Policies
Contents
- Notes to Authors
- Categories of Content
- Brief Manuscript Guidelines
- Copyright and Ownership
- Detailed Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
- General Guidelines on Writing a Paper
Notes to Authors
Discipline Areas
The IJIR Editorial Board invites submissions from across the island research domains, including tourism, religious studies, geography, history, art, architecture, archaeology, environment, economics, hospitality, management, culture, tradition, education, and all related areas.
Who Can Submit?
Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in IJIR provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner(s) to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer.
General Submission Rules
Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series or conference proceedings does not normally constitute prior publication. By submitting material to IJIR, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at IJIR. If you have concerns about the submission terms for IJIR, please contact the editors.
Screening Process
Manuscripts may be pre-screened to ensure they fit the aims and scope of the Journal. It is editorial policy that manuscripts are sent to two anonymous peer reviewers. Our aim is to make a decision on each manuscript within 3 months.
Themed Issues
Proposals for Special or Themed Issues are welcome. While the primary area of focus is island research, submissions on other themes are also welcome, once there is a cognate relationship with the IJIR. They should normally comprise four or five related articles of around 5,000 words each, plus an Introduction or Editorial. Suggestions for special/themed issues should be addressed to the Editors in the first instance. A short document outlining the proposed theme that you would like to cover should include details of why you feel that this theme is of contemporary interest; a list of four or five potential articles or authors (most of who will have agreed to contribute); and your CV, including recent publications. Once approved, the Guest Editor(s) will have responsibility for managing the paper submission and review process and for ensuring the quality of the issue. All published content must be approved through the normal IJIR refereeing and editorial process, and final editorial control remains with the IJIR Editors.
Categories of Content
While the main focus of the Journal will be peer-reviewed Academic Papers, due to its digital platform, the structure can be flexible in nature, allowing authors to explore a variety of formats.
Academic Paper
The mainstay of the Journal is Academic Papers, which are manuscripts that theoretically and methodologically advance the subject area. They can be academic or industry focused and are submitted for blind peer review. They comprise approximately 4,000-6,000 words see Detailed Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines below.
Case Study
Some Case Studies may fulfil the criteria for an Academic Paper, however, other case studies may be more descriptive in nature, but sufficiently interesting to merit inclusion. These will be of a similar size to Academic Papers, comprising 4,000-6,000 words.
Industry Report
Quite a lot of commercial research and Industry Reports in the area of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage is undertaken to a very high standard, but may not be presented in an academic format. The IJRTP welcomes submissions of these research outputs, once the authors presents clear evidence of rigorous and suitable methodological and analysis approaches. Reports of this nature should be in the region of 4,000-6,000 words.
Current Research
It is proposed that articles for the Current Research section of the Journal will be shorter academic items, presenting a concept, idea, early research findings or even a current question as a ‘work in progress’. These papers will be thought provoking, interesting and challenging, and comprise of approximately 2,000-3,000 words.
Photo Based Essays
Because the production format is flexible, it is possible to integrate visuals, without the traditional limitations which restrict images in print format journals. Therefore, the IJRTP welcomes Photo Based Essays, which illustrate or explore particular sites or themes. Authors interested in exploring this particular format should talk directly to the Editors for advice and guidelines on formatting and preparing their work. It is planned that these works will form ‘albums’ of original photos, to be made available via the Journal website.
Book Review
The Journal includes book reviews. Books for review should be sent to the book review editor. Reviews should be 500-1,000 words.
Brief Manuscript Guidelines
In the main, Manuscripts for papers shall be based on primary research, exceptional critical literature reviews, or practice innovations. However, the IJIR encourages a variety of other article formats, including conference reviews, announcements, reflection pieces etc. It is the responsibility of the author to notify the Editors of any non-standard format submissions in advance.
Manuscripts should be typed in Times New Roman, 12, 1.5 point spaced with ‘normal margins (c.2.5cm).
All text should be unjustified. Do not insert page breaks or bold the text.
Submission of an article is taken to imply that it has not previously been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. This fact should be stated by the author on submission.
Responsibility of Authors
Authors are expected to correct proofs. The typescript finally accepted for publication must be regarded as definitive and subsequent corrections should be restricted to printer’s errors. Any alterations at this stage may be made only with the agreement of the editorial team. Changes in the text will not be considered at proof stage.
It is the Author’s responsibility to ensure that permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web).
Referencing Style
The Harvard referencing style (specifically the International Sociological Association - ISA method) must be used.
References should be placed in alphabetical order at the end of the text.
Articles for Consideration Should be Submitted at:
Submission Process
- Read and accept the Article Submission Agreement.
- Provide a short bio of all authors and/or the company represented.
- Upload your article and related items. Before you begin, please be sure you have the following items:
- Article title.
- An abstract / summary of the paper, between 300 and 500 words in length (separate from the article body).
- 3 to 5 Keywords for your article.
- Article in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word, or RTF. Articles must be submitted without a title page, or page numbers. These will be provided by the system.
It is especially important that you do not include any identifying information about the authors, as the article you submit will be sent to reviewers.
- Please do not create your own PDF file.
- No part of submission is final until all steps have been completed and you click the final Submit button.
- The review process begins as soon as IJIR receives a readable article, along with the abstract and article title. You may revise any of these elements later by clicking the submitted article’s title on your My Account page.
Formatting Requirements
The International Journal of Islands Research has no general rules about the formatting of articles upon initial submission. There are, however, rules governing the formatting of the final submission. See Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions.
4. The Author represents and warrants that:
- a. the Work is the Author’s original work;
- b. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- c. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- d. the Work has not previously been published;
- e. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- f. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
5. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site.
General Terms and Conditions of Use
Users of the ARROW@TU Dublin website and/or software agree not to misuse the ARROW@TU Dublin service or software in any way.
The failure of ARROW@TU Dublin to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavour to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between ARROW@TU Dublin and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.
Detailed Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage.
Formatting Requirements
- Begin the document with the title of the article, followed by the abstract, followed by 3-5 keywords, then the introduction and the remaining elements of the article.
- Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers.
- Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word or RTF files are accepted).
- Page size should be 21 x 29.7cm (A4).
- All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 2.5 cm), including your tables and figures.
- Do not indent paragraphs.
- 1.5 line space your text.
- Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text.
- Use a single column layout with margins left justified.
- Font: 12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available.
- If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, (the editors may need to contact you directly at a later time if images are of insufficient quality).
- Please Copyedit your manuscript – ensuring that it is produced to a very high standard of English.
- Make sure that all citations are included in the bibliography, and all items in the bibliography are cited (this is the work of the author(s) NOT the editor(s).
Language & Grammar
All submissions must be in good English. If you need guidance, you could use Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style) exist as well.
Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided. Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.
In general, UK English is preferred; but US English is also acceptable. However authors cannot mix both.
Please ensure your Article has been ‘spell-checked’ and ‘grammar-checked’.
Article Length
It is normally expected that Manuscripts should be between 4000-6,000 words in length. However, because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. We are happy, (once you clear it with the editors) to let authors take advantage of this greater "bandwidth" to provide longer articles, and all authors are encouraged to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal – images, tables, links to audio files / websites etc. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.
Use of Colour
The font for the main body of text must be black.
We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use colour in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers’ problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colours in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible (try printing in B&W yourself to test this).
Please ensure that there are no coloured mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final mark-up.)
Emphasized text
Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of colour to emphasize text is discouraged.
Font faces
Except possibly where special symbols are needed, use Times or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, use a simple sans serif font (e.g., Arial).
Font size
The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.
Headings
Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts: use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by increasing / reducing the font size. There should be space above and below headings.
Titles
Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.
Footnotes
Because the recommended referencing is Harvard Style (ISA – see below), in most instances, Footnotes should not be necessary. However, where used, Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available, they should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line).
Footnote numbers in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. All footnotes should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin).
Tables and Figures
To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within the prescribed 2.5cm margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.
References
Please ensure that all References are in the correct format for this journal (Harvard Style ISA – see: http://www.isa-sociology.org/publ/sociopedia-isa_harvard-style-guidelines.pdf).
Please ensure that all citations are included in the bibliography, and all items in the bibliography are cited.
It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. References should appear directly at the end of the document - after the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break - not a page break - and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should be left justified.
General Guidelines on Writing a Paper
For guidelines on writing academic papers, please refer to the following document by the International Academy for the Study of Tourism : http://www.polyu.edu.hk/htm/academy/hints.php).