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Aims & Scope | Instructions for Contributors | Instructions for prospective guest editors of a Themed Section
Aims and Scope
Drawing upon research and developments across the social sciences, the journal is an outlet for relevant, contemporary and stimulating articles on a wide range of social policy issues at the national, regional and international level, offering well-informed analysis and critical reviews of policy developments and their impacts.
Articles can be theoretical or empirical in nature (or both), but need to include a clear social policy focus and be of a high academic quality, engaging with relevant scholarly literature (when applicable, we encourage articles that engage with, extend or critique debates previously published in SPS, to enhance its dimension of an ongoing discussion forum). At the same time, articles need to be accessible to a wide readership, which includes policymakers, practitioners and students, as well as academic researchers, in the UK and internationally.
We welcome joint papers from academics and policy researchers outside the academic community, such as researchers in policy think tanks, researchers in NGOs, and professionals and practitioners with an interest in research. Contributions on teaching and learning issues within the discipline, both nationally and from a global perspective, are also welcome.
Each issue of SPS contains stand-alone peer reviewed and, uniquely, a themed section, edited by a Guest Editor(s). Every themed section includes an introductory piece, a set of peer reviewed articles, a selected review of the key literature, plus a guide to key sources in the area. Academics and policy researchers are encouraged to submit proposals on themes within their expertise that may fill knowledge gaps or bring about new insights into the social policy debate.
As a social policy journal, we expect all contributions to be sensitive to issues of structural inequalities and power imbalances in the societies studied. Examples may include, but are not limited to, age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, ‘race’, religion and sexuality, as well as their intersections.
Instructions for Contributors
For any queries, please contact the Editorial Office atspseditors@nottingham.ac.uk
1. We encourage articles that engage with, extend or critique debates previously published in Social Policy and Society.
2. As a social policy journal, we expect contributions to be sensitive to issues of structural inequalities and power imbalances in the societies studied. Examples may include, but are not limited to, age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, ‘race’, religion and sexuality, and their intersections.
3. Articles should be up to 6,000 words long including endnotes, but excluding tables and bibliography. Word length must be stated.
4. Contributions should be clearly typed on A4 paper. All material should be typed double-spaced with generous margins.
5. Contributions should be accompanied by an abstract of between 100 and 150 words, up to five key words and details of any acknowledgements.
6. Contributions should conform exactly to the Social Policy and Society style. Authors should follow the advice below and check the format of their own contribution with that of a recent issue of the journal (or seek advice from the Managing Editors and/or Guest Editor(s) as appropriate) paying particular attention to references and tables. Other examples include the use of UK spelling, the use of ‘per cent’ rather than ‘%’ in the text, dates should be in the form of ‘1997-9’ or ‘1997-2003’, while indented quotes should not be enclosed in quotation marks. References to ‘this paper’, etc., should be replaced by ‘this article’. All numbers less than 100 should be written in words. The only exceptions are percentages, numbering of figures, tables, and amounts of money. These may be kept as figures, as may all numbers 100 or larger.
7. Discriminatory language should be avoided. Further guidance on avoiding sexist, racist and disablist or other inappropriate language is published by the British Sociological Association (BSA) – see www.britsoc.co.uk. The editorial team are happy to advise authors on the most suitable terminology to use, particularly with respect to subjects not covered by the BSA guidelines, such as age. 10. Such notes as are essential should be referred to in numerical order throughout the text and the numbers shown as superscript. These notes should be endnotes rather than footnotes and should be placed after the body of the text and before the references.
8. The Harvard (author/date) system should be used and reference to page numbers in the text should be shown as follows: (Maltby, 2002 :1) and not (Maltby, 2002, p. 1).
9. Citations of authors in the text should be presented in ascending chronological order, e.g. (Alcock, 1997; Mann, 2000, 2002; Whyte, 2000; Ridge, 2004).
10. References in the bibliography must be arranged alphabetically under author(s) name(s) and then in chronological order if several papers by the same author(s) are cited. The full title of the paper must be given together with the first and last page numbers. Book titles should be followed by the place of publication and the publisher. References to websites should contain the full URL and date the site was accessed.
Examples of correct formatting include:
BBC (2010) ‘Theresa May pledges immigration abuse crackdown’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-p... [accessed 04.11.2010].
Bonoli, G. (1997) ‘Classifying welfare states: a two-dimensional approach’, Journal of Social Policy, 26, 3, 351–72.
Castles, F. (2004) The Future of the Welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2010) The Coalition: Our Programme for Government–Jobs and Welfare, London: Department for Work and Pensions, http://dwp.gov.uk/docs/pfg-job... [accessed 05.11.2010].
Martin, R., Nativel, C. and Sunley, P. (2003) ‘The local impact of the New Deal: does geography make a difference?’, in R. Martin and P. Morrison (eds.), Geographies of Labour Market Inequality, London: Routledge, 175–207.
Siaroff, A. (1994) ‘Work, welfare and gender equality: a new typology’, in D. Sainsbury (ed.), Gendering Welfare States, London: Sage, 82–100. Williams, Z. (2011) ‘Jargon is spreading like nits in the coalition’s playground’, The Guardian, 11 November.
11. Tables and figures should be clearly laid out and designed to fit onto a page 18 cm. x 12 cm. Vertical lines between columns should be omitted, and horizontal lines limited to the top and bottom of the table, with an additional one below the column headings. Totals and percentages should be labelled, and units identified.
12. Charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version of the journal. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version of the journal. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.
13. Submission of an article is taken to imply that it has not previously been published, and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere. If an author is publishing a related article elsewhere, this fact should be stated.
14. Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any material in which they do not own copyright, to be used in both print and electronic media, and for ensuring that the appropriate acknowledgements are included in their manuscript.
The Social Policy Association
The Social Policy Association supports the study of all aspects of Social Policy and Administration through the sponsorship of the Journal of Social Policy and Social Policy and Society, the Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, the publication of a newsletter, the organisation of an annual conference and a small grants scheme. It represents its members through contact with a range of bodies, including the ESRC. For further information about the activities of the SPA, contact: Rachael Dobson, School of Psychology, Criminology and Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road Campus, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE. The SPA website is at: www.social-policy.org.uk.
Competing interests declaration: All authors must include a competing interests declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
English language editing services
Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.
In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including language editing – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more on our Language Services page.
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
CRediT taxonomy for contributors
When submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author will be prompted to provide further details concerning contributions to the manuscript using the CRediT taxonomy. CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 designated options, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to scholarly output. All parties who have contributed to the scholarly work, but do not meet the full criteria for authorship, should be recognised with their contributions described in terms of the CRediT taxonomy.
Our default position is that the corresponding author has the authority to act on behalf of all co-authors, and we expect the corresponding author to confirm this at the beginning of the submission process. When preparing your manuscript you should also ensure that you obtain permission from all contributors to describe their contributions using the CRediT taxonomy.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
ORCID
We encourage authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:
- Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
- Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
- Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.
See our ORCID FAQs for more information. If you don’t already have an iD, you can create one by registering directly at https://ORCID.org/register.
ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
Supplementary materials
Material that is not essential to understanding or supporting a manuscript, but which may nonetheless be relevant or interesting to readers, may be submitted as supplementary material. Supplementary material will be published online alongside your article, but will not be published in the pages of the journal. Types of supplementary material may include, but are not limited to, appendices, additional tables or figures, datasets, videos, and sound files.
Supplementary materials will not be typeset or copyedited, so should be supplied exactly as they are to appear online. Please see our general guidance on supplementary materials for further information.
Where relevant we encourage authors to publish additional qualitative or quantitative research outputs in an appropriate repository, and cite these in manuscripts.
Author Hub
You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.
Instructions for prospective guest editors of a Themed Section
Following a change in editorial policy the annual deadline for themed section proposals has been removed. Prospective Guest Editor(s) of a Themed Section are therefore invited to submit a proposal for consideration by the Editorial Board at any time. Please note the following:
1. Prospective Guest Editors of Themed Sections must complete the Proposal Template (196 KB) provided. This proposal must include:
- The envisaged title
- The names and institutional affiliations of the proposed Guest Editor(s)
- A rationale for the Themed Section that outlines the key issues to be explored and justifies the authors chosen (no more than two A4 pages in font size 12)
A list of contributors and their institutional affiliations - An ordered list of contents that conforms with the requirements set out in (3) below.
- The author(s), title and a 500 word abstract of each proposed article.
2. Themed Sections must contain the following:
- An ‘Introduction’, usually written by the Guest Editor(s) providing a short introductory piece to the Themed Section
- A 'state of the art' article, which is also peer reviewed (see below for further details)
- A set of peer reviewed articles of similar length – usually between four and six articles in total
- A short ‘Some Useful Sources’ guide to key sources in the area, in the style of an annotated bibliography.
Proposals for themed sections which draw upon only one country should endeavour to provide a comparative element, or to highlight the theoretical or empirical contribution that they make to the wider understanding of the issue or issues that they are addressing.
‘State of the art’ article: Guest editors should note the importance of a high quality ‘state of the art’ article (not necessarily labelled as such), both for drawing potential readers into the topic of the themed section, and for providing potentially valuable information for those who might wish to explore the subject further. These articles should summarise the state of knowledge on a specific subject, and should demarcate research frontiers and identify promising areas of future research. ‘State of the art’ articles are also excellent reading material for teaching. These types of articles are highly successful with respect to citations and downloads.
3. The total word limit for an entire Themed Section is no more than 40,000 words. This is to include all tables, endnotes and bibliographies.
4. It is the responsibility of the guest editor(s) to give guidance to individual authors regarding the length of their articles, in order to ensure that the total word count does not exceed 40,000 words.
5. Each individual article must conform to the Instructions for Contributors, listed above.
All proposals are reviewed by the Editorial Board. Guest Editors whose proposals are subsequently accepted, will be invited to publish a Themed Section in the journal. Guest Editor(s) will then receive further detailed guidance from the Managing Co-Editors about their responsibilities e.g. the required refereeing process, production deadlines etc.