Author Guidelines
Guidelines for articles
1.The final version of the manuscript should contain
- title
- names of the authors
- abstract
- keywords
- main text
- references
- biographical statements
- acknowledgements
- appendixes
The article should start with the title (capitalised) followed by the author’s name(s). One of the authors should be marked with a footnote containing an email address for possible correspondence with readers.
The manuscript must include a descriptive and informative abstract of up to 200 words. The abstract must give a concise statement of the intention, results and conclusions of the paper. Please also include up to five keywords (e.g. Keywords: transnationalism, diaspora, media.).
In the main text maximum 3 levels of headings can be used. Titles in the article start with a capital letter (the whole title is not capitalized). The titles are not numbered.
The tables and figures should be added in the article text in the places they should appear when the paper is published. All tables and figures need to have their sources marked.
Interview extracts, field notes or longer citations are formatted as separate paragraphs in italics. Source or interviewee is in the brackets after the full stop (no italics).
References are to be formatted using APA style 7th edition. Please pay close attention to capitalisation: only names of periodicals are capitalised.
The basic form for journal articles is: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article, not capitalised. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.
And for books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher.
A brief biographical statement of approximately 50 words should be included after the references about each author. The statement should include the author’s current institutional affiliations, general research interests, and recent publications. There are no titles before nor after the name (Prof, PhD, MA).
Acknowledgements to give information on funding or add words of gratitude to colleagues, reviewers etc.
Appendixes may be used to include important information that would otherwise break up information in the main text. However, please try to keep the number of Appendixes to a minimum.
2. Lenght: Manuscripts should be approximately 6,000 – 8,000 words in length including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, etc.).
3. General guidelines:
- UK spelling is preferred.
- Use footnotes (not endnotes) in order to convey substantive information to the reader, and not for reference purposes.
- Use single quotation marks (’…’) for terms and italics to add emphasis. Double quotation marks ("…") should only be used within quotes.
- All non-English terms (also in reference list) need to have a translation in [square brackets].
- Abbreviations consisting of capital initial letters do not have full stops (NATO or UN). Do not use commas after abbreviations i.e. and e.g. et al. is not in italics and ends with a full stop.
- Small dash used between years to mark periods or page numbers. Like 2008-2009 or 13-34
- Use a comma in thousands and larger numbers (5,320), point is utilized in commas (5,320.5). Inclusive numbers should be written in full (43-47, not 43-7).
4. If you are wondering whether your manuscript might be suitable for STSS please read this post:
Things to check before you submit to minimize chances of desk rejectionGuidelines for book reviews
If you want to review a book, please contact one of our Book Review Editors so that you can check when there is a slot available, whether the book is appropriate for the journal, and what the deadlines are for submission.
From 2022 STSS will only review academic books selling under €35
At STSS we became concerned by the pricing policy of some academic publishers, making knowledge difficult to access especially to scholars based on some regions of the world. Besides, we fail to understand why some publishers can manage to produce books that sell at €10-20 and other keep a publishing hardbacks selling at €100+ and more, thus undermining the purchasing power of libraries and departments.
As a result, of our reflections, starting from 2022, we will no longer review books that sell at more than €35. We are aware that this is a drop in the ocean and will limit the choice of books but you have to stand for what you believe. We believe that the pricing policy of some publishers is abusive and exploitative and is ultimately harming science. We, therefore, wish to support publishers that work hard to deliver quality science at an accessible price (and there are actually quite a few of them out there now)
Book Reviews should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words in length. In exceptional cases (very long book, review including 2-3 titles together) we can allow a slightly longer one.
In general, we would advise you to cover the following questions:
- What is the book about and how does it fit within the literature?
- What are the main points (Chapte rs, Themes) of the book? Are they addressed in innovative ways?
- Why is the book interesting (What benefits might readers get by reading it)?
- What are the highlights (best elements) of the book?
- What are its main shortcomings? What could have been approached differently, deepened, or improved (main criticisms)?
- What would be a good audience for the book? Does it have policy implications?
We advise you to use a sandwich structure in drafting your book review: praise the book, provide an outline of the content, provide 1-2 main critiques, and finally explain why the book is worthwhile reading.
Please add a short biographical statement (couple of sentences) to the end of the review. There should be no titles before or after your name (Prof, PhD, MA). Books and journal names, if in-cluded, are in italics, project names in single quotation marks ʿʾ.
