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Author Guidelines

Please read the Information for Authors first.

Find the Author Guidelines in PDF here

Find the Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide here.

FORMATTING A MANUSCRIPT

Organizing your submission

Abstract and keywords

Body text

Attachments
1. Appendices

1. Organizing your submission

Manuscripts submitted to International Journal of the Commons must be submitted as a single file. In addition, all types of appendices can be submitted. The submission should contain three separate parts:

abstract and keywords (to be entered during the submission procedure - not as a separate file)

manuscript: 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)

appendices (most formats are accepted: text-only appendices must be in WORD or rich-text format)

The majority of word processing programs will save to Rich Text Format. GIF and JPG image formats should be adequate for most non-animated figures. If you are unable to save in one of these formats please contact the managing editors.

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2. Abstract and Keywords

Please have your abstract and keywords prepared and ready to input directly into the submission interface, either by typing them in or cut-and-paste. Do not include them in the body text of your manuscript.

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3. Body Text

All papers must be in English.

Write with precision, clarity, and economy: use the active voice and first person whenever appropriate.

Use British spellings (e.g., behaviour, not "behavior") except for titles and articles in books and journals published in US English.

3.1 - Spacing, Fonts, and Page Numbering

Single-space all material (text, quotations, figure legends, tables, references, etc.).

Separate paragraphs with a space

Use a 12-point letter size (font preference: Times New Roman).

3.2 - Underlining/Italicization

Italicize scientific names and the symbols for all variables and constants except Greek letters in the text.

Symbols in Illustrations should be italic to match the text.

Refrain from using italics for emphasis.

Do not underline text.

3.3 - Footnotes

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

Try to incorporate as much footnote material as possible in the text for the benefit of readers and editors.

Footnotes below tables are acceptable; instead of numbers, please use Roman numerals in small letters: i, ii, iii, iv, v, ...

Do not use endnotes.

3.4 - Units

Use the International System of Units (SI) for measurements. Consult International System of Units for more information.

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3.5 - Statistics

Use leading zeroes with all numbers less than 1, including probability values (e.g., P < 0.001).

Whenever possible, indicate the year and version number of the statistical software used.

3.6 - Greek characters

To include Greek characters in your manuscript please either use the "Insert -- Symbol" feature in Microsoft Word, or write out the full name of the Greek character and enclose the word in parentheses (e.g., <alpha>, <beta>) within the text of your manuscript. For a complete list of Greek characters and the associated full name see The Greek Alphabet.

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3.7 - Web (HTML) links

Authors may include links to other Internet resources in their article [(e.g., the International Association for the Study of Commons: http://www.iascp.org/]. This is especially encouraged in the reference section. When inserting a reference to a webpage, please include the http:// portion of the address.

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3.8 - Headings and subheadings

Main headings:
The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. Where possible, the following standard headings should be used in the order given. Additional headings may be used and modifications to these heading suggestions are permissible.
The standard headings must appear on a single line by themselves, and be UPPER CASE:

INTRODUCTION
The motivation or purpose of your research should appear in the Introduction, where you state the questions you sought to answer, and then provide some of the historical basis for those questions.

METHODS
Provide sufficient information to allow someone to repeat your work. A clear description of your experimental design, sampling procedures, and statistical procedures is especially important in papers describing field studies, simulations, or experiments. If you list a product (e.g., animal food, analytical device), supply the name and location of the manufacturer. Give the model number for equipment used. Supply complete citations, including author (or editor), title, year, publisher, and version number, for computer software mentioned in your article.

RESULTS
Results should be stated concisely and without interpretation.

DISCUSSION
Focus on the rigorously supported aspects of your study. Carefully differentiate the results of your study from data obtained from other sources. Interpret your results, relate them to the results of previous research, and discuss the implications of your results or interpretations. Point out results that do not support speculations or the findings of previous research, or that are counterintuitive. You may choose to include a Speculation subsection in which you pursue new ideas suggested by your research, compare and contrast your research with findings from other systems or other disciplines, pose new questions that are suggested by the results of your study, and suggest ways of answering these new questions.

CONCLUSION
Present a short statement of your main conclusion and suggest avenues for further inquiry.

LITERATURE CITED
The list of Literature Cited should be included after the final section of the main article body. A blank line should be inserted between single-spaced entries in the list.

Subsection headings:
Lower order headings (e.g. Field study and Simulation model) 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.

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3.9 - Literature cited

The International Journal of the Commons will as far as possible follow the standard set by The Chicago Manual of Style Online (15th editon) for science and social science. This is a subscription service. To assist in the more common ways of referencing we have created a list of examples to be consulted.

Software to handle references
To save both the author and the editors a lot of work it is strongly recommended that standard software for references and reference management be used.In the not too distant future, it will become mandatory.

If reference software is used, the editors ask that the correct in text citation and output style is chosen. In EndNote the correct style is called "Chicago 15th B".

If reference software is not used, be sure to do the following before submitting the manuscript:

Check each citation in the text against the Literature Cited to ensure that they match exactly

Delete citations from the list if they are not actually cited in the text of the article

Make sure the list conforms in sequencing and punctuation to that found in our list of examples Examples of Chicago Manual of Style Citations for science and social science.

Spell out all journal titles completely

In the titles of articles, capitalization of the common names of organisms and the spellings of all words should agree exactly with that used in the original publication.

Additional guidelines:

Provide the publisher's name and location when you cite symposia or conference proceedings.

Distinguish between the conference and the publication dates if both are given.

Do not list abstracts or unpublished material in the Literature Cited. They may be listed in the text as personal observations (by an author of the present paper), personal communications (from others), or unpublished x, where x = data, manuscript, or report

Provide author names and initials for all unpublished work and abstracts.

When possible, include URLs for articles available online through library subscription or individual journal subscription.

URLs should not be included for articles that are posted on an author's website, unless it is a software or language program that is not available by any other means and is integral to the paper.

Please, avoid the more common errors:

Last name appears first for first author; initial(s) first for subsequent authors.

Insert spaces between initials in author names.

Periods and commas associated with bold or italicized words or phrases should also be bold or italicized.

In journal citations, there is no space between the colon and the page range.

Books and conference proceedings must include publisher information: name, city, state or province (if pertinent), country.

Conference proceedings must include the city, state/province, country, and year in which the conference was held. Conference dates are typically included, although not required. The editor(s) of the Proceedings should be included, if possible.

Journal articles in press should include the volume number of the journal even if the page range is not known.

3.10 - Tables

Use of tabs, spaces or blank lines instead of tables cells to separate information is not acceptable. Single space all tables.

Never repeat the same material in figures and tables; when either is equally clear, a figure is preferable. Do not include information in tables that is not discussed in the text of the manuscript.

3.11 - Figures and Photographs

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 in your figures is legible; text should be in Arial font and no smaller than 10 point in size. Initial upper case letters are preferred except where SI requires lower case letters for unit abbreviations (e.g. ln). Use italic lettering for single-letter variables, constants, and scientific names in illustrations to make them consistent with the text.

Solid black bars in bar graphs tend to overwhelm other parts of the graph; use coloured, shaded, or hatched bars in preference to black ones. Colour figures are accepted, authors should ensure that colour figures are also legible when viewed in black and white.

Photographs add interest and "reality" to scientific data. We encourage you to include photographs where appropriate.

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3.12 - Equations

Insert the equation into the body text of your manuscript exactly where you would like the equation to appear. An equation may be included any number of times by inserting it into the manuscript at appropriate locations.

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3.13 - Acronyms

We discourage use of acronyms; use instead the full text name. Acronyms are a nuisance for all readers except authors and the people working every day with the same acronyms. Test of reading speed shows that it drops significantly with the use of acronyms. Our articles are directed at a cross disciplinary audience where familiarity with various traditions of acronyms can be assumed to be non-existent. So, except for those acronyms familiar from the ordinary news (USA, UN, etc), please, write the full text.

4. Attachments

All text appendices, videos, computer simulations, and databases constitute attachments to the body text of the manuscript. As such, they must be submitted as separate files to be handled properly by our software. During the submission process you will be required to select your attachment type from a drop down list, and type or paste its associated caption. These steps are repeated until you have input the captions for all of your attachments. You will then upload the attachment files, and our software will generate a web page for each attachment based on the file names and captions provided. Do not include captions or titles in the attachment files themselves.

Appendices

Appendices are not copy edited or formatted prior to publication, and consequently authors must ensure that their submitted appendix is formatted correctly before acceptance. For appendices consisting of plain text, and text with embedded images, equations or tables, authors are encouraged to upload properly formatted pdf files to ensure that the formatting is preserved. Include a heading and caption in your pdf, where the heading "APPENDIX" is all caps and bold and the caption is Sentence Case and bold. A single appendix has no identifying number or letter, and is referred to in the main article as "the Appendix." Multiple appendices should be identified as 1, 2, 3, etc..

Table and figure numbers in appendices should be keyed to the letter identifying that appendix: Fig. A1.1, for Figure 1 in Appendix 1; Table A2.3 for Table 3 in Appendix 2. Equations should be numbered similarly: A2.3, for Equation 3 in Appendix 2, and so on (see example). Tables are formatted with a double line above the heading,
and single lines below the heading and below the last table row (see example). Enter all title and caption information when asked during the submission process, and upload each appendix as a separate file.

All other non-text appendices, such as databases, video or sound files may be uploaded using an appropriate file type for the file contents. Appendices should be labelled logically to indicate content (i.e. "Program# .filetype","Sound#.filetype "). Captions should describe the attachment fully (by content, file format, usage, software required to run them, etc.) and are uploaded separately during the submission process. If you have problems of any kind in accessing or understanding the information on this page, please contact Erling Berge.

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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.

The work submitted herein has not been published elsewhere, nor is it at present being considered for publication by another journal. If either of these conditions applies, the author must provide complete details in a covering letter to the editors. Failure to notify the editors is grounds for rejection.
The manuscript complies with the stated word limit of 8000 words. The editors may in review articles permit the references to be excluded from the word count.
The text adheres to the formatting requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines (see About the Journal).
The text of the paper itself and that of the tables and any textual appendices are either in doc format for Microsoft WORD or Rich Text Format (RTF).
Equations and figures, if present, are correctly locateded in the body text of the paper in jpg format.
Use of copyrighted material such as figures, tables, trademarks, logos is discouraged by the editors. If such materials are used, the author has 1) declared in a cover letter that such material is submitted and 2) received written permission from the original publisher to use the materials.
In the case of multiple authors, we will in the published article by default provide all email addresses.

Copyright Notice

Each article is copyrighted © by its author(s), and is published here by the International Association for the Study of Commons under license from the author(s). When a paper is accepted for publication, authors will be requested to agree with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. For further information on this license, see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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 to any other party.

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