit legibly within the ordinary margins of a page. It is not acceptable to change the orientation of the page from portrait to landscape. If you submit a larger image, it will probably look worse when shrunken down to the size necessary to fit it into the journal.
If you are designing a table using Microsoft Word or other software, that is fine; however, please ensure that all elements of your table fit within the page margins, and make the table as stylistically simple as possible.
If authors incorporate any images from third parties, they must ensure (at their own expense) that any copyrighted material submitted for publication in the journal is appropriately cleared with the respective copyright holders. Do not include third-party images in your manuscript unless you have already received permission from the copyright holder to include it, or unless the source of the image clearly states that it may be freely reproduced. If your manuscript includes a third-party image that is not self-evidently freely reproducible (for example, if it has been appropriately attributed to its creator and linked to a file on Wikimedia), then please include a document from the image’s copyright holder confirming that you have the right to reproduce the image. If you are unable to determine the copyright holder of an image or are unable to contact the copyright holder, then you are not permitted to include the image in your manuscript.
Manuscript format
Because Island Studies Journal operates a double-blind peer review process, all identifying information must be removed from the manuscript file prior to submission.
Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format. Footnotes and endnotes are not permitted. All information must be placed in the body of the manuscript. Please remove all reference-linking field codes and automatic formatting (for example, for section heads and sub-section heads) prior to submitting your manuscript.
All papers must be written in easily comprehensible English. Any regional variety of English is acceptable as long as authors are consistent. Papers that are not written in easily comprehensible English will be rejected immediately or sent back to the authors for revisions.
Style and references
Final submissions of manuscripts must be formatted in APA 7 (American Psychological Association) style. Initial submissions can be in any standardised style.
You can find a guide to citing and referencing in line with the APA 7 format here: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples. You are welcome to use reference management software to assist you with your references and citations, but it will always be necessary for you to manually check to ensure that references are complete.
Quoted matter, whether in text or notes, should be between double quotation marks (“xxx”), with punctuation occurring within the quotation marks (“xxx,”). Quotations of 40 words or more should appear as a standalone, indented paragraph, without quotation marks. Single quotation marks (‘xxx’) should be used for labelling concepts and other kinds of emphasis but not for direct quotes.
Always provide a full citation; do not use (ibid.). Please ensure that in-text citations always either immediately follow the author(s)’ name(s) or include the author(s)’ name(s). It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that citations and references are correct and in the APA 7 style. Papers that are not presented in the APA 7 style will be rejected immediately or sent back to the authors for revisions.
Editorial and peer review process
All papers undergo a rigorous double-blind review process. Papers must fit within the journal’s stated scope. In submitting a manuscript to Island Studies Journal , authors are confirming that they do not have an identical or similar manuscript under review, or somehow being considered for publication, with any other journal at the same time. They are also confirming that no version of the paper is already published online in any form.
Island Studies Journal follows the Committee on Publication Ethics’ ‘Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors’. With the exception of editorial introductions, all papers published in the journal are subject to double-blind peer review by a minimum of two double-blind reviewers, with at least one reviewer being external to the editorial board. This standard also applies to papers authored or coauthored by members of the editorial board. Reviews are owned by the authors of the reviews. Peer reviewers will be asked to abide by the Committee on Publication Ethics’ ‘Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers’.
Copyediting and typesetting
Once a paper has been accepted, it will be sent out to a professional copyeditor, who will make any necessary corrections to the paper in consultation with the corresponding author. After the paper has been copyedited, it will be sent to the Scholastica typesetting team for the final stages of production. Authors will have the opportunity to make final, minor corrections at this stage. However, major corrections and revisions should be made prior to a paper being accepted.
Conflicts of interest
Actual, potential, or apparent conflicts of interest must be declared at the time of article submission or as soon as such conflicts arise. Conflicts of interest include professional, business, financial, personal, or legal relationships between an author and an organisation being studied or discussed in a paper, which could influence the manner in which the research has been conducted and/or presented. Conflicts of interest are not in themselves reasons for rejecting a paper, but such conflicts may affect the way in which a paper is assessed. Failure to declare actual, potential, or apparent conflicts of interest may result in rejection of submitted articles or retraction or clarification of published articles. For questions involving conflicts of interest and other ethical issues, please contact the editor-in-chief.
Copyright
Copyright on manuscripts is held by the authors, and articles are published under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Debates in island studies
‘Debates in island studies’ is a new section of Island Studies Journal that will publish discussion papers on pertinent and current themes within the field of island studies. Papers in this section are designed to be of interest to a wide audience in the field, to include a diversity of perspectives, and to construct knowledge through collaborative discussion.
Papers published in this section consist of the following parts: 1. A main article (1500-2000 words) on a topic of importance to island studies. 2. Three commentaries (750-1000 words each) responding to the main article. 3. A rejoinder (500-1000 words) by the author(s) of the main article. 4. A video discussion (optional).
Proposing a ‘Debates in island studies’ paper
If author(s) wish to write an article that will be discussed within a ‘Debates in island studies’ paper, they should write to the editors-in-chief Ping Su (suping1983@gmail.com) and May Joseph (mjoseph@pratt.edu) with a brief description of their idea for a topic (around 200 words) as well as with the names of two individuals who have agreed to serve as commentators on the paper.
The proposal will be assessed on the basis of the perceived interest of the topic to a wide range of Island Studies Journal readers and the perceived ability of the author(s) and the recommended commentators to present a genuine discussion or debate from a variety of perspectives. Commentators should not share an affiliation with the author(s) of the main article, and editors reserve the right not to use author-recommended commentators.
If the proposal is approved, the next step is for the author(s) to write the main article (1500-2000 words). Assuming that the paper passes initial editorial review, it will then be sent out for review by three commentators. If these commentators respond favourably to the main article, all commentators will be asked to write commentaries (750-1000 words) in response. The author(s) of the main article will then be asked to write the rejoinder (500-1000 words) to the completed commentary. The commentaries and rejoinder will undergo editorial review but not peer review. Once all the written pieces of the paper have been assembled, the authors will be invited to record an optional video discussion with one another and/or with a wider group. This video can be embedded in the final version of the article.
The order of authorship is: author(s) of the main article in an order of their choosing, followed by the commentators in alphabetical order.