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Start SubmissionAuthors are invited to submit manuscripts that fall within the focus of the journal. Please read the information on the Peer Review Process and follow the below guidelines.
During the submission procedure, a list of sections to choose from will be offered by means of a drop down menu. In case you were not explicitly invited by the guest-editor of a special feature, we kindly ask you to select ‘research articles’ or ‘review articles’ when finalizing the submission of your manuscript. In case your paper does belong to a particular special feature, the guest-editor will have instructed you what section to select.
If a paper is accepted for publication, authors will be charged an publication fee (or, Article Processing Charge (APC)). For details, see below (under: 'Publication Fees' and 'Waiver Information.'
The Journal provides immediate open access to its content. Author(s) retain copyright of their articles. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY 4.0)
The submission should contain the following parts:
The main text should not exceed 8,000 words, including tables, graphs, footnotes, and references.
All papers must be in English. Use either British or US spellings – do so consistently. Write with precision, clarity, and economy: use the active voice and first person whenever appropriate. Separate paragraphs with a space. Refrain from using italics for emphasis. Do not underline text.
Footnotes should be used when appropriate and placed on the relevant page of your manuscript. They should not be used for references alone. Do not use endnotes.
Standard headings must appear on a single line by themselves, and be UPPER CASE. Lower order headings 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.
Refer to a table, a figure or a picture in the paragraph preceding its location. Our template will automatically reproduce a table, figure or picture after the paragraph in which it is first mentioned. A table, figure or picture will not show up, if no reference to it is made in the text.
For citations, IJC follows APA. Check each citation in the text against the Literature Cited to ensure that they match exactly.
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 used in your figures is legible.
Insert the equation into the body text of your manuscript exactly where you would like the equation to appear. Please, send us picture format versions, of the equations that you use, as well (e.g. as an appendix).
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.
Research has been approved by an appropriate ethics committee, with the name of the committee and reference number of approval included within the submitted file. Otherwise, a statement that ethics approval was not required has been added to the file.
The International Journal of the Commons provides immediate open access to its content.
Authors retain copyright of their articles. Articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY 4.0).
Authors are explicitly encouraged to deposit their article in their institutional repository.
If you have any questions you can always directly contact the Editors.
Articles published in IJC can be accessed for free for anyone, from anywhere. To cover our costs we have to charge authors for editorial and production services and indexing support. There is no charge for manuscripts that are not accepted for publication and no submission charge.
Members of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) benefit from a significant discount. This discount applies in case one or several authors of the publication either is a member, or applied for membership before the article is made available online. Here, you can register for IASC membership.
The current rates for publishing in IJC are the following:
Of these fees, €470 goes to the publisher: €450 for publishing services, and €20 for administrative charges. The remainder goes to the IASC for its running costs.
These rates assume a total word count of maximally 8,500 and not significantly more than 3 pages of figures/tables when typeset. In case of a deviation away from this, we will need to adjust the fee in order to cover additional costs.
A limited number of full or partial waivers may be granted if all authors live and work in developing countries. Waivers may also be granted to students if they are the sole author on the paper. Waivers must be granted before submission. In case you think you are eligible for an exemption contact us before submitting your manuscript.